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!

Lessons I wish I'd had more often

There are many lessons I wish I'd learned or learned better while I was in school, but there are also lessons I did get that, as far as I can tell, most students of art either do not get or do not heed.

A while back I was fortunate enough to win a set of 45 soft pastels, I haven't done much with them yet because I haven't had much experience with pastel. Today in getting ready to use the pastels I went through with the research I'd done on the pigments in the pastels; of 45 pastels, there were 14 to 21 pastels that I feel good about using. There are 14 pastels in the set that were both single pigment colors and non toxic, the other 7 are non toxic but with two pigments per color. That's not quite half the set that I feel alright about using.
In all of my art classes I recall one painting or drawing teacher (excluding print making classes) who taught us to be careful about the materials and pigments that we used. This teacher taught us that we needed to be aware of the materials we used for two reasons: the first reason was for our own personal safety (and that of those around us), and the second reason was to make our work of an archival nature, such that it would be able to last for ages.
Artists through history have a reputation of being weird and crazy, some probably came by that naturally but for many it was the result of the media they worked with: lead poisoning from their paint, etc. There are so many toxic or potentially toxic art materials out there, from the pigments themselves, to paint thinner, etc. An example in my personal experience was when I was able to use a shared studio space I happily worked there, but if one or more other person was working in the studio, the fumes from their paint or paint mediums started giving me a headache and I had to leave. There are a lot of potentially dangerous things used to make art, it's important to be informed so that you can use something safely (something may be dangerous in one form but not in another, or may be safe with the use of an air filter etc.).
The consideration of the archival nature (or lack there of) is a very important one. Paintings (other media as well but painting is what I know best) have the ability to last for hundreds of years if the right materials and techniques are used and they do not suffer any undue misfortunes. On the other hand, some of the most beautiful paintings can be lost or greatly altered before their time if not done archivally. As much as I love Leonard daVinci, The Last Supper is a perfect example of this; daVinci used an experimental technique which unfortunately was not a winner and as a result there has been a very real struggle over the years to preserve this masterpiece from itself. Making something archival comes down to the materials you use and one consideration is pigments, and the possible chemical reactions between them. If you happen to unknowingly combine two pigments that have a reaction, it could change the coloring or look of your finial product.
Check labels, do your research, be safe!

Here's to those who teach art, especially to children, I may not agree with all their ideas or theories but I have come to decide that I just can't do it. I had the opportunity to teach an art project to a few groups of children. I'm sure it's part me and my lack of experience (my projects may have been more than the age groups could handle), but I really love art and I take it very seriously, I also have views that differ from a lot of people. With this project I had come up with these kids, based on some of what I do, it felt a lot like casting pearls before swine. In each class there were a few who went to work and did good with the projects and I suppose it should be worth it just for them, but the rest, it felt like we were wasting their time and mine. It makes me sad to think that that's the world these kids are growing up in.
Here's to the kids that got it though. Bless their hearts.

Skill versus "expression"

I read this article the other day and it's really been making me think. The article is about "de-skilling" in art education, I'm having a hard time summing up what they mean by de-skilling but the article really does explain it well.
I believe there are lots of fantastic art educators out there, I've been lucky enough to learn with some of them, but there are also lack luster art educators.
My first year of college, studying art there were many class debates on the definition of art, long and heated debates that never got anywhere. It was very discouraging, how many subjects do you know that can't clearly define themselves?
My turning point was a professor who had a clear, simple definition that rang true with me: art is craftsmanship plus inspiration.
Craftsmanship! there we go, a lack of craftsmanship! Or a lack of appreciation for craftsmanship, that's what they mean when they say de-skilling. I had some classes that were so much less about learning the skill of the class, as they were about learning or perfecting art skills, as they were about expressing oneself, I got my only 'c' in college in such a class. (I will admit that I was out of my element in the class and had no previous experience in the medium, but I did put real effort in and completed all my assignments.)
Getting back to topic, while one's style of art may not be academic realism, how could it possibly be a set back to have more knowledge of art and more skills? Picasso, Monet, etc. all studied academic methods before landing upon their various styles.
I don't know if I got this all out in the way I wanted but if nothing else I hope people will read the article and think about the issue.