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So Where does Monet come in ?
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| Claude Monet, self portrait |
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"When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have in front of you; a house, a field or whatever. Merely think here is a little square of blue, here an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact colour and shape, until it gives you your own naive impression of the scene before you"
Claude Monet
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Claude Monet 1840-1926, considered the father of the French Impressionistic art movement. It is difficult to imagine the world of art today without Impressionism but prior to Monet, and many of his contemporaries, art was a very ridgid, structured, almost photgraphic medium. Impressionism was a total break from the past works. Monet's vision was to engage the viewer by the viewer participating by constructing the artwork image in his mind. He instructed his students to not paint barns or people or landscapes but rather to paint a little daub of many different hues that the viewer would then compose into the image. He attemped to capture the air, the atmosphere surrounding his subjects.
Little daubs, mmmmm. something similar to frit? In fused glass work most often the splotches of color do not get hot enough to blend but rather remain "a little daub of pure color". It is this relationship to impressionism that has captivated me. Glass, with its almost magical quality of pure color and radiant light is the perfect medium to creat impressionistic works.
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| Little daubs of pure glass color |
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In the image to the left you see lots of little daubs of pure glass color. This is a close detail from "Pear Study" 2008
It seems so natural that frit painting could be used to create Impressionistic works of art. When I create new colors they become pure daubs of color that can be arranged to create a harmonious blend incuded in the artwork.
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| Sailboats on the Argenteuil |
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| Sailboats on the River, 2003, Glass size 7.75" w x 6" h |
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Monet's "Regatta at Argenteuil" left image Mel's "Sailboats on the River" on the right
I recognized the relationship that "painting" with glass frit had with French Imprssionism
The piece at right led me to decide to create my own colors. I purposedly copied Monet's piece as best I could with existing stock colors, but they are just to limited. I had blended stock frit and used in the piece but I had not premelted and crushed it, which is the norm now. This piece was the piece that sent me on my journey of infinite color blends.
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| click to enlarge |
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"Farm Scene" 2003 Glass size 5" w x 6" h
Very early work before I created my hundreds of colors.
You can see the attempt to have some perspective and distance
This is definately done in the Impressionism style as there are not flat planes of hue but rather many different daubs of color
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