Posted by Birgit Zipser on September 28th, 2009
20 x 30 cm detail from ‘Longing for Pondicherry’, Linen on wood, 70 x100 cm, in progress
Hanneke van Oosterhout just emailed me a detail from her latest painting showing a watermelon resting in an earthenware bowl. When I first discovered Hanneke, she was painting roses. I am able to admire one of them because it graces my dining room. Hanneke’s painting shows a yellow rose standing in streaming water while stretching upwards, both lovely and powerfully, with one of its leaves fluttering downwards. more… »
Posted by Birgit Zipser on September 15th, 2009
Noticing that prolonged standing at an easel and painting with the right hand results in a twisted torso, it seemed a good idea to spend time to learn sketching with the left hand to twist the torso in the opposite direction and thereby, hopefully, realign centrally.
Remembering that da Vinci is reported to have been ambidextrous, I looked him up on Wikipedia and noticed with disappointment that his Vitruvian Man shows two opposite twists. The belly button is displaced with respect to the sternum in one direction and the sternum and his nose are displaced in the opposite direction. more… »
Posted by Birgit Zipser on September 12th, 2009
Art supply companies sell pre-stretched canvases, wood and hardboard panels with only a limited number of dimensions. Standard width/length ratios are 1 x 1, 1 x 2, 2 x 3, 3 x 4 and 4 x 5. If I want to use a photograph of my camera as a motif, a 2 x 3 panel would be the most suitable to represent the full picture. Musing on dimensions, the golden ratio came to mind – 1 x 1.618 – easy to remember because 1.6 km equal a mile.
Here is a photograph cropped to fit the golden ratio with respect to width and length:
more… »
Posted by Birgit Zipser on August 25th, 2009
The power of sfumato, the blending of colours or tones so that there is no perceptible transition, was used by Da Vinci and Gerhard Richter to represent an idea of female beauty and the expanse of a seascape, respectively.
Leonardo Da Vinci, Ginevra de’ Benci, c. 1475 more… »
Posted by Birgit Zipser on August 21st, 2009
The depiction of waves is a cherished painterly activity. Here is one of my studies depicting double waves.
SBD080709, 16 x 12 in, 41 x 31 cm; oil on board
more… »
Posted by Birgit Zipser on August 8th, 2009
What came to mind is ‘das Unvollendigte’, translated into English as ‘the Unfinished’. Below are three paintings that I worked on off and on since the spring.
The first one is a view from a Pierce Stocking Drive dune.
.
12×16, oil on board.
more… »
Posted by Birgit Zipser on August 4th, 2009
To learn about fluid dynamics and how to depict it, I will now use this picture as a motif for painting:
. more… »
