Camille Pissarro - The Light Capturer

Among the other impressionists, I love Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) the most. Pissarro was the most successful in capturing the many-dimensioned reality of a place and was one of the most productive also. He was able to render precisely the look of the weather, the feel of the atmosphere and the sense of time of year. His ability in capturing the weather with different lighting was remarkable. And among other impressionists, Pissarro was one of the first to experiment with the techniques and among the last to abandon them.

Oil Painting Set Has Everything a Beginning Artist Of Any Age Will Need

Product Description

Here is a complete Oil Color Painting Easel Set that includes everything any novice painter would need. It's the ultimate art supply set to get started painting. Shrink wrapped and then placed inside a sturdy 18" X 17" X 4"H printed box with a carrying handle, the set consists of the following: 12 tubes of approved Oil Paint, 1 painting knife, 1 painting medium, 1 HB pencil, 3 painting boards, 1 mixing palette, 4 brushes, 1 instruction leaflet, 1 wood easel. The easel is made of sturdy hardwood with brass-plated hardware and it has a sliding mast that holds canvases or pads as short as 11' and as tall as 21". This easel set is made by Reeves, an art products manufacturer that has been making quality artists supplies since 1766 and it has been designed for a beginning artist of any age.

See more details of this product.

Product Features

* The ultimate oil painting artist's starter set
* Complete set includes an easel, painting boards, palette and brushes
* Colors are AP certified
* Sturdy easel with adjustable mast holds canvases up to 21" high
* Painting instructions included

The Art of Tattoo

Chopper-Tattoo.com provides you with thousands of award winning tattoo designs that you can browse from the comfort of your home. Here you will find designs that will be happy with for the rest of your life.

A brief history of tattoo art

The word tattoo comes from the Tahitian "tatu" which means "to mark something."

It is arguably claimed that tattooing has existed since 12,000 years BC. The purpose of tattooing has varies from culture to culture and its place on the time line. But there are commonalties that prevail form the earliest known tattoos to those being done on college students on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley.

Tattoos have always had an important role in ritual and tradition. In Borneo, women tattooed their symbols on their forearm indicating their particular skill. If a woman wore a symbol indicating she was a skilled weaver, her status as prime marriageable material was increased. Tattoos around the wrist and fingers were believed to ward away illness. Throughout history tattoos have signified membership in a clan or society. Even today groups like the Hells Angels tattoo their particular group symbol. TV and movies have used the idea of a tattoo indication membership in a secret society numerous times. It has been believed that the wearer of an image calls the spirit of that image. The ferocity of a tiger would belong to the tattooed person. That tradition holds true today shown by the proliferation of images of tigers, snakes, and bird of prey.

In recorded history, the earliest tattoos can be found in Egypt during the time of the construction of the great pyramids (It undoubtedly started much earlier). When the Egyptians expanded their empire, the art of tattooing spread as well. The civilizations of Crete, Greece, Persia, and Arabia picked up and expanded the art form. Around 2000 BC tattooing spread to China.

The Greeks used tattooing for communication among spies. Markings identified the spies and showed their rank. Romans marked criminals and slaves. This practice is still carried on today. The Ainu people of western Asia used tattooing to show social status. Girls coming of age were marked to announce their place in society, as were the married women. The Ainu are noted for introducing tattoos to Japan where it developed into a religious and ceremonial rite. In Borneo, women were the tattooists. It was a cultural tradition. They produced designs indicating the owners station in life and the tribe he belonged to. Kayan women had delicate arm tattoos which looked like lacy gloves. Dayak warriors in Borneo who had "taken a head" had tattoos on their hands. The tattoos garnered respect and assured the owners status for life. Polynesians developed tattoos to mark tribal communities, families, and rank. They brought their art to New Zealand and developed a facial style of tattooing called Moko which is still being used today. There is evidence that the Mayan, Incas, and Aztecs used tattooing in the rituals. Even the isolated tribes in Alaska practiced tattooing, their style indicating it was learned from the Ainu.

In the west, early Britons used tattoos in ceremonies. The Danes, Norse, and Saxons tattooed family crests (a tradition still practiced today). In 787 AD, Pope Hadrian banned tattooing. It still thrived in Britain until the Norman Invasion of 1066. The Normans disdained tattooing. It disappeared from Western culture from the 12th to the 16th centuries.

While tattooing diminished in the west, it thrived in Japan. At first, tattoos were used to mark criminals. First offenses were marked with a line across the forehead. A second crime was marked by adding an arch. A third offense was marked by another line. Together these marks formed the Japanese character for "dog". It appears this was the original "Three strikes your out" law. In time, the Japanese escalated the tattoo to an aesthetic art form. The Japanese body suit originated around 1700 as a reaction to strict laws concerning conspicuous consumption. Only royalty were allowed to wear ornate clothing. As a result of this, the middle class adorned themselves with elaborate full body tattoos. A highly tattooed person wearing only a loin cloth was considered well dressed, but only in the privacy of their own home.
William Dampher is responsible for re-introducing tattooing to the west. He was a sailor and explorer who traveled the South Seas. In 1691 he brought to London a heavily tattooed Polynesian named Prince Giolo, Known as the Painted Prince. He was put on exhibition , a money making attraction, and became the rage of London. It had been 600 years since tattoos had been seen in Europe and it would be another 100 years before tattooing would make it mark in the West.

In the late 1700s, Captain Cook made several trips to the South Pacific. The people of London welcomed his stories and were anxious to see the art and artifacts he brought back. Returning form one of this trips, he brought a heavily tattooed Polynesian named Omai. He was a sensation in London. Soon, the upper- class were getting small tattoos in discreet places. For a short time tattooing became a fad.
What kept tattooing from becoming more widespread was its slow and painstaking procedure. Each puncture of the skin was done by hand the ink was applied. In 1891, Samuel O'Rtiely patented the first electric tattooing machine. It was based on Edison's electric pen which punctured paper with a needle point. The basic design with moving coils, a tube and a needle bar, are the components of today's tattoo gun. The electric tattoo machine allowed anyone to obtain a reasonably priced, and readily available tattoo. As the average person could easily get a tattoo, the upper classes turned away from it.

By the turn of the century, tattooing had lost a great deal of credibility. Tattooists worked the sleazier sections of town. Heavily tattooed people traveled with circuses and "freak Shows." Betty Brodbent traveled with Ringling Brothers Circus in the 1930s and was a star attraction for years.

The cultural view of tattooing was so poor for most of the century that tattooing went underground. Few were accepted into the secret society of artists and there were no schools to study the craft. There were no magazines or associations. Tattoo suppliers rarely advertised their products. One had to learn through the scuttlebutt where to go and who to see for quality tattoos.

The birthplace of the American style tattoo was Chatham Square in New York City. At the turn of the century it was a seaport and entertainment center attracting working-class people with money. Samuel O'Riely cam from Boston and set up shop there. He took on an apprentice named Charlie Wagner. After O'Reily's death in 1908, Wagner opened a supply business with Lew Alberts. Alberts had trained as a wallpaper designer and he transferred those skills to the design of tattoos. He is noted for redesigning a large portion of early tattoo flash art.

While tattooing was declining in popularity across the country, in Chatham Square in flourished. Husbands tattooed their wives with examples of their best work. They played the role of walking advertisements for their husbands' work. At this time, cosmetic tattooing became popular, blush for cheeks, coloured lips, and eyeliner. With world war I, the flash art images changed to those of bravery and wartime icons.
In the 1920s, with prohibition and then the depression, Chathma Square lost its appeal. The center for tattoo art moved to Coney Island. Across the country, tattooists opened shops in areas that would support them, namely cities with military bases close by, particularly naval bases. Tattoos were know as travel markers. You could tell where a person had been by their tattoos.

After world war II, tattoos became further denigrated by their associations with Marlon Brando type bikers and Juvenile delinquents. Tattooing had little respect in American culture. Then, in 1961 there was an outbreak of hepatitis and tattooing was sent reeling on its heels.

Though most tattoo shops had sterilization machines, few used them. Newspapers reported stories of blood poisoning, hepatitis, and other diseases. The general population held tattoo parlors in disrepute. At first, the New York City government gave the tattoos an opportunity to form an association and self- regulate, but tattooists are independent and they were not able to organize themselves. A health code violation went into effect and the tattoo shops at Times Square and Coney Island were shut down. For a time, it was difficult to get a tattoo in New York. It was illegal and tattoos had a terrible reputation. Few people wanted a tattoo. The better shops moved to Philadelphia and New Jersey where it was still legal.

In the late 1960s, the attitude towards tattooing changed. Much credit can be given to Lyle Tuttle. He tattooed celebrities, particularly women. Magazines and television went to Lyle to get information about this ancient art form.

Today, tattooing is making a strong comeback. It is more popular and accepted than it has ever been. All classes of people seek the best tattoo artists. This rise in popularity has placed tattoists in the category of "fine artist". The tattooist has garnered a respect not seen for over 100 years. Current artists combine the tradition of tattooing with their personal style creating unique and phenomenal body art. With the addition of new inks, tattooing has certainly reached a new plateau.

Sketching and Drawing Set

This premium quality art gift sets inspire creative expression by providing young artists with the tools for their masterpieces. The set is perfect for busy, young artists who are on the go. The set includes 24 color pencils, 9 watercolor pencils, paintbrush, 24 fineline markers, 8 metallic color pencils, seven neon color pencils, eraser, sharpener, two graphite drawing pencils, 20 sheets watercolor, 10 sheets drawing and 10 sheets black paper. A tips and techniques booklet is also included to give suggestions on using the products. 117 pieces.

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* Perfect for busy young artists on the go
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More On Coffee Art

At the Cafe
* Artist: Ezju
* Year: 2003
* Width: 28"
* Height: 21"
* Medium: Whidbey's French Roast
* Support: Watercolor Paper


Pike Place Performers
* Artist: Ezju
* Year: 2003
* Width: 20"
* Height: 16"
* Medium: Coffee
* Support: Clayboard
* 16" x 20" Original: Private Collection of Mark Stefnik


Late Night Drip
* Artist: Ezju
* Year: 2005
* Width: 24"
* Height: 18"
* Medium: Sysco Coffee
* Support: Clayboard


I have posted about coffee art earlier. And during my search on the web, I was quite surprised by how this art has been explored. And although the media seems to be limited, actually it’s rich. Some artists did some experiment on many kinds of coffee, even add a pigment to it, and achieved great works.

I copied these interviews of Ezju (many thanks to Ezju for his permission) and Professor Pornchai (both of them are Coffee paint Artist with excellent works).


Ezju’s Interview with Ph’Kaki

Ph’Kaki: Describe your coffee "paint" making process.

Ezju: I knew coffee would stain and would be quite permanent. I have enough white business shirts embarrassed just before important meetings to know its resilience. What I found with my first coffee sketch was the tonal range was limited even with glazing.

Being the curious lad that I am the experiments to create a coffee medium was on. I tried several recipes from adding coffee to acrylic medium to brewing coffee in linseed oil and met some limited achievement. Then I remembered a old school exercise where the students would boil down salt water to find concentrated salt left on the bottom of the pan so I tried condensing large amounts of coffee.

Ph’Kaki: What is your coffee painting technique?

Ezju: I have a couple. The first is applying the coffee paint much like a watercolor depending on full saturation for the darks and thinning the paint out with water for the lighter tonal values. Some times I add a bit of pigment for more colorful image.

The second technique is layering coffee paint, applied by brush or hand, between en caustic (wax medium) applications and building up layers.

Ph’Kaki: What do you find most unique about coffee as an artistic medium?

Ezju: Using food products as an artistic medium has been done periodically throughout history. Some artists use food as a sensory stimulant to produce their art and use food products as well.Most people don't know that if you mix salmon eggs and goose feces you'll get a rich red pigment or if you take horse urine and put it on copper the chemical reaction produces a wonderful blue pigment.

What does this all have to do with coffee being unique? Coffee is a global commodity and social icon that most cultures can relate to on some level. It's a social equalizer of sorts. It's not something one expects to see on a canvas but it does very well there to produce images as well as open minds to a different way of thinking.


Proffessor Pornchai’s Interview with Asia-art,net

Q3: How hard is it to use coffee to paint compared to normal watercolor paint?
A.: First of all, the texture of the coffee is a challenge. It has more elastic properties than normal paint. It is stickier when you apply it with the brush. You have to use the right amount of water to dilute the coffee right on the paper for the lighter brown or whiter areas. It was also harder to control the lines, color tones and the flow of liquid on the paper.
Further more, coffee also when it dried displayed glittering flakes in itself and left unwanted traces of this in the paintings. I had to use special techniques to control these flakes on the paper. Another big problems was that after the coffee paintings are completed the painting can mold easily. Furthermore, the color on the paintings can peel off from the paper. Through years of experimenting, I found ways to overcome these problems but it was not easy.

Q4: If coffee is so hard to paint with, why do you continue to do so?
A.: I kept on trying because it seemed like a great challenge for me. Coffee gave a unique effect through the stain it left on the paper and the unique flow of water mixed with coffee is unpredictable. All of this is a challenge, which I had to strive to solve.

Q5: Do you always paint in coffee alone or sometimes mix colors or other medium with it?
A.: I prefer to use monotone coloration’s of brown in my paintings, but I also mix watercolor with coffee in some paintings to create colors other than brown. It is harder to paint in monotone and still make the painting interesting and that challenge is what I like.

Q6: What themes are you using coffee to paint?
A.: Mostly old-time scenes or history like themes. I also paint landscape like the ocean, forest or building scenes.

Q7: What is the potential of this kind of painting in the market? And what have been the public’s reactions to this way of paintings?
A.: I had my first show of coffee painting in 1998 at the Gaisorn Plaza in Bangkok, Thailand. Over 600 guests attended the exhibition and most of the paintings were sold. The people enjoyed the new idea in art and the unique quality that it produced. I think the viewers found that it was interesting to use something close to them that they see or use daily, like coffee, to apply in the art form.

Q8: What is your future plan and what are your new challenges?
A.: I plan to use different themes to my coffee paintings, for example: pictures of the old-time settings from the Oregon Trail in the Northwest of the US. I feel that it will be very charming with the coffee effects. My new challenge and hope is that one of the coffee companies like Starbucks or others will sponsor me and let me try different types of their coffee on my paintings. I’m always amazed at how many types of coffee the companies offer and wonder whether those various coffees would give different effects on my paintings.

Oil Varnish Painting Medium: Flemish Maroger

Flemish Maroger is an oil varnish painting medium discovered by Jacques Maroger, painter and former curator of the Louvre in the early 20th Century, who claimed to have found the secret formulas used by Old Masters such as Titian, Rubens, Van Dyck, Velasquez, as well as others. Consisting of Black Oil and Mastic Varnish, this medium comes in the form of a soft jelly, and is used for its great versatility in oil painting.

"The jelly is of an amber color ... It is like a liquid glass with which the painter invests his pigments. It possesses the extraordinary property of congealing in the air and of becoming ductile again at the touch of the brush. Drawn by the brush, it moves fluently over the canvas. As soon as the brush is removed, it becomes firm and congeals immediately - ready, again to become every bit as ductile at the next touch of the brush.*"

Studying Composition

Painting: Dance Class, Edgar Degas (1871)

Like most of the dancers in Degas's works, these ballerinas are not performing. Degas has caught them in the unglamorous environs of the dancing classroom.

The overall composition is marvelously complex and fluid. One's eyes settle on the students and the violin player gathering around a piano on the left, and travel to the big standing mirror on the center, to the dancer performing her skill, then to the two girls doing exercise behind her, and finally to the door at the back right. There, Degas added a point of interest also: a dancer leaning his head against the wall. A curious pose that can make the viewer wonder of what she might be doing there.

The standing mirror at the center serves a number of compositional functions. The reflection of more dancers continues the rhythmic line of the dancers in the foreground and middle ground and gives an impression of depth, that there are actually more dancers outside the frame. In his paintings, Degas always thinks ‘beyond’ the frame. This gives an impression that the painting is broader than the size of the canvas itself.

The violin case at the foreground ‘steals’ viewer’s attention while exploring the other main objects. It also acts as a balancing element, so that the floor would not look too spacey. Notice a watering can at the front left corner which seems to be misplaced there. But the green color of the can repeats on the big mirror on the wall gives a nice balance.

We can see that the composition of this painting is carefully planned. That's what makes Degas a Master in composition.

10 Rules of Composition in Painting

Have you ever visited an art museum and a particular painting just grabbed your attention and drew you in? Something in that painting kept you looking and studying it. One element the artist successfully used in that painting was composition. The artist laid out the shapes and divided the space in the painting in such away that appealed to your senses. Here are some points to consider when developing your composition:

1) The areas of your canvas should be divided into parts of different sizes. For instance, if you are creating a landscape painting, do not put the horizon right in the center of your painting.

2) Do not place all the interesting parts of your composition on the left side of your painting. People read from left to right so they will have no reason to continue viewing the rest of your painting.

3) Avoid placing an interesting or important element of the painting too close to the edge of the canvas.

4) Create an imaginary triangle that pulls all the elements in the painting together, while pairs or groups of 4 will separate them into sections.

5) Try to use the same element in odd numbers. 1, 3, or 5 of the same item will typically have a more finished look. Like 5 girls, or 7 roses, etc.

6) Remember the "Rule of Thirds". If you divide your layout into thirds vertically and horizontally, where those lines meet is generally a good place to put the main focus of your layout.

7) Create contrast in your painting. Avoid elements on the page that are merely similar. If the elements (font, color, size, line thickness, shape, space, etc.) are not the same, then make them VERY different to create a visual contrast.

8) Repeat visual elements of the design throughout the layout. You can repeat color, shape, texture, spatial relationships, sizes, etc.

9) Be aware of the alignment of all of the items on your painting. Every element should have a visual connection with another element on the painting.

These are some great starter tips for layout composition. As you keep these in mind, remember also that there are exceptions to every rule.

10) Follow the rule of thirds. An easy way to compose off-center pictures is to imagine a tick-tack-toe board over your viewfinder. Avoid placing your subject in that center square, and you have followed the rule of thirds. Try to place your subject along one of the imaginary lines that divides your frame.

Watch the horizon. Just as an off-center subject is usually best, so is an off-center—and straight—horizon line. Avoid cutting your picture in half by placing the horizon in the middle of the picture. To accent spaciousness, keep the horizon low in the picture. To suggest closeness, position the horizon high in your picture.

Putting the subject off-center often makes the composition more dynamic and interesting.

Even if your subject fills the frame, the most important part of the subject (for example, the eyes in a portrait) should not be dead center.

If you thumb through magazines and look at professional photos, or even watch the way scenes are framed on TV and in the movies, you'll find that the subject is rarely dead center in the frame. Instead, photographers rely on what is probably the single most important rule in composing pictures: the Rule of Thirds.

The Rule of Thirds divides the frame into a grid that resembles a tic-tac-toe board. The idea is that the four points in the frame where the lines intersect are areas of natural interest. Placing the subject at one of these points usually creates a pleasing image. And sure enough, you'll find that a staggering number of professional photos follow this rule.


FOLLOW THE RULES UNTIL YOU KNOW WHEN TO BREAK THEM

Once you have the rules of composition down pat, experiment and break a rule here or there when you feel the image will work better without it. That’s called individual style, and the creativity that stems from it produces some great images. The point is that you will know when to break a rule of composition once you know what the rules are and how they work.

Certain subjects benefit from a slightly different treatment. For instance, you can align your subject not with one of the four points, but instead lay it along one of the lines. Or your subject might be so large that it takes up a lot of the frame; it doesn't really fit in one of the four spots. When that happens, pick an interesting element and focus on that. If you paint a person or an animal, eyes make a great focal point.

Impasto Technique

The painting on the left here is an example of an oil painting work done in impasto technique by a productive and talented Russian artist, Alexey Kamenev. He applied the technique to 90% of the entire canvas, leaving only the sky area almost flat to the contrast of thickly applied paint on rest of the painting. The strokes, although still expressive, are done carefully, so the result is a pleasant feel when looking to the whole composition.

Impasto is a technique used in painting where paint is laid on an area of the surface (or the entire canvas) very thickly, usually thickly enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provides texture, the paint coming out of the canvas.

Impastoed paint serves several purposes.
-Firstly, it makes the light reflect in a particular way, giving the artist additional control over the play of light on the painting.

-Secondly, it can add expressiveness to the painting, the viewer being able to notice the strength and speed applied by the artist.

-Third, impasto can push a painting into a three dimensional sculptural rendering.
The first objective was originally sought by masters such as Rembrandt and Titian, to represent folds in clothes or jewels: it was then juxtaposed with more delicate painting. Much later, the French impressionists created entire canvases of rich impasto textures. Vincent van Gogh used it frequently for aesthetics and expression. Abstract expressionists such as Hans Hofmann and Willem De Kooning also made extensive use of it, motivated in part by a desire to create paintings which dramatically record the "action" of painting itself. Still more recently, Frank Auerbach has used such heavy impasto that some of his paintings become almost three-dimensional.

Because impasto gives texture to the painting, it can be opposed to flat, smooth, or blending techniques.

Other artists have used this occasional texturing technique to achieve the same result, and there is special excitement when this technique is done well.

The surface upon which you paint is part of this process. Many impasto artists like to work on a rigid substrate, such as specially surfaced Masonite--Claybord. Others use canvas that has multiple gesso layers. Masonite can be surfaced with repeated layers of gesso or actual oil paint. Both of these bases can be toned so that the textured surface adds an underglow of color.

Canvas should be stretched quite tightly, and the surface should be dampened so that it is as taut as possible. Remember that the thickly applied layers of paint will weigh heavily on the canvas. Improperly stretched canvas could allow movement of the substrate and thereby damage the finished work.

Whether you are using Masonite, other wood substrate, or canvas, creating a textured basis upon which to paint is the initial step in impasto. This is done, most often, without regard to specific placement of subjects. Produce this texture with the tool of your choice, creating a crosshatch of brush strokes of uneven, related sections. Your subject is then painted over this textural base.

Underpaint application can be a way to relax otherwise constricting or restricting painting habits. By applying this base paint in a more freeform and loose manner, with no attention to small details, you are able to concentrate on the large blocks or masses of color. It might also lead you into a more stylized expression in the finished work as well.

The tools used to apply the paint, or underpaint, can vary greatly. Many artists simply super-charge their paintbrushes and apply paint with the same type of stroke and motion that they use to create their smooth surfaced artworks. Some artists, having adopted the philosophy that the older a brush gets, the better it gets, consider application of paint - regardless of the situation - done with anything other than a brush a near sacrilegious action. Application with brushes can be as simple as rolling a paint-charged brush onto the painting surface to achieve a thick painted line. Repeated charging and dabbing the brush hairs against the surface can yield a mottled and highly textured surface. Multiple layers can be built up to create a super texture.

Other artists choose painting knives of various blade shapes and sizes to apply and control the thick super structure of their paintings. Once thought of as gadgets for trick effects, palette knives have proven themselves to be of real importance and value to any painter. Choose the blade length, width, and flexibility that give you the texture and result you want.

Texture is what you are trying to create, so you might want to leap right into unconventional tools--perhaps small spatulas or flat wood strips--to apply paint. Once the paint is in place, it might be desirable to create additional or unusual texture. Crushed foil, paper or plastic bags (though messy) can create most unusual surface variations. You should consider nothing sacred when it comes to texture application. If a sponge gives you the look you want, use it! If the edge of an eraser can be used to "shovel" the paint or gesso into the shapes and configurations you want, what is the harm?

In the strictest sense of the word, impasto can be created as the work progresses. In fact, that is the method of choice by most impasto purists. Control of the texture and degree of dimension to the surface can best be controlled as the work is developed. Different tools and brushes can be used throughout the process so that the exact texture is created in the exact place desired.

One important use of impasto is as a highlight or luminescent technique. A smooth surfaced work, with only moderate brush strokes visible, can come alive with a few simple, yet thickly applied highlight areas. This is especially true in paintings where there are many dark areas. The application of a sharply contrasting light spot can make the work spring to life.

But, whether a simple application of highlight, a moderate textural amplification, or a full-blown underpainting and over layers of paint, impasto is one method to generate visual interest in your paintings. And, although impasto is usually linked with oil, the same techniques can be applied to acrylic painting as well.

The Art of Coffee Painting

Get thirsty when painting? Just lick the paint brush :)

Coffee has been known as a painting medium for many years now. Yet, it is still worth exploring. Its sepia effect gives a unique touch and feeling to the art. It can be used as along with other mediums. Most suitable is with watercolor because the share the same techniques. The only difference is the medium.

Although for some artists, coffee painting should be done purely with coffee only. The result is amazing! With some experiments the artist will find the richness of this interesting medium, the fun and excitement of using coffee to produce interesting hues and tones.

Andy Saur and Angel Sarkela Saur are the examples of coffee painting artists who has succeeded in exploring this medium. They surely has taken the art of coffee to a whole new level.

Their excellent and beautiful works of art are captured in their website: Just Coffee Art which has been featured in publications around the world.

All the artworks are painted entirely in coffee - no additives, just 100% pure coffee. Artists have been using coffee as washes for sketches and other shading for some time, but this is one of the first times where a process is used to gain very dark hues. People ask what they do to achieve this darkness, all they can say is that it takes a special process and it is their secret formula.

During the month of June you can catch a local exhibition of Just Coffee Art at the Red Mug Gallery at the Red Mug Coffeehouse in Superior, 916 Hammond Avenue, Superior, WI.

Sotheby's Latin American Art Sale Totals $21.3 Million

NEW YORK.- Sotheby’s two-day sale of Latin American Art totaled $21,392,800, above its estimate of $14,626,000/19,732,000. The evening sale last night brought $16,811,200 (est. $10,385,000/14,000,000) and was highlighted by Mario Carreño’s Danza Afro-Cubana (Afro-Cuban Dance), lot 8, which set a record for the artist at auction, selling for $2,616,000 to great applause against an estimate of $600/800,000. The painting had not been on public view since it was featured in the groundbreaking exhibition Modern Cuban Painters at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1944, a year after its execution, and it was recently rediscovered in a private U.S. collection.

Carmen Melián, Head of the Latin American Art department, said, “We are thrilled with the results of the spring sale, which set eleven artist records. The Carreño, which sold for over three times over its high estimate, is the holy grail of Cuban art history and possesses spectacular provenance and condition. We witnessed cross-over from other categories and global buying which deepens with every sale. This was one of the most consistent sales ever, and we worked hard to achieve positive results for all of our consigners, fetching strong prices across all lot values and for all genres of Latin American Art.”

In addition to the Carreño, additional artist records were set tonight, among them Joaquín Torres-García’s Composition, 1932, lot 18, which brought $1,272,000 (est. $1/1.5 million). This work, which comes from the prestigious Neumann Family Collection, one of the most important private collections of 20th Century Art, is a complex and unusually colorful example of the constructivist work of Uruguayan painter Torres-García, a founding member of the 1920s Parisian abstract movement Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square).

Another highlight of the evening sale was Francisco Zúñiga’s sculpture Desnudo de Victoria, lot 17, which sold for $936,000, many times over its estimate of $100/150,000, to a bidder on the phone. The sale of this work set a record for a stone sculpture by the artist at auction.

A superb selection of works by Fernando Botero included Reclining Nude with Book, lot 7, from 1998, which brought $824,000 (est. $700/900,000). Another work by the artist, L'Enlevement d'Europe, lot 36, sold for $656,000 (est. $175/225,000). Botero is well-known for his repertoire of rotund and disproportionate figures and objects rendered with barely perceptible brushwork and with remarkably smooth pictorial surfaces that belie the artifice of his craft.

The day sale demonstrated continued strength in the market for works by Botero: lot 143, Homme à la Guitar, sold for $300,000 (est. $80/100,000). The day sale also featured Tomas Sanchez’ Seguir el Sonido de las Aguas, selling for $168,000 (est. $50/60,000); Remedios Varo’s La Batalla, lot 137, selling for $120,000 (est. $40/50,000); and Matta’s Sans Titre, lot 141, selling for $108,000 (est. $60/80,000).

In total, eleven artist records were set, including the aforementioned works by Torres-García and Carreño as well as Pedro Figari’s El Palito, lot 4 for $180,000; Carmelo Arden Quin’s Structures 3, lot 19 for $65,000; Juan Melé’s Marco Recordato, lot 20 for $70,000; Jorge de la Vega’s El Diario de Santos L’Ouverture, lot 21 for $360,000; Agustín Cárdenas’ Untitled, lot 25 for $110,000; Antonio Asis’ Composition in Blue, lot 40 for $40,000; Rogello Polsello’s Untitled, lot 47 for $35,000; David Alfaro Siqueiros’s Untitled, lot 9 for $120,000; and Armando Reverón’s Paisaje, lot 27 for $380,000. A record for a work on paper by Reverón was also set: Las Tres Modelos, lot 5, sold for $260,000 (est. $150/200,000).

White, The Most Color Used in Oil Painting

White is the most commonly used colour in oil painting from the earliest stages through to finishing touches and highlighting. However not all whites are the same. Understanding how they perform helps the artist to choose the right white for the painting in progress.
Here are the most common ranges of white. Although some factory offer more specific types.

Titanium White: The most popular modern white. It is the whitest, and the most opaque bright white with exceptional covering power for strong highlights. It can also be used for mixing and is a good all purpose white.

Zinc White: Less opaque slower drying white, used in the later stages of a painting for subtle highlighting, glazing and blending with other colours to create pale tints. It has a blue undertone.

Iridescent White: A mica based pigment which makes a pearlescent white. It is effective when mixed with transparent colours, and used over dark underpainting.

Underpainting White (fast drying): A titanium pigment ground in linseed oil which is recommended for underpainting or extensive layering with white. It dries quickly to a flat, matt, toothy finish. Specially formulated to resist cracking and shrinking in the early stages of painting.

Flake White (The Old Masters White): Based on lead pigment, suitable for all stages of a painting. It's a high performance milky white, noted for its opacity and durable paint film. When mixed with other colours it creates pure clean tints with minimum loss of tonal value. A titanium based formulation which avoids the hazardous lead based Flake White No. 1. It has a lower tinting strength than Titanium White to match Flake White and a similar drying rate to the original. Classified as toxic according to EC legislation and available only in tins for EC countries.

Art Auction Tips

Holding an art auction is an excellent way for non-profits to raise money, for artist-donors to get free publicity, and for bidders to get quality art at reasonable prices. The following pointers will help everyone have a great time and realize their goals at art auction fundraisers, regardless of whether they're buying, selling, or donating.


Tips for artists:

** Career-wise, the best fundraisers for donating are those that support visual arts organizations and attract members of visual arts communities. These are great opportunities to get your art and your name out in front of anywhere from dozens to thousands of people who like art, collect art, and support the visual arts.

** Donate to a non-art related fundraiser only when it's an established art auction or you believe strongly in the organization's goals, and not because anyone promises you career benefits. Donating to a fundraiser that only has a few pieces of art mixed in with lots of other merchandise, or only attracts politicians, environmentalists, or health care professionals, for example, usually does little for your career.

** Before you decide which piece of art to donate, talk to the people conducting the auction and ask what types of art and what price ranges sell best. The more accurately you pinpoint bidders' tastes and budgets with your donation, the better the chances that it attracts attention and sells for a good price.

** Donate a good piece of art. Don't donate the worst, least significant, or most outdated piece you have lying around your studio. You want your donation to reflect positively on your level of generosity as well as on the quality and type of art that you're currently producing.

** Include your bio and contact information with your art. You want to attract and introduce yourself to as many new collectors as possible. People who like your art tend to bid higher when they know something about you, what you've accomplished in your career, and how to reach you if they want to buy or learn more.

** Whether your art auctions silently or live, set the minimum acceptable opening bid and selling prices as low as possible. When you set these dollar amounts too high, you scare bidders away. Remember that many people go to art auction fundraisers looking for bargains. Also remember that having nobody bid on your art reflects poorly on your career.

** If you refuse to sell your art below a certain price, set your opening bid below that price, but tell the people conducting the auction that you'll only sell when that certain price is reached. For example, if you want a selling price of $500, start the bidding at $200. That way, even if the art doesn't sell, it'll at least attract bids. Be aware, though, that insisting on too high a selling price may show that you're more concerned about yourself and how much your art is worth than you are about the goals of the organization selling it.

** If you're a good artist, you have an established track record of shows and sales, and people know it, your art will be bid up to a fair selling price no matter how low you set the opening bid.

** Cooperate with the people conducting the auction and generally do everything within your power to make sure your art sells. The worst possible outcome at this type of event is for your art not to sell.


Tips for bidders:

** Look at all the art. Fundraising art auctions are great places to learn about art and artists you've never seen or heard of before.

** Don't automatically assume that all art is bargain priced. Find out about artists whose art you like before you bid. The best way to do this is to preview the art ahead of time or get a list of artist donors. That way, you're prepared to bid wisely.

** Make sure that you're getting a quality current example of an artist's work. Unfortunately, some artists donate low-end, oddball, or problem pieces that they can't sell and want to get rid of.

** Be generous. You're attending the auction to support the organization selling the art. Going a bit over budget is not so bad when those few extra dollars go to a good cause.

** Artists often attend fundraising art auctions and position themselves in the vicinity of their art. Keep your eye out for opportunities to meet artists and learn about their art.

** Go easy on the wine. Nothing is worse than finding out the next morning that you've paid too much for a piece of art that you can't stand to look at.


Tips for organizations conducting art auction fundraisers:

** Publish submission guidelines for artist donors. Include pointers on what types of art sell the best, what price ranges bidders like to buy in, and how artists can best present themselves and their art.

** Tell artists how the auction is promoted, how they benefit from the publicity, and how many people come to see their art.

** Urge artists to set minimum bid and selling prices as low as possible.

** Publish a sale catalogue that includes basic information about each artist and work of art that's for sale. Mail it out to attendees as soon as they pay for their tickets. The better you promote the event, the better quality art, artists, and bidders you attract.

** Choose a venue with plenty of room, good ventilation, and adequate display space. Contented bidders are active bidders.

** The admission price to the auction should include complimentary refreshments.

** Make sure that the most active bidders get preferred seating.

** Hire an auctioneer with experience doing fundraising auctions. Get names and contact information from other non-profits that have held successful charity auctions. Fundraisers are not like ordinary auctions where you want to move merchandise as fast as possible to bidders looking for bargains. A skilled charity event auctioneer can make a huge difference in the bottom line.

** Your auctioneer should have a sense of humor, be able to excite an audience, encourage competition among bidders, spend time presenting and describing each item, and convince bidders into being extra generous on behalf of the causes that your organization represents.

** Make sure the auctioneer has notes describing each work of art. Well-described art sells for more money than poorly described art.

** Display each piece of art as prominently as possible. The better the art looks in its surroundings, the higher bidders bid. This is especially true for live auction items. Use quality easels, white gloves, cascading velvet backdrops, pinpoint spotlights, and so on.

** Make sure bidders can find out about any artist whose art they want to bid on. The more informed bidders are and the more comfortable they feel about bidding, the higher they tend to bid.

Important Things To Remember When Using Pallet

1. Having a clean organized palette is an essential part of good painting. If you are just starting out with oil painting, these tips will help you get a good start.

2. You should have the right kind of palette to start off with. Your palette should be non-porous to prevent absorption of oil from the paint. Palettes come in a variety of different materials from glass to wood. My personal preference is the BOB ROSS Clear Palette. I have found this palette the easiest to clean and best for mixing colors.

3. When you are first starting out, it may be a good idea to start with a fairly limited palette of colors. If you purchase every color under the sun, you may find yourself mixing too many different colors, which will result in a muddy painting. Start off slow in the beginning, then add more colors as you become more experienced. Color choices for a limited palette vary from artist to artist. Here are the colors of my palette: Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Pale, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Orange, Phthalo Blue, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Red Medium, Phthalo Green, Titanium White, Ivory Black. I recommend purchasing 1.25 oz tubes of all colors except Titanium White. Purchase a larger tube of Titanium White, as you will be using more of this color.

4. First, you should get into the habit of laying out your colors the same way every time you paint. This is just good practice and keeps the painting process flowing nicely. Arrange your colors along the edges of your palette leaving a lot of room in the center for mixing.

5. Don't be afraid to squeeze out a good amount of paint, especially your whites. You will be more productive if you aren't continuously stopping to squeeze out more paint.

6. Make certain to include all of the colors you think you will need to complete that session of painting as well. Again, this will make you more productive.

7. When adding paint to the palette, I have found that squeezing the paint out in long lines, as opposed to puddles, keeps my colors cleaner. When you have puddles of paint, they tend to get soiled by other colors when mixing. With a long line of paint, you can just take paint from the end as needed and not dirty the rest. Keep some rags or paper towels handy for wiping your palette knife clean.

8. It's a good idea to continuously wipe your palette clean during the painting process. There is nothing more frustrating then trying to remove dried up oil paint. Keep some alcohol handy so that you can keep the mixing area of your palette clean.

Music: Stimulant for Many Painters

Many painters listen to music while painting. Somehow music builds their mood and stimulate the senses. Some painters even say that the paintings they make while listening to music are richer and can express what they feel better.

This picture on the left is from Artists Network, a work done by Jaimie Cordero of Pinecrest, Florida.

"I created my response while listening to Classical music. Music definitely affects my mood, so typically I paint while listening to jazz, meditative "spa" or "yoga" music, or to my Classical Music collection from India. However, this time I wanted a more active experience and decided to play a variety of Classical music pieces that are complex. I poured the first layer of washes, and while it was still damp, I dropped blobs of mixed yellow—which ended up looking like out-of-focus spots of sunlight. When I felt I needed to even out the warn and cool sides, I sprayed Red Rose Deep. I then direct-painted negative shapes around the palm fronds, varying the warmth, depth, and values as I moved across the painting. As a result, the painting has many layers of color and shape, and gradual transitions of cool, deep passages to warm, bright passages. Thus, Transitions (watercolor on paper, 30 x 22) reflects what I heard and felt. What a great exercise!"

Another statement came from Robert Marshall, the writer of A Separate Reality

I was a painter for many years before I began to write. I now do both. I’ve noticed that, although some writers listen to music while they work, many prefer silence. Painters always have the radio on. Some listen to Bach, some to rap, some to NPR. I know a conceptual artist who listens only to Country Western. Maybe because I started as a painter, the silence in which many writers work is incomprehensible to me. It makes me wonder if I’m not pure enough, if I lack the courage to face the void. I need music, although the music I need when I write is quieter than the music I listen to in the studio. My novel, A Separate Reality, was written largely to Schubert lieder. I am also now more poorly informed about world affairs, since I hear Brian Lehrer less often.

I think this points to a different kind of energy in the process. Writing is quiet, internal. It often makes me sad. Painting is more physical. You use your body more. And, for me, this is sometimes almost unbearably energizing. I can, in the studio, experience a kind of frenzy. In Scorcese’s section of New York Stories, Nick Nolte, playing an nth generation abstract expressionist, flings the paint around while listening to Procol Harem. But I think this frenzy is there for “quiet” painters too (I am one). This has to do with the fact that visual artists (most of them) make objects. Objects that can easily be ruined by one wrong move. A sentence can be rewritten, deleted. A mark can sometimes be erased. Invariably, though, a trace is left. Casual readings of Walter Benjamin aside, in the real world of artists in their studios, there is always only one copy of a painting. There is no backup disk. I know that books are objects too (especially once published). But the real book is internal, in the mind.

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Oil Painting Tips for Beginners

Start your oil paintings with an acrylic underpainting - When you start an oil painting using oils, it can take some time for that initial layer to dry. Starting your painting with an acrylic underpainting however is a wonderful time saver as acrylic paint dries quickly and oil paint can be applied over the acrylic.

Make certain you have good lighting - I didn't realize how important good lighting was until I painted outdoors for the first time. Good lighting brings out the color and also lessens the strain on your eyes. If you can, paint in a place that gets plenty of natural sunlight. If you cannot afford this luxury, purchase a good indoor light. Check out http://www.ottlite.com/ for a great selection of lighting products.

Make sure you have good ventilation - If you are using materials like oil painting thinners and cleaners in your studio; make sure you have good ventilation. Some of these chemicals can be quite toxic so use caution when working with these products. Consider using a water miscible paint like Grumbacher Max Oil Paints. Max Oils can be diluted with water thereby eliminating the need for solvents.

Fat over lean - Follow this rule and you will reduce the chance of your paint cracking. Each layer of your oil painting should have a higher oil content then the ones below it.

To create the illusion of distance in your paintings paint receding objects with cooler less intense color. Objects that advance are warmer and more intense.

If you are feeling uninspired don't get discouraged. Try taking a walk outside, breath in the air, look around at the beautiful earth God created. Try playing music while you are painting. You will be surprised how music can affect your painting. Visit a museum or local gallery. Viewing other works of art can really get your creative juices flowing.

When holding your brush avoid holding your brush like a pencil too close to the bristles. Oil brushes are made long for a reason so that you can paint further away from the canvas. Practice holding the brush toward the middle and end of the handle.

Maintain a clean organized working environment - Get yourself into the habit of keeping your work area clean and organized. Have an abundant supply of rags or paper towels nearby. Get a few glass jars for storing mediums, solvents and your used brushes while painting.

Brush Selection and Care - You should probably invest in a good set of brushes. Cheap brushes are not recommended as they shed their bristles quite easily while painting. I prefer working with Hog Hair brushes, but oil painters also use sable and synthetic sable. Avoid nylon brushes, as these are better suited for acrylic paint. My brushes include a variety of flats sizes #3, #6, #8, #12, a #4 fan, and a few small rounds for detail work. Selections vary from artist to artist, depending on painting style usually, but the above mentioned work fine for me. Take excellent care of your brushes. This is very important, especially if you have an expensive set of brushes. You may want to do a search online for more in depth brush care instructions. If you do not clean and store your brushes properly, you will ruin them, simple as that. Use a quality brush cleaner and preserver that you can purchase online or at your local art store.

About the author:
Ralph Serpe is Webmaster and Cofounder of Creative Spotlite - http://www.creativespotlite.com, a free educational art and craft community.

Alberto Vargas (1896-1982): Brings Beauty to All Women

To many, the name of Vargas is synonymous with female sensuality of grace and beauty of the American woman. Joaquin Alberto Vargas y Chavez was born in Peru’s second largest city, Arequipa. He is famous for his surreal portraits of women. He always painted women realistically, the way he actually saw them. He got his eyes for beauty from his father Max, who was a famous photographer in South America, with studios in Arequipa and in the Bolivian capital, La Paz. As a child, Alberto Vargas ventured early into his creative art. From the age of seven to nearly fourteen, he produced a large number of surprisingly accomplished caricatures. At the age of fourteen, his mother, Margarita, decided she wanted Alberto and his brother Max to study in Europe. So Alberto began his formal education in Swiss city of Zurich. He was to study languages and photography and his brother banking. Once in Europe, Alberto was mesmerized by the art galleries and museums. In the Louvre in Paris he was transfixed for hours by the work of French painters such as Ingres, and it was there that he decided he would rather be a painter than a photographer. Alberto also constantly practiced drawing the human body by himself. Alberto was to serve an apprenticeship with the Julien Studios in Geneva before moving to England to finish his education at the Sarony Court Photographers in London.

But in 1916, the course of the First World War prompted him to interrupt his education, and he fled Europe. Planning to return to Peru, he was held over in New York City waiting for a ship to take him home.He took a walk through the city on a glorious summer day with the bells tolling for noon and he fell in love immediately with the America Girl. Alberto believed until the very day he died that American women were the most beautiful in the world.
“All of a sudden the doors opened and out poured these girls. Oh my gosh, so many beautiful girls. So right then and there I decided I had to stay”.
In 1939,Alberto received his American citizenship.

Vargas’s timing was perfect. The artistic environment was invigorating, fast-paced and exciting. It was the Jazz Age, and flappers and art deco were the vogue. Alberto worked hard, retouching negatives and drawing hats for a living. He was developing his unique skill in water-color, oil and pastels. He knew, however, that one day he was going to be a great artist.


His famous quote was: “What is more beautiful than a beautiful girl?”

Basic Preparation for Sumi-e Painting

The materials you will need for sumi-e can be purchased at most stores specializing in Oriental goods or from art shops. Prices will vary, depending on the store and on the quality of the items.

1. Brush.
There are many kinds of fude (sumi-e brushes). You will need just one brush. Its bristles made from deer, goat, or boar hair, should be about 1 5/8 inches long with a diameter of about 3/8 inches (or about 40mm by 10mm). New brushes often contain starch in their bristles to stiffen and protect them during shipment. Soften the brush by pressing it repeatedly with light pressure onto a small water-filled plate until the starch runs off. After use, rinse the brush thoroughly with clear water.

2. Suzuri.
Suzuri (ink stone) are carved from stone and have a well to hold water and a flat surface on which the sumi (ink) stick is ground or rubbed to produce ink. Suzuri comes in many different shapes and sizes. After use, clean the suzuri thoroughly with running water. Old, dried sumi on the suzuri is very hard to remove and will interfere with the even rubbing of the sumi stick.

3. Sumi stick.
Sumi sticks are made from powdered carbon of burnt pine or lamp black, plus a binding agent. When a sumi stick is rubbed back and forth with a small amount of water on the level surface of the suzuri, small carbon particles come off the stick and dissolve in the water to produce ink. Four different “black” shades are available: black-black and black-brown (used for winter or rocky, mountainous scenes) and black-blue and black-purple (for gentle springtime scenes). You can use any of these shades, but the black-blue sumi will probably show your work off best in the beginning.

4. Paper and cloth.
Sumi-e is best done on kind of paper that will absorb moisture from the wet brush as you paint. Any kind of paper with this characteristic will do, and even ordinary newspaper can be used for practicing. Flat sheets of gasenshi (often called “rice paper” in the West but actually made from plant fibers) are particularly well suited for sumi-e. Gasenshi can be purchased at the store where you buy your other materials.

A cloth, preferably a piece of felt, may be placed under the paper to absorb excessive moisture.
Sumi-e paper is very delicate and should be stored flat in its wrapper. Paper in rolls is sometimes available, but you may need to use a weight to hold the paper, preventing it from curling while you work.

5. Small dish and bowl.
You will need a small dish in which to make medium-color ink. A small double-welled bowl filled with water can be used to wash and moisten your brush.


PREPARATION
Lay out the sumi-e materials on a desk or table as shown in the photograph. Pour clean water into the well of the suzuri and into the small bowl until they are each about three-quarters full.

Making ink
Hold the sumi stick vertically against the suzuri’s surface. Dip its lower end into the well of the suzuri and draw some of the water up onto the suzuri’s level surface. Carefully and with even strokes—but without too much pressure—rub the sumi stick over the surface, back and forth. Keep the sumi stick perpendicular; rubbing at an angle will cause carbon particles to come off the stick unevenly and will result in poor ink. Five to ten seconds should give you good sumi. You will be applying sumi to your brush directly from suzuri’s level surface; when the sumi has been used up, just repeat the above process to make more.

The depth of color is the result of the amount of water you use and the length of time you rub the sumi stick. As you gain experience you will know the thickness of the ink you need, that will differ according to the object you want to paint and the effect you want to create.
You will often need sumi of medium color to paint light lines or to change the brush with different sumi shades. To make medium-color sumi, use the tip of your brush to transfer small amount of dark sumi from the suzuri to the small dish, the dilute the ink with a few drops of water from your wet brush and mix until the desired tone of color is obtained.

Applying sumi to the brush
Never apply sumi to a dry brush. Dip the brush in water and gently swab its bristles against the edge of the bowl to prevent dripping. If you need to use only the tip of the brush to paint a fine line, remove more water from the brush. This will make the bristles firmer, giving better support and control as you paint.
You may charge the brush with dark sumi only, with medium-color sumi only, or with the combination of the two. When a brush is charged with two tones of ink plus water, the ink tones and water overlap and blend together on the paper to give the painted line the appearance of depth. Western artist add depth using fine shading techniques; but the sumi-e artist can get the same effect with a single stroke of the brush.

To prepare this “three-shaded” brush (water can thought of as one shade), draw the wet brush through the medium-color sumi you have prepared in the small dish; let the medium-color sumi evenly saturate two-thirds of the brush from the tip up. Then draw the brush through the dark sumi on the level surface of the suzuri, but this time let the sumi saturate only the lower third of the bristles. The result will be a brush charged, from the tip up, with one-third dark sumi, one-third medium-color sumi, and one-third water.

When painting a thin line, you can saturate less of the brush with sumi; but the medium and dark shades of sumi on the brush should always be kept in the ratio of two to one. When using a dark or medium shade alone, apply only as much sumi to the brush as you need.

Sumi-e -->Beauty of Tranquility in Mind

The Japanese word sumi-e is made up of the words for “black ink” (sumi) and “picture” (e). So, what is called Sumi-e is the Oriental art form in which pictures are painted with black ink. But to be sumi-e, a black-ink painting must be alive with the power to stir the hearts and emotions of all who see it.

To bring the painting to live, every line and every dot within it must live too. And the lines that are said to live in sumi-e are the lines that remain after everything unnecessary to the subject has been excluded from its portrayal. Sumi-e, in other words, communicates the essence of nature. Knowing how to paint andso remove from your subject everything but its life and essence is perhaps the most important thing to learn this art. The real meaning of sumi-e can be found in beauty of condensed and distilled forms.

Sumi-e was brought to Japan by Zen priests, so it is full of the spirit of Zen. For in sumi-e, as in Zen, nothing is wasted and the world is expressed in a language reduced to the farthest, most essential limits. In Zen, what expresses reality may be a single word after hours of meditation. In sumi-e, it is a few bold strokes on a pure white paper.

When making a sumi-e painting, it is like a meditation. As one takes up the brush, one by one, the thought that normally occupy the mind grows still and disappears. The hand move naturally, unconsciously, as doing the painting. Gradually, the same object that is seen with mind’s eyes takes shape on the paper. This is a painting that truly lives.

If your painting seems somehow harsh or ineffective, you need only the wish to make it more beautiful to get better results the next time you paint. But, if you practice with the idea “I want to become good at sumi-e.” then you will probably not improve very much at all. For just thinking in terms of good or bad is a sure sign that you are already far away from the spirit of sumi-e which, like Zen saying: ”Become as nothing!” You must free your mind from ambition and desire, then your paintings will sparkle with life and will draw people to feel the many moods of nature.

*picture is a sumi-e painting by artist Hiroki Murata.

About Hiroki Murata

At first glance, Hiroki Murata’s paintings resemble black-and-white photographs. In fact, his work evolved from the long tradition of Nihon-Ga (Japanese painting) and sumi-e. Hiroki Murata (b. 1968) resides in Chiba, near Tokyo, Japan. He studied Nihon-Ga under Japanese master, Ikuo Hirayama, at the prestigious Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. His early works capture the energy of the large metropolis, using vibrant colors juxtaposed against an orderly and simple overall design. A notable hallmark of Murata’s paintings is a high level of sophistication, subtlety and meticulous attention to details, reflecting artist’s long disciplined training in Nihon-Ga.

In 2001, Murata traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico to paint. The setting couldn’t be more different from Tokyo. Wandering among the side streets and surrounding country, he was struck by the rustic beauty of the land, and most of all, by the quiet luminosity of the light. He wanted to capture not just the landscape, but the powerful feelings that seem to permeate this land. Upon returning to Japan, he proceeded to develop a revolutionary painting style. In the next few years, he moved away from the subtle Nihon-Ga style and experimented with the power and impact of black sumi ink on paper.

This new medium requires different approaches and techniques. When sumi ink penetrates into paper, it permanently occupies the spaces between paper fibers. Once absorbed, it cannot be displaced or diluted by adding more water. This characteristic of sumi-e is very different from that of oil painting, where layers of pigments can be added to cover previous brush strokes. In this regard, painting with sumi ink is somewhat analogous to dyeing fabrics. In the current body of work, Murata captured the nuance of natural light, using only black ink. He painted with broad washes of ink while selectively blocking ink from being absorbed into specific areas. He developed techniques that allowed him to create extraordinary scenes - like back-lit subjects against a bright background - which were normally very difficult to render by traditional sumi-e techniques. With the current direction, the artist has opened entirely new avenues to approach contemporary sumi-e.

Impressionism --Catching The Light

It can be said that Impressionism was born in a café named Café Guerbois in the Grande rue de Batignolles, France where some painters of that era gathered in the evening and often had quite heated discussion. They were known as the Painters of Batignolles. Manet was the center of this group. There were also writers and art critics such as Zola, Theodore Duret, Zacharie Astruc and Edmond Duranty. Renoir and Manet were also part of this group.

Before, objects had been painted mostly in studio which gave result to lack of brightness, a condition that could be achieved only when objects were painted outside, in the sunlight. In their endeavor to depict nature more and more truthfully the painters came up against the problem of colored shadows.

“One morning one of us had run out of black;
and that was the birth of Impressionism.
–Pierre Auguste Renoir—



On closer inspection they discovered that there was in fact a great variety of different shades even in shadows, with blue as the predominant color. By working outside in the open air, they could see how the various objects changed their colors, depending on the lighting conditions and the colors reflected from other things around them. They noticed how the flickering of the air dissolved the sharpness of the contours and how light sometimes diffused some part of an object.

What they were looking for was beauty in the life of the people around them, i.e. in the intimate circle of the family, on a walk, during their leisure time, while having a lively chat in a garden party, or under the rapidly changing conditions of the big city.

The chance encounter of a random but attractive moment had to be captured as quickly as it occurred. Everything was in motion, and the light was forever changing. It was this continuous state of flux with its luminous colors that had to be caught. These were what world called years after as: Impressionism.