Paul Signac and I, Brothers in Art.

Remake of Signac's: Pont des les Arts 1928 by C.t.Rasmuss, pencil/gouache (Nov. 2014).

I just over heard a brief conversation between an artist and the manager of a local place that holds exhibits, where I'm at for the WIFI and coffee, in order to make this post, and right as I was placing the above image: Remake of Signac's Pont de les Arts 1928, by yours truly...I heard the artist contemplating out-loud to his manager, about a current process for his new piece he's working on.  What got to me was his resolution in this conversation, this being the essence and conclusion he'd drawn from their encounter, which was: "...depends on what people want to put in their homes..".

Wow!!!  This comes as a shock to me and at the same time as a revelation: people/fellow artists, are 'we' this shallow?  To compromise everything we do, and are, what we represent, just to please others, merely for the chance they might give us a bit of cash?  If so, then what's it all for?  I mean, it embarrasses me to ever think ourselves to be in the same category as those great innovators of the Renaissance, especially those who painted without a license, risking their lives to express their freedoms and beliefs, as well as many other generations of artists, fighting a cause, big or small.  Hearing an "artist" talk the way this artist did just now, really offends me; and opens my eyes even more to a generation filled with others that feel this same way, paint this way, and base their life's work on(excuse me but) such a slutty principal!

Now don't get me wrong, if this is a hobby for you, or your painting for a loved one/friend/family member, etc. and you're keeping in mind what they'd like, etc. I respect you for it, but when money's involved; other than even perhaps a much needed commission for professionals, this doesn't include my contempt, but I would like to say even to these commercial artists and commissioned pieces: they too should have a certain freedom from outside influence, in sake of truth, over money, but that's just me(hopefully til the grave).

Thumbnail of S's: Pont des les Arts 1928 by C.t.Rasmuss, ink (Nov. 2014).

People!  I swear to you, I was here at this same place last week for the same purpose and read a coffee-table book: 'Master Drawings Rediscovered' by Ilatovskya; The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg/Abrams.  and in this book I saw many drawings and watercolors by Signac, more in one book than I'd ever seen before; I've known about his pointillism long before his drawings, which most people know him for of the former; so upon seeing this: I was inspired to finally make attempt of my own, not because it: "...depends on what people want to put in their homes.", but because, coincidentally I'd been in search of a composition by this same Master for my next Lucid Mosaic, I did it entirely for myself.

Drawing for Remake of Signac's Pont des les Arts 1928  by C.t.Rasmuss, pencil (Nov. 2014).

The Mosaic's I do are especially for me, my belief in God's gift he's revealed to me, and I believe all of this to be true because it's our collective duty to push beauty further(or point out where we fall short maybe, being the other-side of the spectrum), among others.  And if none of it ever gets it due, well then that's not my problem.  "I tried my best", which is what I hope I can restfully say someday, old and gray.

So the compositional source I used for my Remake by Signac, had a bridge, something I hope someday to incorporate into one of my mosaics, as they evolve in complexity; for now it's just nice having an excuse to paint a bridge anyway, the bonus here is using my innate gouache style, which you'll see is why I feel such a strong attraction to Signac's drawings.

Palette in the Dessert  C.t.Rasmuss, ink/gouache (2010).

The above painting is a landscape straight from my imagination, and done before ever seeing Signac's unique style in watercolor/gouache, making us brothers in art some how:) 

Bank of the Seine Near the Point des Arts with a View of The Louvre  Paul Signac, pencil/watercolor/gouache.

Pont des les Arts  Paul Signac, oil (1928).

The 1st of these two paintings by Signac, is one of the drawings from the book I mentioned, and the second is the oil painting that I drew the actual remake from; this oil of his seems to me more of an example of: Post-Impressionism than his Pointillism, which he famously helped develop after the death of his mentor, Georges Seraut.

>Follow this link to view more drawings by Paul Signac<

Vincent Van Gogh; Letters to Emile Bernard, and Now a Lucid Mosaic by C.T.Rasmuss.

Upon reading the first few letters of Vincent Van Gogh to his artist friend, Emile Bernard; I couldn't help, but admire one of his sketches that he sent to Emile, in letter III.  The book also included accompaniment of the final painting, in which I only saw in black n white, til now(on purpose, as I hoped to capture as much color correctness through his words only).

Shown above is my Lucid Mosaic, a technique all of my own invention(to my knowledge), and below is the original(in oil) by Van Gogh himself, done in Arles, early April 1888:

And this is the sketch he included in his letter to Emile:

In these two(B/W) renderings of Van Gogh's 'A Provencal Orchard', I was immediately stricken by the intersection of the horizontal garden path(both ends hidden by the fence), and the diagonal "main" path running down and to the right corner(placing the viewer left of this path w/o mistake of their orientation to the entrance of the Orchard), a perfect composition in my mind!

And I was inspired to prove how strong this composition is, I believe it may be an overlooked piece and doesn't have the panache of his more famous iconic ones, but deserves just as much attention, mostly due to its teaching aspects and composition values.

I mainly wanted to give a somewhat ordinary(at first) artwork of his: a "new life", and this actually has opened the door for me to do the same for many other pieces; after succeeding in this attempt, I feel like I can take my technique and give new life to, other Old Masters not so famous artworks, within their oeuvre.  Not that they really need it, but I would like to give attention to, perhaps what the critics, art lovers and contemporary artists may have over looked.

Going back to the process for execution of the mosaic(after deciding what my new mission was, or is becoming), I drew a quick sketch from Van Gogh's painting, followed by an actually thumbnail.  This allowed me to transform his original painting into a template, for the purpose of my technique; and my favorite part of this particular experience vs. previous pieces I've done, was that this was the first time I concentrated on the actual brushwork, I was able to because of the way Van Gogh worked his canvases with heavy impasto.

I've also included the part which he explains the Orchard to Emile if you'd like a sample for yourself:

"Here, by the way, is a sketch, the entrance to a Provencal orchard with its yellow fence, its screen of black cypresses(against the mistral), its characteristic vegetables of varying greens...the whole of the sky has a bluish hue and the greens are either definitely blue-greens or yellow-greens, purposely exaggerating in this case the yellow or blue qualities."

And that is that, and there you have it...and now on to the next one, So...there is a Signac I saw yesterday, and after sketching it I suddenly lost my will, but a few pages later I really got excited again especially after sketching it twice, so who knows..

Divisionism: A Seurat Legacy

                                                          'Primary Portrait',C.T. Rasmussen; 2010

Seurat’s theories intrigued many of his contemporaries, as other artists seeking a reaction against Impressionism joined the Neo-Impressionist movement. Paul Signac, in particular, became one of the main proponents of divisionist theory, especially after Seurat’s death in 1891. In fact, Signac’s book, D’Eugène Delacroix au Néo-Impressionnisme, published in 1899, coined the term divisionism and became widely recognized as the manifesto of Neo-Impressionism.^[3]
In addition to Signac, other French artists, largely through associations in the Société des Artistes Indépendants, adopted some divisionist techniques, including Camille and Lucien Pissarro, Albert Dubois-Pillet, Charles Angrand, Maximilien Luce, Henri-Edmond Cross and Hippolyte Petitjean.^[5] Additionally, through Paul Signac’s advocacy of divisionism, an influence can be seen in some of the works of Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse, Jean Metzinger, Robert Delaunay and Pablo Picasso^[5] .<sup>[6]
Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divisionism


For me Seurat has had much more influence than I could ever account for, in this case alnoe I will refer specifically to  its influence on the above Gouache I finished in 2010.  First, I stuck with primary colors as in original Divisionism's definition, but rather than allowing myself to use green, it was simply replaced with the use of a black marker to create a spontaneous drawing w/o a 'net' (in true neo-impressionist spirit).  Later to be filled in with color controlled by a strict policy of not being able to vary color tone nor intensity.</sup>