John Murray Classes week of May 30, 2011

Supercharged painting deCordova and Newart Center:

Try a portrait or self portrait, above is an Elizabeth Peyton Portrait she is

a painter who works in a smooth, thin method...slightly jaded and lost-generation feeling to the work. Go on line and take a look. Matisse is the master of modernist portraiture to my eye. See you next week. john.

John Murray classes week of May 23, 2011

deCordova Supercharged Painting: we have a model on Tuesday, please bring a slightly larger canvas, 18"x24" at least.

Newart Center classes: Picasso once said in an interview, 'A painting is a horde of destructions".

The poet Wallace Stevens was so struck by the quote that he wrote a poem, "The Man with the Blue Guitar" and wondered, "If this made painting a picture of ourselves, an image of our society".

What do you think? please go online and read the Steven's poem if you have a chance. See you next week, john.

John Murray classes week of May 16, 2011

Manet started all the trouble.

When Edouard Manet painted these irreverent and loosely-brushed images in the 1860's the seeds of not only Impressionism, but the modernist movement itself began. The powerful and unblended use of paint that rivaled the content of the painting as well as the secular and non-traditional choice of subject matter showed the way for painting to stay relevant and potent during the industrial and photographic revolution.

How do we stay relevant today?

Newton Open Studios is this weekend, take a look and see what your peers are doing. I have 2 new paintings at the JCC on Nahanton Street.

See you next week. john.

John Murray classes week of May 9, 2011

John Chamberlain is having a show at Gagosian Gallery in New York.

I met Chamberlain many years ago in Venice California at a time when he was traveling back and forth across the country and couldn't decide which Coast to settle on...his work was very much decided at that time however...the three dimensional abstract expressionist meets minimalist use of bent and folded automobile components. What a great metaphor for 20th century art expansion and a unique expression of our time. He has worked in this fashion for 50 years and continually finds fresh opportunities today in his 80's. Go to Gagosian website and see what he is now doing.

All classes: Find a scrap of automotive scrap and use it as a stencil from which to assemble a composition and develope a painting.

Sculptors: use a few of these pieces (catalytic convertor shields, pieces of rusted body panels) to build a standing or wall-hanging figure or composition. Monday classes will also have a model all day available for reference if you want to work that idea in as well.

See next week, john.