Archive for October, 2009
Artistic Movement: The Impressionists
By the late 19th century, realism had become the dominant school of thought in artistic circles. The advent of the camera was threatening to make other visual mediums virtually obsolete. There was really no argument that photographs were the best way to depict slices of life and landscapes exactly the way they might appear to the naked eye. Fortunately for painters, the camera didn’t allow artists to exert much creative control.
The impressionists managed to fill that niche quite nicely by imbuing nature scenes with specific emotions and internal perspectives. The idea of impressionistic art was not to make an exact duplicate of a real scene but rather to interpret it through the artist’s consciousness and experience. Suddenly the works of art being created on art easels were just as relevant as those being captured on tripods.
My Short, Eventful Modeling Career
I’ve always thought of myself as a modest person, almost to the point of denial. It would come as a huge surprise to many of my friends and acquaintances that for a week during my senior year of college I worked as a nude model. It took a lot of convincing from my roommate, who had earned some extra money over the years by posing for studio art classes. I was in such dire financial straits at the time that I finally agreed to do it.
Much to my surprise, the teacher and her students made the experience as comfortable and laid-back as possible. I was exceedingly nervous for the first few minutes, but everyone in the room was used to sketching nude models. By the end of the class I had almost forgotten about my initial discomfort entirely. Then I heard the squeak of an adjustable easel and it brought me back to reality. It’s not an experience I would ever try again, but it was a liberating one nonetheless.
A Brief History of the Easel
Easels are known to have been in use since at least the time of the Egyptians. The excavation of King Tutankhamen’s tomb has records of small, hand-held easels. It is believed that they were used during speeches and orations as we now use flip charts.
By the early middle ages, the easels became more commonplace. These were very large vertically slanted wooden structures filling an entire room with its uprights and crossbars.