Category Archives: Paintings

Without paintings we are nothing

In the style of the Dutch Masters

Leica, Macro, Paintings

Lighting is the key.

For an index of all Leica-related articles click here.

Whereas the southern European painters of the 16th and 17th century typically focused on the adulation of religious figures, northern artists – Germany, Belgium and especially Holland – were more interested in showing property, a secular conviction. Never was this more so than in the 17th century work of the Dutch Masters which typically had a high window light one one side with the other half of the subject in the shade, some light captured from an adjacent white reflecting wall. And whether the subject was possessions, food, flowers or people, much the same lighting approach was used, to great effect.

A fine example is the work of Jan de Heem (1606-1684) who specialized in still life painting. This splendid Vase of Flowers (1660) can be found in the no less splendid National Gallery in Washington, D.C.:



Jan de Heem, Vase of Flowers, 1660.

In my image of the Common Ninebark wildflower I have emulated the Dutch lighting approach and while the subject is simpler than de Heem’s complex one, the lighting effect is similarly dramatic:



Common Ninebark

Leica SL2S, 100mm Macro-Elmar-R at f/11, Bellows-R, three Novatron strobes, ISO 100. Composite of 55 images, focus stacked in Helicon Focus. I prefer a touch of light on the black background to emphasize depth.

I had the local Postal Annex print this on their Canon 12-ink 44″ wide printer in a 24″ x 36″ size for wall display and the results is a knockout. The file I uploaded included the related Adobe sRGB color profile. With this not so little hummer costing over $5,000 and a set of ink cartridges running over $2,000 alone I’m not about to buy one for home use, especially when the print cost me a modest $45, and the color rendering is exactly what I see on my monitor. I would imagine that maintenance of this monster must be an absolute nightmare, what with 12 ink jet nozzles just waiting to clog …. definitely a case of where delegation beats ownership.

David Hockney passes

Paintings, Photography

The greatest living artist.

David Hockney, Yorkshire born artist and some time Angeleno, has died aged 88. A two pack a day man he chose to disregard his doctors’ advice and outlived the lot. Clearly he had what I think of as the ‘Keith Richard gene’.

Acrylics, giant murals, iPad and iPhone paintings, Polaroids – Hockney did it all. And his sense of fun, his sheer joy of seeing, pervades all. After graduation from the Royal College of Art Hockney was soon selling his prodigious output, having always been a workaholic, and moved to Los Angeles the first chance he got. Heck, if you were from Yorkshire – what Monty Python once called ‘The Third World’ – you would have moved, too.

While Hockney denigrated photography as ‘not really seeing’ he was an adept user of the medium, never less than with this cover for a newly revitalized Vanity Fair:



Hockney’s shoelaces.

Then there’s this exceptional Polaroid collage of an intersection in the California desert:



Highway 138.

The book of that deYoung exhibition linked in the opening of this piece remains available and is a great introduction to (later) Hockney art.

Hopper revisited

Paintings, Photographs

His legacy is everywhere.

I first wrote about Edward Hopper ad photography some two decades ago.

His vision and insights into the loneliness of downtown American cities continues to fascinate. The other evening saw me traipsing somewhat disconsolately through downtown, dismayed at the bland lighting, the sun and Hopper’s long shadows nowhere to be seen. Then, suddenly, the sun pierced the clouds and the magic hour was in full force, creating this:




Click the image for a larger version.

Leica M10, 75mm Voigtländer Ultron at f/5.6. SOOC.

Edward Hopper and the American Hotel

Paintings

A fascinating review.

You can view my library of photography and art books by clicking here.

Published in 2019 this splendid anthology of Hopper’s painting centers on the theme of hotels and travel and is recommended for the many illustrations it contains. You certainly should not buy it for the prose which is stultified and lugubrious in the extreme. The fact that the noun ‘dialectic’ occurs regularly suggests that the writer(s) learned English as a second language and are intent on having you know that they understand the rules of grammar better than you. Example: “As a frequent painter of hospitality sites, Sloan provides object lessons how a hotel can suggest value in the vernacular and comfort in the commonplace” (p.21). Please.

Well, forget that nonsense and luxuriate in the host of images contained in the book’s 200+ pages.

One of the really fun inclusions consists of two maps documenting road trips Hopper and his wife took in 1941 and 1952-53. Lots of fun as they show the exact places he stayed and (often) painted.


The book with Hopper’s road trip maps.

The long, sharp shadows and miserable people which Hopper so often depicts are abundantly present. He pulls no punches, even when the humor is sardonic as in this amusingly titled ‘Excursion into Philosophy’:


Excursion into Philosophy, 1959.

And those miserable people can only be described as exceptionally physically ugly:


Ugly. Morning Sun, 1952.

Hopper’s vision is intensely photographic but one interesting educational point of the book is that he was also a fine cartoonist, creating no fewer than 18 covers for an industry periodical named ‘Hotel Management’. Not the most thrilling of subjects, true, but he glamorizes the travel experience and its travelers – his style is reminiscent of George Barbier:


Hotel Management cover, May 1925.

The book is recommended for all photographers looking to enhance their vision.


Click the image for Amazon.

Thank you to my son Winston for the fine Christmas gift.

Terence Cuneo

Book reviews, Paintings

Steam train painting master.

Ask me which photography book I would choose if I could only have one and the answer has been unchanged for decades. It’s O. Winston Link’s (1914-2001) Steam, Steel and Stars. A masterpiece of nostalgia, composition and technique, it’s so good that I own two copies, the lighter paperback joining me on my travels:


Everyone should have two.

But a photographer can only go with what is there. Yes, he can change the lighting and composition but he does not have the creative freedom afforded a painter whose limits are those of his imagination. And if you want something of the same caliber as Link’s photographs on a canvas the only choice is the work of Terence Cuneo (1907-96).

High drama is a given in his moving train canvases:


High drama.

Yet the more mundane images are no less powerful and nostalgic:


The signalman.

Cuneo would generally make pen and ink sketches first and completed many commissions for British Railways. In this example, where the cab is being lowered onto the wheels and chassis, he arrived too late. Because he was well known by the operators it was a moment’s work for them to raise the cab so he could complete his sketch:


Preliminary sketch.

And then, Boom!, an absolute masterpiece:


An Engine is Wheeled.

Imagine an advertising campaign today with this ‘backroom’ approach? Pictures of Chinese slave labor assembling iPhones? I don’t think so.

And if you desire Impressionist genius, Cuneo is happy to oblige, as in this image on the Orient Express:


Impressionism on the Orient Express.

These images are from a splendid book titled ‘Terence Cuneo: Railway Painter of the Century‘. It’s long out of print but available from used sellers and the quality of the printing on very thick stock does justice to Cuneo’s canvases.