16Nov 2019 by kike_K No Comments
My airbrush

My airbrush

Advertising, Guillermo Coll, Illustration
The US inventor Charles L. Burdick patented the first airbrush in 1893; from that moment on, there has been a love-hate relationship between this tool and the Fine Arts. Some artists rejected using it claiming it was artificial and mechanical while some other enthusiastically welcomed that new device arguing it showed so many possibilities (making realistic, nearly photographic, works was one of those wonderful possibilities). Undoubtedly, some hyper-realistic painters like Audrey Flack, Ralph Goings or Ben Schonzeit have contributed to make this tool so popular. For those artists, the airbrush is a working item and furthermore, one of their ‘distinguishing features’.  My very first airbrush was a Holbein Neo-Hohmi. It was a high quality tool but something in its design seemed wrong to me, the side ‘suction-feed’ or siphon tank…
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27Oct 2019 by kike_K No Comments
Books (II): Jean Amery’s Lefeu oder Der Abbruch

Books (II): Jean Amery’s Lefeu oder Der Abbruch

Books
I have to confess: I have a tough time reading brainy theoretical or technical studies written by the painters. For instance, the well-known Leonardo’s treaty devoted to painting is a must. The outstanding Master puts within our reach all his knowledge, in a very boring way. It does not get any better with some art technicians such Mondrian or Kandinsky. Nevertheless, there are exceptions to the rule like the ‘Traité du paysage et de la Figure’ (treaty on landscape and figure) by André Lhote or the ‘Drawing techniques’ by John Ruskin, these are useful, clear and enjoyable. I usually prefer biographies, journals and letters as they reveal people’s mankind. If these testimonials are sincere and emotional (like the ‘letters to Theo’ by Vincent Van Gogh), they seem also so inspiring…
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06Oct 2019 by kike_K No Comments
Giorgio Morandi

Giorgio Morandi

Painting
Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) is one of those painters I’d like to write about. Like so many artists of his generation he was influenced by the Cubism and like many Italian artists he was under the influence of the Futurism and the metaphysic painting style too. He would deny the metaphysic influence later, tired of being compared to Carrà or De Chirico. Around 1937, he retired to Bologna and started a period of experimentation and further studies related to the physical character of the objects. These experiences would take the rest of his life resulting in a series of very well-known still-life paintings. Morandi, among very few artists, deepened in the pictorial possibilities of the models and stayed true to an idea, both considering the way the models are represented and…
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