beside the easel

In this fascinating video from the Royal Collection in Windsor, Leonardo's materials are recreated using similar pigments and organic materials to give an idea of how he worked. This curator is someone whose brain I could pick for hours! Leonardo's Drawing Materials source Vimeo

"Laughing Man" Study for a self portrait. Chalk, early 1800's Born July 5, 1761 Louis-Léopold Boilly was a prolific French portrait painter and draftsman. If there was ever an artist who whose biography would inspire a truly entertaining movie, Boilly would be the one. His career was active throughout the French Revolution and Napoleon, and yet his keen portrayal of the French middle class has a unique charm that makes him very likeable. As a draftsman, Boilly was one of a kind, probably better than his paintings, and his numerous oil sketches are excellent studies in themselves. Looking at his self-portrait above, you can instantly sense the vivacity and humor of this man without even reading a biography. Entrance to a free show at the Ambigu-Comique Theatre, 1819 Here we can immediately grasp Boilly's brilliant sense of group composition, action and space. Boilly takes a horizontal arrangement of figures and groups them by foreground, middle and backg...

Last week I returned from an amazing two week journey through London, France, Belgium and Spain that was life-changing. Last year I was awed and overwhelmed by Paris and London, whereas this year it felt like something more. It felt like home. Above is a small sample of some original drawings I had the honour to hold in my hands and study from, thanks to the fine collections of the print rooms at Windsor Castle and the Louvre. Over the course of my travels and various new museums I discovered in Belgium and Spain I was reminded of the importance we have as artists to simply make time for our art and do it! And do it to the best of your ability. Because the rich legacy we have available to us and what we can learn from it, how it can inspire us today is invaluable. Those drawings have a freshness that seems like they were drawn yesterday, and yet every stroke, every line taught me something. Art is about discovery and expression, something that we need to share with the world becau...

There is nothing in all the world more beautiful or significant of the laws of the universe than the nude human body. Robert Henri Charles Louis Müller , A Standing Female Nude Leaning Against an Arch, ca.1864 Once again I decided to talk about some Old Master drawings and delve into the thinking behind how these drawings may have been created and the knowledge of the artist. In the above drawing by Müller, done in sanguine with white chalk highlights, the figure is drawn from a low view-point, with her body twisting toward her left side while resting on one knee. Note how Müller alternates the bent right leg with the bent left arm to create dynamic contrast. The right arm is also foreshortened and partially in shadow. Expressing power and femininity, this is a study that is Renaissance in spirit, even Mannerist, revealing the female nude as sculptural yet always graceful. Anton Raphael Mengs , Seated male nude viewed from the back, 1755 One of several Academic nu...

Here's an informative video by Carmen Bambach , curator for the Met in New York on the thought process behind Michelangelo's most famous drawing: http://82nd-and-fifth.metmuseum.org/thinking-aloud

Apollo and two Muses, 1719 Giant of the Rococo and early Neoclassicism, Pompeo Batoni was born on January 25, 1708 in Lucca, Italy. Immensely popular in his time, his name sadly is not commonly recognized today because like many Old Masters, his work is not defined by one or two singular masterpieces but by an oeuvre that is overall, incredible. Batoni is something of an anomaly in that he had the midas touch in every genre he worked in, whether portraiture, mythological, and biblical. He trained under a few painters, notably Sebastiano Conca yet he quickly fused his own style together by reinterpreting Classicism with his own vigor for dynamic posing, color and anatomy that he felt was lacking in many artists of the Rococo. His reputation as a portraitist in Rome was highly successful, particularly for many British patrons of the Grand Tour who had heard of Batoni by word of mouth and sought his genius. In Apollo and two Muses above Batoni seems to conjure mythology and Classi...

Self-Portrait, 1627 Born on January 9, 1590 in Paris, Simon Vouet was the giant of his era and is credited with introducing Baroque art to France. Coming from a family of painters, his precocious talents lead him to travel at quite a young age and in his early twenties he stopped in Italy and lived there for 13 years, longer than any other European artist at that time. His extensive travels within Italy allowed him to absorb all the major painters and styles with keen fascination, clearly inspired by the rich history of art that was lacking back in his native France. During this period he also became a "principe" at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, and probably the first non-Italian artist to teach there. Vouet's talent and sharp business savvy led him to a very successful career and a pioneer of the Baroque outside of Italy. Above is his self-portrait, one of my very favourites for its spontaneity and freshness with skilled brushwork. Painted in his late thir...