Eugene Galien-Laloue

I've been reading Hans Bacher's fabulous blog, One1More2Time3, for at least a year now. His mix of animation art and unusual artists makes it one of my favorite blogs to visit mostly because I always find something to inspire me. I've been introduced to tons of great new artists and find daily inspiration in some of the most beautiful backgrounds to ever grace an animated cartoon. I'm constantly amazed at how much work went into the early cartoons and how much that tends to be missing from the more current ones.

Recently Hans showed some images from one of his favorite artists and the man has quickly become one of my favorite artists as well. Eugene Galien-Laloue (1854-1941) was not a name I'd heard before but his work has been sought by collectors for years. He was an impressionist painter living during the turn of the century in Paris, a time known as Belle Epoque. His work focuses mostly on typical Parisian street scenes and are beautiful in their use of color and detail. Galien-Laloue was a mostly gouache painter, which I find even more fascinating. Not a lot of artists use gouache regularly since it tends to be less enduring. But I find that is offers much richer colors than most of the watercolors or oils even. It is Galien-Laloue's use of color and focus on architecture that drew me to his work.

Most of the work I've seen of his focuses on the winter and fall seasons. But he was not a plein-air (outdoor) painter. It is believed that he took photographs or used postcards as inspiration for much of his work while his painting was done in the studio. I am fascinated with his use of lighting to create such warm and welcoming environments. I find myself wanting to be drawn into the paintings and walk the streets of Paris at that time. The focus on architecture is not unique for that time but I find it intriguing. Parisian architecture, particularly turn of the century, has always been some of my favorite styles of architecture. And Galien-Laloue renders the buildings with so much detail. The people in the foreground may be blurred but the buildings in the backgrounds are as crisp as if I were standing on the street. This gives a great impression of movement and bustle. Add in the colors and I'm completely in love. I know that I currently could not afford any of his work but that's something to look out for in the future. I would love to find a piece of my own. So beautiful.

Cleansing Post

The previous post was a bit sad and a bit disgusting. So here is a painting attempt I made this afternoon to cleanse your mind. Maybe. It's not a great painting but I'm having fun. It's my Balloon Boy. I love the blue of the sky but otherwise I'm not in love with the image. But it is much happier than my poor sick bird.

I Get to Play With Paint!!!!

I have been telling myself for years that I wanted to take an art class. I really want to be able to illustrate my own work and I'm terrible at drawing. So when my mother asked if I would go to an art class with her (a shock in itself) I jumped at the chance. It was an Exploring Painting and Drawing class and we could pick one medium to work in. I figured that charcoal would be easy and decided to start with that. My goal was to eventually learn acrylics or gouache.

So we had our first class last night and the instructor suggested two medium as some of the easier ones to work with. The first was pastel chalks which I have only a bit of interest in. I'd be more than happy to learn it but I'm not in love with the medium. The second, I was excited to hear was gouache.

For those of you who don't know, gouache is an opaque watercolor. It is also a heavily used favorite for animation and illustration. It has some of the most vibrant colors and even when the paint dries, those colors stay. You can paint over it. You can retouch work. A good deal of early Disney animation was done in gouache. And I could not be more excited. Imagine thinking that you would have to work up to learning your ideal medium with years of work. Instead they just say go ahead.

So I will be running out to the art store this week to pick up all my necessary supplies. Amazingly someone out there thinks that I'm old enough, heck mature enough, to play with paint. Poor misguided fools. I sat in class all last night thinking, wow you actually believe that I'm somewhat of an adult and can be trusted with paint. Not only that but that I have enough talent to use said paint. I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun and learn as we go. But mostly the five year old inside me just keeps thinking, Yay!!!! I get to play with paint.