The Great Painters' Photography 2

Inspired by this original image from @robdoran (Thank you for letting us borrow it!) and my regular thoughts about how the vision of the Great Painters of the past compare to how we see the world today, I created this two-off photo challenge for my followers. This challenge will both inspire your creativity but also expand your knowledge of the history of art.

Please note that if you post your submission in the first 24 hours after I post this challenge I will not believe that you made a true effort. As with all of my challenges, the point of them is to challenge you, to build your creative strength, and to teach you.

Step 1: Think of a great painter from after 1850 (after photography started to influence painting). Some ideas to get you started: Daumier, Millet, Courbet, von Menzel, Whistler, Sernesi, Manet, Pissaro, Renoir, Cassatt, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Redon, Cézanna, Degas, Picasso, Hopper, Rothko, Kandinsky, DeKooning, Pollack, Krasner, Rockwell, Jasper Johns, Warhol, Don’t just think of the European artists, but do stick with painters!

Step 2: Familiarize yourself with the artist, his/her works, style, way of looking at light and colour. Wikipedia is a decent source for this challenge. But Google searches will give you more images and a broader view of the artist. Consider the subject of their paintings: remember that before photography painters had a very real job as recording history and the people who commissioned their paintings, but photography freed them to explore greater subject matters. How has photography influenced how they see and paint light? (Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks is a great example of this.) 

Step 3: Now imagine that either they or you were transported to the other’s time period and you were to hand them a digital camera (DSLR, P&S, or iPhone all work here). They somehow didn’t think you were a devil come to destroy them with your magical device that captures what they see, and agree to take part in your experiment. You teach them everything they need to know about using the digital photography equipment and editing tools you have available to yourself, and you set them free to create what they will. What are the images that they would create?

Step 4: Now, create those images. Use whatever tools you want to do so. Whatever subject matter, style, etc that you feel is appropriate to that painter’s vision of the world. Create as many as you like, but pick the ONE image that best represents that artist’s vision and tag it to this challenge.

Submission Details:

Only NEW images, of course.

Deadline: February 29^th, 2012 (Midnight CST).

Tag: #PaintersPhotography2

Comments: Your comment under the submission should be as follows:

#PaintersPhotography2

Painter’s Name (dates s/he lived)

2-3 Sentences about the artist, their style, life, work, whatever you feel is important.

2-3 Sentences about why you created the image that you did: how the painter saw light, colour, objects, people, etcetera, and why they would’ve edited the image the way they have.

1-3 Sentences about what you have learned from this challenge.

(Hints: Type it on your computer first, send it to yourself as an email, copy and paste in the comments when you post it - save yourself from typing it all out on your iPhone if you can. Also, if you type it out, even in a note app, then copy and paste it into the comments AFTER the image has fully posted to IG, you will be able to keep your line-returns and spaces between each section. Makes reading these easier - not required but advised.)

2-3 sentences: If you did the first challenge (painters before 1850), compare your two artists and consider how their use of light differs due to the creation of photography. What did you learn?

Good Luck and Enjoy!!!

PS - This is the sequel to the challenge for artists before 1850, slightly different rules: do both and learn more!