Favorite artist: Chuck Close

My favorite artist is Chuck Close. I really do love abstract art. I like that his art is abstract, but also very realistic. This painting is called "self portrait 2015". From afar, this is spot on perfect. It depicts the artist's self portrait exactly. Looking closer, it is filled with mini abstract paintings inside each square. I think that is so interesting. I like that he used different bold colors. For my project doing the grid, I wasn't bold enough to choose bold colors. But seeing the way it came out, it really does work. It doesn't make the painting look odd or childish.

Monet - The Garden of Monet at Argenteuil

Monet is one of my favorite artists. I love Impressionism, which is the style he used for most of his works. The use of brushstrokes and color is genius. I chose this painting mainly because of the contrast of the bright, vivid colors in foreground compared to the more subtle colors in the background. The bush in the front is also the main focus, due to the composition in addition to his use of color. The detail adds more to the work and allows the viewer to look at it longer and still notice something new.

Favorite Artist: Vincent Van Gogh

Although we learned about many artists throughout the course of this class, my favorite artist when we started and my favorite artist now is still the same--Vincent Van Gogh. I love the versatility in his paintings. He did not commit himself to one subject matter, but painted landscapes, portraits, still life, etc. I have also loved the way you can visualize each brush stroke in the paintings, but it is not excessive where it takes away from the overall scene. This painting in particular is Starry Night Over the Rhone. In this painting in particular, the water is what makes it so beautiful. It is immensely difficult to paint water, and he manages to do so perfectly without sacrificing his style of painting. Throughout this class, I have grown to appreciate Van Gogh more than I ever have.

Frieda and Diego Rivera by Frieda Kahlo

the above painting is done by the artist Frieda Kahlo, and it depicts herself and her husband about two years after they married. I chose the painting because my friend recommended I do my blog post on Frieda as she is my friends', favorite artist. I chose this work in particular as it seemed a little tamer than the majority of her works. my friend told me that Frieda is her favorite artist because of her bad luck. I think the fact that as a child she had polio and then shortly after she was able to walk again was impaled by a metal rod is wild to me. some of her most famous paintings were painted from a hospital bed. 

Painting Final Slides

Chuck Close: Leslie Watercolor, Scott Blake: Manson

This is Leslie made by Chuck Close, It is a watercolor painting. It was made between 1972 and 1973. It is a watercolor on paper mounted on canvas. It is 75.2 x 57 inch. I picked this painting because I really love how the photograph captured her blue eyes. I also picked it because I am very interested on how detailed it looks for a watercolor painting. 

This is Manson by Scott Blake. It is barcode art. It was created on September 20,2003. It is made of 50 by 32 barcodes. I picked Charles Manson because I think the story is really insane and I watched a movie recently called "Once upon a time in Hollywood". This movie made me read up on the story and It is insane how one man can create so many deaths without directly doing them. 

Chuck Close and Scott Blake

This was done by Chuck Close. Her name is Kara Walker. Out of all his art, I chose this one because he did a lot of white people so I liked to see a person of color represented. I think it is different because it is different than all the ones that he has done before, and shows different techniques for not only skin color but also hair textures. I really liked how it was done. 

This one was done by Scott Blake. I chose it for similar reasons that I picked Chuck Close's image. I liked that he did Oprah which represented a different race, and challenged different ways of doing it from other times before. It is very similar to Chuck Close's work but I like that it is rectangles instead of circles like Close's. The only thing that I do not like is that it is black and white.