Eva in Summer Light (In Progress)



Julie Devine, Eva in Summer Light (In Progress), 2011



Marsh Walk Landscape

I'd promised a landscape painting to my sister and brother-in-law many months ago, but hadn't settled on the specific subject matter until recently. The subject is a small peninsula filled with winter trees in Seattle's Arboretum Marsh Walk.


Julie Devine, Marsh Walk, Seattle Arboretum, 2011

The Abduction of Ganymede

Prince Ganymede, son of Tros and Dardania, was abducted by Zeus in the form of an eagle to serve as cup bearer to the gods. There are several famous paintings of the scene. I chose Correggio's painting as inspiration for another colored paper diorama setup.

Using the same process with torn and folded colored paper, I created a rough, three-dimensional diorama of this image, lit it, and painted it. I think it has a children's storybook quality about it.



Julie Devine, The Abduction of Ganymede, 2011







Correggio, The Abduction of Ganymede







Colored Paper Doll Master Studies

As the final assignment in Kimberly Trowbridge's class, Color for Painters, students chose a master copy and from it built highly simplified, three-dimensional models from colored construction paper. I selected the following painting by Giorgione.



Giorgione, Three Philosphers


Based on this photo and what colored construction paper was available, I built a diorama, reducing the standing figures to three-dimensional rectangles, and the seated figure to a scrap of folded paper. The rock formation on the left became a large, black boulder, and with Kimberly's help, I lit it and positioned it in a way that maximized the colors and cast shadows, then painted the assembly.

Here is the result.



Julie Devine, Three Philosophers, 2010


I like this strange little painting. So much so, that I repeated the exercise on my own at home, selecting another high Renaissance painting with a few figures and strong color shapes. I chose Correggio's The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria.



Antonio da Correggio, The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria


I had a lot more time to set this one up and paint it, and so I think it is less abstract as a result.  Again, no photo of the diorama, but here is the resulting painting.



Julie Devine, Mystic Marriage, 2010


I've enjoyed painting these. Creating an assembly in colored paper provided a useful way to analyze the big shapes and colors. I think having to translate a two dimensional image into a three dimensional still life, and back into an essentially two dimensional painting was very useful. The results are unusual, a bit surreal, and nothing I could have come up with without this double translation process.

I'm considering doing a few more of these based on the works of Renaissance masters.

Ranuccio Farnase Study

 

  



Julie Devine, Ranuccio Farnase after Titian, detail, 2010



Julie Devine, Ranuccio Farnase after Titian, 2010

 

Max's Dragons

 

I love the dragons drawn by my son, Max, and his friends. They draw dragons in notebooks when they have extra time in class, and on whiteboards at their after-school program. Last year, when I'd pick up Max at the end of the day, I'd find him huddled with several other boys, drawing mazes and dragons on adjacent whiteboards on the gym floor. Sometimes they'd create games with weapons, paths, and heros. Battles. Total absorption in their creative world. I'd sit and watch them. Compliment them. Ask them questions. Here are a couple of my favorites...

Max Devine, Dragon I, 2010

 

Max Devine, Dragon II,  2010









 



 





Color with Kimberly



Yes, color must be seen beautifully, that is, meaningfully, and used as a constructive agent, borrowed from nature, not copied, and used to build, used only for it's building power, lest it will not be beautiful. 

- Robert Henri

Ahhh, color! This week, I start a color class with Kimberly Trowbridge at Gage Academy of Art. I get so much out of her classes. She has enriched my awareness of light temperature, encouraged a simplification of masses and planes, and deepened my understanding of painting as an interpretive language.

Here is a painting I did in her figure class last Spring. We had two models who alternated sittings over several sessions. I liked the exercise of using a primary color to draw the first pass, letting it merge with colors from the second pass, or appear in the uppermost layer. It adds an unexpected, expressive quality to the painting.

Couple, Julie Devine, 2010