 |
| lucien_freud-reflection, originally uploaded by Grupo Hotusa. |
After a near flop-show of the first exhibition of my paintings, I was believing myself at the end of my artistic efforts.
The colours of my future in the art world looked of only one shade: the
dark.
The enthusiasm was at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It happens; that was
what I had heard. I believed in it when it happened to me. But I had
luck. A good one. I got a chance to remain in the field of art. In those days,
I came across the work done by one master painters. It revived my faith in
art; it kept the artistic flame burning in me. The name of the artist whose
work I saw was, Lucian Freud. The painting I saw was the self-portrait.
Here is the
self-portrait by a master painter Lucien Freud. It was an inspiration for me;
it must have been a source of inspiration for many artists like me. Lucian
Freud is one of the great painters of our time. One relevant piece of information
about him: he is the grandson of the most renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud.
But we are concerned with his art. And his art is Impasto.
WHAT IS IMPASTO?
Impasto is a method of painting wherein the main instrument used is the
knife; and not the brush. Naturally, the knife would send the colours on a
canvas in great mass. So it is impasto. Many artists chose to use the
paintbrush and paint thickly with it. Putting a mass of colours on a canvas. It
creates the thickness of masterly knifed or brushed-stroked colours.
In this self-portrait, a superbly painted masterpiece, Lucien Freud had
used his favourite 'Impasto' style of painting. When paints are thickly
applied on canvas, with a brush or a palette knife, it would create a unique
kind of appearance and texture. This is called the impasto style of
painting.
Literally, the word impasto means ‘mixture’. While working under this style
of painting, an artist is able to negotiate a special relationship between
the colours, which are mixed on the canvas itself. Moreover, the artists
remain well aware of the distance from which they see the paintings. He or she
would know how the viewers would see. It helps artists to know the viewers
perspective, as the viewers would not see the painting from such a closeness an
artist is supposed to see it.
 |
| procsilas, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Lucian Freud |
This painting technique is suitable when an artist is using oil paint. Oil
paints are relatively thick and they take more drying time. Moreover, impasto
has built a new type of relationship between the hues of the colours and their
physical thickness. In a more comprehensive sense, the impasto technique is an
improvement in the field of spatial discoveries. It creates a relationship between
the artworks and the viewers' eyes. Many artists used this technique of
applying colours in their acrylic paintings, too. But 'impasto' style of
painting has one limitation. It cannot be used if an artist uses watercolour or
tempera, as these colours are fairly thin in characteristics.
THE ART: Impasto is the method of putting the colours on canvass in a
manner that gives texture to a painting. It has its own advantages over the
other styles of painting. When an artist uses this as his or her style of
painting, he or she has two novel intentions in mind.
Firstly, the technique of impasto depicts the effects of light in a
sophisticated way. It enables an artist to have a quantity of control over the quality of the light and how to manage the reflections of light in a given
painting.
Secondly, it helps in adding a tint of expressiveness to painting. An art
lover would recognize the artistic strength and speed in the working of such an
artist. Lucian Freud's paintings have become famous during his lifetime. A
fortunate artist. He is one of the most fortunate artists in this regard. As
born in 1922, and pursuing his artistic career continuously, he owns a large
collection of paintings. At the height of his genius, he had painted men and
women in various poses. These paintings are regarded as his best creations.
Under this technique, an artist would load colour on a brush or palette
knife, and the load would be more than usually an artist would do. The
most important benefit of using impasto is that it transforms a painting into a
three-dimensional disposition, gifting it with a sculptural look.
 |
| Roses Oil on canvas by Vincent van Gogh National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Impasto and Van Gogh: The master artists like Rembrandt and Titian
had used this energetic technique. Van Gogh had used this style. It made his
painting carrying artistic strength. Van Gogh used it for displaying
the utmost capacity of colours to recreate images that the artists would
conceive in their minds. It is believed that Van Gogh had painted this art piece when he was undergoing mental treatment.
Look at the bold brush strokes. The colour combination is as precious as a Van Gogh painting would be having. This painting was done using the impasto technique of painting. Here we see Van Gogh using a limited palette: greens and yellows. As the colours are mixed on the canvas itself, as is done in the impasto technique, the texture is excellent and eye-catching.
 |
| Orange Gourd Cordelia Wilson (1876-1953) Oil painting, in a private collection, Kansas City, Missouri |
Impasto Artists: In recent time, too, master painters like
Hans Hofmann and Willem De Kooning have extensively used this technique of
impasto, making their paintings looking more aesthetic and meaningfully
expressive in nature. Look at the painting Orange Gourd done by American woman
artist Cordelia Wilson (176-1953). Here she had used the impasto technique of
painting. She mostly did her painting in the style of all prima and impasto
style of paintings. She was known for her landscape painting of New Mexico,
which is a state in the South-west of the United States.
Sometimes these artists apply the paint in such a big stock that the painting itself really looks like a sculpture made out of colours. These artists really want to explore the possibilities of creating maximum depth in their paintings. [Image courtesy By deflam (Flikr) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons]
No comments:
Post a Comment