Roses #2 Plus Picasso and the Lyrical Line

Roses #2

6x8in oil on canvas panel  $135. SOLD

This is the second rose painting 

I have painted using the foundation 

of this month's focus at the Guild

 - using LINE in painting.

The base is underneath - trust me!

Artist Note.

The continuation of 

 the value of LINE

is for a few artists I mentor

who are interested in adding some 

power to their work. 
Hope you find it interesting.

Notice the lines Picasso used in

Woman In White

1923

(Metropolitan Museum NTC)

Unlike Cezanne, who mostly used his lines 

to turn the form,

(darker at edges as they turned from the light) 

Picasso used both the lyrical and form line.

I have stood in front of this painting

and marveled at the beautiful layering, 

but mostly at   

the fluidity of the lines for the hair

in comparison to the structure lines of the face.

So simple and they describe so much.

 (close-up below.)

In Picasso's Blue Period, 

The Old Guitarist

1903

below

You can see the lines are clear

and used beautifully. 

 He needed the eye to 

flow around the painting

so "value" was important 

along with line. Notice how the 

head and one hand are lighter -

 legs and other hand drop a value 

and the clothed torso disappears

 by keeping it in the same value 

and color family as the background.

The simple line around the guitar

plus the warm color 

moves it to center stage.

Two years earlier he painted

Le Gourmet

1901

When I saw this painting I was fascinated.

 Picasso had skipped around 

with form, lyrical, and 

crosshatching line work..

 You can see the different quality lines

almost everywhere, but none appear on

 the top edge of the tablecloth 

where he played around with 

a lost edge on her cuff by

making it the same value 

as the cloth, 

creating a beautiful flow

from tablecloth into her arm 

and up to her face.

Only 6-7 years after the 

stylized painting of the guitarist,

Picasso painted

Portrait of Ambroise Vollard

1910.

I have not seen this one in life,

(it is in Russia)

but it is the force of movement 

that line and value can achieve

together which knocks my socks off.

We see artists today losing edges

with deliberately smooshed strokes 

of the brush, breaking up edges

 - me included -

in an attempt to be 'loose"

and here is Picasso with pure

control and logic, 

fracturing the image. 

Not all of the cubist paintings 

Picasso painted

achieved this effect 

to the same degree.

If you are not bored silly by now

 look again at the 

Woman In White

painted 12 years after this one.

Examine his use of line 

and your personal response to it.

You may find it very contemporary.

Neat eh?

picasso