Blog Archives

Fun with Paint!: BRADLEY HART / Bubble Wrap Artist

2/28/2023

Here’s a cool YouTube video my friend Lois sent to me…

Artist Transforms Bubble Wrap
Into An Impressionist Painting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeFzpshBwwk

Using syringes, artist Bradley Hart injects Bubble Wrap with acrylic paint to create pixelated works of art.
Bradley transforms this everyday material into beautiful, meticulously crafted paintings.

The bare bubbles in the bubble wrap reference dots or pixels, echoing various movements in art history and other media, including pointillism, screen-printing, TVs and LCD monitors. The process of injecting paint into bubble wrap directly references pixilation.

“At every level of my studio practice I recycle as a function of the work. I recycle the syringes; the dried paint in the mixing jar and collect the drips of paint on the bubble wrap and the drop sheet.” -Bradley Hart

“My work is an album of memories made by injecting bubble wrap with paint to create pixilated photorealistic pictures. The pictures are copies of both snap shots of important people captured by me or given to me and maintained as a part of my own personal photograph collection, as well as powerful images obtained from other sources.” -Bradley Hart

Bubble wrap, his “canvas”, ,,,, is a material invented in 1957. It was originally intended as three-dimensional wallpaper, before becoming protective wrapping material. Hart, … transforms the plastic traditionally used to wrap, protect and cover artworks into the material surface of his paintings.*

The round bubbles represent “pixels” and this relates directly to our age of digital photography. Hart draws on digital photos for subject matter, usually portraits reminiscent of works by Andy Warhol and Chuck Close. While the bubbles symbolize pixels in our contemporary minds, the paint-filled bubbles also harken back to Seurat and display an unusual and unique form of post-modern pointillism.*

See more of Bradley Hart’s work here:
https://www.instagram.com/bradleyhartnyc/
and
https://www.bradleyhart.ca/Artist.asp?ArtistID=37166&Akey=5BDJN8BK&ajx=1#!Group1_Pf162935

Artist’s Statement
https://www.bradleyhart.ca/Artist.asp?ArtistID=37166&Akey=5BDJN8BK&ajx=1#!asset49636

All images © Bradley Hart. FolioLink © Kodexio ™ 2022

Roberto's Fascinating Two-Cents:
“I have used bubble wrap, and other industrial materials,
as painting tools to make textures
and as a contact-print technique
in several of my ‘Mindscape’ paintings...

…and even on a mural project for a school library mural
with a ’Sunday in the Park’ theme. The bubble wrap was a great way to reproduce Georges Seurat’s pointillist painting technique. Here’s a link to that project with a slide show of how it was done.” Altadena Arts Magnet Library Murals -RQ
_____________________

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Tracy Lee Stum: Muralist / 3D Street & Chalk Artist

2/27/2023

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“I first met Tracy when I had the privilege of working with her on her Venetian Casino ceiling-murals project.
You can see more of that project Here.
What an amazing talent!” -RQ

Tracy Lee Stum is an American artist best known for her 3D street paintings and her chalk and pastel drawings.
Stum holds the Guinness record for the world’s largest
chalk painting by an individual: a version of
Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’
that was 35 feet long and 18 feet high.

As it turns out, Leonardo’s famous mural is only about a century older than the art of street painting itself.
This public art form can be traced back to 16th century Italy when traveling artists known as “Madonnari” chalked
Madonna and Child pictures on church and cathedral pavements for holy festivals.

Tracy taught herself to draw as a child, and went on to earn a bachelor's degree at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.
She then continued her studies in naturalism at the
Florence Academy of Art in Italy.
A gregarious graffiti lover, Tracy began street painting
in 1998, and is considered by peers
as one of the finest street painters today.

Her international team-building skills have been utilized in developing street painting festivals in China, Mexico, India, Russia, and throughout the United States.
Tracy has also had the privilege and honor to serve
as the US State Department's 2012 cultural ambassador.

In 2013 Tracy stepped into management as she
curated the first annual DO/AC 3D Chalk Festival in
Atlantic City, New Jersey, showcasing 14 renowned international 3D street art & chalk artists.

Ms. Stum has also toured Tajikistan and India creating
3D street paintings and teaching workshops
at distinguished universities and art colleges
to promote education, awareness,
and positive cross-cultural communication.

The artwork Tracy creates is made to be played in and
this is the foundation for her creation of her interactive
3D Museum... an experience like no other...
where people of all ages can step through the looking glass and revive their sense of wonder.

Tracy explaines: “Today, artists have a wide range of tools to achieve what’s called contemporary anamorphic art, a designed method or technology used to create the illusion of 3D on 2D surfaces. It’s a method of drawing founded on the geometry of perspective, often using photography or computer programs as tools to achieve the final chalk-and-paint illusion.”

With every stroke of brush or strike of chalk,
Tracy transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.
Her journey from aspiring artist to award winning
master of her craft has culminated in the creation of an interactive 3D Museum that takes you into impossible and magical worlds that stretch the imagination.

“Tilt A Tracy Lee Stum Museum”
will take you on a journey filled with delight, laughter and awe. You’ll step into unbelievable life-size murals for an unforgettable art experience.
The purest expression of her love for art and imagination.
and now…

www.tiltpv.com
in
Puerto Vallarta!
(You Go, Gurl!!)

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Faux Finishes, Part III: Paint Finishes

2/20/2023

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“Here is another one of my favorite books from my library!...
This book is kind of inconspicuous in that each chapter is rather short and he doesn’t go into great detail, but he covers a lot of ground with good demonstration photos.
The chapter titles are rather terse (but I have added the subcategories to show what is covered).
Once you have some of the basics down in terms of materials and tools, many of the techniques are pretty straight forward. It’s all in the ‘Doing’. Practice, practice, practice!” -RQ

Paint Finishes
by Charles Hemming
A concise 'How to Guide' to faux-finish painting techniques including: Dragging, Combing, Rag-Roll, Sponge, Marble,
Stipple, Wood-Graining, Fantasy finishes, and Trompe l’Oeil.

Step-by-step projects for decorative finishes on walls, along with technical information and methods, make this a complete guide for exploring the many possibilities of paint.
144 pages, Hardcover
Over 250 Illustrations, more than 200 in full color.
Demonstrations by Peter Farlow

Chapters

1. Choosing a Color Scheme
(Color Theory, Use of Color, Off-Hues, Discordant Colors, Color effects with Glazes)

2. Tools & Materials / Trouble Shooting Guide
(Paint Types, Tinting, Equipment, General Painting Sequence)

3. Preparing the Surface
(Old Paint, New Plaster, New or Newly Stripped Wood, Varnished and Waxed Wood, Paper, Fabric, Metal, Tiles)

4. Broken Color
( Color Washing, Shading, Sponging, Stippling, Dragging and Combing, Ragging and Rag-Rolling, Spattering, Antiquing)

5. Fantasy Decoration
(Marbling: Cissing, White Sicilian, Rose, Black Serpentine, Red, Terra Verde, Blue, Floors, Tortoiseshell: Golden,, Auburn, Amber; Porphyry, Wood Graining, Glaze Graining, Bamboo)

6. Finishing Touches
(Lining, Trompe L’Oeil, Picking Out/Accenting, Stenciling, Glass Painting)

Also by Charles Hemming:

“British Painters of the Coast and Sea”

Charles Hemming
https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001KE24E0/about
Charles Hemming's enthusiasm for writing and painting began in childhood. On leaving art school he worked as a free-lance writer and artist, exhibiting pictures in London galleries in Mayfair and the South Bank, illustrating books, painting murals and working in other decorative arts in Britain, France and Spain.
He has exhibited pictures with the Royal Society of Marine Artists and is a member of the Guild of Aviation Artists.
He is the author of the award-winning history books British Painters of the Coast and Sea, British Landscape Painters, The Folding Screen, technique books Paint Finishes, the Complete Paint Book, and is a one-time author of the Bluffers' Guides.

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Panoramic Surrealism: The Enchanted Domain

2/13/2023

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Rene' Magritte
the public artist, who played with the perception
of space and framing...
and who always sought to create paintings that
explored and expanded reality.

"The Knokke Casino, a seafront casino in West Flanders, Belgium is the unlikely home to some of the most expansive artwork in Europe; displaying works by Keith Haring, Paul Delvaux, and René Magritte. The largest casino in Belgium, the Knokke casino was the first of four designed by architect Léon Stynen. Though severely damaged during World War II, the renovation allowed Belgian surrealist master René Magritte the opportunity to create a massive mural, spanning 360 degrees of event space. The mural, "The Enchanted Domain", was finished in 1953 and comprises eight panels that plunge their viewers into a fever-dream of surrealist joy."

"From Picasso to Haring:
Striking Artist Murals Around the World"
By: Tori Campbell

Panoramic Surrealism:
The Enchanted Domain at SFMOMA
by Alex Zivkovic, June 2018

In 1953, in a Belgian seaside resort, a team of five artists painted a 233-foot-long 360 degree mural full of leaves shaped like birds, inverted mermaids, and women who merge with the sky behind them. Referencing eight oil paintings painted by René Magritte, the artists worked diligently with projectors and paint to complete the artist’s vision.

But the artist himself was not among the painters. Magritte, the Surrealist from whom these wild, imaginative creations sprang, never touched the work during the five or six weeks it took to complete. He simply visited the casino, with his wife and dog every few days to check in. Yet it is his vision on the wall, in a mural that is, to this day, a prominent Surrealist attraction in Knokke.

Over the course of his career, Magritte aspired to create work for the public. Through his work as a painter, illustrator, and commercial artist, his art had a “public” presence in the poetry publications he illustrated or perfume advertisements he designed. It was not until the 1950s, when Magritte began receiving commissions for theaters, museums, casinos, and other buildings, that he was able to produce art at a grand, immersive scale.

Mural commissions allowed him to envision the ideas from his canvases at larger-than-life scale, imprinting them on the walls and ceilings of buildings around Belgium, his home country. In this, the largest such commission,
Magritte imagined a panorama showing one continuous environment: a magical place called The Enchanted Domain.

from: Panoramic Surrealism:
The Enchanted Domain at SFMOMA
by Alex Zivkovic, June 2018

Mural-Panel Images
from Matteson Art

Five of the eight oil paintings that served as the models for this series will be (were) on display at SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) as part of a re-examination of how this immersive space resonates with other images developed throughout his career.
By focusing on his works of the Forties, Fifties and Sixties, René Magritte: The Fifth Season draws attention to the set of Surrealist symbols Magritte perfected and used again and again. Nowhere is this focus more apparent than in the landscape of Surreal creations in The Enchanted Domain which includes all of the artist’s most popular motifs in one newly-imagined universe.
Magritte believed that the canvas models he provided were sufficient to realize his vision and as such they merit their own consideration. These small oil canvases, painted at 1:6 ⅓ scale reveal the precise texture of the painter’s hand, manifest his imagination, and allow us to examine the attention he gives to each figure up close.

“That the paintings are not being kept together has caused a good deal of debate among art experts here and abroad. Many believe that the paintings should not be separated.
The seller, an unidentified American businessman, bought the suite purely as an investment.”

While researching this exhibition, Associate Curator Caitlin Haskell had the pleasure of seeing the mural in situ. But no one has seen the original oil paintings together in over 20 years; they were always owned as a group, first by Nellens and his family, and then by a series of private collectors. In 1998, the set was broken up and sold as individual works. Ever since they have resided separately.
SFMOMA is (was) fortunate to be presenting several panels together, allowing us to approximate the feeling of a continuous mural. As a 360-degree artwork, the mural itself of course, can never be seen all at once. But these models, which are hung on a curved surface, give us at least a glimpse, as if looking directly into the world that would wrap around our field of vision.
This gallery presentation will be (was) one of several immersive exhibition rooms in René Magritte: The Fifth Season which will showcase other series of works and an interactive, interpretive space as well. This mode of presentation is true to Magritte the public artist, who played with the perception of space and framing in his canvases, and who always sought to create paintings that explored and expanded reality.

"The Treachery of Images "1928-29 By Rene Magritte,

"This all reminds me of my "Pipe" Series!
Check it out!" -RQ

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Banksy in Ukraine: #fckptn

2/3/2023

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Banksy in Ukraine:
Seven new works appear
in war-torn sites

The British street artist Banksy has confirmed to The Art Newspaper he has created seven murals in various locations in Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, the suburb of Irpin and the town of Borodyanka—among the places hardest hit by Russian bombardments.
Speculation had been mounting that the anonymous artist was in the war-torn country after three works were spotted last week. One mural depicts a man said to resemble the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, being thrown to the floor during a judo match with a young boy—Putin holds a black belt in the sport.
Another work shows two children using a metal tank trap
as a seesaw, while a third mural, painted within the ruins of a bombed building, is of a gymnast doing a handstand.

Banksy has now confirmed these as well as a further four works. They include a woman in her dressing gown, hair in curlers, wearing a gas mask and wielding a fire extinguisher;

a bearded man taking a bath; and another piece in which Banksy appears to have incorporated existing graffiti of a penis... turning it into a nuclear warhead loaded onto
the back of an armored truck.

Borodyanka, a town around 54km northwest of Kyiv, was besieged by Russian forces early on in the invasion and subjected to aerial bombardment. It was recaptured in April, and Ukrainian investigators subsequently found dozens of mass graves where the bodies of civilians, who had been tortured and killed, had been buried. There have also been calls for investigations into alleged Russian war crimes in Irpin and neighbouring Bucha.

The new works are Banksy’s first public murals in more than a year, though this is not the first time his work has been associated with Ukraine.
In March, a print of one of his most famous anti-war pieces, CND Soldiers, was sold at auction, raising $106,505 for a children’s hospital in Kyiv. The original mural first appeared outside the Houses of Parliament in London in 2003, during protests against the war in Iraq.

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

"I’ve made 50 of these screenprints
(below)
with all proceeds going to our friends in Ukraine." -Banksey

Visit
banksy.legacyofwarfoundation.com

REGISTRATION CLOSED
"We are currently sifting through the registered entries
and will notify successful applicants shortly.
Thank you for your support.
The site received over 1 million requests
(and 3,500 hostile attacks from Russian IP addresses),
so we would appreciate your patience at this time." -Banksy

ABOUT THE CHARITY
Legacy of War Foundation is an international charity providing support to civilians affected by conflict.
We aim to start conversations, build collaborations and support communities.
You can help us in our work – wherever you are. We strongly believe that the smallest act can create change.

Our head office is based in the UK.
Charity no. 1174792.

WORLD:
A new Banksy mural adorns a destroyed building in Ukraine
November 12, 202210:56 AM ET
ASHLEY AHN

Another New Banksy in Ukraine

CNN:
Banksy confirms seven new murals in Ukraine.
Published 14th November 2022

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...to Roberto's Blog!

  "Duit-On-Mon-Dai"

  Roberto has been pestering the ‘Marketing’ staff here at Art and Soul for some time now to get together with ‘Research and Development’ to come up with a fun way for him to share all the great work out there of all the many other talented muralists and artists he's been "influenced by" over the years. ‘Sales’ was totally against the idea! ("How could that possibly improve the bottom-line?!"). ‘Marketing’ remains split, as usual ("We need more data"). ‘R&D’ thought it might be a fun way to "show off a little", and to showcase all those great ideas they keep finding out there on the internet. ‘HR’ said it might be a good way to keep 'The Crew' distracted ("Since they are all so bored since Covid hit, and Roberto is spending more and more time in his studio working on all those silly little easel paintings").
'The Crew' said: ’'Sure, We've got nothing else going on …but only if we get to share stuff about technique, materials, and equipment." ‘Receivables’ said: "It obviously won’t make more work for us, so why not!". 'Legal' said: "No Way! You are NOT going to reveal where you steal all your ideas from!" (Although Roberto values their legal advice, He rarely listen’s to their hysterics anyway). So... here we are! Welcome to Roberto’s new blog:
  "Duit-On-Mon-Dai"
     "As the title implies, I will post once a week (on Monday, more or less). Feel free to leave a family friendly comment. Dialogue and praise is encouraged. Creativity, passion and wonder should be expected. Politics and personal grievances hopefully kept to private emails. And please… no Whining! and no sales pitches either (you can make your own damn blog for that).
   I expect to start becoming a little more savvy with all this social media stuff, but for now ‘Bookmark’ my website and check back every once in a while. I hope you will find it interesting. Don’t be too persnickety over my whimsical spelling and creative punctuations either, my Editorial Department is not what it used to be… I am seriously understaffed these days."
Peace and Love...
-Roberto Quintana, WFA

Fun with Paint!: BRADLEY HART / Bubble Wrap Artist

Tracy Lee Stum: Muralist / 3D Street & Chalk Artist

Faux Finishes, Part III: Paint Finishes

Panoramic Surrealism: The Enchanted Domain

Banksy in Ukraine: #fckptn

...to Roberto's Blog!

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