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Edwin Austin Abbey: American mural painter

6/27/2022

Edwin Austin Abbey (1888)
by John Singer Sargent

Edwin Austin Abbey was an American muralist, illustrator, and painter.
(April 1, 1852- August 1, 1911)
He flourished at the beginning of what is now referred to as the "golden age" of illustration, and is best known for his drawings and paintings of Shakespearean and Victorian subjects.
He completed a series of murals for the Boston Public Library in the 1890s. In 1908–09 Abbey began an ambitious program of murals and other artworks for the newly completed Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. These included allegorical medallion murals representing Science, Art, Justice, and Religion for the dome of the Rotunda: four large lunette murals beneath the dome, and multiple works for the House and Senate Chambers. For the Senate chamber he finished only one painting, 'Von Steuben Training the American Soldiers at Valley Forge', and he was working on the 'Reading of the Declaration of Independence' mural in early 1911, when his health began to fail.
Studio assistant William Simmonds continued work on the mural with little supervision from Abbey, and with small contributions by John Singer Sargent. (from: Wikipedia)

Lunette and medallion murals (1908-11)
Pennsylvania State Capitol Rotunda.
Left to right: The Spirit of Vulcan, Science,
The Spirit of Religious Liberty, Art,
The Spirit of Light.

Apotheosis of Pennsylvania (1908–11)
House Chamber, Pennsylvania State Capitol.

More over here at the GurneyJourney...

Part 1: E.A. Abbey, "Greatest living illustrator"
http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2013/06/part-1-ea-abbey-greatest-living.html

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‘THE ART OF CHALK’ by Tracy Lee Stum

6/20/2022

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Here is one of my favorite books in my library:

‘THE ART OF CHALK’
Techniques and Inspiration for Creating Art with Chalk
by
Tracy Lee Stum

“This is the go-to book for everything from
chalkboard art to anamorphic murals.
From the history of chalk, to how to make your own pastels.
From 'fine-art' to street-painting,
Tracy has it all covered with gorgeous photographs
and contributions from 50 contributing artists!
I highly recommend this book!”
-Roberto Quintana, WFA

In ‘The Art of Chalk’ by noted street painter Tracy Lee Stum takes an inspiring look at the many exciting creative applications for this easily accessible medium. With a historic overview of chalk's origins as an art medium, and how its artistic uses have evolved over the centuries, this book is a wealth of knowledge for anyone looking to get creative with this time-honored art medium.

Featuring the impressive work of some of today's most prominent artists and designers, 'The Art of Chalk' explores helpful and inspiring techniques used in typography and lettering, fine art, and the intricate, elaborate, and mind-bending chalk designs known as street art. In the resources section, you'll even find a detailed listing of chalk festivals held around the world.

(for 5 bonus points)
50 Down:
Medium that Tracy Lee Stum draws in

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I Madonnari Chalk Festival: Santa Barbara, CA - 2022

6/12/2022

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This last Memorial Day I had the pleasure of attending the
I Madonnari Chalk Festival in Santa Barbara, California.
I went up to see Tracy, Sayak, and Julio’s artworks and to enjoy the grounds of the beautiful Santa Barbara Mission on a gorgeous Southern-California afternoon.
The Bands were Jammin’, the food was great, and the crowd was well masked and glad to be outside, and it was all for a good cause:
Supporting the Children’s Creative Project (CCP)!

I Madonnari serves as the main fundraiser for the Children’s Creative Project, a nonprofit organization that brings arts education to thousands of school children throughout Santa Barbara County through workshops and performances by multicultural touring artists.
Local organizers were the first to bring this romantic Italian festival to the Western Hemisphere from Santa Barbara’s sister festival in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy.
For information about the I Madonnari Italian Street Painting Festival, including participation and sponsorship opportunities, visit:
https://ccp.sbceo.org/i-madonnari/welcome.
To support the Children’s Creative Project go to:
https://ccp.sbceo.org/donate

Featured Artist: Dawn Morrison Wagner

Street painting probably began in Italy during the 16th century and has a long tradition in cities in Western Europe.
Artists began street painting by traveling to religious
and folk festivals where they drew images of the
Madonna using chalk on the street.
These artists became known as “Madonnari” or street painters. Their images are called street paintings because when well drawn they resemble paintings.

Tracy Lee Stum: “In the Studio” by Maria Bashkirtseff 1881

Sayak Mitra: Photo Reference by N.H.Reed, circa 1893

Julio Cesar Jimenez: Bugatti Royal

Jennifer LeMay

Artist?: Sponsor, Psychedelic Honey

Delphine Louis Anaya

Cheryl Guthrie and Terri Taber

If you think this all looks like fun,
Look what’s coming up in Pasadena!

Pasadena Chalk Festival
Father’s Day weekend
June 18-19, 2022 at The Paseo.
The event is open to the public 10:00am to 7:00pm.
https://pasadenachalkfestival.org/

200 murals and over 500 artists
• Art Gallery & Silent Auction
• Animation Alley & Chalk of Fame
• Children’s Art Area
• Live Music
• Dine and Shop at The Paseo!

KIDZ LAND
Saturday & Sunday
10:00am – 4:00pm
Upper Fountain Court

If you’re a chalk artist: Entries are closed,
but if you’d like to be put on the waiting list:
Email: PasadenaChalkFestival@yahoo.com

LIVE MUSIC LINEUP
Saturday, June 18th
2:00pm – 3:00pm
Taylor Plenn (Jazz)

3:30pm – 4:30pm
The Carlos Ordiano Trio (Latin Jazz)

5:00pm – 6:00pm
La Güera Chakaloza Y Sus 5 Animales
(Norteño)

Sunday, June 19th:
3:00pm – 4:00pm
Rhythms of the Village Family Band
(Nigerian Highlife Fusion)

4:45pm – 5:30pm
Lucas/Heaven (RnB/Jazz)

6:00pm – 7:00pm
Spaghetti Cumbia (Cumbia)

(Dress like your going to paint a mural in the hot sun!)

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Black is Beautiful! Part 1

6/6/2022

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John Singer Sargent:
Charcoal portrait sketch of Kenneth Grahame

One of the many topics that I am looking forward to exploring here on my new Blog is: Color and Color theory! This is such a wide ranging topic… it is hard to know where to start! But we’ll have many opportunities for interesting posts. So let’s start with probably the oldest and widest used color of all, Black!

Mark Rothko (1903-1970) ‘Black’

Most People don’t consider Black a color 'Black is the absence of color!’ they say. But not me! As a painter, I see black as another rich and varied pigment. It can be created by mixing at least three of the darker (transparent) primary-color pigments, or even just two of the darker secondary-color pigments. Black is essential for creating ALL of the Shade colors (by definition), and along with White it makes up the most versatile and constructive color of all the color families: The family of Grays… and all of the Toned colors as well! Not just a mixture, It’s also a pure pigment! And several kinds of pigments as well, with a wide range of useful qualities.

Pablo Picasso, Guernica 1937

“Picasso’s choice of black and white for his painting intensified
the drama of it, giving the painting a picture-like quality
as if it were part of a photographic record. It also highlights the essence of war being evil, reducing life around it into
dichotomous composites of good and evil.”

Ivory Black is the most popular Black, originally made by burning ivory, now by carbonizing bone (versatile but it has a weak tinting strength). Lampblack (good for making grays as it shifts towards the bluish/purple) and Carbon Black, made from the soot of charring petroleum, (not so good for mixing but very dark and permanent as a body-color over larger areas). Vine Black is made of carbon by charring vegetable or wood products. Carbon pigments make weak mixtures but are good for outlining and the sticks are good for drawing, and in its powdered dust form it is very fine and light, good as a pounce for transferring cartoon patterns for signs, murals and fresco paintings. Mars Black is an iron oxide, so it leans toward the red, not a very rich or dark black, but it mixes well with transparent colors and doesn’t ‘Go to mud’ so easily as the carbons do. Payne’s Gray is a particularly rich mixture of Black with Ultramarine and a little ochre (good to know when it shifts all of your mixtures towards green). Black primers are very useful as a block-out layer and black gesso makes a great ground for darker compositions or to make your opaque colors ‘pop’!

The Black Paintings: Frank Stella (American, born 1936)

Photo: Hollis Frampton,
The Secret World of Frank Stella
[painting Getty Tomb,
unpublished print], 1958–1962,
printed 1991, gelatin silver print,
Addison Gallery of Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts
(gift of Marion Faller, Addison Art Drive, 1991)

Parisian bad-man FUZI, paints a mural on the side of
Boomtown Brewery in sunny Los Angeles, California
He covered the wall with a host of characters
in his trademark style.
https://ironlak.com/fuzi-paints-large-ignorant-mural-dtla/

...And of course Black Enamel ‘Rattlers’ make great
‘Paint Bombs’ for quick attacks over rough surfaces
and hard to reach Trophies.

Coming soon...

Black is Beautiful! Part 2:
Black vs Purple

Black is Beautiful! Part 3:
Black as the absence of Light,
Black-Body Radiation, Black-Lights,
Black Holes, Anti-Photons,
Black Matter, Black Energy

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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

Edwin Austin Abbey: American mural painter

‘THE ART OF CHALK’ by Tracy Lee Stum

I Madonnari Chalk Festival: Santa Barbara, CA - 2022

Black is Beautiful! Part 1

...to Roberto's Blog!

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