Posts Tagged ‘Artist Easel’
Art from a Distant Continent
Unfair as it may be, most American children are first exposed to art in a European framework. We are introduced to masters such as Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet and the works that were crafted on their artist easels, but what of the fine art traditions from other parts of the world? All cultures have their fair share of talented artists, but they don’t always choose to express themselves on canvas or in a block of marble.
For African tribesmen, wood, ivory, bronze and pottery were the materials and intricately carved masks were the end result. An African tribal mask might have been inspired by various animals and mythical deities, and they became an intrinsic part of tribal rituals. These days, the legacy of these innovative artists’ lives on in the form of decorative wall art.
A True Artist
My sister always wanted to be an artist. It all started when she was three-years-old. She would draw these funny little squiggles on construction paper and then my mom would hang them on the refrigerator. When she got a little bit older she began taking art lessons at the local community center.
She got really good, so I decided to support her passion by purchasing her a studio easel. And, by the time she was 15 she was painting full-fledged murals. Today she is a professional mural painter in NYC. Some of the wealthiest people in the world pay her to paint murals in their homes.
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.