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Inspiration from Artists Wk 74 : Chris Krupinski and Audrey Johns
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Message
Posted
Welcome to this week thread the featuring artist are Christ Krupinski and Audrey Johns. Jenny will open with her introduction to Chris Kupinski and on Wednesday I will introduce Audrey Johns , I hope you have a good week and enjoy the featured artists and their work.
Edited
by Paul (Dixie) Dean
Posted
Although American artist Chris Krupinski has been drawing and painting all her life, watercolour became her passion after she discovered the medium in the mid 1980s, and she has since become widely regarded, both nationally and internationally, as a brilliant watercolourist.
The training she received pursuing an art education and graphic design degree honed her technical abilities but, more importantly, it is the discipline of painting every day that has led to her success. She mainly paints vibrant still lifes, focusing on shapes, patterns and light and shade. She loves colour and found that traditional watercolour wet in wet didn’t work for her, so she uses many glazes of colour on dry paper to build colours to a rich vibrancy, as well as dry brush to achieve texture. When starting a painting she concentrates on the focal point and paints that area to completion, which sets the tone for the rest of the painting.
Although her work is detailed and realistic, she sees it through the eyes of an abstract artist, focusing on design and composition and working with contrasts: lights and darks, warm and cool colours, complementary hues, hard and soft edges.
She says the best advice she has been given as an artist is ‘to paint who you are and not what someone else tells you that you need to be’. She has been a featured artist in numerous national art magazines, including The Artist.
Posted
Ultra-realism. Extremely skillful - for me, however, of very little interest at all. She is immensely competent - but that's not enough for me... I would apologize for that but - not sure why I should, really: compare these paintings with Steve Hall's, or of course Edward Wesson's, and all I'm getting is photographic images which add nothing to my understanding or appreciation of the objects depicted.
Where is the humanity in these paintings?
Posted
There’s no doubt that she has exceptional skill with her watercolours. A little too realistic for me, and I wondered if she painted anything other than ‘fabric and fruit with a glass or metal object’…. And wouldn’t she get bored with painting essentially the same subject matter over and over? Maybe she’s stuck in a comfort zone, or maybe she sells so many of them (way out of my price range!), that she’s happy doing so many of them.
I think she should do more of this:
Posted
Incredible skill without doubt, but skill alone doesn’t necessarily make for a great painting - hyper realism at its extreme, overly complex and confusing with so much colour and detail in some of her backgrounds.
Interesting to see nonetheless, far beyond my capabilities, but I’ve never wanted to paint this way… give me a Ken Howard 45 minute plein air oil sketch any day, something that exudes passion and soul!
Edited
by Alan Bickley
Posted
A reaction I was expecting! I’m not keen on such hyper-realistic work, either, but thought it worth looking at, just for her incredible watercolour skills - and I do like her vibrant colours. (Judging by the hundreds of awards she’s collected over the years, though, there’s no doubt that her work is very popular.)
Edited
by Jenny Harris
Posted
Interesting and yes very skilful work and I think you could use it as a lesson in painting form , light and colour, though I wouldn’t personally want to be quite so literal. I feel it’s almost ‘beyond a photo’ if that makes sense.
I see what Jenny means re design and composition and these are a few I selected. I imagine she must take a considerable time to set up and light her subjects.
Posted
I looked at the selected paintings several time as I wasn’t sure I could made a comment without having a good look.
They are not for my wall even if I could afford one , but there is no denying her skill the glass work , the material, just everything is so good . I have to tell myself that they are watercolours not photos and that’s where they loose it for me , simply I like a painting to look like a painting . I would love to spend some time actually watching her paint and ask questions just to see how it’s done. A superbly skilled and very talented artist whose work I’m pleased to have seen and to know that it’s possible to paint so realistically in watercolour.
Posted
Jenny, yes I’m glad you chose her, so interesting to see and her glasswork is excellent. I do think there’s something to learn from her use of shape and shadows, especially if you are setting up a still life. I find them intriguing, though as Dixie says, probably well definitely not for my wall. For watercolour she has a great use of rich colour, just would be good if a bit looser and more impressionistic. It would be interesting to see her method. I wonder if anything on YouTube?
Carol, yes maybe it’s the dramatic angle that appeals?
Posted
I might have posted a somewhat different comment if I'd seen the painting of those terns first: she's caught them beautifully.
I've been wondering how it IS possible to paint so realistically in watercolour - not that I want to, but it does make one think. The ultra-realist images must take very careful planning; very fine brushes; probably hot-pressed paper or Bristol board; were most of us to try, I suspect we'd be hitting the tape and masking fluid with some frequency - and yet, I get the impression (could be quite wrong) that this artist doesn't; you rarely see masking that isn't a bit self-advertising .... i.e. you know it's been used. I'm not getting that impression here...
Her still-life paintings - well, I think they've shaken us all with their proficiency, and I wish I could appreciate them - but there it is. As Alan says, there's more to good painting than proficiency. She does achieve more than proficiency in her portrait of those terns, though - this is just how they are, beautiful creatures if they're not mobbing you because you've got too near their eggs (well, still beautiful, but you're unlikely to appreciate it). Reminds me of the great Charles Tunnicliffe, of blessed memory.
