Tribute to JB.Monge / Drawing exrecises

One of the advantages of being self-taught is that you pick up your teachers as you wish ; you take the ones you prefer . The down-side is that you never really meet them, or rarely. You can only guess what advice they would give you and  have to observe their work intensely in order to hear their voice whispering into your ear.
I think I started copying drawings on comics at the age of seven or eight . I was a fan of Asterix, drawings by Uderzo , texts by Goscinny. I still am . I have learnt a lot with Uderzo.
Many years after I keep learning the same way. If you follow this blog you have noticed that I copy a lot. I love it. I love putting my own small feet in masters huge footprints.
Sometimes, when I have time, I copy just for fun and not for work.
Here are a series of drawing I did a couple of years ago when I discovered the marvelous work of Jean-Baptiste Monge. His drawing are so beautiful and funny that I could not resist the pleasure of letting my hand be guided by his.
The last drawing of the series is not by Monge but a representation of myself, playing the guitar  ( I was learning how to play Classical Gas the same week as I did these drawings).

I loved this one, you can see that he sings out of tune.

This one reminded me of Poortvliet, another "teacher" of mine.

Monge is a master at facial expressions.

This little guy is actually riding a mouse.

Simply so cute!

This one is "my" drawing in the style of Monge

For those who want to learn how to paint and who do not know what to start with, my advice ( not original I am afraid) is that if you cannot draw you will have trouble painting and will get stuck at some point. A good drawing is the key to success and progression.

For those of you who wonder how to learn without a teacher I would suggest to do what I am showing in this post , copy, when you feel you have understood the style of the artist you have picked up invent your own drawings "in the style of", then pick up another master and do it again and again ...it worked for me...

The Mix .

I do not know how I came up with this idea . But does anyone really know how ideas suddenly appear in our minds. I remember that I was searching something "new" for a show in Bergamo , an exhibition that took place in Palazzo Moroni ( at the same time as Salon in 2009). I was working with William Cochran in the US and one evening in my hotel room this "idea" of mixing up ornaments, preferably sketchy ones, quite loosely painted with waterbased technique and "central images" painted realistically in oils came to me. I did a few quick sketches , I thought it was a cool idea.
Did I really find someting or did I help memories to come back to the surface of my consciousness? This idea is certainly not new , others have done it before me ( I have seen this afterwards) but when this happened I really thought this mix was original...here are the results. These are paintings I did a few years ago but I still love them.
 I love  the art of painting per se. I feel grateful towards all the artists of the past who where strong enough to deal with the Beauty of the world and so talented that they added to it... I am impressed by all the artists of our time who dare do the same  . I have been given the gift of painting too and I try my best.

" Liz" , a mix of Renaissance ornaments and detail of a painting of F.Clouet , XVIth century.

Detail

"Grenades", a mix of a late XVIIIth century fabric and a still life of Chardin.

Detail

"Mop", a mix of images from "Marie-Antoinette" by S.Coppola ( I just changed the dog) and a Renaissance ornament.

Detail

"Orta", a mix of an ornament by Berain and a landscape of Corot.

Detail

"Grappa", a mix of a Louis XVI ornament and a detail of a dutch still life of the XVIIth century.

Detail

"Champagne", a mix of a "Regence" ornament and a picture of "Marie-Antoinette" by S.Coppola.

Detail

Work in progress.

A work in progress is sometimes ( often?) more fascinating than a completed or finished piece. I suppose it comes from the fact that at some point , things are coming to life , they are fresh and full of energy. They are a vibrant expression of something happening in front of your eyes.

When this magic moment materializes ( it does not always, it depends on what you paint) I grab my camera and I take a picture.

Here are some of these fleating moments I captured.

Most of these paintings are copies or interpretations of the "Tiepolos" ( Giambattista ,the father, and Giandomenico ,the son).

I am presently painting a ceiling with a whole bunch of figures of Tiepolo and I still enjoy learning to see through the eyes of such inspired and dedicated painters.

Parrots , peacocks and other birds

Birds are quite frequently used to ornate decorative paintings and bring some life and animation in otherwise too quiet compositions...
I remembered I had painted a few parrots but when I started researching in the pictures of my murals and paintings I noticed that there was a nice variety of winged creatures...here they are.

...blue parrots in a boy's room in Provence...

...fantasy birds in Louis XV decorative panels...

...work in progress, class panel...

...cockatoo in a mural for York Wallcoverings...

...peacocks and magpie in murals for a castle of the Loire valley...

...fantasy bird in a ceiling study...

...rooster in a french countryside scenery...

...swallows in a baroque ceiling...

... seagull in seascape ...

...my daughter and the goldfinch , a memory of Carel Fabritius...

...study of parrots from a XVIIth century model.

Abstrait/Decoratif . Absract/Decorative.

J'ai tenu a ce que, dans mon livre, de nombreux details et gros-plans des peintures viennent accompagner , dans chaque chapitre, les vues d'ensemble.
Une peinture, un decor mural sont faits pour etre vus de loin, de plus pres et de tres pres.
Les details des textures, du travail de la brosse, de la consistence de la peinture apportent une vison nouvelle du travail du peintre . On peut parfois y lire ce qui est cache a premiere vue.
Le peintre  lui, sait quel langage il parle et quelle histoire il raconte ( parfois il ne le sait qu'apres ou au travers des commentaires des spectateurs).
Les gros plans et details dans ce livre sont la pour rapprocher le spectateur du peintre et lui montrer ce qui ne se voit pas toujours.
Je vais sur ce blog en montrer quelques-uns que nous n'avons pas pu proposer dans le livre.

Ceux-ci se situent dans la zone en "surbrillance".

Sur cette photo on peut encore deviner des formes de feuilles...

Sur celles-ci , les traits qui prolongent le bras et la main placee en haut a gauche du miroir, ne "representent" plus"rien' et laissent place au jeu des couleurs, des transparences et des surfaces. 

Gris colores

                                                                 Une toile peinte est aussi un objet, ses couleurs et ses textures entrent en dailogue avec celles d'autres objets. Pascale et moi aimons les sortir de l'atelier et leur faire rencontrer d'autres "choses", chinées par ci par là ...