Line & Movement

 

The Vitruvian Man is a drawing created by Leonardo da Vinci circa 1490.^[1] It is accompanied by notes based on the work of the architect Vitruvius. The drawing, which is in pen and ink on paper, depicts a male figure in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and simultaneously inscribed in a circle and square. The drawing and text are sometimes called the Canon of Proportions or, less often, Proportions of Man. It is stored in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Italy, and, like most works on paper, is displayed only occasionally.^[2][3]
The drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura. Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion among the Classical orders of architecture. Vitruvius determined that the ideal body should be eight heads high. Leonardo's drawing is traditionally named in honor of the architect.

I have always loved da Vinci and Vitruvian man is no exception. da Vinci was a true Renaissance man who foetold the invention of many modern day inventions.  

Value

Big Self Portrait 1968 acrylic on canvas 1071/2 X 831/2  inches

Charles Thomas "Chuck" Close (born July 5, 1940) is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits. Though a catastrophic spinal artery collapse in 1988 left him severely paralyzed, he has continued to paint and produce work that remains sought after by museums and collectors. Close currently lives and works in New York's West Village^[1] and in Bridgehampton, New York.<sup>[2]

One of my favorite artists, his early super-realist style shows mastery of value . His work looks like B&W photographs.</sup>

Shape & Color

JEFF KOONS
Balloon Flower (Orange), 2006
High chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating
114 x 132 x 108 inches (289.6 x 335.3 x 274.3 cm)
Version 4/4

Jeff Koons was born in 1955 in York, Pennsylvania. He received his B.F.A. at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since his emergence in the 1980s Jeff Koons has blended the concerns and methods of Pop, Conceptual, and appropriation art with craft-making and popular culture to create his own unique iconography, often controversial and always engaging. His work explores contemporary obsessions with sex and desire; race and gender; and celebrity, media, commerce, and fame. A self-proclaimed "idea man," Koons hires artisans and technicians to make the actual works. For him, the hand of the artist is not the important issue: "Art is really just communication of something and the more archetypal it is, the more communicative it is."

Koons use of shape and color really catches my eye. While I'm not a big fan I do find his work eye catching.

German artist Walter Mason sees nature a bit differently than most people, and he has the vision to use materials made by nature in his art. Land Art is his collection of nature creations using leaves, berries, water, grass and trees to create striking works of art, which are then documented via photography. Whether he creates a collage from leaves, a spiraling trail of water beads, or makes a geometric pattern out of needles, Mason transforms nature into beautiful designs.

Read more: Walter Mason Uses Nature’s Gifts To Create Striking Land Art Land Art-Walter Mason – Inhabitat - Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

I stumbled across this artist when I was looking for a subject for my texture blog. I really like the fact he uses nature to make his art and that it is temporary. Going for a walk in the woods and finding one of these gems would be very cool.

Henry Moore OM, CH
Recumbent Figure 1938
Green Hornton stone
object: 889 x 1327 x 737 mm, 520 kg

Henry Moore (1898 - 1986) is perhaps the most influential public sculptor of this century. Drawing on his studies of Classical, pre-Columbian and African art, Moore created original and truly modern sculptural forms. Abstractions of organic shapes were his primary motif. His seated, standing, and reclining figures comprise an enduring vocabulary reflecting the universality of the human condition.

"The observation of nature is part of an artist's life, it enlarges his form [and] knowledge, keeps him fresh and from working only by formula, and feeds inspiration." ~ Henry Moore

"In my opinion, everything, every shape, every bit of natural form, animals, people, pebbles, shells, anything you like are all things that can help you to make a sculpture." ~ Henry Moore as quoted in Five British Sculptors (Work and Talk) by Warren Forma, 1964. 

I've always dug Moore's sculptures. his use of positive and negative shape create a pleasing/sensual shape.  

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

pattern

The Martin House is actually part of a complex of buildings that also includes the Barton House and four other structures. Frank Lloyd Wright designed 394 pieces of art glass for the Martin Complex using 15 basic designs, 11 of which were for the Martin House itself. Each of the house's two floors have a different basic pattern for the window designs, and there are separate patterns for exterior and interior windows as well as for ceiling panels (geometric designs based on squares).
The "Tree of Life" design used on the second floor was dense enough to provide some privacy, with each consisting of over 700 individual pieces of glass separated by various widths of brass caming.

I have always been fascinated with Frank Lloyd Wright. His wonderful architectural designs and his stained glass is so well balanced with the nature is surrounds. These windows are works of art not only because of the beautiful patterns they are but for the beautiful Changing patterns they cast from the changing light that streams through the, 

Frank Lloyd Wright (born Frank Lincoln Wright, June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 532 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was best exemplified by his design for Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture".^[1] Wright was a leader of the Prairie School movement of architecture and developed the concept of the Usonian home, his unique vision for urban planning in the United States.
His work includes original and innovative examples of many different building types, including offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, and museums. Wright also designed many of the interior elements of his buildings, such as the furniture and stained glass. Wright authored 20 books and many articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. His colorful personal life often made headlines, most notably for the 1914 fire and murders at his Taliesin studio. Already well known during his lifetime, Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time."

Calder

Alexander Calder (July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor best known as the originator of the mobile, a type of kinetic sculpture the delicately balanced or suspended components of which move in response to motor power or air currents; by contrast, Calder’s stationary sculptures are called stabiles. He also produced numerous wire figures, notably for a vast miniature circus.

Born: July 22, 1898, Lawnton

Died: November 11, 1976, New York

 

 

"Calder Onions (Rainbow)"
2001, Stainless, Mild Steel, Rainbow Painted
Blue, Red, Purple, Green and Yellow
40" x 45" Height

Playfully named 'Calder Onions' after Alexander Calder, this hanging kinetic mobile sculpture from Brewitz is created in stainless steel and rainbow painted, mild steel. The colorful onion shapes move when a slight puff of air collides into one of it's elements. Alexander Calder was one of world's greatest kinetic artists and has been sometimes called the 'Pooh Bear' of American Art.

I have always enjoyed Calder's work. His use of color and shape as well as how carefully he balances his designs always cause me to stop and contemplate his work. This piece is one of his smaller works many of his works are enormous as you can see in this short video...  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI5PRaTSMUI