Thursday, March 14, 2013

Zorn at Gardner yesterday, March 13

Zorn at the Gardner
I was surprised by how quick and certain all his brush strokes were.  He uses very large brushes and bravura strokes on, for the most part, large canvases, one was probably 10' high or more.  It was a great lesson for me as I still need to concentrate on the big gestures and let the audience fill in the blanks.  I was also surprised to find some fairly vivid color in paintings that didn't at first appear to have vivid color in them.  Look for instance, at the shadow on the wall for those quick broad brush strokes and what would this look like without the red thing in her hair?  There is color in the beads in her necklace but it doesn't stand out, you have to look for it.  Even her face is not fussed over but looks very finished.