Finishing Touches in Painting: Detail through Precision and Detail through Improvised Texture

Finishing Touches:

Detail through Precision and Patience (Detail is the Life of Painting)

Detail through Improvisation and Texture (Fluid Abstraction)

Glenn Hirsch, Instructor

Marie-Genevieve BouliarSelf-Portrait 1792

Marie-Genevieve Bouliar 1792Marie-Gabrielle Capet, 1783

Before the French Revolution After

Two artist self-portraits

Detail is the life of painting

Jacob van Ruisdael

Franz Hals

John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse (English, 1849-1917)

Known for depictions of women from Greek mythology and Arthurian legend, a key member of the Pre-Raphaelite movement which sought to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo.

In contrast, the they wanted a return to the abundant detail, intense colors and complex compositions of Renaissance Italian art as typified by Botticelli.

“Pre-Raphaelite”

John William Waterhouse, 1896

“Mannerist”

Agnolo di Cosimo, aka Bronzino, 1545

St. Cecilia, 1895

John William Waterhouse, English, 1849-1917

John William Waterhouse, Ophelia, 1903

Jose Jimenez y Aranda

Holy week in Seville 1879

fluid abstraction

Helen Frankenthaler Fred Martin

Mark Rothko

Helen Frankenthaler

Mark Rothko

Watercolors

1940-1947

Mark Rothko, watercolor

Mark Rothko, watercolor

Fred Martin

Ink on paper

1980-1985

Fred Martin

Fred Martin

Fred Martin

Pam Pitt

student work, 2013-14