John Murray classes week of March 19, 2012

Last week of the Winter term. The

Spring term starts April 2.

The Vernal Equinox starts next week!

Every Spring I love to listen to Stravinsky's

"Le Sacre du Printemps" and try to do a painting in that spirit. the piece was performed first in Paris on May 29, 1913 and caused an audience uproar. It was concieved by Stravinsky and the painter Nicolas Roerich as a ballet that expressed pre-Christian Russian paganism and told the story of Roerich's dream of a beautiful (of course!) pagan girl who dances herself to death. I will play the piece in all classes next week so we can see what it does for us. see you next week, john.

John Murray classes week of March 2012

The Whiteness of the Whale, Chapter 42

Try working from a piece of literature next week.

Here are 2 artists who worked from Melville's Moby Dick; on the right Sam Francis's version of the chapter and the cover of the book of 266 "Moby Dick" sculpture/paintings that Frank Stella completed 15 years ago. Find a chapter in a favorite book and explore the tension between content and plasticity. See you next week, john

John Murray classes week of March 5, 2012

The 2012 Whitney Biennial.
Looks really good as reviewed by Roberta Smith in the Fri. March 2 New York Times.
Werner Herzog, the obsessive German filmmaker, Frederick Wiseman's documentary, "Boxing Gym" and the work of the eccentric painter, Forrest Bess, as presented by the great postmodern sculptor Robert Gober (check his work online). I'm going down to Manhattan for this one!
Bess was an isolated and identity-obsessed artist who lived and worked on the Gulf coast of Texas and painted motifs that came to him in dreams and tried to bring out the woman in himself by acts of self-surgery that turned him into a semi-hermaphrodite. His dream-inspired paintings are strong and beautiful objects that reflect a deep painterly love of materials.
Next week try working from your dreams with an emphasis on painterly materiality in confict with content. The Biennial close on May 27.
see you next week, john.

John Murray classes week of Feb. 27, 2011

The iconic female.
Here are 4 versions of the artist's response to the female figure. The first is a blockprint from a model I did a few years ago, the second a 1000 year old Aztec textile showing the birth and death cycle of female nature, below and to the left a recent John Chamberlain sculpture in foam and lastly a painting from a model I did last year.

All 4 represent a degree of cultural and personal bias and as such are open to interpretation and criticism both feminist and artistic. The DeCordova class on tuesday has a model next week and offers a unique opportunity to deal with your version of these issues. The model is 7 months pregnant. Newart Center classes had a model the week of Feb. 13. Take a moment and check the John Chamberlain retrospective, "Choices", that just opened at The Guggenheim Museum and runs through May 13. See you next week, john.

No John Murray classes week of Feb.20, 2012

New Museum Triennal.
With the deCordova Biennial happening here in the New England area, take time to see what the New York and International set are doing.
nytimes.com/design.

Also on the week off from class give some thought to how you approach your canvas/ground and think a little about alternative ways to address the potential space that your surface offers you. I like this Sam Francis painting from 1970 and the way it deals with spacial concept....just think about it. See you the week of the 27th, john

John Murray classes week of Feb. 13, 2012

All NewArt Center classes will have a model next week.
DeCordova artists please continue with on-going work, you will have a model on the 28th of Feb. See you next week, john.

John Murray classes week of Feb. 6, 2012

RIGHT BRAIN LEFT HAND.

I,ve always been fascinated by work that originates from the unconscious and finds a way to plastic representation.

All modern artists play with the edge between intention and the automatic/accidental. Even the exquisitally designed work of Matisse shows some of this unconscious

gesture and unintentional application of pigment. The tension between these impulses can result in strong work. I've posted a painting I did last week as a demonstration using acrylic mediums and charcoal and finished in oil paint. I gave no thought to the direction and use of material in terms of image until the final oil paint where I edited and pulled an image from the puddles and marks. I find it more expressive than work I drive from more intentional process. This week try a piece using your right brain and your left hand and see what happens.

See you next week, John.