In my next life, or maybe even later on on this life, I would love to become an illustator. While surfing around the web for inspiration, I came across Signature Illustration. What’s nice about this site is how its creator posts lots of thumbnail images of different illustrators’ artwork. This format really helps to give a complete picture of different illustration styles.
Kindergarten students are beginning the year by learning about different types of lines and the emotional qualities associated with them. After practicing making different types of marks in their sketchbooks, students filled in a life size outline of their bodies with as many different types of lines as they could think of. The kids are in the process of painting their projects with tempera cakes. Below are some images of the work in progress.
Chinese New Year in Shanghai has been blissful. The streets have been eerily quiet, except of course, for the nightly firework assaults. A large proportion of the city’s inhabitants have left town to visit their families all throughout China.
Getting out of town during the holiday seemed like a great idea to me as well. A group of teachers from SAS piled into a van and headed out of town to the Jinshan Peasant Painter village. The town is just over an hour outside of Shanghai. Because we we went there on New Year’s day, the entire village was free of tourists. Many of the studios were closed, but those that were open had more than enough beautiful art to keep us oohing and ahhing for hours. If you ever make it to Shanghai, this village is one spot not to be missed.
I stopped in our counselor’s office the other day for a little post Christmas holiday chat. On her desk I noticed a book called Don’t Laugh at Me. I immediately fell in love with the book’s illustrator, Glin Dibley. I think his sense of color is very interesting. I really like how he paints cool colors around the eyes with pink noses. I hope you enjoy his work as much as I do.
My second graders just finished working on crayon and watercolor family portraits. Here are some examples of their work:
After writing about subways in my last post, I naturally started thinking of graffiti. I briefly considered doing a post about NYC graffiti, but I figured that would be too easy of a connection to make. So instead, I started thinking about graffiti in Shanghai. I really had to stop and think, “Is there graffiti in Shanghai?” I have seen walls of buildings covered with the cell phone numbers of people who want to sell fake IDs or offer their construction services, but I really couldn’t recall seeing “western style” graffiti. Upon further investigation, I discovered that I need to go out more.
One on the resources that made me realize I need to leave the bubble of my neighborhood is Juxtapoz magazine. Juxtapoz has several photos of graffiti found on the walls along Shanghai’s Moganshan Lu. To view graffiti photos by Chris Osburn’s, click here.
In addition, Danwei TV has a very interesting esipode on three graffiti artists working in Shanghai. The three artists that the video profiles are Popil (she’s so adorable, and not your stereotypical graffiti artist), Mr. Lan, and HKer. The video asks the artists to consider the use of western letter forms and the lack of Chinese characters in their work. The interviewer also inquires about the locals’ feelings about graffiti.
Finally, The China Daily has an article about graffiti outside of Shanghai. The author writes about graffiti’s roots in china, the Wall and commercialization. It’s a great read!
With the help of some super fancy smancy x-ray techniques, researchers have discovered a hidden portrait of a peasant woman beneath the “Patch of Grass” painting by Vincent Van Gogh. Click here to read the article.
I’m sure that with the success of the fluorescence spectroscopy x-ray many more hidden paintings will be discovered in years to come.
My husband and I are currently vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard for a few days. Here, you can’t walk two feet without encountering some sort of nautical themed art. While I can appreciate the beauty of tall ships with billowing sails, the subject matter has never quite spoken to me. So I started thinking to myself that surely there must be some piece of nautical artwork that I have made an emotional connection with. After giving it a bit of thought, one piece of art immediately jumped to mind: John Singleton Copley’s Watson and the Shark. Normally I am repulsed by images of violence. I am always the one in the movie theater covering my eyes during the bloody parts. But, something about the horrible, life threatening scene of this painting gets me.
Prior to writing this post had I never explored the story behind this painting. So after doing a bit of research I found the more information posted on the National Gallery of Art’s website site. Along with giving the painting’s story, the site also has information on the artist, explanations of the work’s formal artistic characteristics, as well as a discussion on Copley’s artistic influences. The artistic influences section goes into great detail about different artists who may have served as sources of inspiration for Copely. This section is a fascinating read.
