Paint HandlingImpressionistic/Hard-edged

Impressionist painting- Criteria & Objectives• Students must paint a natural/real subject in the style of the impressionists.• Students may use hog hair bristle brushes, acrylic or water based oil paint, painting supplies, and a

photographic reference• Students must use a real photographic reference of a real person place or thing shot in natural sunlight.• Students must use short choppy, quick strokes. Students must change colors every stroke or every set of

strokes, only large brushes, size 6 and up may be used.• Students are not allowed to use black, paint can be mixed on the palette or on the canvas. Students may

not use black, any use of black to darken a color will be instantly downgraded.• Students may use a support of their choice, canvas is recommended if water miscible oils are to be used.• Students can subjectively match colors, for instance: haystacks are not entirely purple but Monet made

them purple to convey shadows. Purple assisted his view of a darker side of the haystack.• The objective of this assignment is to mix darks with only pure colors, paint in in an impressionistic style,

and render a subject in natural light.

Typical impressionist setup• Stiff bristles, hog hair flats• Held at end of handle• Short quick choppy flicks or

strokes• Change colors every stroke

or set of strokes• Mix wet into wet• Natural light source• No black• No black• No black• If I see black I will

downgrade you

Impressionism1870’s-1880’s

Claude Monet, Agapanthus triptych

1 2

3 4

5

GivernyWater LiliesMonet, 1906.

Claude Monet, self portrait1840-1926.

Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise

Claude Monet, Arrival At Saint Lazare Station

Claude Monet, Lady in the Garden

Claude Monet, Landscape With Thunderstorm

Claude Monet, San Giorgio Maggiore

Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral, The Portal and the Tour d'Albane,FullSunlight

Rouen Cathedral: The PortalMonet, 1894. Oil on canvas, 3’3” x 2’2”.

Monet, Haystacks

The BathMary Cassatt, 1892.Oil on canvas. 3’3” x 2’2”

Mother and ChildMary Cassatt, 1890.Oil on canvas. 3’11” x 2’1”

Berthe Morisot, 1841-1895In the Dining Room,1886, oil on canvasNational Gallery of Art

Summer’s DayBerthe Morisot, 1879. Oil on canvas.

Wooded Landscape at l’HermitageCamille Pissarro, 1878. Oil on canvas, 18” x 22”.

Pissarro, Old Chelsea Bridge, London 1871, Smith College Museum of Arts

Pissarro, Conversation, c. 1881

Pissarro, Boulevard Montmartre la nuit, 1898

Pissarro, The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning, 1897, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pissarro, Boulevard Montmartre au printemps

Pierre- Auguste Renoir.

The Swing.Luncheon at the Boating Party.

RenoirLe Moulin de la GalettePierre-Auguste Renoir, 1876. Oil on canvas, 4’3” x 5’8”.

DegasRehearsal on StageEdgar Degas, 1874.Pastel over brush and-ink drawing on thin, cream-colored paper, mounted on canvas. 21” x 28”.

DegasPortrait of Mary CassattDegas, 1884. Oil on canvas.28” x 23”.

Degas, Dancers in Pink II

Degas, Ballet Rehearsal, 1875

ManetBoatingEdouard Manet, 1874. Oil on canvas. 38” x 51”.

ManetA Bar at the Folies BergereManet, 1882. Oil on canvas. 3’1” x 4’3”.

John Singer Sargent, The Sketchers

John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw

Post-ImpressionismMid 1880’s-1910-ish

Georges Seurat, 1884-1886

Paul Signac "Le Palais des Papes, Avignon (The Papal Palace, Avignon)", c.1900 - oil on canvas, 73.5-92.5 cm. - Paris, Musée d'Orsay

Georges Lemmen

Student Examples

Hard edge painting- Criteria & Objectives• Students must make a hard edge abstract painting. Their painting must have perfectly hard, straight edges, four

colors, each color must be varied in saturation, value, and intensity ten different ways. The design must be decidedly concentric/symmetrical or asymmetrical.

• Students must use acrylic paint, four tube colors, black and white, synthetic bristle brushes, masking tape, ruler, and graphite with other painting supplies. Bristol or poster board will be used cut to a small quarter sheet square.

• Students must paint with crisp straight edges, no undulations, quivers, stray marks, overlap, drips, bleeding, bristle drags, or errant marks may appear. Masking tape may be used to make crisp edges.

• Students must make an informed and decisive choice to pursue a concentric symmetrical design or an asymmetrical design. Concentric is aesthetically pleasing, balanced, and easy to paint as each quadrant is identical. Asymmetrical, while more free requires more planning and balance, odd shapes often result which are harder to paint with crisp edges.

• Students must use ten steps of value or ten variations in saturation/intensity. Students must use at least four different tube colors, colors cannot be within the same hue category, for instance a student cannot claim to have used ultramarine and pthalo blue as two separate colors. Students may use white, black, and grey to create various mixtures of their four colors.

• The objective of this lesson is to explore subjective choices in value to create an aesthetically pleasing painting, create a geometric abstract composition, and create hard edges.

Step by step, how to make a concentric design

Example of coloration using ten steps of value, with two out of the four colors

Asymmetrical abstract painting, sketch process

To paint with masking tape follow these steps1. Place the tape down along the edges of your design, burnish edges to form a tight seal2. It is optional but you can further seal edges of tape with acrylic mediums, (we don’t currently own any) 3. Paint a nice even coat of paint over tap edge, peel back at a sharp angle

Student Examples

Artists that exemplify the assignment’s criteria

Victor Vasarely

Richard Anuszkiewicz

Julian Hoeber

Liviu Stoicoviciu

Ralph Berko

Example of asymmetrical composition with multiple shifts in value, saturation, and color.

What is commonly thought of as the hard edge painting styleThese artists are ordered semi-chronologically from the 30’s on up into contemporary time, most typically hard-edge painting is thought of as happening around the 60’s and 70’s

Piet Mondrian

Wassillie Kandinsky

Max Bill

Sol LeWitt

Frank Stella

William T. Williams

Bridget Riley,

Charles Biederman

Sarah Morris

Jaro

Artists who use bands or lines of color

Gene Davis

Dion Johnson

Israel Guevara

Andrew Kuo

Artists who use a lot of geometric shapes

Alison Rash

James Marshall (Dalek)

William J. O'Brien

James Kennedy

Artists who use very simple geometric shapes

Josef Albers

Ellsworth Kelly

Robert Mangold

Sam Gilliam

Alain Biltereyst

Qian Jiahua

Artists who abstract letters, numbers and other symbols

Allan Graham

Robert Indiana

Karlos Carcamo

Valerie Jaudon

Artists who use organic or natural shapes in a hard edge style

Carla Accardi

Richard Woods

Kate Abercrombie

Michelle Hinebrook

Pete Smith

Todd Pospichal

Artists whose color does not remain flat, but looks like hard edge style

Yusuke Komuta

Renata Egreja

Nichole van Beek

Laura Owens

James Welling, photographs with double exposures