Odd Nerdrum’s PAINTING METHOD

He started having a rough outline from the head and went right to painting shadows, no hard edges in the beginning. During a break on the first day, he used a fan brush to melt the whole face. He turned the painting the other way up a couple of times to determine the location where the problem lies. At the outset of the 2nd day, before beginning to paint, he applied a thin layer of linseed oil on the whole surface with the rag (oiling out) then added green umber towards the rag and applied that around the background. (no extra oil, aside from the small little bit of leftover oil of rag) in the same manner, he applied gold ochre (?) on the whole head, brown around the neck, black about the hair and many types of over the chin/mouth area.?That’s the sole glazing he did. The rest of the time, he painted direct.
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SOME OTHER THINGS NERDRUM Discussed (paraphrasing, so please don’t treat them as quotes):

Great masters can create light even in the shadows.
Monet understands grey.
A lot of the “modern Monets” who copied him failed simply because they used all these strong colors that clash together.
A sky effortlessly blues can look greyer than one that’s painted in black and grays. In the old days, painters didn’t use blue much even for sky since the pigment am expensive. So they were required to learn how to make “optical blue”.
A masterpiece should work nicely both in large and small, and when viewed from right and left.
Light always changes. Do the most effective using the change but don’t fix something that’s not broken.
[When critiquing still life paintings realistic of fruits…] lemons deserve the same respect as human beings (he then quickly said “…maybe I am going too far”). You need to go deeper.
Techniques of Old masters all had their little faults, beware when you are gaining knowledge from them. For instance, Rembrandt had horrible proportions; Caravaggio would be a horrible colorist. Titian painted very badly until he was old. Everybody painted their own mouths. Rembrandt always painted himself even though he was painting other people. Bonnard is not “correct” but he is great because he is a crazy guy.
Andrew Wyeth reinvented reality…he was among the best painters in America.
We have no respect for a person who wants to drag down a person’s body…it’s crucial that you give people dignity…how? Select a not enough people you want, look after them, and have empathy on their behalf.
All masterpieces are designed on attempting to emulate someone you admire.
When asked if you can find living painters that he likes, he said there are a lot, but he didn’t give names.
It’s important for some representational painters to become famous since they would have some say inside the art world.

Elegant Art Humour: TITIAN-SKETCH OF HIS LIFE. Part1.

The name of this illustrious painter was Tiziano Vecellio or Vecelli, and he is named from the Italians, Tiziano Vecellio da Cadore. He was descended of a noble family; born at the castle of Cadore inside the Friuli in 1477, and died in 1576, based on Ridolfi; though Vasari and Sandrart place his birth in 1480. Lanzi says he died in 1576, aged 99 years. He early showed a real love for the art, that has been carefully cultivated by his parents. -Lanzi says in the note, it is pretty clearly ascertained that he received his first instruction from Antonio Rossi, a painter of Cadore with amazing painting techniques; if so, it had been at a[Pg 2] very tender age, for when he was a decade old he was sent to Trevigi, and placed directly under Sebastiano Zuccati. He subsequently went to Venice, and studied successively under Gentile and Giovanni Bellini. Giorgione was his fellow-student under the last named master, with whom Titian made extraordinary progress, and attained such an exact imitation of his art painting techniques that their works could scarcely be distinguished, which greatly excited the jealousy of Bellini.

About the death of Giorgione, Titian rose rapidly into favor. He was soon afterwards invited to the court of Alphonso, Duke of Ferrara, for whom he painted his celebrated picture of Bacchus and Ariadne, and a couple other fabulous subjects, which still retain somewhat of the style of Giorgione. It was there which he became knowledgeable about Ariosto, whose portrait he painted, as well as in return the poet spread abroad his fame within the Orlando Furioso. In 1523, the Senate of Venice employed him to embellish the Hall of the Council Chamber, where he represented the famous Battle of Cadore, between the Venetians as well as the Imperialists-a grand performance that greatly increased his reputation.
To Be Continued

Elegant Art Jokes: FUSELI’S “TITANIA.”

His Titania (also engraved inside the Shakespeare Gallery), overflows with elvish fun and imaginative drollery. It professes to embody that portion of the initial scene within the fourth act in which the spell-blinded queen caresses Bottom the weaver, on whose shoulders Oberon’s transforming wand has placed an ass’ head. Titania, a gay and alluring being, attended by her troop of fairies, is endeavoring to appear as lovely as you can in the sight of her lover, who holds down his head and assumes the environment of the very stupid of creatures. One almost imagines that her ripe round lips are uttering the well-known words,-

“Come sit thee down this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.”

The rout and revelry which the fancy with the painter’s art painting techniques has poured for this spell-bound pair, baffles all description. All is mirthful, tricky, and fantastic. Sprites of looks and many types of hues-of all “dimensions, shapes, and metals,”-the dwarfish elf as well as the elegant fay-Cobweb commissioned to kill a red-hipped humble-bee on the top of a thistle, that Bottom could have the honey-bag-Pease-Blossom, who had the less agreeable employment of scratching the weaver’s head-and that each fairy who can find the hoard with the squirrel and carry away his nuts-with a score of equally merry companions are swarming everywhere and in full employment. Mustard-Seed, a fairy of dwarfish stature, stands on tiptoe in the hollow of Bottom’s hand, endeavoring to succeed in his nose-his fingers almost touch, he could be in just a quarter of an inch of scratching, but it is evident they can don' more, and his old master techniques is simply too a lot of an ass to raise him up.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)

In France they Post-Impressionism painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was the archetypal bohemian artist. He has also been outstanding at drawing, illustration and printmaking. A crippled aristocrat, he lingered round the cafes and brothels of Paris producing probably the most memorable images of Montmartre nightlife. Lautrec’s paintings have a vivid collection of prostitutes, beggars, impresarios, aristocrats and drunks, whom he portrayed without criticism or disapproval. He also produced some 30 top quality advertising posters, which contributed significantly to the Belle Epoque poster craze. His works have started to symbolize both gaiety and seediness of fin de siecle Paris. Influenced by Manet and Degas, the great figurative painters of French Impressionism, Lautrec’s key works include Woman Doing her Hair, 1891 (Musee d’Orsay) and Quadrille at the Moulin Rouge, 1892 (National Gallery of Art, Washington DC).


Born in Albi, France, Lautrec was the son and heir of Comte Alphonse-Charles de Toulouse, and also the last in line of a family group history that spanned more than a thousand years. Traditionally the aristocracy tended to inbreed and Lautrec’s own parents were first cousins. Possibly as a result of this tradition, Lautrec suffered a number of congenital health issues. At 13 he fractured his left thighbone, which never healed properly and the legs ceased to develop any further (his height as a possible adult was 4 foot 9 inches). A sick and quiet boy, he immersed himself in art. As an adult, without the benefit of just about any normal life as a result of his deformity, alcohol and fine art painting became his life.

Lautrec was attracted to Monmartre, an area of Paris famous because of its brothels, nightlife, artists, writers and philosophers. He became such a familiar face in the brothels that he often moved set for weeks at a time. He'd get to be the confidant and friend of the Madame and her prostitutes, painting techniques and sketching them at leisure. Among his favorite models, a red haired prostitute that he called Rosa La Rouge posed for him regularly. It is alleged he contracted syphilis though her.
Although his subjects are occasionally near to caricature, they are shown without sentiment or criticism. Among his most famous paintings out of this time are depictions with the singer Yvette Guilbert as well as the dancer Louise Weber, commonly known as in the La Goulue (the Glutton), who invented the ‘Can-Can’. His paintings of the dancer Jane Avril are also well known.


A number of his perhaps most obviously works include: The Dance at Moulin Rouge, 1889 (Philadelphia Museum of Art); La Goulue arrives at the Moulin Rouge, 1892 (Museum of contemporary Art, Ny); Jane Avril, 1893 (Poster); The Model Resting, 1889 and Au Cirque: Entrée en Piste, 1899 (both at the J. Paul Getty Museum, LA); Portrait of Suzanne Valadon, 1885 (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires) and Divan Japonaise (The Mint Museums, New york).
Lautrec painted his subjects quickly, using oil paint thinned by turpentine, which allowed for rapid fine marks. He often painted on unprimed cardboard, allowing for the outer lining to seem, exploiting its rawness and painting colors. The economy of his colour and materials are as direct and basic as his subjects. However often spend his nights drinking heavily within the bars, sketching those around him and apply those sketches to canvas the following day.

An alcoholic the majority of his adult like, he died from complications induced by alcohol and syphilis, as of this family estate, three short months before his 37th birthday.

Although his artistic career only lasted only 20 years, he managed to produce over 700 canvasses, 350 posters and 5,000 drawings. Copies of his posters continue being popular today, as they were a hundred years ago. For more information concerning Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s place in graphic art, see: Good reputation for Poster Art.

And also other famous painters, like Paul Cezanne, the Dutch expressionist Vincent Van Gogh as well as the colourist Paul Gauguin, he was just about the most innovative painters from the Post-Impressionist period. His skill lay in capturing people inside their work environment. It has an immediacy and tension in his work, captured through his fast brushstroke and gaudy usage of colour. His works were highly linear, and give emphasis to outlines and contours - he was able to recognizably depict a lot of his well-known singer subjects by their silhouette alone.
After his death, his mother and art dealer promoted his work, and contributed towards funds for a museum to become built in his hometown. Although, as was the fate of so many bohemian artists, his works failed to sell well in his own time, he's now rightly considered among the great masters of genre painting and printmaking inside the good reputation for art of the late 19th century. His works typically sell for prices in excess of $15-20 million. They hang inside the collections of the best art museums around the globe, and search in most poster art catalogues.

Elegant Art Jokes: FUSELI’S CHANGE FROM LITERATURE TO PAINTING.

Fuseli’s wit, learning, and talents gained him early admission for the company of wealthy and distinguished men. He devoted himself for any lots of time after his arrival London for the daily toils of literature-translations, essays, and critiques. Among other works, he translated Winckelmann’s book on Painting and Sculpture. 1 day Bonny castle believed to him, after dinner, “Fuseli, you can write well,-why don’t you are writing something?”
“Something!” exclaimed one other; “you always cry write-Fuseli write!-blastation! What shall I write?”

“Write,” said Armstrong, who was simply present, “write on the Voltaire and Rousseau Row-there is a subject!”

He said nothing, but went home and began to write. His enthusiastic temper spurred him on, to ensure that he composed his essay with uncommon rapidity. He printed it forthwith; but the whole edition caught fire and was consumed! “It had,” says among his friends, “a short life plus a bright ending.”

While busied along with his translations and other literary labors, he previously not had forgotten his early attachment to Art. He found his way to the studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and submitted a number of his paintings realistic for the President’s examination, which looked over them for some time, after which said, “How long perhaps you have studied in Italy?” “I never studied in Italy-I studied at Zurich-I am a local of Switzerland-do you believe I will study in Italy?-and, especially, could it be worth a darn?” “Young man,” said Reynolds, “were I McDougal of these drawings, and was offered 10000 annually to not practice as an artist, I would reject the proposal with contempt.”

This very favorable opinion from one who considered all he was quoted saying, and was so remarkable for accuracy of judgment, decided the destiny of Fuseli; he forsook for good hard and thankless trade of literature-refused an income inside the church from some patron who had previously been struck along with his talents-and addressed himself to oil painting with heart and hand.