Eye Candy for Today: Homer’s A Basket of Clams

A Basket of Clams, Winslow Homer, watercolor and gouache
A Basket of Clams, Winslow Homer, watercolor and gouache (details)

A Basket of Clams, Winslow Homer, watercolor and gouache, roughly 11 x 10 inches (29 x 25 cm). In the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has both zoomable and downloadable versions of the image available.

The museum lists the materials of this early watercolor by Homer as simply “watercolor on wove paper”. Why there is no mention of the obvious use of gouache is surprising to me. Usually, museums will indicate the use of gouache with watercolors or drawings, even if it’s just “touches of gouache”.

Here, Homer has used opaque white quite liberally, not just in the obvious highlights on the ship, the ship’s rigging, the children’s clothing and the shark and stones on the beach; I think the pale blue of the vest on the figure at left looks like a scumble of light opaque color over a darker tone.

 
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Nicholas Kole

Nicholas Kole. illustration and concept art
Nicholas Kole. illustration and concept art

Nicholas Kole is an illustrator and concept artist based in Vancouver, BC. His clients include Disney, Dreamworks, Hasbro, EA Games/Waystone, Riot, Axis, ReelFX, Mattel, 38 Studios and Spiritwalk Games, among others.

Kole’s style is energetic and cartoony, with just enough rendering to give his characters an appealing dimensional aspect.

For the past few years, he has been working full time in Procreate on an iPad Pro, including a year on the road.

Kole has a personal project called Jellybots — which I believe is both an art book and a comic — that he is supporting through Patreon. He also has digital art books available through Gumroad.

 
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Eye Candy for the Summer Solstice: Walter Moras, Summer Idyll

Summer Idyll (Sommeridylle), Walter Moras, oil on canvas
Summer Idyll (Sommeridylle), Walter Moras, oil on canvas (details)

Summer Idyll (Sommeridylle), Walter Moras, oil on canvas, roughly 31 x 47 inches (80 x 120 cm)

Link is to a page on Wikimedia Commons that offers a large file; I don’t know the location of the original.

German landscape painter Walter Moras (active n the late 19th and early 20th centuries) gives us a bucolic image of a small stream on a summer day.

Happy Summer Solstice!

 
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Eye Candy for Today: Dante Gabriel Rossetti graphite portrait

Portrait of Mrs. William Morris, née Jane Burden, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, graphite on paper
Portrait of Mrs. William Morris, née Jane Burden, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, graphite on paper (details)

Portrait of Mrs. William Morris, née Jane Burden, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, graphite on paper, roughly 13 x 11″ (33 x 29 cm). In the Morgan Library and Museum, which has both zoomable and downloadable versions of the image on their site.

I’m intrigued, in this drawing, by the Art-Nouveau influenced curves of the outlines, and how subtly they’re indicated. I’m particularly fascinated with the tight range of the overall value scale. The only areas that are truly dark are the pupils of the eyes.

Starting with what appears to be cream paper, and drawing with predominately soft graphite lines and soft tones of shading, Rossetti has managed nonetheless to make the forms feel crisply indicated by of the precision of the line. In this respect, the drawing reminds me of some by Degas.

Even the edges of the composition are defined with a gentle line that is reminiscent of the edges left by impressions of etchings.

 
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Eugen Bracht

Eugen Bracht, The Shore of Oblivion
Eugen Bracht, paintings

During his career, German landscape painter Eugen Bracht traversed the styles of Romanticism, Symbolism and Impressionism.

Active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Bracht was known primarily for his intensely moody coastal landscapes — in particular one titled The Shore of Oblivion (images above, top, with two detail crops) that was considered a Symbolist masterpiece on a level with Arnold Böcklin’s Isle of the Dead.

Like Böcklin’s Isle of the Dead, Bracht’s The Shore of Oblivion was so well received the the artist painted several variations of the same composition.

I find particular enjoyment in Bracht’s portrayals of gnarled trees.

[Via Gurney Journey]

 
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