Last year, inspired by the many works of Bonnard I had just seen in an exhibition in Wuppertal, I did a quick ink pen and watercolour sketch A Toast to Bonnard with some aspects of his work in mind, particularly colour, perspective, an interior (table) scene and a cat making an appearance. Since then, I've been intending to do some paintings in his style, but never got around to it. Last week I finally took some time and started out with a rough sketch in acrylics. The interior (again based on my mother's dining room) has more or less taken it's final shape, but concerning the window/garden scene I'm still messing around with some ideas. First I added some rough garden features just to try out the basic effect of then adding white curtains. I rather liked the intimate effect they had on the room. Then I gave the garden a different set up, more or less with Max Liebermann's fantastic paintings of his garden in mind; I recently saw quite a few of them in an exhibition in Bonn and during a visit to the artist's former summer house on the Wannsee Lake near Berlin, now a museum (Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee). But to fit in with the rest I'll have to rework this again. So, still lots of work to do and decisions to make. I was rather pleased to read that Bonnard often took years to finish a painting, contemplating on choises and changes to make, even adding paint to images that had left his possession. With my holidays coming to an end and little spare time to spend on painting in the coming weeks, I think I'll just do the same for now.
I agree, the curtains make the room much more intimate. But in my opinion the blue-ish garden tones of the other version would fit better with that intimate feel.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rene. The garden in the version with the white curtains was still the part that remained of the quick initial painting with a predominantly yellowish background. I wasn't sure yet what I wanted to do with it and later added the curtains to see what their effect would be on the room before paying more attention to the garden itself. The colours in the later version appeal to me much more also.
ReplyDeleteby the way of your drawing, I can guess that you are very interested in art and a lot of touring museums. I think your work is something of a "high art", they always have some depth and message
ReplyDeleteYes Flara, I enjoy reading up on art history and also visit quite a lot of exhibitions for both pleasure and learning. I hope to take some of these impressions on board in my work, but also hope to keep and further develop my own specific angle. I'm very pleased to read that you find my art to have depth and message. Such a nice comment, thank you, much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteRodney
ReplyDeleteBonnard is a great teacher! I love it!
You 'doing' a great job here!
a beautiful scene, with attractive colors ...
this chair, the floor, the curtain, and the cabinet on the right are perfect!
My compliments!
a big hug ...
ps: the pictures of the previous posts
are great!
Thank you for your kind and encouraging comments Denise, much appreciated!
ReplyDelete