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Mother's Day is near! April Newsletter |
| Greetings!
 With only one month left until Mother's Day 2010, the time is now to start thinking about how you want to frame those treasured family photos, school pictures, and mementos!
Custom-framed memories are always the perfect gift for Mom and Grandma, but you don't want to wait until the last minute and miss out! Start planning now, because like all things worthwhile, getting that ideal present ready for her takes time.
Be prepared for her big day and stop by one of our stores this week to have one of our Art and Design experts help you make Mother's Day one to remember!
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The Brewery: 
Spring Art Walk
April 17 & 18, 2010
About
The Brewery ArtWalk is a twice annual open studio weekend at the worlds largest art complex. With over 100 participating resident artists, you will have the opportunity to see new works, discover new favorites, speak with the artists and purchase artwork directly from the artists at studio prices.
The ArtWalk takes place in the Spring and Fall, 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
Admission is free and so is parking. Come and support LA's finest artists, take home some great works and dine at the on-site restaurant. If you have questions or require more information, please contact us via email or mail:
Brewery Art Association c/o i5 Gallery
2100 North Main Street, Unit A10
Los Angeles, CA 90031 |
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The Getty: 
Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture: Inspiration and Invention
March 23 - June 20, 2010
About
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519) was a painter, sculptor, architect, engineer (military, civil, and aeronautical), inventor, anatomist, cartographer, theoretician, and musician. His instinctive curiosity led him to numerous discoveries and achievements, some of which we are still only beginning to comprehend from the thousands of pages of his surviving handwritten notes and drawings.
This focused exhibition examines just one facet of his prodigious talents: his activity in the field of sculpture. Ambitious and detailed plans for enormous equestrian monuments, which were never realized, can only be understood through his drawings. These fragile records are made even more precious by the fact that no work of sculpture can be definitively attributed to Leonardo.
Famous and breathtaking sculptures by Donatello (Italian, about 1386-1466), Leonardo's inspiration, and his close associate Giovan Francesco Rustici (Italian, 1474-1554)-some of which have never left Florence-convey a sense of Leonardo's astounding achievements.
The exhibition examines many of Leonardo's drawings, highlighting his working method of sketching ideas and notes for his artistic compositions and devices, which do not survive. Sketches for lost sculptures and paintings reveal an artist who used pen and paper to develop models for equestrian and human monuments and sculptures, medals and paintings, as well as to work out the engineering of mechanical devices such as water clocks, robots, and automata.
In sketches for a painting (now lost) in the image at left, Leonardo studied the playful interaction of a child with a lamb, turning the figures around in his mind. His first sketches were in black chalk (also visible), and he worked some of these up to different degrees in ink as he searched for the most satisfactory solution. The emphasis on three-dimensionality parallels Leonardo's habit of making small wax models of groups to visualize them from numerous angles.
The exhibition also features three larger-than-life-size bronze figures by Giovan Francesco Rustici, recently restored in Florence and never before seen outside Italy. Leonardo and Rustici worked closely together, and Rustici was immersed in Leonardo's studio practice. Because of their collaborations and similar aesthetic, Rustici's work is considered the best echo of Leonardo's lost activity as a sculptor.
The handling of the three elegant and lively figures, the variety of their drapery, and their anatomical realism give credence to an opinion related by Giorgio Vasari that "Leonardo worked at the group with his own hand, or that he at the least assisted Rustici with counsel and good judgment."
In the absence of any securely attributed sculptures by Leonardo himself, these works, along with his surviving drawings, give us a glimpse of Leonardo's sculptural accomplishments.
Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture: Inspiration and Invention is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta in association with the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. The exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities. The J. Paul Getty Museum is also grateful for the support of the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the Italian Consulate General, Los Angeles.
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Culver City Art District
Art Galleries & Exhibition Spaces
Culver City now features one of the highest concentrations of fine art galleries in Southern California with over twenty galleries located inside the city's borders and as many just over the border within the City of Los Angeles. Many of the galleries in and adjacent to Culver City are well-established, others are newly established. Although art galleries are located throughout the city, the highest concentration is in the Culver City Art District which includes Washington Boulevard between Helms Avenue and Fairfax Avenue, and La Cienega Boulevard, between Venice Boulevard and Blackwelder Street.
Located in the heart of the Culver City Arts District, the FrameStore on the corner of Helms and Washington becomes the convienent place to have your fine art treated to professional, expert custom design and framing. The place where those in the know take their art. |
Color Theory in Art
I - Introduction
For a long time, now, there has been a problem that fledgling designers have run into on a constant basis. This problem seems insignificant to most, but in actuality it is quite possibly the most important factor in a design or piece of artwork. Yes, you guessed it...I'm talking about the issue of COLOR.
Color can be a touchy subject. Sometimes artists use colors that evoke certain emotions. Other times artists use colors simply because they like the way they look. While any design instructor will tell you that the latter reason is completely wrong, I tend to disagree. In my personal opinion, color always has meaning. This meaning can be, as I mentioned, an emotional one or it can be a personal preference on the part of the artist himself, but it ALWAYS has purpose behind it.
There is nothing wrong with choosing a color because you like it because, after all, it is your work. However, when choosing a color you still want to make sure its use does not conflict with what you are trying to say with your work. Proper use of basic color theory can help you decide what colors match, as well as what each color makes people feel.
II - The Wheel
The color wheel has earned a place in the hearts of many artists and designers across the globe. Not because its the perfect tool, but because everybody, at some point, has had to make one of their own as part of a ridiculous art class project.
The wheel's construction is actually quite simple. You have your 6 basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Then, depending on which wheel you're looking at, you have extra, "in-between" colors that are mixes of the basic colors.
There are names for all of these colors, which are important to know. The following is a list of all of the names of colors and what they're good for.
Primary Colors: Red, Yellow, Blue. These 3 colors are the base colors for every other color on the color wheel. This is why they're called "primary." When you mix two primaries together, you get a secondary color.
Also note the triangular positioning of the primary colors on the color wheel, and how the secondary colors are next to them.
Primary colors are useful for designs or art that needs to have a sense of urgency. Primary colors are the most vivid colors when placed next to eachother, which is why you'll notice that most fast food joints use primary colors in their logos, as it evokes speed.
Secondary Colors: Orange, Green, Purple. These 3 colors are what you get when you mix the primary colors together.
They're located in-between the primary colors to indicate what colors they're made from. Notice how green is in-between yellow and blue.
Secondary colors are usually more interesting than primary colors, but they do not evoke speed and urgency.
Tertiary Colors: These are those "in-between" colors like Yellow-Green and Red-Violet. They're made by mixing one primary color and one secondary color together. There can be endless combinations of tertiary colors, depending on how they're mixed.
Complementary Colors: Red and Green, Blue and Orange, Purple and Yellow. These are the colors directly across from eachother on the color wheel. Don't let the name fool you, they rarely look good when used together. They're called "complementary" because, when used together, they become extremely vibrant and have heavy contrast.
Complementary colors are useful when you want to make something stand out. For example, if you use a green background and have a red circle on it, the red will jump off the page and be almost blinding.
Analogous Colors: Red and Orange, Blue and Green, etc. These are colors right next to eachother on the color wheel. They usually match extremely well, but they also create almost no contrast. They're good for very serene-feeling designs and artwork where you want viewers to feel comfortable.
III - Other Terms
There are plenty of other names and titles that refer to different aspects of color, but this is where it starts getting complex. If you want to know more about color, read on.
Warm Colors: Colors such as red, yellow, and orange. These colors evoke warmth because they remind us of things like the sun or fire.
Cool Colors: Colors like blue, green, and purple (violet). These colors evoke a cool feeling because they remind us of things like water or grass.
Neutral Colors: Gray, Brown. These aren't on most color wheels, but they're considered neutral because they don't contrast with much of anything. They're dull and uneventful.
Value: Usually refers to the amount of black in a color. The more black a color has, the darker its value.
Brightness: Refers to the amount of white in a color. The more white a color has, the brighter it is.
Saturation: Refers to the amount of a color used. When a color is at full saturation, it is extremely vibrant. When a color is "desaturated," a large amount of color has been removed. Desaturated colors tend to be close to being neutral because there is so much gray in them.
IV - Types of Color
As you might suspect, there are different types of color. Now is when you can throw the color wheel out the window.
RGB Color: This is color based upon light. Your computer monitor and television use RGB. The name "RGB" stands for Red, Green, Blue, which are the 3 primaries (with green replacing yellow). By combining these 3 colors, any other color can be produced. Remember, this color method is only used with light sources; it does not apply to printing.
CMYK Color: This is the color method based upon pigments. "CMYK" stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (its what the K stands for). Using these 4 colors, most other colors can be achieved. Unfortunately, CMYK cannot reproduce the same amount of colors as RGB can, which is why yellow-greens sometimes look a bit muddy when printed.
This is the method used by printers the world over, and is also a clever way of mixing paints.
Pantone (PMS) Color: This is yet another printing color method. PMS stands for "Pantone Matching System," and is a large list of specially mixed colors made by the Pantone Corporation. Instead of using CMYK to create colors, the pigments are created individually for purity.
For example, if I wanted to use a Red-Violet color, I'd pick PMS 233M. The color would be made exclusively for my project and would always print exactly how I want.
The only drawback to using PMS colors is that they're only useful for projects with few colors. They're also expensive.
©2007 Ryan Ford. All Rights Reserved. | |
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Wishing you all a beautiful California spring, full of art and color and fun!
Sincerely,
Chuck Mitchell
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