STILL LIFE

VISUAL ART

‘Still Life’

Composition &

‘STILL LIFE’

Refers to objects grouped together, for Instance, real things that do not move. Ambrosious Bosschaert the Elder,

‘Bouquet of flowers in an arch’ c1630

Often used are things you see everyday, which are familiar. Jim Dine uses the familiar in his work.

Fifty-two drawings (for Cy Twombly) 1972,

Pencil on paper, (21cm. X 16cm)

Jim Dine.Piranesi’s 24 Coloured Marks, 1974 -6, Etching with hand painting in watercolour, 65.4 X 60.3

Sylvia SiddellAlso uses the familiar object as her subject

matter.

Aspidistra, Sylvia Siddell

Fire-water, Sylvia Siddell

‘Can’

Sylvia Siddell

The subject itself often has no particular meaning so the artist is free to explore just what is happening in the picture

itself.

Still life is grounded in ideas of space, depth, volume, planes the picture plane and things which are two or three

dimensional.Consider the box….

It has sides front and a back…

It takes up space…you can move around it. We say it has 3 dimensions and that it has volume.

It is not a flat shape.

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The different sides which contain the volume are called planes. If we take the box apart and lay it out flat (on one

plane) it becomes two dimensional.

A picture is a single flat plane (called a picture plane). When we look at the cube we ‘read’ it as 3 dimensional,

because the artist has drawn the different planes to show it occupies space or has volume.

PICTURE PLANE

Volume can be shown by drawing the different planes like this

Or by using tonal modelling

Like ‘landscape’, ‘still life’ is a European art form which has been used in different ways throughout history

‘Still life’ as a subject became popular in Holland in the 17th Century or the ‘1600’s’

Floris van Schooten,

‘Breakfast’, c1630

Now lets look at the way the early European artist ‘arranged’ space.

The Dutch painters put all the detail in one part of the painting cutting off the background space with a blank ‘wall’ of tone.

These painters worked with oil paints on wood panels or tightly stretched canvases. The paint is mixed with linseed oil to make a smooth flowing paint which is put on in layers

to produce a rich, glossy, coloured paint surface. The artists also used fine brushes.

‘Still_life’,

van Schooten, 1640

Objects were often placed to create an illusion of space

Floris van Dijck, ‘Still life with flowers and fruit’, c1630

A painting is really paint on a flat surface, but tone made things look 3D. Paintings were underpainted in tone only,

(black, white & greys) and colours were applied in thin layers over this retaining the original tonal balance.

Clara Peeter, ‘Still life with cheeses’

Notice how objects are placed to create an illusion of space. The artist has tilted the tabletop up so we can see everything on it. He has made the apple peel and saucer jut off the edge

of the table to create an ‘entrance’ to the space

Light tones appear to come forward (advance) while dark tones sink back (recede) creating an illusion of depth.

Notice how the hues or tones in the colour are used to ‘push and pull’ the composition

More contemporary artists chose to engage the viewer with more of the background scene. Cézanne gives us a little view of the room as

well as the still life subject.

Paul Cézanne, Still Life, C 1883

- 1887

Let’s have a look at the way Shane Cotton

arranges his space

Look at the sizes of the

objects he has put in his

composition, and because

he has used a system of

divisions, ‘the grid’ he can introduce a

form of narrative

almost like a comic

Many of the objects in

the composition

are very ‘traditional’

still life content

And notice how Pond-Eyley organises her ‘space’ using little areas of cool colour to ‘push’ and broad areas of red to ‘pull’

Compositional devices are used in all the previously viewed artworks.

O.k. now lets try this with some of our own everyday objects.

And look at other methods of making a grid composition

This is also a grid

Use your own still life subject matter and use a variety of media, to generate works in a sequence or

seriesConsider issues such as

SpaceLine

TextureComposition

ColourPatternToneand

your Artist Models

Task 1: Recording information from subject matter.

• TASK 1• Produce a

sequence of 3 studies using wet & dry media to explore method & technique & the pictorial issues. LINK these to ONE of the artist exemplars researched.

TASK 2• Produce

ONE PAINTING STUDY using light on a dark ground. Refer to artist models & identify key pictorial issues Sylvia Siddell: ‘Aroma’

• TASK 3• Produce ONE

PAINTING STUDY using dark on a light ground. Refer to artist models & identify key pictorial issues Morandi

TASK 4Produce ONE PAINTING STUDY using WARM on a COOL ground. (For example reds yellows oranges browns on a blue or green ground) Refer to artist models & identify key pictorial issues

Morandi

Drawings exploring composition & mediaPictorial issues investigated include

pattern & colour.

• TASK 5• Produce ONE

PAINTING STUDY reversing the colour system & use cool on a warm ground. Refer to artist models & identify key pictorial issues Morandi

‘Ensemble’, Richard Hensen.

Look at the use of (issues)

Scale

Colour

Tone

Overlapping

Layering

Texture

Similarities Differences

Bibliography:

Feinberg, Jean E, ‘Jim Dine’ Modern Masters, (1995) Abberville Publishing Group, N.Y.

Learning Media, Ministry of Education Wellington, ‘Claudia Pond Eyley, New Zealand Artist’.