An American Artist in Paris

A few weeks ago I was able to take a trip to Paris and fulfill many dreams. One of the coolest things I was able to do, was to go to the Louvre. When I went to Italy there were several moments when I was geeking out over beautiful art and things I'd studied in art history, the Louvre is even more like that. In one room they have practically a whole semesters worth of French art history. The Louvre has at least five da Vinci's, some quick googling tells me that, that's about a third of his paintings! There was an amazing Vermeer exhibit while we were there, it was so cool to see tons of Vermeer's in one place and the work of his contemporaries.

We took a flying tour of the Louvre, it's massive and I wanted to see as much as possible. The top of my list were the Mona Lisa (beautiful but obscured by selfie-ists) the rest of the da Vinci's ( so cool just to see a row of da Vinci paintings!) the winged victory (so beautiful!) and the Venus de Milo (also quite beautiful but obscured by many people).

We hit the Islamic art section, that was cool, many beautiful things there. One of these days I'll have to get a camera that works better in low light because museums are often dark (to protect the art).
I was interested by all the students/artists that were making sketches and studies in the Louvre. I wish that I had been assigned or encouraged to do that more when I was in school, we didn't have the Louvre of course but the MOA and the SMA have some really great exhibits.
One sad note about the Louvre, it is not very accessible for those with limited mobility (I'm not sure any of Europe really is), if you can't or don't want to climb the stairs and do all of the standing and walking, you might just want to google it.
We also went to the Musee d'Orsay, which is where the major impressionist collection is, it's pretty cool as well. We got a little burnt out when we were there, it was our third sight seeing event of the day.

The Orangerie was also very cool, there are two oval rooms that Monet designed for panels of his water lilies. They also have a smaller collection of more impressionists.

 I think those are all the museums we went to but we also went to some beautiful cathedrals, Notre Dame, and to Sainte-Chapelle. I think Sainte-Chapelle is lesser known but it is absolutely amazing, just walls and walls of stained glass.
Really all of Paris is kind of a work of art and there are statues and monuments everywhere. It was an amazing trip and I can't wait to go again someday!

Precision and Perfection

I've read or been taught that in Islamic art and designs, the artist or craftsman will make a mistake or a flaw in the design on purpose because only Alah\God is perfect. I am not anywhere skilled enough yet to need to include a flaw on purpose.

I generally need a lot more precision in my work and the above image is a perfect example of this. I started drawing this new design and I was a little off, I should have fixed things then but I went forward hoping for the best. I got so far off that I couldn't even complete what I was doing and it was a lot worse to try and fix.
I can still pull something out of this jumble but it won't be what I was hoping for.
Learn frommy folly! I will try and learn as well.

More Museums

I was able to visit two of my local museums a few days ago and it was great. The Springville Museum had a variety of exhibits but the one I was most intrigued by was Fahimeh Amiri's miniatures, she learned the tradition and technique when she was a child, they are fascinating.

I also returned home to my alma mater and visited the MOA. They have a stunning exhibit, Treasures of British Art 1400-2000. I was thrilled to see paintings dating from the renaissance and of such famous subjects as the Tudors. I highly recommend checking it out!

Master Studies

I've been continuing to work on drawings and to draw from the works of master artists. Here's the last weeks drawings.

From a painting by Albrecht Durer

From a study by Michelangelo

From a drawing by Durer

From a drawing by Michelangelo

A study by Michelangelo

And a drawing by Michelangelo

As the week went on I started making a greater effort to really finish the studies and not just to get lazy and call it good.

Leonardo's Treatise on Painting

I just finished reading Leonardo's A Treatise on Painting translated by John Francis Rigaud. I feel like every would be artist should read this book, it's essentially getting an art lesson from da Vinci himself, I learned a lot.
I have to say though that this book isn't perfect, I feel like more pictures and da Vinci's actual pictures could have helped a lot. I'm a visual learner as many artists are, makes sense. Anyway read the book, you can learn tons about bettering your craft.
This post sounded way better in my head when I decided to do it the first time the book was blowing my mind. Sorry.

Words of wisdom from Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci is one on the most famous artists of all time (deservedly so) and he is one of my favorite artists and art heroes. I love da Vinci's art and I love being able to read his writings and thoughts. I have this book called Leonardo da Vinci in His Own Words, which is full of great da Vinci quotes on a variety of subjects. This is some of what da Vinci had to say about art.

"Painting does not have the need for interpreters for different languages as does literature."

"Truly painting is a science, the trueborn child of nature, for painting is born of nature, but to be more correct we should call it the grandchild of nature; since all visible things were brought forth by nature and these her children have given birth to painting. Therefore we may justly speak of it as the grandchild of nature and as related to God."

"Painting is the way to learn to know the maker of all marvelous things."

The doors of paradise.

So a little over three years ago I had the amazing opportunity to go to Italy and it was art nerd heaven, I love the Renaissance. One of the things I was excited to see was The Gates of Paradise beautiful doors with panels sculpted for the baptistry of the Duomo in Florence. They were made by Lorenzo Ghiberti and his son Vittorio.

The original panels have been removed to a museum and replaced by copies but they're still beautiful. The gate keeps the tourists at bay I'm sure but it does block the view.

What a lot of people may not know is that you can also see a replica of the Gates of Paradise at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. These panels were a ground breaking part of the Renaissance, perspective was used, etc. It was really cool to be able to see them up close and personal and hardly anyone else was around.