You have interests outside of school, right? Hobbies, pastimes, sports you play, activities and clubs you participate in. Often, when we are interested in something, we know and understand it very well. Artists can express things they like and often their interests can show up in their art.
Alan Paul Harding
Maybe your interests can be done solo or with a group like this rehearsal. We can tell this artist understands theater practice. Notice the script. The practice space becomes the setting for this art work and the actors waiting their turn.
Edgar Degas, Dancers Practicing at the Barre, 1877
Let's look at artists who capture past times and activities like swimming, gymnastics, reading, music and cycling in their art.
Reading might be a way you enjoy spending your time. The subjects of these next few artworks get caught in a good book.
Gwen John created mostly portraits of women including herself. This portrait, 'A Lady Reading', was originally of another woman, but she painted her own features onto the face instead.
Precarious, 2017; Collage of found and painted papers
Collage Artist Ekua Holmes captures this portrait of a young boy reading in comfort. Ekua used found papers in her collage art. Do you see paper from maps, newspapers and pattern prints.
Woman Reading by Will Barnet
Some people enjoy reading right before they fall asleep and Will Barnet created this artwork that captures that moment
The Yellow Books by Vincent Van Gogh, 1887.
What makes this a still-life about reading and not a portrait?
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woman reading The Reader by William Tolliver.
More READING art
Let's look at a few other hobbies and past times that become the subject in art.
Picasso's Three Musicians
These abstracted musicians by Pablo Picasso are filled with music and shapes.
While music is its own form of creativity, artists show musicians and musical instruments in their art. You can see and almost hear the music. What instruments do you recognize?
Two Young Girls at the Piano by Auguste Renoir
Music might be an interest you have in or out of school. You know the time it takes to practice so that you accomplish your goals.
We know that making art is a past time that many people enjoy in their spare time. So here is art about actually making art. Crafting, building and creating.
What is going on in this picture?
Henri Lebasque - Girl Sewing on a Sofa
Many of you enjoy stitching and working with fabric and thread in our Fibers studio. This work of art is about a quiet moment embroidering a piece of cloth.
The Painter of Sunflowers (Portrait of Vincent van Gogh) by Paul Gaugin
Paul Gaugin was a painter. He knows painting well. He includes details like a brush, easel, and palette in this painting of Vincent Van Gogh. When you yourself participate in an activity I imagine you too will know many details about that activity.
Coosje van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg get in the game with their Sculpture! They create larger than life artworks that remind us of play. The shuttlecock of Badminton and a bowling ball hitting the pins really make this artwork STRIKING!
Red Grooms' Sculpture is a SLAM DUNK!
RED GROOMS. Fast Break
Painter's Family. Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse often captured members of his family in past times like music and games. What game are his sons playing?
Pieter Bruegel, Children’s Games, 1560
Pieter Bruegel the Elder filled his painting with Children's Games which became the title.
*Close up
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Knucklebones detail, Children’s Games
Hoop-rolling detail, Children’s Games
Maybe gymnastics is your thing. This gymnastic art might make you flip
Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi Trial, 2020. Oil on Canvas
Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi created a series of paintings titled “Gymnasium” Her passion for gymnastics grew and she began to paint more works of Gymnasts.
These artists jumped right in and made their art a SPLASH. For some artists swimming is a past time they made the subject of their work.
Winfred Rembert The Curvey II, 2014
Children’s Swimming Pool, Autumn Afternoon
Maybe you swim on a team or take lessons. You can almost hear the splashes and pool noise in this swimming painting. Look closely and you'll see the lanes in the pool, a diving board and the rectangular pool shape. These are details you would most likley have to spend time at a pool to know.
Art can really take your imagination on a ride. Cycling is a favorite past time and bicycles become the subject of these artworks.
Ai Weiwei. Forever Bicycles
Ai Wei Wei created this bicycle filled sculpture.
Summer Eclogue
Robert Medley (1905–1994)
A Midsummer Afternoon Dream” (2020) by Amy Sherald
The Pleasure of Leisure by Fernand Leger
What holds your interest?
Do you have a passion?
Will you create art about your favorite past time?
Will you build or construct a game of your design?
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