Marie WheelerThis week was essentially a by-week for Love Art, Happy Life and it left time to do my own research and I found the artist Man Ray to pique my interest through the week.
Man Ray is interesting to me as he had mystery and intrigue surrounding him. His name is an alias borne of anti-Semitism and his life appears as one of hard work and determination. He did not find fame and fortune at the outset of his career and had jobs as an illustrator and commercial artist until he was able to move to Europe and engage fully in the contemporary art scene.
It doesn’t seem that Man Ray ever stuck to one style, but instead let his interests and desires fuel his creativity and move his art from a contemporary style of the day to his own style to push the boundaries of art. I like that he didn’t always stick to one style. I don’t, but I’m not Man Ray either.
I’m consistently drawn to abstract art in all mediums, and I think this is because it is difficult to do well. Realism is difficult, but it doesn’t take imagination, it takes pure skill. I like the imagination and vision of abstract art and that is likely why the Love Art, Happy Life course has appealed to me so much, it isn’t going through the traditional Masters, it explores the contemporary and abstract artists.
So for my journal this week, I decided to take a Man Ray’s Landscape and try to replicate it in watercolor. I was not amazingly successful and had to use some of the gouache and acrylic paint pens. It was fun though.
After I completed mine, I realized that he used a lot more shading and somehow got much richer colors. I will need to continue to experiment and possibly even try to reproduce this several more times so that I can get the feel.
I think I really need to continue some coursework in watercolors as I really struggle with many aspects.
