Lines and Colors art blog
  • Alex Warnick

    Alex Warnick, watercolor paintings of birds
    Alex Warnick, watercolor paintings of birds

    Alex Warnick is an artist who specializes in watercolor paintings of birds. Her website portfolio is divided into sections for Painting and Illustration, though her technique seems basically consistent.

    She combines a naturalistic approach to the birds themselves, setting them off with bits of flora that act as design elements.

    In addition to her portfolio, you an find additional examples of her work in her website’s “Store” section, as well as on her blog.

    There is a relatively extensive interview with Warnick in an episode of Andrew Tischler’s The Creative Endeavour Podcast (YouTube).



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  • Eye Candy for Today: Johan Christian Dahl landscape

    View From Stalheim, Johan Christian Dahl, oil on canvas
    View From Stalheim, Johan Christian Dahl, oil on canvas

    View From Stalheim, Johan Christian Dahl, oil on canvas, 75 x 97 inches (190 x 246 cm).

    Link is to zoomable image on Google Art Project; (very) high resolution file on Wikimedia Commons, original is in the National Museum of Art and Design, Oslo.

    19th century Norwegian painter Johan Christian Dahl’s large scale view of a mountainous landscape from a village in the western region of the country gives a grand vista, and resolves in closer views to a series of interesting details, obviously designed to please the viewer’s eye at several levels.

    Be aware that the high-resolution downloadble file on Wikimedia Commons is quite large at 74MB.


    View From Stalheim, Google Art Project

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  • Maximilian Liebenwein

    Maximilian Liebenwein, classic illustration
    Maximilian Liebenwein, classic illustration

    Austrian-German painter and illustrator Maximilian Liebenwein, who was active in the late 19th and early 20 centuries, worked in an illustation style that feels in keeping with many of the other classic illustrators of that “Golden Age” of illustration. In particular, some of Liebenwein’s illustrations put me in mind of the Russian folk art influenced illustrations of Ivan Bilibin.

    I couldn’t find very much of Leibenwein’s work on the web, but there’s enough to make looking worthwhile.



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  • Eye Candy for Today: Tarbell’s Preparing for the Matinee

    Preparing for the Matinee, Edmund Charles Tarbell, oil on canvas
    Preparing for the Matinee, Edmund Charles Tarbell, oil on canvas

    Preparing for the Matinee, Edmund Charles Tarbell; oil on canvas, roughly 45 x 35″ (114 x 89 cm); link is to zoomable version on Google Art Project; downloadable (very) high resolution file on Wikimedia Commons; original is in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, which also has zoomable and downloadable versions.

    Like other members of the early 20th century group of painters known as the Boston School, Edmund Charles Tarbell frequently took as his subjects well-to-do young women quietly engaged in everyday activities. Here, a young woman tends to her appearance in a gilt-edged mirror, barely seen to the left of the composition.

    Like most of his fellow Boston School painters, Tarbell combined academic refinement with the loose painterly brush work and clear observation of a scene as light and color championed by Monet and the French Impressionists.

    A major influence on the Boston School painters, and Tarbell in particular, was 17th century Dutch master Johannes Vermeer, a corner of whose painting Lady at the Virginal with a Gentleman (“The Music Lesson”) is suggested at the upper right, in much the same way Vermeer himself would reference parts of other paintings at the edges of his composition. (See images above, bottom, in which I’ve inset Vermeer’s painting next to Tarbell’s shadowed homage.)



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  • Edward Ladell

    Edward Ladell still life painting\
    Edward Ladell still life painting

    !9th century English still life painter Edward Ladell was obviously impressed with the still life paintings of the 17th and 18th century Dutch and Flemish masters, and carried forward in a similar style.

    Many of his paintings tend to be on the small side, roughly 9 x 12″ or so (23 x 30 cm), and follow a similar motif: various food items, notably fruit and especially beautifully rendered grapes — sometimes laid on with leaves — are set out with vases and other objects, often accompanied with glassware in which two windows (presumably the windows of his studio) are reflected.

    It might be formulaic, but it was a successful formula for Ladell. His compositions are filled to the edges with his subjects, giving the impression that the image can barely contain the fulsome bounty they present.

    His paintings appear richly tactile, inviting the viewer to reach into the painting and pluck a juicy grape or two.



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  • Eye Candy for Today: Heinrich Reinhold pencil drawing

    Heinrich Reinhold pencil landscape drawing: A View of Civitella from the Serpentara next to Olevano
    Heinrich Reinhold pencil landscape drawing: A View of Civitella from the Serpentara next to Olevano (details)

    A View of Civitella from the Serpentara next to Olevano, graphite on paper, roughly 9 x 12 inches (23 x 30 cm), in the collection of the Getty Museum, additional zoomable image on Google Art Project, downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons.

    This drawing by German painter Heinrich Reinhold, who was active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, gives us a wonderful view of a landscape in Tuscany. I think it demonstrates how effectively graphite can be used to convey the textures and atmospheric effects of a grand landscape.

    Look at how subtle but effective the difference in value is between the distant mountain and the foreground rocks and trees. I also admire the way the directional hatching blends into areas of tone, but retains the visual charm of the pencil marks, in much the same was as “painterly” brush strokes can in a printing.



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Vasari Handcraftes artist's oil colors

Charley’s Picks
Bookshop.org

(Bookshop.org affilliate links; sales benefit independent bookshop owners; I get a small percentage to help support my work on Lines and Colors)

John Singer Sargent: Watercolors
John Singer Sargent: Watercolors

Sorolla the masterworks
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The Art Spirit
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Rendering in Pen and Ink
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Urban Sketching: Understanding Perspective
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World of Urban Sketching
World of Urban Sketching

Daily Painting
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Drawing on the right side of the brain
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Understanding Comics
Understanding Comics

Charley’s Picks
Amazon

(Amazon.com affiliate links; sales go to a larger yacht for Jeff Bezos; but I get a small percentage to help support my work on Lines and Colors)

John Singer Sargent: Watercolors
John Singer Sargent: Watercolors

Sorolla the masterworks
Sorolla: the masterworks

The Art Spirit
The Art Spirit

Rendering in Pen and Ink
Rendering in Pen and Ink

Urban Sketching: Understanding Perspective
Urban Sketching: Understanding Perspective

World of Urban Sketching
World of Urban Sketching

Daily Painting
Daily Painting

Drawing on the right side of the brain
Drawing on the right side of the brain

Understanding Comics
Understanding Comics