Influences (Andrew Wyeth)

by don-admin

Don Farrell - Margaret's Basket - 1983 - 23 x 33 cm - 9 x 13 in - watercolour

Margaret’s Basket is one of the first paintings in which I consciously allowed myself to be influenced by another artist.

Around 1980, I was still mostly concerned with representation and accuracy in my work. I was studying the wonderful details of Andrew Wyeth when it suddenly occurred to me – Wyeth’s strength is in the shapes he chooses! This insight changed my approach forever. Realizing that the viewer responds to shapes before detail, my new focus was trying to achieve a harmony of shapes. This harmony is not something that the viewer needs to be aware of, in fact I expect it to be mostly subconscious. The artist, however, uses shapes to direct the viewer and inform the details.

Margaret’s Basket is an arrangement of triangles. There are three prominent ones that hold the painting together, as well as other supporting triangles. Another way of putting it is this painting has a triangle motif.

Of course, shapes aren’t the only considerations for a painting, and I would quickly like to introduce one other because of how easy it is to see in this painting. I call it “integration”. Notice how the left handle of the basket is in line with a fold in the drapery below it? I used this to keep the viewer’s eye from straying out of the left side of the painting.

The beautiful pursuit of art is not in just knowing these things, but in being able to use them poetically.

Andrew Wyeth - Wolf Rivers - 1959 - 34 x 33 cm - 13 1/2 x 13 in - tempera

Influences (Giacometti)

by don-admin

Don Farrell - Creases - 27 x 31 cm - 10 1/2 x 12 1/4 in - mixed water soluble media on paper

I feel Giacometti was a master of composition. The more I peruse his work the more I have come to appreciate the thoroughness of his considerations. My painting “Creases” is an example of permitting Giacometti to influence my work.

By permitting myself to be influenced has nothing to do with emulating. It is appreciating, as in his painting “Still Life with an Apple”, the level of his compositional sophistication and trying to reach his thoroughness.

I will limit comparisons to a couple areas – integration and parallels.

In my painting note how the seam in the pot is in line with a line in the drawer below. Giacometti did a similar integration with lines which run from the bottom of the painting up through the apple to dark horizontals which will eventually return you back to the bottom and back to the apple. I used the creases in the white cloth and stronger values to bring you to the pot. I also used the drawer handle as a visual pull for the pot as Giacometti did for a pull from the apple.

Giacometti masterfully limited his use of perspective, in fact he disrupted perspective with a masterful use of cubism, I could go on and on. I decided to provide the illusion of depth by using the parallels of the creases and the shadows of the pot and two parallel cast shadows with no vanishing point.

I could write at length on this wonderful painting by Giacometti, I think I may one day…

Alberto Giacometti - Still Life with an Apple - 1937 - 72 x 75 cm - 28 x 29 in - oil on canvas

Mondrian (Influences)

by don-admin

Don Farrell - Markings II - 2004 - 137 x 175 cm - 54 x 69 in - mixed media on canvas

Markings II is not directly influenced by Mondrian’s painting as I am very familiar with his work. I know his process was part of the seed which generated my “Markings” series and at this period of my development, influences of many artists come into play. Tapies and Fontana are also present in this series.

This comes from studying the masters from an artist’s perspective, rather than from an academic perspective. What I mean is to say is what notable artists have in common is a discipline in direction, which established a recognizable feel to their work. A Matisse is a Matisse!

An artist who understand this, studies the thought process of other artists. It is this dedication to process which lead them to establishing their individual visual language. Focusing on their techniques and subject matter will not lead you to a level of understanding an artist should strive for.

Piet Mondrian - Pier and Ocean - 1915 - 85 x 110 cm - 33 x 43 in - oil on canvas