Morandi

Today we looked at the work of Giorgio Morandi - an Italian artist who spent his life painting the same bottles and jars, over and over again (bit of a basket case). Not a big fan, I've got to say; but his paintings did provide a good starting point for our experiments with space/composition. Had an excellent day actually. Working from a Morandi esque still-life, we started by sketching 'thumbnail' images (mine ended up looking a lot like an advertising storyboard). From there, we chose the composition we felt was most dynamic and made a quick acrylic painting of it. My attempt was purposely pared down- I wanted to eliminate the detail/description that I'm usually drawn to, and focus on the objects' arrangement in space (in this case, a jug and cheese grater). The whole exercise was really productive. Though what I produced was not necessarily 'art' per se, it symbolised a small departure for me. George was pleased (heheh, teacher's pet)!