Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Painting in process...
This is a painting I began in George Ceffalio's class at the DuPage Art League. It is a 9" x 12" oil painting of three peaches and a white vase that is decorated with a peacock and flowers -- I'll work on the vase next.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Quote from Marc Chagall
When I am finishing a picture, I hold some God-made object up to it - a rock, a flower, the branch of a tree or my hand - as a final test. If the painting stands up beside a thing man cannot make, the painting is authentic. If there's a clash between the two, it's bad art."
Marc Chagall was a Russian-French Jewish artist of the 20th century. He was an early modernist, and created works in painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints.
Marc Chagall was a Russian-French Jewish artist of the 20th century. He was an early modernist, and created works in painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints.
Quote from Giotto di Bondone
"Every painting is a voyage into a sacred harbour."
Known simply as Giotto, an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages, considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Italian Renaissance.
Known simply as Giotto, an Italian painter and architect from Florence in the late Middle Ages, considered the first in a line of great artists who contributed to the Italian Renaissance.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
"enjoyably dissatisfied"
David Brooks in his book, The Social Animal, wonderfully captures my feelings about painting in these words:
"she found herself enjoyably dissatisfied by her work. She got a glimpse of some ideal thing she would want to create, and then she would tinker and tinker with it, never quite eliminating the tension between the reality and the perfection she felt inside. But still she chased it."
"she found herself enjoyably dissatisfied by her work. She got a glimpse of some ideal thing she would want to create, and then she would tinker and tinker with it, never quite eliminating the tension between the reality and the perfection she felt inside. But still she chased it."
Friday, June 10, 2011
N.T. Wright on Art
“Art, music, literature, dance, theater, and many other expressions of human delight and wisdom, can all be explored in new ways.
The point is this. The arts are not the pretty but irrelevant bits around the border of reality. They are highways into the center of a reality which cannot be glimpsed, let alone grasped, any other way. The present world is good, but broken and in any case incomplete; art of all kinds enables us to understand that paradox in its many dimensions. But the present world is also designed for something which has not yet happened. It is like a violin waiting to be played: beautiful to look at, graceful to hold--yet if you'd never heard one in the hands of a musician, you wouldn't believe the new dimensions of beauty yet to be revealed. Perhaps art can show something of that, can glimpse the future possibilities pregnant within the present time. It is like a chalice: again, beautiful to look at, pleasing to hold, but waiting to be filled with the wine which, itself full of sacramental possibilities, give the chalice its fullest meaning.”
N. T. Wright in Simply Christian
N.T. Wright is a New Testament scholar and the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England
The point is this. The arts are not the pretty but irrelevant bits around the border of reality. They are highways into the center of a reality which cannot be glimpsed, let alone grasped, any other way. The present world is good, but broken and in any case incomplete; art of all kinds enables us to understand that paradox in its many dimensions. But the present world is also designed for something which has not yet happened. It is like a violin waiting to be played: beautiful to look at, graceful to hold--yet if you'd never heard one in the hands of a musician, you wouldn't believe the new dimensions of beauty yet to be revealed. Perhaps art can show something of that, can glimpse the future possibilities pregnant within the present time. It is like a chalice: again, beautiful to look at, pleasing to hold, but waiting to be filled with the wine which, itself full of sacramental possibilities, give the chalice its fullest meaning.”
N. T. Wright in Simply Christian
N.T. Wright is a New Testament scholar and the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Creativity as a response to Beauty...
Paul Burkhart in an article based on his manuscript: "Eternity in Our Hearts: the God of Beauty, the Beauty of God" says: " 'Theology' is the contemplation of the Beauty of God; and as the study of this God, it is also the study of Beauty Itself."
Paul says we are called to respond in two ways:
"God, in His love for us, calls us to respond to beauty not only by proclaiming beauty in word, but also producing beauty in deed. This is shown in two ways. First, this shows itself in holiness. Seeing the Beauty of God should inspire us to holy living and loving of others. .. The second way we produce beauty in response to God's revelation in theology is by, well, producing beautiful things. We are built in the Image of a God who doesn't just desire, delight in, and display Beauty, but a God who also makes Beauty. The longer I live, the more I am convinced that everyone has some creative ability in them."
Paul says we are called to respond in two ways:
"God, in His love for us, calls us to respond to beauty not only by proclaiming beauty in word, but also producing beauty in deed. This is shown in two ways. First, this shows itself in holiness. Seeing the Beauty of God should inspire us to holy living and loving of others. .. The second way we produce beauty in response to God's revelation in theology is by, well, producing beautiful things. We are built in the Image of a God who doesn't just desire, delight in, and display Beauty, but a God who also makes Beauty. The longer I live, the more I am convinced that everyone has some creative ability in them."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)