Favourite Artist- today Renoir

Call me indecisive, but I find it an impossible task to pick one favourite artist. However I do find myself continually drawn to some of the same artists, styles, and concepts. One of these artists is Renoir. I love the impressionist style, and the idea of creating something beautiful out of what would seem from up close as chaotic, messy blobs of color. Renoir's paintings are beautifully rendered, and the characters and scenes found in his paintings always seem to have some story behind the faces. They seem to hold secrets, their emotions come through their eyes, as if they are calling out to you, but cannot be heard.

As much as I am drawn to traditional paintings, I am very interested in how people in the past/present continually push the definitions of art. In Jr. High my art teacher (Joe Eddy Brown*) taught us, what he called, "street art". This literally meant finding something on the street (e.g. pop cans, litter, hubcaps) or on the side of the street (old electronics, things to be discarded that had some other creative potential) and incorporating those objects into three-dimensional artwork. One time we wrote a haiku and visually "made" the poem.

For a while I put this art in a different category in my developing definition of art. I wanted to learn "real" art, aka traditional drawing and painting techniques. Lately in my art journey I have incorporated some of his "non-traditional materials" art into a series of well, let's call them paintings. Some of those art pieces used lipstick as paint, grass, tissue paper, dried roses, resin, coffee, and inkjet transfer. I think the variety of art influences has made me a "multi-personality painter." For now I'm okay with that. I am open to learning many techniques and styles, and I look forward to learning about artists that will challenge and inspire my art journey (and the journeys of my future students.)

*Page 4 has a short article about a class he taught at DUPAL http://www.dupageartleague.org/DPALdata/DPAL/Newsletters/2009/11.pdf



http://www.paintingmania.com/Arts/Big/3149_big.jpg