Watercolor Painting with Experiments
Welcome back!
This past week, our Watercolor Painting students learned about a new artist named Robert Indiana.
Robert Indiana was born September 13, 1928 in New Castle, Indiana. He was an American artist associated with the pop art movement.
His "LOVE" print, first created for the Museum of Modern Art's Christmas card in 1965, was the basis for his 1970 Love sculpture.
A self proclaimed “American painter of signs,” Indiana created a highly original body of work that explores American identity, personal history, and the power of abstraction and language, establishing an important legacy that resonates in the work of many contemporary artists who make the written word a central element of their work.
Our students took this knowledge and created their own artwork inspired by Robert Indiana. Our instructor made samples to show our students how she adapted Indiana’s pop art style. Although these samples were done quickly, you can see how she was able to truly used abstraction and the alphabet like how Indiana did.
Below is an example of one of our students’ artwork. It is amazing to see how students are able to make skills that they learn into their own in such a short period of time.
You can see how the student has complete understanding of her color theory as well as paint mixing. She also used not only Robert Indiana’s examples, but also Ms. Jackie’s examples. Classes are just fifty minutes long, but so much goes on during this time. Our instructor starts off with a two to five minute lecture and then shows a live demonstration before giving our students their chance to shine.
I love this particular student’s work because of the composition of the letters as well as the illustration that goes so well with the words!
I actually had wanted to see the LOVE statue in Manhattan this past weekend, but didn’t realize that the statue was taken down! After looking online, there were forums and articles titled, “Where is the LOVE?” This statue is such an iconic piece of work. People would stand on line even in freezing weather just to take a picture. I can’t believe I never got a picture of it this whole time!