STILL LIFE

BY MARIE MAX-FRITZ

What is a still life? • A still life is a drawing or painting of objects. Originally, these objects

had a symbolic meaning that represented life, death, beauty, and decay.

• This has been a style of drawing and painting images since the Classic Roman time-period.

• Still life images have a foreground, mid-ground, and background. – This is the layering of objects in front of each other to create depth. – Shading the images with types of value scales creates a sense of volume

and mass in the objects.

• As a whole, the image becomes dimensional and the art element of movement is presented in the picture.

Brief History and Background:

• A still life is a display of objects that narrate an idea or create a mood. Still life subject matter is intended to tell a story. To tell the story, artists use objects that relate to each other or have a symbolic meaning and apply colors and hues to help set the mood.

• Since the classical period in ancient Rome to the Puritan era of early America, still life paintings were descriptive in meaning and symbolism surrounding life, death, and eternity. In Latin terms, this is called 'memento mori' or, translated, 'remember your mortality'.

• Vanitas art is a style within this art genre also known as funerary art. This was primarily a Dutch form of art in the 1600s and was devoted to narrating a story through symbolic imagery that focused on life, beauty, death, and decay.

• This style is also referred to as funerary art and represented humankind's mortality and painted with high contrast and dark color schemes (chromas) .

Highlights

Shadows

DRAWING A STILL LIFE

Sphere in pencil with value scale

Solid Cross hatch

Ellipse Mass and Volume

Practice Sheet

Still Life in PencilForeground, mid-ground, and backgroundIs there mass and volume, light and shadow?

STILL LIFE IN THE 1800’S

In the 1800s, French artists continued the symbolic and narrative style in the themes of their paintings This style was best portrayed by Edouard Manet and Paul Cezanne with their loosely arranged fresh cut flowers or tables that were bountiful with foods. These artists began to use color and texture to increase the moodiness or characteristics of the still life subject matter. The meaning or symbolism of still life paintings were being enhanced with manipulated gestural brush strokes, textures, and light qualities. They influenced the world of painted imagery by allowing the nature of the medium and utensils to compliment the symbolic nature of the scene. This, in turn, was the birth of a style of painting that allowed gesture and color to produce the illusion of space, form, and volume. Their paintings reflected a new way to see and portray the world around them. This became known as Impressionism.

Grapes, Peaches and Almonds by Edouard Manet

Still Life With a Curtain by Paul Cezanne

MODERN

Also, Giorgio Morandi (early 1900s) painted with very low intensity and added a hazy softness to a still life. More recently, artists, namely Wayne Thiebaud, creatively reproduced foods that were common and appreciated by society in a manner that was much like the Impressionists. His style of painting is thick with paint, loosely blended, and rich with color and light, yet imagery is recognizable. Through this gestural brush strokes, intensity of colors, and varieties in contrast, paintings seem to possess an individual life and personality that is unique to the subject that is rendered.

Giorgio Morandi

Wayne Thiebaud Cupcakes

ReferencesBibliography/References:

Kuhl, Isabel. (2009) Impressionism. New York: Parragon

Oceana Books. (2003). The painting handbook. London: Quantum Publishing Ltd.

Quantum Books. (2003). The great masters. London: Quantum Publishing Ltd.

Rodriquez, Susan. (2007). Art smart, Pearson Education

Artists and Terms:•Cezanne, Paul•Chroma•Manet, Edouard•Momento mori•Morandi, Giorgio•Thiebaud, Wayne•Vanitas