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Lesson Five: Souvenirs: a still life
Lesson Five
Ordinary Subjects
Don’t feel that you have to find dramatic or exotic subjects to paint good pictures. From what I’ve seen, artists
do their best work with subjects they are familiar and comfortable with, and these are often ordinary things.
It would be my guess that Andrew Wyeth’s paintings were all done within walking distance of his home in
Chadd’s Ford Pennsylvania, or at the Olsen farm in Cushing, Maine.
He didn’t go in for Arizona buttes, or Hawaiian surf. “The Long Limb”, for example, is quiet, ordinary scene
the painter probably saw on his frequent walks. He once said he was
out to capture ''the depth in every object,'' and believed, like
Constable, that ''you don't have to make things up, you don't have to
put in animals or people, you just have to sit there, and it [the picture]
will appear.''
We follow Wyeth’s advice in our choice of subjects for this lesson. The assignment is to paint a still life of one
of your own souvenirs; something that has meaning to you. But first, consider the work of another American
artist who could also appreciate the beauty of ordinary things.
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Lesson Five: Souvenirs: a still life
Edward Hopper traveled far more than Wyeth, but his pictures have an unchanging air of bleakness, and
simplicity.
Wyeth had his Helga pictures, but none of that for Hopper. A story has it that his use of female models made
his wife uneasy, so she told him, “If you need a woman to paint, paint me”. He did, and happily for the art
world, Mrs. Hopper was a good model, appearing the artist’s work at every opportunity from then on (that’s
her with her husband at the counter in “Nighthawks). It would demean marriage to suggest this as an
example of everyday things, but there it is.
He painted hotels, motels, trains, highways, and other public places: restaurants, theatres, and offices, but his
subjects were never gaudy or pretentious. His theatres are half empty, with a few patrons waiting for the
curtain to go up, or actors standing in glare of stage lights.
“Nighthawks” Edward Hopper 1942 (that’s Hopper and his wife at the counter)
Still Life
This preamble is to help you understand that everyday,
familiar subjects give the artist’s talent it’s best
opportunity for expression, especially when there are
good associations—and this is why we asked, at the end
of the previous lesson, that you choose a souvenir to be
the subject for a still life.
What’s a still life? It’s simply a pleasing arrangement of
Still Life from the wall of a restaurant in Pompeii, ca 70 A..D.
inanimate objects. Artists love to paint them, and have
been doing so all the way back to first century, probably because the genre gives the artist complete control of
the subject, its composition, and illumination.
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Lesson Five: Souvenirs: a still life
Just one more; though I advertise myself as the Archie Bunker of the art
world, I like this still life by George Breuer.
Composition
We defined a still life as an arrangement of things. That’s where
composition comes in, but we don’t get too deep into this subject for
several reasons:
1. At this stage of your training, you need practice more than theory.
2. Many of the rules of composition are speculative.
3. Such rules as there are, apply mostly to landscapes.
If the rules of composition bore you, just ignore them, and arrange your
subjects in a way that looks right to you.
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Lesson Five: Souvenirs: a still life
Details
A still life gives the viewer a close up look at the subject, meaning that the artist has to show more detail than
usual. But detail is not the forte of pastels, because they don’t keep a sharp point for long. This is a good place
to use your black and white charcoal pencils, which can be sharpened to a fine point, and hold it better.
If you do a lot of still lifes (sounds awkward, but that’s the plural) in pastel, I recommend you try pastel
pencils, which are a little harder than soft pastel, but a little softer than the hard. They can be sharpened to
fine point, and hold it fairly well.
Perhaps your greatest challenge in doing a pastel still life is in showing texture, and we will have more to say
about that in the Example.
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Lesson Five: Souvenirs: a still life
Exercise
Position your memento(s) in a way that pleases
you, do an underpainting on a quarter sheet in
hard pastel, and block it in. Don’t try to show
more than one or two articles for your first still
life. Use either side of the paper. The following
example shows the steps.
Example
I still have my old freshman beanie (upper classmen threatened
dire consequences if you got caught without one). In the photo,
it’s hung on the back of a chair. I begin by drawing it in white
charcoal, and you can still see remnants.
The background is too cluttered; it was feathered in and will be
darkened later, but the subject is rotated slightly clockwise,
which looked better to me.
Underpainting, blocked in
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Lesson Five: Souvenirs: a still life
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Lesson Five: Souvenirs: a still life
Assignment
From the underpainting prepared earlier, complete your still life in soft pastel.
Revised 2/12/2011
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Lesson Five: Souvenirs: a still life
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Lesson Five: Souvenirs: a still life
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