Tag: Painting

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The Artist, Transformed: An Interview with Elly Tullis

An artist always hopes, at least implicitly, that her art will inspire a positive change in others. But does she hope or even expect that her work will change her? On January 1, 2019, painter Elly Tullis impulsively turned to the image of the biblical figure Mary for artistic inspiration, herself exhausted from the demands of motherhood. Over the next year, paintings of the Virgin Mary poured from her mind to create the Theotokos series now on view at FWMoA. In this interview, she shares with us her development as an artist since her childhood and what has happened to her as a result of this series.

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Art Term Tuesday: Canvas

When looking at a painting, we tend to focus on the surface: the subject(s), the colors, and the brushstrokes. But what lies beneath that? Today, let’s canvass the canvas, a popular painting surface for artists.

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Reality Check: Judgement Calls

On August 24 Amanda Shepard, FWMoA COO, was privileged to judge the purchase prizes for the Kekionga Plein Air Paint Out. Though we all make private judgements of art, the stakes go up when we in the art world must select public winners from a group of highly competent artists. But who is Amanda to judge? Find out why she picked what she did, and the methods she taps into for coming to her conclusions in this "Reality Check".

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Treasures from the Vault: Louis-Robert de Cuvillon

Today’s treasure presents us with a bit of a mystery. Not only is the title of this watercolor Unknown, we also know little about its maker Louis-Robert de Cuvillon. So, what must we do to start picking apart this unknown piece? With works like this we have to combine what knowledge we do know with our most important tool: our eyes. Read on to see how art historians use visual clues to deduce a painting's meaning.

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Reality Check: Choosing Your Words Wisely

Does it ever strike you that two words, similar as they are, can have strikingly different meanings? When it comes to art, words that are commonly used interchangeably to describe creative work can actually bring us to a fork in the road on the path to meaning. Read on to spend a little time in the geeky world of art words.

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Treasures from the Vault: Janet Fish

Fish’s decision to focus on still life painting was an interesting one. For centuries there has been a hierarchy of subject matter in art – histories or dramas have been the most highly regarded, followed by portraiture, and then the lowly still life. This latter genre was often viewed as quaint and trite, something light and palatable that female painting hobbyists could do in their spare time when not taking care of the home or their children. While some artists have attempted to raise the status of still lives through history – 17th and 18th century Spanish and Flemish still life painters, for example, whose paintings rival photography in their level of detail and perfection – the genre failed to ever move up the ladder. Fish likely knew that she was tackling an almost impossible subject, but it’s possible that that’s what drew her to it: in a modern world with an abundance of abstract painters, still life painting was a true challenge that she could make her own.

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