Henry Yan

Henry Yan is an instructor at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. While I was working on my life drawing skills, a friend of mine told me about Yan's charcoal sketches. When I looked at his website, I was struck dumbfounded by how awesome the brushwork on his oil painting is. This image is one I have been staring at for a number of days and it just floors me. Yan utilizes big, heavy strokes which are masterfully applied in this piece. A few areas are of note. There is a blended brush stroke on the model's right leg that meshes with the turquoise stroke of the furniture. This one strokes helps to define the 3 dimensional space by allowing the eye to focus on the harder edged strokes of the model's stomach, knee and face which are closer to the viewer in 3D space. I large pinkish stroke on the couch which is even closer to the viewer in space is boldly placed, added to the dimensionality of the piece. Lastly, the are a number of varied color blended strokes on the wall area which again, pushes this area farther back into space but indicating less deinition. Those strokes are also less saturated than the foreground ones which helps by adding a spacial atmospheric affect. I can't stop looking at the bright, hard edged torse stroke. MASTERFUL!

Jeff Jones

I have been extremely lax in my posting on this art analysis blog. I do apologize for this and will make a better attempt at finding compelling, interesting and notable art to display and analyze here.

Today’s image is from the artist Jeff Jones (or Jeffrey Catherine Jones) and is titled Sheherazad. I must admit that I was unaware of Jones’ work until it was introduced to me by Rebecca Guay. Jones has a very sensual feel to the works and employs a muted palette of colors while making the most of composition to offsite a relative lack of detail. If you look at the body of Jones’ work, you will see a definite arc which begins with a very Frazetta-esque design and color aesthetic and moving more toward a heavier application of the paint and in some cases, a more impressionistic handling of the subjects. This image is an earlier work and illustrates this earlier, thinner application of the paint. It appears that Jones began with a burnt umber underpainting that was applied to a canvas support. I would suspect that a wipeout technique was employed in order to achieve the variation in umber thickness. A thicker application of whites and ochres over areas of burnt sienna and umber create a transparent material effect as well as a more solid flesh rendering which pushes those areas forward in illusory 3 dimensional space of the picture plane. Jones then carves out sculpturally the form of the hair and body allowing the under umbers/siennas to create the hair and shadow areas of the arm and neck. Even though this is a relatively simple execution of these techniques, it is the masterful treatment which keeps me staring at it and returning for more.