Paint Pictures example essay topic

The traditional idea of an artist standing at an easel is probably not a reality today. All the skills that have been acquired over hundreds of years are now being lost. Painting no longer has the force it once had. 500 years ago, people couldn't read.

Artists at that time were very important people. People had to look at their paintings to find out about things, this time was called the renaissance. Impressionism Impressionists were a break from tradition. They were the first artists to use bright colours.

This is because they took their canvases outside. When you work out of doors, you have to work quite quickly to catch sunsets e. t. c. For the people in those days, the pictures looked unfinished and messy, so when they tried to exhibit their pictures in all the official galleries, the academy refused. So in 1874 they organised their own exhibition in a photographers studio and it was nicknamed by a journalist, that they weren't really paintings, just impressions. They didn't paint what people thought were suitable subjects.

As well as the usual slapdash paintings, the critics didn't like the things that they painted e.g. railway stations, people in cafes, ordinary people doing ordinary things. The impressionists reflected the political thinking of the time; they started to pay attention to the ordinary people and not just the rich. The impressionists said, "We want to paint modern life in a modern way". They used, what was then, the modern discovery of photography. It helped them paint things that only lasted for a short time.

They were also influenced by newly discovered work by Japanese artists. One of the most important impressionists was Claude Monet. He was born in 1840 and died in 1926. The most important part about him was that he decided to work exclusively in front of his subject.

He loved all the different colour effects he saw in nature, he wanted to paint the pretty pictures. One of the most helpful things was the invention of paints in tubes. He was brought up in a town called Le Have on the West Coast of France. The local artist at the time was a man called Boudon. Monet knew him and Boudon was encouraging him to paint outside because the paintings done outside were more lively and fresher. When he was 19/20, he decided to move to Paris.

When he went to Paris he was taught in the Academy Swiss by an artist called Charles Gley re. He taught them the traditional style of painting, but he also encouraged his students to paint outdoors in the woods around Paris. They took advantage of the new transport systems, went into the country, and painted people swimming e. t. c. The impressionists could be described as light hearted, pleasant, colourful, hearty pictures. There are artists who paint very serious pictures, very deep pictures with a strong meaning. Some people criticised the impressionists because they were only interested in the skin of the subject; their pictures were shallow.

To find colourful pictures, Monet built himself a garden outside Paris in Giverny. He spent the rest of his life painting in this garden. The impressionists chose subjects that would allow them to experiment with colour. They looked for complementary colours, for instance red for green. They would delight in painting a pink house with contrasting purple shadows or an orange boat on blue water.

They applied the paint in quick, spontaneous strokes and scrambles, trying to retain the purity of the colour. In the picture I am looking at, there is a man and a woman sitting on a boat with houses in the background. There are blues, creams, reds, oranges and yellows, it is a very bright, colourful picture with lots of contrasts. The paint is put on in short strokes.

The mood in the picture is a kind of happy, summery and relaxed. Post-Impressionists Many artists were impressed with this new use of colour. Some of them wished to take these ideas a little further. These artists were known as the Post-Impressionists. One of these artists was Vincent Van Gough. He was born in Holland in 1853 and died in 1890.

Vincent's first choice of career was to be a minister. However he was rejected by the church and turned to his second love, which was painting. Most of his earlier pictures were of peasants and miners painted in dark, earthly colours. Vincent had a brother who sold paintings in Paris and he invited Vincent to come and stay over, it was this time when Vincent first saw the impressionist paintings. Vincent was always an outsider in Paris society and decided to move to the south of France where he spent the most productive period of his life. He left Paris in 1888 for a town called Arels in the south of France.

Although he never sold any pictures, he managed to get by with financial help from his brother. In one of the letters to his brother he describes how much he was inspired by the landscapes and the people in the south of France. "My emotions are so strong and I work without even being aware of working". He said. Van Gough loved life, he loved the things he saw and the people he met. His paintings expressed these feelings and he used colour to symbolise the way he felt.

He said, "When I paint the brush strokes just flow and are just like words in a speech". In his painting 'Cafe in Arels' he tells his brother he wants to capture the loneliness and sometimes the suffering of the people who stay there through the night. In his 'Bedroom in Arels' he tried to give a feeling of restfulness and sleep, of a place where he could be safe and secure, so he used nice, soft colours. The way Van Gough applied his paint also gives us a clue about the way he felt. His brush strokes were very expressive. He often used complimentary colours, if he was painting an orange face, he would use a purple sky e. t. c.

Van Gough was not interested in accurate drawing, he didn't want his paintings to look like a photograph, but he was more interested in conveying the way he felt. Because of this he exaggerated things, he exaggerated colours to show how he felt. He invited a sophisticated artist to stay with him, but they just didn't get on, he cut his ear off, so his brother put him into a mental home where he shot himself. Van Gough was a very influenced artist. He was the one artist that started the painting style of expressionism.

Cubism An artist who developed Van Gough's ideas of expressive use of line and colour was Picasso. Picasso was one of the most inventive artists of the twentieth century. He was born in Malaga in the South of Spain in 1881 and died in 1973. After showing tremendous promise as an artist he soon outgrew the provincial life in Spain and in 1900 he moved to Paris, which was a magnet for artists at the time. In Paris he was introduced to the work of Van Gough, Cezanne and Guagium, under their influence his pictures became more colourful and impressive.

Round about the time, he adopted a predominately blue colour scheme, which he thought was appropriate when drawing the people round about him. He was also influenced by African sculptures (Strong, simplified, expressive shapes) and he incorporated these into his paintings. He invented a new style of painting called Cubism. In cubism he invented a new style of painting where everything was reduced to flat shapes. When Picasso had become established he was asked by the Spanish Government to decorate the Spanish Pavilion at the World's Trade Fair in Paris in 1936. He decided to paint an episode from the Spanish civil war.

General Franco had bombed the Basque town of Guernica with the help of Hitler's German bombers; there was no strategic value. They just wanted to teach people a lesson and destroy their morale. Many innocent people died. Picasso was very angry and decided to make this the subject for his picture. "I want to express my hatred of the war which has sank my country into an ocean of pain and death". He used his inventions to his pictures more expressive like the woman holding the dead baby screaming.

It is a mural painting; it is 11' 6" high and 26' long. It is done blacks, whites and greys. He wanted it to be a sad, somber painting so he didn't use any colour. He used the horse as a symbol for the hard working Spanish people, they were innocent, loyal, then they were cruelly tortured, and he uses the bull to symbolise brutality. In Guernica, Picasso is making his protest against the futility of war. The End of Painting?

Painting had come to a dead end, artists had dispensed with subject matter, they didn't use any recognisable techniques. In fact, the most important thing seemed to be ideas. Artists now a days seem to have forgotten how to draw and paint pictures. They call themselves conceptual artists. The idea is enough.

The Turner prize gives thousands of pounds to artists for switching lights on and off or exhibiting their unmade bed. Perhaps artists have run out of ideas. Where will artists go now? What do we need artists for? You do need people that care and feel about things, people like Van Gough and Picasso who tried to change things and cared about the way we live. And we need people with new ideas.

Maybe the future skills will be with computers. Monet, Picasso and Van Gough are remembered not only because they could draw and paint well, but also because they had new ideas. They changed the way artists painted pictures. They expressed their ideas through their paintings. As art developed in the 20th century, less and less emphasis has been placed on skills. What the artist thinks or feels becomes more important.

Now a days the idea alone is what matters- Conceptual Art. It's quite valid for artists to exhibit piles of rubbish, their unmade beds, or switching on and off lights. Very few people can relate to these ideas and serious art is in danger of being ignored. Where does popular art exist today?

Perhaps creative artists will work in computer graphics in the future; this is where the largest audience will be. Computer graphic artists have followed on the traditional art in their own way, rather than conceptual art. They reach a wider audience.