Paint HandlingImpressionistic/Hard-edged
Impressionist painting- Criteria & Objectives• Students must paint a natural/real subject in the style of the impressionists.• Students may use hog hair bristle brushes, acrylic or water based oil paint, painting supplies, and a
photographic reference• Students must use a real photographic reference of a real person place or thing shot in natural sunlight.• Students must use short choppy, quick strokes. Students must change colors every stroke or every set of
strokes, only large brushes, size 6 and up may be used.• Students are not allowed to use black, paint can be mixed on the palette or on the canvas. Students may
not use black, any use of black to darken a color will be instantly downgraded.• Students may use a support of their choice, canvas is recommended if water miscible oils are to be used.• Students can subjectively match colors, for instance: haystacks are not entirely purple but Monet made
them purple to convey shadows. Purple assisted his view of a darker side of the haystack.• The objective of this assignment is to mix darks with only pure colors, paint in in an impressionistic style,
and render a subject in natural light.
Typical impressionist setup• Stiff bristles, hog hair flats• Held at end of handle• Short quick choppy flicks or
strokes• Change colors every stroke
or set of strokes• Mix wet into wet• Natural light source• No black• No black• No black• If I see black I will
downgrade you
Impressionism1870’s-1880’s
Claude Monet, Agapanthus triptych
1 2
3 4
5
GivernyWater LiliesMonet, 1906.
Claude Monet, self portrait1840-1926.
Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise
Claude Monet, Arrival At Saint Lazare Station
Claude Monet, Lady in the Garden
Claude Monet, Landscape With Thunderstorm
Claude Monet, San Giorgio Maggiore
Claude Monet, Rouen Cathedral, The Portal and the Tour d'Albane,FullSunlight
Rouen Cathedral: The PortalMonet, 1894. Oil on canvas, 3’3” x 2’2”.
Monet, Haystacks
The BathMary Cassatt, 1892.Oil on canvas. 3’3” x 2’2”
Mother and ChildMary Cassatt, 1890.Oil on canvas. 3’11” x 2’1”
Berthe Morisot, 1841-1895In the Dining Room,1886, oil on canvasNational Gallery of Art
Summer’s DayBerthe Morisot, 1879. Oil on canvas.
Wooded Landscape at l’HermitageCamille Pissarro, 1878. Oil on canvas, 18” x 22”.
Pissarro, Old Chelsea Bridge, London 1871, Smith College Museum of Arts
Pissarro, Conversation, c. 1881
Pissarro, Boulevard Montmartre la nuit, 1898
Pissarro, The Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning, 1897, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Pissarro, Boulevard Montmartre au printemps
Pierre- Auguste Renoir.
The Swing.Luncheon at the Boating Party.
RenoirLe Moulin de la GalettePierre-Auguste Renoir, 1876. Oil on canvas, 4’3” x 5’8”.
DegasRehearsal on StageEdgar Degas, 1874.Pastel over brush and-ink drawing on thin, cream-colored paper, mounted on canvas. 21” x 28”.
DegasPortrait of Mary CassattDegas, 1884. Oil on canvas.28” x 23”.
Degas, Dancers in Pink II
Degas, Ballet Rehearsal, 1875
ManetBoatingEdouard Manet, 1874. Oil on canvas. 38” x 51”.
ManetA Bar at the Folies BergereManet, 1882. Oil on canvas. 3’1” x 4’3”.
John Singer Sargent, The Sketchers
John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Lady Agnew of Lochnaw
Post-ImpressionismMid 1880’s-1910-ish
Georges Seurat, 1884-1886
Paul Signac "Le Palais des Papes, Avignon (The Papal Palace, Avignon)", c.1900 - oil on canvas, 73.5-92.5 cm. - Paris, Musée d'Orsay
Georges Lemmen
Student Examples
Hard edge painting- Criteria & Objectives• Students must make a hard edge abstract painting. Their painting must have perfectly hard, straight edges, four
colors, each color must be varied in saturation, value, and intensity ten different ways. The design must be decidedly concentric/symmetrical or asymmetrical.
• Students must use acrylic paint, four tube colors, black and white, synthetic bristle brushes, masking tape, ruler, and graphite with other painting supplies. Bristol or poster board will be used cut to a small quarter sheet square.
• Students must paint with crisp straight edges, no undulations, quivers, stray marks, overlap, drips, bleeding, bristle drags, or errant marks may appear. Masking tape may be used to make crisp edges.
• Students must make an informed and decisive choice to pursue a concentric symmetrical design or an asymmetrical design. Concentric is aesthetically pleasing, balanced, and easy to paint as each quadrant is identical. Asymmetrical, while more free requires more planning and balance, odd shapes often result which are harder to paint with crisp edges.
• Students must use ten steps of value or ten variations in saturation/intensity. Students must use at least four different tube colors, colors cannot be within the same hue category, for instance a student cannot claim to have used ultramarine and pthalo blue as two separate colors. Students may use white, black, and grey to create various mixtures of their four colors.
• The objective of this lesson is to explore subjective choices in value to create an aesthetically pleasing painting, create a geometric abstract composition, and create hard edges.
Step by step, how to make a concentric design
Example of coloration using ten steps of value, with two out of the four colors
Asymmetrical abstract painting, sketch process
To paint with masking tape follow these steps1. Place the tape down along the edges of your design, burnish edges to form a tight seal2. It is optional but you can further seal edges of tape with acrylic mediums, (we don’t currently own any) 3. Paint a nice even coat of paint over tap edge, peel back at a sharp angle
Student Examples
Artists that exemplify the assignment’s criteria
Victor Vasarely
Richard Anuszkiewicz
Julian Hoeber
Liviu Stoicoviciu
Ralph Berko
Example of asymmetrical composition with multiple shifts in value, saturation, and color.
What is commonly thought of as the hard edge painting styleThese artists are ordered semi-chronologically from the 30’s on up into contemporary time, most typically hard-edge painting is thought of as happening around the 60’s and 70’s
Piet Mondrian
Wassillie Kandinsky
Max Bill
Sol LeWitt
Frank Stella
William T. Williams
Bridget Riley,
Charles Biederman
Sarah Morris
Jaro
Artists who use bands or lines of color
Gene Davis
Dion Johnson
Israel Guevara
Andrew Kuo
Artists who use a lot of geometric shapes
Alison Rash
James Marshall (Dalek)
William J. O'Brien
James Kennedy
Artists who use very simple geometric shapes
Josef Albers
Ellsworth Kelly
Robert Mangold
Sam Gilliam
Alain Biltereyst
Qian Jiahua
Artists who abstract letters, numbers and other symbols
Allan Graham
Robert Indiana
Karlos Carcamo
Valerie Jaudon
Artists who use organic or natural shapes in a hard edge style
Carla Accardi
Richard Woods
Kate Abercrombie
Michelle Hinebrook
Pete Smith
Todd Pospichal
Artists whose color does not remain flat, but looks like hard edge style
Yusuke Komuta
Renata Egreja
Nichole van Beek
Laura Owens
James Welling, photographs with double exposures