Thursday, November 7, 2024

Artists Express their Feelings and Emotions

Some humans express their feelings with words, some share their feelings in song, others with their body language-- a hug, a smile or a scowl. Artists EXPRESS how they feel with their artwork. Let's explore COLORS AND EMOTIONS in art.

First let's identify some feelings:

Now, let's find some of these in art.

Artist Bisa Butler creates expressive portraits with the art of quilting. Portraits are pictures of people and can show us facial expressions of how a person is feeling.

Yes, Bisa sews images of people and faces with thread and carefully placed fabric. Often, colors like blue and red help Bisa to express feelings she quilting.

Can you show emotion without people or faces? How?

Color can give your artwork a mood or feeling. What feeling does it look like Pablo Picasso is trying to express in these paintings? What is the main color you are noticing in Pablo's work?

These were painted during what is referred to as Pablo Picasso's Blue Period, a time in his life where he was expressing feelings of loneliness and despair in his art. He was feeling the sadness of a friend who had passed away.

Blue, Green and Purple are COOL COLORS that can create a calm, melancholy or sad feeling in your art.

Color is a powerful tool in art.

So if Blue can express sadness or calm, what feelings do Red, Orange and Yellow make you feel?

Warm Colors such as RED, Yellow and Orange can give a happy, loved, upbeat, energetic or excited feeling. Red can also feel angry or a sense of danger.

Jackson Pollock

With the colors you choose, you have the power to affect how the viewer feels when they look at your art.

Lines can also help an artist to capture our attention and communicate moods. There are so many types of lines an artist can draw, paint or even sew! Lines can be very expressive.

Horizontal lines can feel peaceful and calm.

Martin Johnson Heade

Vertical lines express energy and power.

Curved lines can be relaxing and soft.

Heather Hanson is a dancer and creates symmetrical curved lines using charcoal and her whole body. People often watch her performance as she moves and dances charcoal onto large paper in order to create art .

Angled lines like diagonal lines can feel agitated or active. Does anyone know what agitated means?

Kandinsky

Picasso

Sometimes the subject alone can be expressive of a certain mood or feeling. The subject is the main idea or image the artist is trying to show or get us to notice in their art.

Can you name a feeling for each of these art works?

Vincent Van Gogh

Edward Hopper

Keith Haring

Dawn Okoro

Kandinsky

Kollowitz

Kieffer

Will you use color or lines to show a certain feeling in your art?

Will you express your feelings with your art?

Monday, August 23, 2021

Dot

Coming up is International Dot Day. September 15th -ish

Many of you are familiar with Peter Reynolds' book, The Dot. Think about the message in The Dot, why would a Dot have its own day?

International Dot Day takes place to Celebrate Creativity,

Courage & Collaboration!

Imagine the power and potential of millions of people around the world connecting, collaborating, creating and celebrating all that creativity inspires and invites. Today you will be using your talents, gifts and energy to move the world to a better place, you will MAKE YOUR MARK!

Before we get started, Let's look at some artists that used Dots to "make their mark".

Yayoi Kusama is one of the world’s most influential artists with endless energy for creation with colors, patterns, art installation and love for fashion.Since the age of ten, she has been obsessed with polka dots, at first covering her drawings, then later canvases, walls, household objects and even her assistants in them.Known for her iconic dots, pumpkins and infinity rooms, her art has captivated millions all over the world

Yayoi Kusama "Love Is Calling"

Some artists use large dots and some go small....like George Seurat and other artists that use the technique we call Pointillism. When an artist paints with dots of paint rather than long brushstrokes of paint we call this Pointillism. Dots of color side by side visually mix as you view the art

Parade de cirque

Detail from Seurat's Parade de cirque, 1889, showing the contrasting dots of paint which define Pointillism

Vassily Kandinsky filled his art with shapes. Vassily has many paintings filled with circles. A circle is really just a big dot!

wassily kandinsky circles in a circle 1923

Vassily Kandinsky, 1926 - Several Circles

Let's look at a few more...

Almas Thomas painted colorful circles filled with bold colors inspired by the hues in her garden. I see a dot. Do you?

Alma Thomas, The Eclipse, 1970

Alma Thomas, Springtime in Washington, 1971

Lunar Rendezvous—Circle of Flowers Alma Thomas 1969

Roy Lichtenstein created works in the style of comic books. His images are filled with dots of color like the ink of printed comics

Roy Lichtenstein, Crying Girl

Roy Lichtenstein was famous for his bright and bold paintings of comic strip cartoons as well as his paintings of everyday objects. He was one of a group of artists making art in the 1960s who were called pop artists because they made art about 'popular' things such as TV, celebrities, fast food, pop music and cartoons.

Explosion 1965–6

Roy wanted his paintings to look like they were printed rather than hand-painted and he used a newspaper process invented by Benjamin Day, an American illustrator, of printing shades of color with tiny dots, Ben-Day dots.

Howardena Pindell (April 14, 1943) is an abstract artist from Philadelphia, PA. After studying painting in college, she worked at the Museum of Modern Art, and currently teaches at the State University of New York.

Howardena Pindell, Untitled 6F, 2008-9, mixed media on paper collage

Howardena is best known for her abstract collages made of layered paper dots. To create her collages she uses a process known as destruction/reconstruction. What do you think this means?