Part I: Synopsis:
For my series of oil pieces, I want to continue to paint parodies of fruit still lives, a theme which I began in response to an assignment from Prof. Hannah’s Painting 2 class. For the assignment, we had to paint a painting which fulfilled multiple abstract challenges which he provided us. I chose to create a painting that a) depicted the passing of time, b) was a parody, and c) made the viewer smile. The resulting piece was three very large, browning apples cores, spaced and placed as if they were whole fruit. (See the fist photograph on the blog, entitled “Apple Cores.”)
Since large canvases are so expensive, I have only painted one other piece as large. I felt that the sheer size of the work, however, increased both the effect of its parody and its whimsy, since the painting’s magnitude contrasted so greatly with the actual size of the fruit it depicted.
Since that original project, and over the course of two quarters of painting classes, I have painted nothing by fruit still lives, particularly oranges wrapped in banana peels. I still make myself laugh when I arrange fruit, peeled, piled, and otherwise during the photography shoots I set up before each painting. To me, the oranges are like eyeballs, looking around at each other. Drooping banana peels appear dejected; peeled pears stand naked. Along with humor, I also attempt to photograph and paint narratives into my pieces—one orange escapes a pile of banana peels while his cohort remains trapped; two oranges lean closer to one another; one lead bananas lays over all the others. Thus, these still lives not only reference and parody the tradition of still lives, but they speak to modern relationships as well.
For my creative arts grant, I want to develop my fruit still life theme even further, creating more, very large-scale fruit still lives. I want to paint around ten to twelve very large canvases (48” by 48”, 48” by 60”, 48” by 72” and 60” by 72”) from still lives I have arranged and the photographed. United in one room, I think the group of these large still lives will form an even stronger message of parody and play, as viewers will literally become engulfed by the fruits’ narrative world.
Current Dialog:
Many contemporary still life artists now, echo, and reference (and sometimes mock) the old traditions in a new modern landscape. Similarly, I want to call upon the years of still life history, and paint fruit still lives into a fresh (pun not intended), modern narrative.
I find the great impressionist painters, almost all of whom painted still lives, extremely inspirational. In general, I admire the impressionists bold color choices and confident brushstrokes, and when applied to the vibrant colors of fruits and vegetables, it makes for a stunning combination. For example, in Vincent van Gogh’s “Basket of Apples,” van Gogh uses long, woven strokes to create the basket, the apples, and the shadow on the table. My fruit still lives all have simple backgrounds-- something I wanted in order to focus the attention to the fruit and the story the fruit tells—yet often I worry the my backgrounds are dull, or oversimplified. In van Gogh’s piece, he, too, keeps the background minimal, yet with curving strokes, and a horizon line, he situates his basket in an interesting space.
Similarly, Pierre Renoir situates produce in “Onions” on a white cloth on a white table against a simple blue backdrop. The placing of his onions, their leaning, pointing, and nestling, takes center stage. Likewise, Berthe Morisot’s “Cage” and Camille Pissarro’s “Still Life” are painted with very minimal background. The backgrounds, however, are far from empty. Both artists use strong, vivid brushstrokes to move the eye continuously forward and back, and to integrate the objects in the foreground with the plain background. Pissarro, in fact, almost exclusively used a pallet knife to apply paint, scraping pigment across swaths of canvas in large sections, while Morisot’s floor and background are raked with bold, directional strokes of green and white.
Stylistically, I also take cues from Manet, and his loose, seemingly carefree application of color. Often, I try to paint colors exactly as I see them, however, the work specifically of Manet (and the impressionists in general) consistently motivated me to experiment and make not immediately obvious color choices. In “Bunches of Asparagus,” Manet paints the tips of the asparagus with a wild range of whites, blues, violets and indigos. Marcel Proust in fact said the piece contained, “a rainbow of loveliness that was not of this world.” It is that interplay between realism and out-of-this-world vibrancy in which I am very interested in achieving. I, too, strive to inhabit the space between reality and non-reality, close observation and imagination.
Out of all the impressionists, however, I find Paul Cezanne's work the most inspiring and intriguing. I admire his bold color choices and unified compositions, which are frequently tied together by iterations of vibrant colors--as Picasso and Matisse said “he is the father of us all.” Cezanne often painted still lives—apples were his fruit of choice--and about one fifth of all of his paintings are of still lives. Cezanne enjoyed the situational narrative created by the interrelation of the objects, something I strive to create in my still lives, and once said of the apples in his paintings, "They talk to each other those folks." Each of Cezanne's apples takes on a posture, color, and attitude. Similarly, I try to endow my still lives with readable personalities and relationships as well.
While I pilfer technique, composition, and color cues from the impressionists, conceptually, I relate more closely to contemporary still life artists. I admire American artist Robert Peterson who almost exclusively draws whimsical, sensual and shockingly realistic pastel still lives of fruit. In “Lemons in a Plastic Bag,” he relishes the separate textures of the table, fruit, and bag, rendering them with trompe l’oeil realism, but also squarely situates us in the modern age with the rather surprising use of the every-day plastic bag. Poking fun at traditionally lavish Renaissance still lives, Peterson uses the bag also creates an interplay between fully seen and hidden, and it this beautifully modeled interrelation between textures and forms that is perhaps the most interesting part of the piece.
Like Peterson, many other modern still life contain a similar subtle humor. Dana Hockney, for example, in “The Fish,” paints a dead fish on a plate on a watery, blue tablecloth, seemingly mocking the fish’s unfortunate end. John Rise painted the quirky “Allegro,” which depicts a rather eclectic mix of items including two eggs, a ruler, sheet music, a cardboard box and a marble on a small table. Rise’s piece stands as a tongue-in-cheek homage to Cezanne, who famously said: “Everything in nature is modeled on the sphere, the cone, and the cylinder. One must learn to paint from these simple forms; it will then be possible to do whatever one wishes.” Rise includes Cezanne’s three elements, although in morphed forms. He paints an egg instead of a sphere and an opened cardboard box instead of a cube; the cone is created only by the ruler and its shadow.
Much more explicit in his allusion to the old masters is still life painter Paul Wonner. In “Dutch Still Life with Piece of Pie and Piece of Cheese,” and in many of his other still life pieces, Wonner includes postcards of famous still lives by Dutch Renaissance painters. In these meta pieces, Wonner both returns to and reinvents the traditional still life. He fuses the old traditions with the new, as he paints flowers and fruits, the staples of the old world masters, with new modern items like cans, telephones and wires. Also, the often cavernous space in the paintings, and alienation of the objects apart from one another, like players on a field, make his paintings undoubtedly modern.
Of contemporary still life painters, my work is especially informed by Wanye Thiebaud (a fellow Sacromento-an.) Similar to Thiebaud, I use minimalist backgrounds, enjoy painting thickly, and am experimenting with more bold colors in my pieces. Thiebaud painted his subjects almost as landscapes, with deep, morning or late afternoon shadows, a horizon line far into the distance, with often a pastel blue background. I often struggle with what colors to fill the foreground and background, and I find Thiebaud’s minimalist, subtle, yet still very colorful backgrounds a helpful reference point. Like Thiebaud, I enjoy painting whimsical pieces. However, the distance and isolation given to the items of his pieces gives them a rather ironic tone, allowing the viewer space to comment on the much broader issues of consumerism and pop culture. Similarly, I hope my combinations of fruits in my still lives are likewise perceived both as light-hearted parody and as observations on interpersonal dynamics, as well.
Creative Biography:
Working with Prof. Chagoya over two quarters has been good preparation for a grant project, since in both there are no class periods, immediate deadlines, or prompts. Independent study has helped train me to finish work in a timely manner and to self-motivate and has allowed me much creative room to pursue the artistic themes I find most interesting.
Process:
Outcomes:
I plan to exhibit my paintings at the end of summer quarter, (assuming room allows) in one of the smaller galleries in the
