Progress: Still Life #1

When I started working on the still life one of the biggest struggles off rip was trying to make an interesting composition without using too many complicated objects. My original idea involved a flower, a wood carving, and a clock. Thankfully Coach knocked some sense into me and I got rid of the clock and agreed to simplify the carving in the painting. In the end I had this final composition.

After getting the composition down I sketched it out with charcoal and began painting, but from the beginning I had some issues in correctly drawing the shapes and having the right perspective on the objects.

In the end I was not happy at all with how it was looking when compared to the actual still life, and I had also been having issues with finding a correct consistency for the paint and in the end I finally made the decision to paint over the majority of the painting and start from scratch on many of the different parts, which in the end I believe was the right course of action.

Awareness: Glib Franko

Today I will be talking about an upcoming artist name Glib Franko. Glib is a Ukrainian artist and has been making art since he was young. Both of his parents were artist and surrounded him with their work, like his father's watercolors, as he was growing up. As a young man he studied at several premier art institutions in Ukraine, such as the Kosiv Institute for Decorative arts, the Department of Monumental Painting, and the National Academy of Fine Arts in Kyiv. Franko's art borders between expressionist and abstraction, and he uses many colors as well as a number of different painting mediums. He paints primarily botanical still lives, but does paint some portraits and landscapes. Franko now exhibits his work all over the world and has traveled throughout Europe and Asia, as well as the United States.

[Rose], Oil on Linen Canvas, 2024

This Painting, [Rose], exhibits some of the common aspects of Franko's paintings, the figures are simplified, and blocked out by color, creating a very simplified subject. The colors are also bright and have lots of contrast because of the sharp lines and borders between them. Franko also creates a more rough and unfinished feel with the gaps between strokes and the incomplete feel of the background. I really like the sharpness of the painting as well as the colors, and I think the way he portrays the flowers contributes to the overall emotion of the painting. I also like how it feels like some of the flower shapes surrounding the central red figure feel like echoes or shadows of the middle, and give an otherwise very flat painting more depth.

My Flowers Bright, Oil on Canvas, 2024

This painting leans more towards the abstract side of Franko's art, and even incorporates surrealist aspects in the eyes on the flowers. I really like the more flowing and natural shapes in this painting when compared to the more sharp and harsh lines in the other. I also really like how the colors, while still blocked out, have more of a flow into each other on the figure, while still having a sharper contrast around the border and on the flowers. This piece also has a lot more movement and life to it than the other, which can be seen in the more organic shapes of the flower but also in the bugs and eyes that are incorporated as well.

Experience: Oura Sananikone's Lunchtime Lecture

This Week I attended the lunchtime lecture by Mr. Oura Sananikone. I actually had the opportunity to meet and volunteer with Mr. Sananikone over the summer at the Visual Arts Center, and so I was familiar with his work going into the lecture. His style is very unique and I have never really seen another artist produce work like his, even in the world of comic books. I asked Mr. Sananikone during the lecture where he draws inspiration from and he gave me a very simple yet clear answer. He said that his style is really a culmination of all of the influences he has interacted with since childhood, from comic books and TV to other fine artists. I think that this is something that many people can understand. I try and base my art off of other works that I see and find visually pleasing, and even though I haven't really developed a unique style yet I can still see influence from other artists and even my classmates in my work.

Another part of the lecture that I found really interesting was when Mr. Sananikone was talking about his main passion project and how his lived experiences influence what he allows himself to work for and how they affect the subject matter of his work. He said that one of his comics "Robot Wars" is mainly supposed to be an anti war project and how to make the visuals more effective he used reference pictures from real life conflicts. What really stuck with me though was how he had never used the Vietnam War as a reference because of its very personal connection and how it directly affected the course of his life, being an immigrant from Laos. I found it very inspiring hearing about how as the project grew and became more personal to him, he challenged himself to touch into that part of his life for inspiration and how it made the project more effective and personal to him.