In the history of portrait painting, it is fascinating to interpret what the artist is trying to convey about the sitter. Sometimes when the portrait is of a member of a ruling family, it’s pret ...
Read MoreBeing a painter, I have colors that I consider essential to almost every painting I make. I tend to prefer phthalo and cobalt colors. (Safety note: yes, I always wear gloves when I paint.) O ...
Read MoreToday's Rethinking Classicism post brings us to the city of Isfahan, Iran. The Safavid dynasty (1501–1736) was a cultural pinnacle in Persian history. The Safavid rulers were massive patrons of ...
Read MoreWesterners usually think of the Archangel Gabriel in terms of Christmas cards depicting the Annunciation, when he proclaimed to Mary that she would conceive Jesus. Well, it turns out that he was a mul ...
Read MoreI learned long ago how venerated calligraphy is in some cultures, and we speak of that in many of our Davis books. A short while ago as I was reading about contemporary Iranian artist Parastou Forouha ...
Read MoreJuly is World Watercolor Month. I’m always happy to celebrate a medium in which I am really not terribly good. I have a feeling it’s because I’m an impatient Virgo who can’t st ...
Read MoreSo far we have taken a look at Classicism and Romanticism around the world in the 1800s. Now let’s look at “realism,” which—like every other style—has been a trend somewh ...
Read MoreAs we approach the 1800s in our Art History Survey, just so we do not forget (as if) that art was being produced in other parts of the world besides the West, let’s look elsewhere at art produce ...
Read MoreHierarchy is the level of importance allotted to an object, or, for the sake of this posting, a person. Hierarchical size deals with the principle of design known as proportion. Proportion has to do w ...
Read MoreAbstraction is defined as the reduction of form to simple (geometric, or organic) or decorative (a word I hate) shapes. I’ve blogged briefly about calligraphy in the past, but I rarely get a cha ...
Read MoreI’ve posted about manuscripts previously, because I LOVE THEM! That love has since extended to myriad cultures around the globe that produce such artworks. Therefore, in this post I won’t ...
Read MoreThe Davis Art Gallery is currently holding a show called The Art of Fiber. It has always interested me that fiber arts were considered a “minor art.” It is one of the oldest art forms next ...
Read MoreI don’t know about you, but I have several spots on the globe that are “dream vacations.” Egypt, Japan, and Greece come to mind. But one city that I would truly like to visit has a W ...
Read MoreIn most of our Davis textbooks and studio books, we talk about the ELEMENTS OF ART. One of the key elements of art is LINE. We can look at line not simply as a way of defining a shape, but also how be ...
Read MoreWhen we think of great periods of flowering in the arts, we, as westerners, usually think of the European Renaissance or the Baroque periods, or Ancient Greece. I think it is very important that we un ...
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