Cyanotype Series

thinking about:

- composition

- shape

- line

- human body as a form

Formal Elements

The formal elements of art, also called the visual elements, are the basic units and the means artists use to create and design works of art.

Some formal elements are point, line, shape, space, value (light and dark), color and texture. With these simple elements an artist can create whole worlds of visual experience.

Formal elements of painting

Formal elements of painting:

In painting, the formal elements are composition, space and color. The elements used in creating pictures are mark, line, shape, color, value, texture, and space (the pictorial elements). These are described in more detail below. The pictorial principles, which will be in the next Design page, are balance, contrast, harmony, emphasis, movement, proportion, variety, and unity. Artists may concentrate on some of these elements and principles more than others.

Some of the main design functions include: 1) leading the viewer's eye around and through the painting (and not out of it); 2) stabilizing the composition with checks and balances, neutralizing of elements; 3) directional movement created by elements; 4) considering the total space (positive and negative). Some of the ingredients include: 1) the linear structure of forms, that is, the underlying geometric structure of objects, like the rectangles and cubes, and vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines involved in tables, buildings, chairs, etc.; 2) viewpoint - either with 2-point linear perspective, atmospheric perspective, or a contemporary "flat" image; 3) straight lines and curves (types of curves include linear, gestural, baroque, organic, biomorphic); 4) structural geometric forms used as underlying compositional elements to stabilize the composition, such as a triangle, or the upside-down 'Y' structure of Illustration 1.

Source:
http://www.ndoylefineart.com/design4.html

Blue Figures

During 1952, one of Matisse's most prolific late years, he created many ambitious paper cutouts, among them the presentBlue Nude. Facing front with arms raised and breasts projecting sideways, the pose recalls various standing odalisques from his Nice period of the 1920s. The simple but effective composition is built up from six disjointed pieces of blue painted paper that seem suspended in space. It represents one of a dozen or so variations on the theme that Matisse created over a period of several months. That same year, his cutouts culminated in the production ofThe Swimming Pool(Museum of Modern Art, New York), a gigantic, dynamic composition with multiple figures.

The paper cutouts, prepainted with blue gouache, synthesized the intrinsic qualities of both painting and drawing—form, color, and line—and allowed the artist "to draw in paper," as he described it. This new idiom, which he had used for the first time in 1931 (while developing his large compositionDancefor Dr. Albert C. Barnes), enabled him to create images in which form and outline were inseparable. During his final years, when illness left him bedridden, the cutouts became virtually his only means of expression, still exuding the master's undiminished inventiveness and creativity.

"The Swimming Pool"
Commenting on The Swimming Pool, his largest cutout, Matisse said, "I have always adored the sea, and now that I can no longer go for a swim, I have surrounded myself with it." Indeed, this nearly fifty-four-foot-long frieze of blue bathers silhouetted against a white rectangular band was designed to adorn the walls of Matisse's dining room at the Hôtel Régina in Nice. At the time of its creation, the artist was restricted to his bed or to a wheelchair, and he conjured this lyrical depiction of the natural world for his personal enjoyment.
Read from right to left, beginning and ending with a representation of a starfish, the contours of the diving or swimming forms eventually dissolve until the blue shapes define the splashing water and the negative white space represents the abstract figures. In a dynamic interplay with the background support, each bather flows rhythmically into the next, sometimes breaking free of the horizontal band in a graceful arabesque. Matisse combines contrasting viewing angles—from above looking down into the water or sideways as if from in the water—so that the different postures of the figures themselves determine the composition as a whole. With this spirited yet serene aquatic imagery, the artist brings to brilliant culmination his career-long desire to create an idealized environment.
Source:Henri Matisse: Blue Nude (2002.456.58) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Source:Henri Matisse: Blue Nude (2002.456.58) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Airport fieldtrip

mmmmmmm the airport :) such a feel good place for me :)
i love the feeling of going somewhere...
the packing of the luggage...
movement

Being inside the airplane (during cleaning time) felt so great! Totally made me want to travel again.

BEING inside the airplane to go somewhere is one of the great parts of a trip for me. To some people it’s the getting there. For me its equally both.
I don’t know being in an airplane makes me forget the world under me a little bit, all its troubles, all the worries I could have, and just…relax with my airplane soda, peanuts, and in flight movie ☺ sounds cheesy but it’s sweet serenity and a true break. Lol it’s as if I could just spend the whole trip in an airplane and I’d be good with calling that a vacation lol… not really yall… but in the fictional world…