Thursday 31 January 2008

Snap Happy!



A question that's often asked- should artist's use photographs? Yes! And No! it isn't cheating!
For my 'gallery pictures', if I have to work from them, I almost always use my own photos.
For more imaginative stuff, or murals and window paintings, I really need refer to other people's. It would be impossible to take photos of all the famous riders in the Tour de France, or a harvest scene from the 1800s.
And for Art Classes photographs from magazines and the internet provide a quick and easy way to have the best images available for the project in hand.
As soon as photography came in, artists used photos, and not always their own, as we can plainly see- naughty boy, Gauguin!
Two thousand years ago the Camera Obscura was first recorded- a primitive pinhole device which projected images onto a surface. Leonardo Da Vinci also mentions it, saying "We did not discover this" and artists were using it as a drawing aid as early as C15th.
Those of you who saw the film from the book 'Girl With A Pearl Earring ' may have noticed that Vermeer had his own Camera Obscura. Another Bad Lad!
Photos are best used intelligently, not copied blindly, and always with a good knowledge of basic skills.
I really don't think there are any rules!

4 comments:

Miranda Bell said...

Great site Caroline - welcome to the world of blogging - have you seen mine yet? www.jardinmiranda.com
See you soon Miranda x

jan said...

I loved the versatility and differences of the artwork shown, especially liked the houses and the scenes.

Thank you. Jan.

Caroline said...

Thank you both,
People often remark upon my variety of subject matter- but there are so many beautiful and different aspects of our world to respond to! Of course we all have our own preferences and strengths, but I try not to get too blinkered.

mango said...

Very interesting Caroline, I can remember learning and doing an experiement about Camera Obscurer ar school.

Thanks, I'll look at the rest of your blog now.