Watercolor Painting
Title: Armchair Car with Swans
Size: 38.4 cm x 25.7 cm Medium: Watercolor Completion Date: August 29, 2023 Exhibition Text:
My piece, Armchair Car with Swans, is supposed to reveal the idea of beauty being in what is random. I want people to be able to see that any point in the day can be beautiful. That a random moment can show beauty. For this piece I have been specifically influenced by John Marin’s style. I purchased my own watercolor for this piece and used a board supplied by my class. I am mainly using Marin’s spacing and blocky look in my piece. |
Inspiration:
Artist in Focus: John Marin
The artist I took inspiration from is John Marin and his watercolor paintings. He originally worked as a professional architect for 6 years which could explain the habit of his watercolor paintings being nature environments or buildings only and not including people. He went to Europe one summer and made a series of watercolors. He was inspired by Paul Cézanne and the Fauvism and Cubism movements. Marin eventually used Cézanne’s watercolor technique along with futurism and Robert Delaunay’s Orphic cubism to make a style. He would then make watercolors of New York City’s skyscrapers and the Brooklyn Bridge. He was also later interested in Maine’s seacoast and landscape.
I plan to use Marin as my inspiration by taking inspiration from the style he has made for himself. I would like to use his techniques of having blank spaces in his pieces and also making it resemble cubism by being blocky. I would also like to look at his watercolors and create a similar texture of the watercolors to him as well. I chose Marin specifically because he was a watercolor painter and I was also fascinated by his style of painting. It looks very pleasing to my eye and really expresses his environment which is something I would really like to do with this piece. His artworks are mainly of different environments, He is painting these nature scenes trying to directly capture its spirit and energy, trying to make it look more realistic. He is having our eyes move all across the painting to have the viewer see the entire environment and understand what is going on. He wants the viewer to see how he captured every element of nature in his piece so he makes it in a way that a viewer's eyes travel throughout the work. I would like to do that in my watercolor painting and hope I can by using some of his techniques.
The artist I took inspiration from is John Marin and his watercolor paintings. He originally worked as a professional architect for 6 years which could explain the habit of his watercolor paintings being nature environments or buildings only and not including people. He went to Europe one summer and made a series of watercolors. He was inspired by Paul Cézanne and the Fauvism and Cubism movements. Marin eventually used Cézanne’s watercolor technique along with futurism and Robert Delaunay’s Orphic cubism to make a style. He would then make watercolors of New York City’s skyscrapers and the Brooklyn Bridge. He was also later interested in Maine’s seacoast and landscape.
I plan to use Marin as my inspiration by taking inspiration from the style he has made for himself. I would like to use his techniques of having blank spaces in his pieces and also making it resemble cubism by being blocky. I would also like to look at his watercolors and create a similar texture of the watercolors to him as well. I chose Marin specifically because he was a watercolor painter and I was also fascinated by his style of painting. It looks very pleasing to my eye and really expresses his environment which is something I would really like to do with this piece. His artworks are mainly of different environments, He is painting these nature scenes trying to directly capture its spirit and energy, trying to make it look more realistic. He is having our eyes move all across the painting to have the viewer see the entire environment and understand what is going on. He wants the viewer to see how he captured every element of nature in his piece so he makes it in a way that a viewer's eyes travel throughout the work. I would like to do that in my watercolor painting and hope I can by using some of his techniques.
Planning:
When looking at Marin’s art, I noticed a couple key factors. His work had a lot of shapes in it and looked blocky in general, and his work had blank spaces mixed in with the blobs of color separating them, leaving the background show. I wanted to be able to show off both of those aspects in my work. I drew a little bit of one of his pieces to show off that space and also showed my watercolor on top of pencil lines to see how it would look. I then decided to sketch up the general background of the photo in a blocky, messy way. I noticed that it looked empty so I thought of adding in the people seen in the picture and drew sketches of them. I felt like adding in the person sitting in an armchair on a skateboard would bring an interesting aspect to the piece. The other people I thought I would leave out since they don’t add a whole lot to the image. I will start by getting a messy sketch to help me understand the general layout on the board, and then start painting onto it from bottom to top taking it in sections, with breaks to let it dry a bit before painting something and causing the colors to mix. I would like to show off the beauty of randomness in this piece. The photo I took for inspiration was a candid photo I took while sitting in a car. It has this normal environment with these swan water vehicles and a person using an armchair on a skateboard to make it look like he is riding a chair. Randomness like this can be very amusing and nice to see. It brings a fun beauty to life and I hope to capture that here.
Process:
To start, I drew a basic sketch of the picture I had taken onto the board. I wanted to exaggerate the shaping of the parts to match Marin’s blockiness but also make it have a more weird random feel to it. Once I had my sketch down, I took my eraser over everything gently to get rid of some of the darker lines I had drawn. I wanted to keep the lines visible enough to see but not too bold. Once I had the sketch done, I started to paint. I started from the bottom working my way up, starting with the inside of the car door. I kept in mind how Marin had spaces on the edges and in or between his colors and tried to add some of that in the black. I started off leaving a big gap on the edge and having that space there. I then did the top of the inside car door and used a blue layer with a black on top to give it a lighter look.
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When making the street, I had to be specific with the colors since it had the shadow of a tree over it. I had to try and convey the shading of the tree somehow so I took darker colors mixed with a blue. I started doing the crosswalk lines by painting gray lines top to bottom covering everything in different values of the gray and then did some streaks across at the top and bottom. I made sure to not color in everything since some of the area was not shaded. Once I had a couple lines done, I moved onto the actual road, combining brown with a blue to get a shaded road color. I started to break out the color more to the side as well to finish off the shaded area. Then, I colored in the normal street area using white and a light gray.
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I then started to work on the ground between the road and the water. I noticed that the front of the grass was a more orangish color so I painted that area orange, and then got in a green area for the actual grass and gray for the sidewalk and path part. I then outlined the chair and colored in the guy sitting in it. The last part for this section was the lamp post which I did pretty simply, making sure the black was dark and thick.
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The last parts I needed to do were the sky and trees. I did the trees first, coloring different shades of green in the tree area to help give it a fuller variety. I made sure to mix the greens together to give the green different shades to help give it a more tree look. I then went back over the green with a brown to add the branches to the trees. I then painted the water a light blue and painted the sky thicker blues of different shades.
Experimentation:
For this piece I was using a different set of watercolor paints, so I started experimenting with the colors to see what shades they produced exactly. I wanted to make sure they were of a wide range and what they looked like being put down thick and light. I mainly only went through a handful of colors that I needed to use for the piece. I mainly tried out the greens and the blues to help me see how the colors look in comparison to each other. I also tested out some other colors there as well to help decide on little parts of the watercolor painting. I also did another test of watercolor being put down on top of a pencil line here too.
I also experimented with using other materials with the watercolor. When painting the piece in the water, sky, and tree area, I had accidentally gotten some of the colors onto the lamppost. To solve this problem, I obviously had to go over the color again, but when I did I accidentally put a little bit too much water on my brush. I was now sitting with a big droplet of water on my board so I had decided to pick it up with a paper towel. I picked up the excess color and ended up smearing the excess on my sketchbook. When doing so, I found that it created a light color with a nice texture. I thought that the light color would be perfect to add onto the couch to give it some color rather than leaving it the blank background. I then used that paper towel with the color on it to add a color to the couch. I had to be careful to not go past the lines and got it filled up and looking very nice.
Critique:
Similarities:
There are some similarities in my artwork and Marin’s pieces. For starters, they are both made using watercolor paint. Another similarity is in the way the painting is made with stylistic choices. There are gaps between the colors in some spaces. There is also a more blocky figure to everything as well. It is also similar with how we are leaving pencil lines under the watercolor paint to give it more form while using a more free style.
There are some similarities in my artwork and Marin’s pieces. For starters, they are both made using watercolor paint. Another similarity is in the way the painting is made with stylistic choices. There are gaps between the colors in some spaces. There is also a more blocky figure to everything as well. It is also similar with how we are leaving pencil lines under the watercolor paint to give it more form while using a more free style.
Differences:
There are some differences between my artwork and Marin’s pieces as well. For example, one big difference is the content. In Marin’s pieces he is only capturing an environment without any disturbances. There is a lack of living animals in his pieces. My piece however contains a person in it. It is also a bit different in the texture where his seems to be more watery and different in the shading of colors.
There are some differences between my artwork and Marin’s pieces as well. For example, one big difference is the content. In Marin’s pieces he is only capturing an environment without any disturbances. There is a lack of living animals in his pieces. My piece however contains a person in it. It is also a bit different in the texture where his seems to be more watery and different in the shading of colors.
Reflection:
I feel as though this piece was pretty successful. I was able to continue to progress my watercolor skills as well as try out some new techniques on watercolors and how I can use them. My main inspiration was John Marin's watercolors. I feel that it does connect since I am using some of his techniques in my piece. My biggest challenge in making this piece was probably the shaded area at the bottom of my piece. There were times when I added too much blue and then the road looked really blue. I had to go back and forth between adding more blue and adding more brown. This project continues in my theme of revealing the beauty that is lying within anything and everything. In this case, randomness. My favorite part was seeing how the sky looked after it was all set and dry because I really liked the spacing of it. My least favorite part was probably trying to do the road because of the troubles I had. I hope others see this piece and get a bit confused. If they get confused they are acknowledging some of the randomness of it which can help them apply to the nice look of the piece to tie it back to randomness being beautiful and bringing good energy,
Connecting to the ACT:
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
There is a cause and effect relationship on my piece and my inspiration in the style. In Marin's pieces, he uses a style that has spaces showing a blank space and a block-like look. I am using a similar style in my piece.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Marin is trying to showcase this environment and capture howit looks and feels in his works.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have made the generalization that Marin is painting these environments to capture the specific beauty of these different environments.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea or theme around my inspirational research is beauty. I am trying to express beauty in randomness and then Marin is using a theme of beauty to just shocase typical beauty of plants.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made the inference that Marin was trying to capture the beauty i these simple environments and give people a pretty scene to look at.
There is a cause and effect relationship on my piece and my inspiration in the style. In Marin's pieces, he uses a style that has spaces showing a blank space and a block-like look. I am using a similar style in my piece.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Marin is trying to showcase this environment and capture howit looks and feels in his works.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have made the generalization that Marin is painting these environments to capture the specific beauty of these different environments.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea or theme around my inspirational research is beauty. I am trying to express beauty in randomness and then Marin is using a theme of beauty to just shocase typical beauty of plants.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made the inference that Marin was trying to capture the beauty i these simple environments and give people a pretty scene to look at.
Citations (MLA):
“Earth’s Forms, Delaware River - John Marin (American, 1870–1953) - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, Google, artsandculture.google.com/asset/earth-s-forms-delaware-river-john-marin-american-1870%E2%80%931953/EgH6d3ZUBU0u-A. Accessed 31 Aug. 2023.
“John Marin.” Artist Info, www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.2643.html. Accessed 31 Aug. 2023.
Marin, John. “Brooklyn Bridge, 1912 - John Marin.” Www.Wikiart.Org, 1 Jan. 1970, www.wikiart.org/en/john-marin/brooklyn-bridge-1912.
“John Marin.” Artist Info, www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.2643.html. Accessed 31 Aug. 2023.
Marin, John. “Brooklyn Bridge, 1912 - John Marin.” Www.Wikiart.Org, 1 Jan. 1970, www.wikiart.org/en/john-marin/brooklyn-bridge-1912.