Getting ready for the Fall class

Start thinking in terms of groups of figures in the context of some sort of narrative. The narrative can be from literature, history, mythology, etc. Begin by sketching and drawing the scene(s) you are planning to use:

TBC...

Onwards and Upwards

Well, Mayor's Art Show and the Salon are both up and open. I can never really look at anything until the crowds thin out, which should be around Tuesday.

I am getting prepared for my art talk at DIVA:



The next class:

Figurative Painting with Narrative Themes

Jerry Ross Class ID #

Using a classical painting approach, you will explore the art of capturing the human form in a narrative style. Review drawing and painting skills to help you create compositions based on historic or literary themes and learn to effectively incorporate the human figure into a scene. A live model will be provided for some sessions and students will focus on incorporating multiple figures into a variety of interior and exterior environments. You will also develop your own painting style as you explore both “dal vero” (working from life) and abstract techniques. Instruction will be in oils but students are invited to use their medium of choice.

Wednesdays, October 1-November 19, 6:00pm-9:00pm

To register contact Sabrina Hershey, Associate Director,
Maude Kerns Art Center, Phone: 541.345.1571 and Fax: 541.345.6248

This Thursday: We will try again for 4:30 - 6:30 at Sunset Hills.

Session Sei (6)

ATTENZIONE! CHANGE IN PLANS: DUE TO OPENING OF MAYOR'S ART SHOW i HAVE TO BE DOWNTOWN AT 5:30 pm and so will NOT be at the Sunset Hills site this Thursday but plan to be there the following week (9/18). Sorry for this but you are of course welcome to go there and paint anyway or join me at the Hult Center.

Again, thank you for your participation in this class.

Topic for Last Session: Eye Movement and Linear Perspective in Relation to Concept of Verism

Lets start with a blank canvas:



We will use an underpainting in sienna utilizing gesture brushwork. I notice that most beginners establish their "macchia" exclusively in line. You see here that mass is used and also some line but the idea is to paint at the onset, not as an afterthought. This is in the true spirit of the I Macchiaioli, our "spiritual" forebearers:



The focal point for eye movement will be the small house and the main, central tree. But we are also attracyted to the road which winds down the hill.



Use of expressive brushwork in the folliage of the tree will provide resting places for the eye as it moves throughout the composition.



This is an oil sketch, so we must remember to keep it as such. Too many beginning students insist on a "finished" painting and they ruin the sketch by making it such. The oil sketch in the tradition of the I Macchiaioli and Constable is closer to the modern spirit of the abstract expressionists and keeps the painting fresh and spontaneous. Develop a taste for these oil sketches and begin to collect them.



Every painting needs a logical focus, a place where your eyes can land in the pictoral space but it is also important, perhaps more important, to supercharge the entire visual scene with verism (an sense of unadorned realism) as is probvided in the work of Giovanni Fattori, as one example:

http://www.italica.rai.it/index.php?categoria=art&scheda=fattori_epopea_vero

For example, in the following set of images, I am trying to show the progress made using this approach: beginning with a rooftop view intended to move the eye into the center of the picture (focal point the near rooftop) and then provide two alternative routes for the viewer to travel. The first goes out and up into the distant sea and mountains, the other goes to the right into the adjacent houses.













To be continued...