Photo-Based PaintingHologram Silhouette
30cm x 30cm Water-soluble oil paint and watercolors 11/3/2020 Exhibition Text: This oil and watercolor painting hones in on the silhouette within the photograph in the previous project. What made the process of this piece's creating more interesting was the fact that even for the painting, my artist of inspiration, Saul Leiter, stayed the same. His technique for painting was really captivating and lead me on a more abstract path with my work, focusing primarily on texture and color.
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Inspiration
Photography Inspiration Saul Leiter was my artist of inspiration in the previous project, which was photography. He was well known for his composition and use of color. He often framed his photos to show many different layers of perspective with reflections and obstructions that allow for the eyes to wander all over his pieces. There was rarely one subject since so much of his work included fascinating scenes in the foreground, midground, and background. Leiter was praised for how he challenged the notion that photography has to be black and white to be taken seriously; and so he became "the man in search of beauty" and constantly sought out scenes of colorful perfection.
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The above photo (Taxi, 1956), and the vertical photo to the left (Reflection, 1958) are representations of Leiter's use of contrast and color. He has very light highlights and relatively dark blacks throughout, with only one or two colors standing out and establishing a mood. Both of these capture the hustle and bustle of his home in New York City. The photo furthest left (Red Umbrella, 1951) shows his earlier use of color. He used reflections relatively creatively here and had the aperture set in a way that blurred the background in order to show the brightness of the reds throughout.
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Painting Inspiration
Cory Reynolds by Leiter, date unknown (1970-1990)
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Leiter actually started out as an expressionist painter before he began working with a camera. Much like the nature of this project, his paintings were often inspired by his own photography, or vise versa. He used watercolor and gouache to create abstract pieces filled with fantastic strokes and splashes of color, often filling them with photo-realistic paintings of nudes that he shot himself. His work with paint rarely included any substances of the urban street-style photography that he would go on to do, but his work here is very similar to what I would like to capture with paint.
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Shades of Klimt by Leiter, date unknown (1970-1990)
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Critical Investigation
Bloodwedding by Pousette-Dart (1958).
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Leiter's paintings were done over the course of two decades when it seemed to the world that he was doing nothing. Almost no photography was publicly released during this time because of his dedication to his paintings. He has an extremely unique style, though admittedly taking from some of Richard Pousette-Dart's techniques, as he was a friend of Leiter's. In Pousette-Dart's Bloodwedding (shown left, painted in 1958), there is a blend of bright colors that is unlike any other, and there's a sort of gothic look to the designs and geometry. The piece is large and fantastical. What Leiter took from this is the use of chaos that Pousette-Dart conveys; the lack of control with lots of the vibrant colors, and yet showing that everything still seemed planned.
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The same yellows and reds from this piece can be seen above to the left in Leiter's Shades of Klimt. This piece was done with gouache and watercolor, and shows how Leiter blended his fine and grounded black and white nudes with the abstract intricacies of Pousette-Dart's work. That very combination is what makes Leiter's paintings so interesting. The subject is extremely realistic with perfect shading and proportions, almost looking like the prints from that of Andy Warhol. And while this piece would be subjectively good on a technical level with just this portrait alone, Leiter made two different worlds clash with the use of color. This can also be seen in the painting directly above Pousette-Dart's, which goes unnamed, but is from the book that compiled many of Leiter's paintings titled "Painted Nudes". Both of these have wide strokes, narrow streaks, and chaotic spurs of vibrant colors to fill empty space that would otherwise be black. This creates a vibrant contrast with color, as opposed to his photographic work that had contrast with more darks and lights with lighting over color. This is concentrated on its own in the abstract piece directly above, titled Cory Reynolds.
Planning
The very first thing I began taking note of when I began planning for this project was figuring out where exactly I was going to focus my efforts when it comes to which aspect of the photo I'm capturing. I knew I wanted to have my main subject, the silhouette. I would have the luminescent blueish whites allowing for the silhouette to be the focus of the piece.
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In my sketchbook, I made a rough outline of the original photo. I used colored pencil to mark where I want my focuses to be, with notes pertaining to each section. The green outlines where the cropping is going to close in on, and the red gives notes on color and technique for the painting of the subject and their surroundings.
Below this, I begin testing my oil paints. I make a rough sketch of the silhouette, and I mix different shades of blue and red to make a dark purple that I plan on using to paint the subject. I also test out streaks of other colors in order to see how I should best paint the border. I knew that I wanted to have a surrounding abstract border on my pieces, just like Saul Leiter's Shades of Klimt. |
Process
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This photo was clearly taken pretty far into the painting process, and it was taken because at least one aspect of each portion of the painting had been worked on: the border, the sky, the building, the skywalk, and the silhouette. Several of these aspects would go on to change. In the border, I decided to use yellow water color after going over the canvas already with some brown oil paint. I thought this yellow would appear a little brighter, giving extra contrast to the sides, just like some of Leiter's work.
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Experimentation
In this before and after comparison, it's extremely apparent that the painting needed to be brightened up, especially since Leiter's focus is usually on color and contrast. On the left, this was something I did not have, and it was also lacking some proper working of the bristles in order to have smoother lines. First, I used more yellow watercolor on the margins in order to have it be more of a dirty blonde color than the solid double layer of paint that it was, especially on the left hand side. I then used the most saturated tint of red that I could mix, along with a pine green in abstract swipes and strokes throughout the borders, along with some hits of white that cross over and disrupt the other lines, along for them to streak through each other. I also decided that I wanted a lot more texture in the skywalk window around the silhouette. I used a lighter blue and very lightly mixed it with some white, so they weren't a smooth blend. I lathered this on around the person in the center, and I made swirls throughout this section, not making too much effort to keep the paint flat on the canvas. This gave it a more course feeling, and added to the movement of the piece.
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Compare and Contrast
Similarities:
- Similar borders/margins; abstract, seemingly random (yet intentional) streaks of vibrant color. - Heavy contrast between different portions of the piece. The borders especially offer a large amount of vibrancy and attract the eyes to the piece far easier. With the setting of the entire center portion of the painting, the margins are a bit of a juxtaposition. - Similar texture and movement, both pieces obtain a large amount of paint in certain places, with intended strokes in different directions and angles to convey movement. |
Differences:
- Different mood altogether, and different kind of subject. Leiter's painting includes a portrait as the primary subject, in fact as the only subject, while mine keeps a more vague setting. - Shades of Klimt includes hyper-realism and amazing use of gauche. My painting does not include a portrait, or much hyperrealism. I wanted to make the tan building to the right more fleshed out and detailed, but I failed to take the time to do this and focused more on fixing the texture and some of my technical mistakes. |
Reflection
At the end my project, I was left with a sense that I didn't quite learn enough out of this experience. I had never worked with oil paints before, and when I paint it's usually with acrylics and watercolor on thick sketchbook paper. I was excited to learn a lot about using oil paints, and I was excited to represent Leiter's techniques. However, I didn't quite master some of the brushwork as much as I had expected. The consistency of the paint was really unfamiliar, and it wasn't until I was well into my work that I got more familiar with how to take advantage of the paints being water-soluble. Despite some of my shortcomings with technique, something I am proud of is the movement, organization, and texture. I used a lot more paint since I realized I didn't have to be quite as conservative with my usage, and because of this I was able to work the paint into swirls, reminding me of the movement that's conveyed in Van Gogh's work. This was also in some of Leiter's work, appearing in the more abstract areas of his paintings. This is something I really enjoyed doing with the piece, and was by far my favorite part. I ended up feeling as though my unplanned usage of texture ended up saving the piece, detracting from the more bland paintwork, and creating more contrast.
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ACT Responses
1) Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
Throughout the painting process, I was constantly comparing my brushwork and overall technique to that of Leiter's. He used both smooth and realistic techniques, as well as abstract and layered strokes, so I was able to recognize the variety of ways in which Leiter's brushwork affected my own painting.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Most authors treat Leiter's work like it's an uncovered mystery, and speak of his works like they are hidden gems within the world of blending hyper-realism with abstraction. Most of Leiter's paintings, and even his photography were discovered my galleries and art archivists in recent decades, despite him gaining some traction with exhibitions in the 50s to the 70s.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
What primarily came up in my research is the New York photography and painting scene, especially the culture surrounding art galleries. Connections are extremely easy to gain; living in New York allows for an infinite amount of groups and people to integrate oneself into. Ideas are shared extremely fast, and many of them can be executed with relative ease, as there's always a demand for new and unique art, and there's always people that will find that art.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I was searching for some of Leiter's earlier work, which was known to carry the same theme of including abstract vibrancy surrounding realism, often nudes. So my research was influenced by abstraction and stark colorful contrast.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I reached the conclusion that it was important to keep relatively true to the original colors in order to maintain some level of comparison to my inspiration. I also was able to infer that Leiter's use of abstraction was relatively unique, and was only gained from combining different kinds of work, which was the primary reason behind my attraction to his work.
Throughout the painting process, I was constantly comparing my brushwork and overall technique to that of Leiter's. He used both smooth and realistic techniques, as well as abstract and layered strokes, so I was able to recognize the variety of ways in which Leiter's brushwork affected my own painting.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Most authors treat Leiter's work like it's an uncovered mystery, and speak of his works like they are hidden gems within the world of blending hyper-realism with abstraction. Most of Leiter's paintings, and even his photography were discovered my galleries and art archivists in recent decades, despite him gaining some traction with exhibitions in the 50s to the 70s.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
What primarily came up in my research is the New York photography and painting scene, especially the culture surrounding art galleries. Connections are extremely easy to gain; living in New York allows for an infinite amount of groups and people to integrate oneself into. Ideas are shared extremely fast, and many of them can be executed with relative ease, as there's always a demand for new and unique art, and there's always people that will find that art.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I was searching for some of Leiter's earlier work, which was known to carry the same theme of including abstract vibrancy surrounding realism, often nudes. So my research was influenced by abstraction and stark colorful contrast.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I reached the conclusion that it was important to keep relatively true to the original colors in order to maintain some level of comparison to my inspiration. I also was able to infer that Leiter's use of abstraction was relatively unique, and was only gained from combining different kinds of work, which was the primary reason behind my attraction to his work.
Bibliography
Bloom, W. (2016, September 23). The Colorful Compositions of Saul Leiter ~ Velvet Eyes. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://velveteyes.net/portraits/saul-leiter/
Fox, M. (2013, November 27). Saul Leiter, Photographer Who Captured New York's Palette, Dies at 89. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/arts/saul-leiter-photographer-with-a-palette-for-new-york-dies-at-89.html
Porter, A. (n.d.). The paintings of Saul Leiter. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.leitercatalog.com/leiter-painting-artwork.html
Saul Leiter. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from http://www.howardgreenberg.com/artists/saul-leiter
Fox, M. (2013, November 27). Saul Leiter, Photographer Who Captured New York's Palette, Dies at 89. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/arts/saul-leiter-photographer-with-a-palette-for-new-york-dies-at-89.html
Porter, A. (n.d.). The paintings of Saul Leiter. Retrieved November 07, 2020, from https://www.leitercatalog.com/leiter-painting-artwork.html
Saul Leiter. (n.d.). Retrieved November 07, 2020, from http://www.howardgreenberg.com/artists/saul-leiter