Last week I featured an art print depicting a very quiet, serene scene. This week I’m featuring four bright and bold art prints. I created them using a fauvism technique that creates bold surreal colors and somewhat abstract shapes to depict a scene.
The first two prints are based on scenery surrounding the Lake Dillon area of Colorado. Lake Dillon is on the western side of the Continental Divide from Denver. The first print is of the mountain range that surrounds the valley Lake Dillon is located in.
This week I’m posting four art prints that fall under the category of architectural features as a subject matter, but with a presentation style of fauvism. I love architectural details in buildings and I also have a penchant for bright colored abstract styles. It’s kind of fun taking the straight lines of buildings, giving them some surreal curves and bright colors. The results are as follows:
The first two prints are homes of opposing architectural styles located in the Heritage Hill District in Grand Rapids, Michigan. From traditional classic to modern Frank Lloyd Wright.
The next two are completely different architectural styles located on San Juan Island which lies on the Juan de Fuca Strait in the state of Washington. This Island sits just east of Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The oyster hut no longer exists, but I was able to capture the look prior to the oyster farm it served tearing it down for a larger more modern facility. The hotel (Hotel De Haro) is in Roche Harbor located on the northern portion of the island.
This week I wanted to share the captures that were behind three art prints I created using a fauvism technique. The fauvism technique creates a strong colorful and abstract look. All three that I am sharing today are of what I call “Street Scenes”.
The first one is a scene of a downtown sidewalk in Rockford, Michigan. You’ll notice on the photo that it’s Christmas time and on the art print I chose not to highlight that aspect. I didn’t hide it as you will see the red stripes on the street lamps, but didn’t want to make it about the time of year. What I was after was the depth of a view down a long block of small businesses in a small town.
The second series is the 16th Street Mall in Denver, Colorado. This capture is from the eastern end of the pedestrian mall about a block away from the state capital. You get a feel for just how long the mall is when you see the D&F Tower in the very background of the picture. The D&F Tower is on the western part of the mall, but by no means is it at the end of the mall. Again I was looking at depth with strong colors and that abstract approach.
In the third set, this setting is Roche Harbor on San Juan Island northwest of Seattle, Washington. It’s a beautiful setting with a large harbor filled with sailboats. In this scene I was attracted to the architecture of the hotel and the building above it. Again, I like the strong colors and abstract approach to the scene with this style.
I’m using an art print I created of the 16th Street mall in downtown Denver, Colorado to illustrate the gradual opening of people being “out and about”. The print depicts people out on the 16th Street Mall in Denver on a warm sunny day. I created this print last year, so there aren’t any masks on folks, but it depicts a scattering of people, none of them crowding others.
I contrast this to some of the pictures we’ve seen recently of crowded beaches where no one is wearing masks or respecting social distancing. Here in Los Angeles proper, we are still on lock down and required to wear masks when we have to go out. To me, it’s a small price to pay to help keep everyone safe. We are all in this together across the entire planet and it’s not about the “me”, but about the “us”. Be safe and be well!!
Thoughts?
(Side note: The 16th Street Mall runs through the entire length of downtown. This print depicts the mall by the Daniels and Fisher Tower. The tower was constructed in 1910 as part of the Daniels and Fisher department store. At that time it was the tallest structure between the Mississippi River and California.)
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From last weeks sepia tones, I’m jumping right into bright surreal colors using abstract presentation or better known as fauvism. The style dates back to the early 20th Century with French painters. For more information – Wikipedia/Fauvism.
The prints represent landscapes as subject matters, from New England, Colorado and the Puget Sound. So I’ll work my way from east to west.
This first one is a seaside resort in Bar Harbor, Maine near Arcadia National Park.
Next we move down to Boston. This scene is the pond in Boston Public Gardens famous for the swan paddle-boats. Boston Public Gardens is located next to Boston Commons and is well renowned for their numerous flower gardens.
Heading west, we find ourselves on Lake Dillon in Colorado. The first one is the marina on Lake Dillon with the second one the other side of the lake. We go from numerous boats docked to a single speedboat and sailboat enjoying the serenity of that side of the lake.
Every time I capture an image that I think would look good in a painted type format (digitally created), I usually try a few different versions to determine what presentation looks best. Each style creates a completely different look of the same subject matter. As an example I have attached three styles I used on a roadside cafe in New England.
The first example is a very subtle impasto style. Usually with the impasto style the brush strokes are bold a colorful. In this case, I toned the brush strokes down to a very subtle look.
Same setting, completely three different looks. You may or may not like any of the looks which is ok…art is interpreted by the viewer and we all have different tastes. From my perspective I try to narrow it down to the presentation I think tells the best story and sometimes I simply can’t narrow it down to just one as I like the presentations each style presents.
Thoughts?
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Cold or cool (depending on where you live) winter days invite me to settle down with a good book in a setting like the featured art print. I love the type of sun porch you find in old Victorian homes, which is the basis for the art print I created. While touring this old mansion, I grabbed a shot of this room and wanted to create a print that relayed the feeling I expressed above. Using a fauvism technique I wanted to create a unique look for this room, but still keep the same inviting feeling. I liked the composition of the french doors, one open and one closed to highlight the entry into the room. I love color and abstract interpretations of common scenes, so using a fauvism technique, what was a typical common entry into a sun porch became a little bit more inviting and interesting. Thoughts?
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I featured West Point Lighthouse in Seattle a couple of years ago with some of the photographs I took while visiting the site. It sits on a piece of land that juts out into the Puget Sound and marks the northern most tip of Elliot Bay (Elliot Bay is the body of water that lines the downtown area). More info: here.
I created these three art prints using a fauvism technique. For those not familiar with this style, it is a bold style created in the early 20th century by artists who wanted to express emotion with their subjects using surreal colors and painterly techniques creating the subject matter. More info: here.
These three prints represent the lighthouse from the same angle, but from different distances. Each distance creates its own composition and delivers a slightly different story. Thoughts?
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I wanted to share a couple of prints that I just added to my Foral/Still Life Gallery. Both are flower blooms and both are done using a Fauvism style of presentation. Fauvism was introduced to the art world around 1900 and the formal movement lasted only a few years, but the style that was introduced has been copied and integrated into other styles, keeping the concept alive. The elements involved are surreal colors and abstract shapes and presentation styles. I like this particular type of art as it creates a type of abstract art that is colorful, edgy and whimsical. That type of combination is usually not correlated with each other, but my thought is that the more abstract shapes of the subject create an edgy look, yet the surreal colors create a fun whimsical visual experience. I have spent a fair amount of time trying to mimic the look in many of my prints and here are two examples.
The first print is an orange hibiscus bloom. Simple enough, yet I integrated a bold level of yellow to accent the orange in the bloom. Also notice the vivid blue (almost purple) in the background.
The second art print is of a yellow orchid bloom. Again, I saturated the yellow color and exaggerated the veining in the bloom, creating a bright cheerful art print.
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