Activity #10 Medium and Technique

Bright, vibrant colors that maintain their clarity and radiance for years, is typical o of the pieces by American artist Jacob Lawrence. To achieve this affect Lawrence chooses a “tempura medium, which is an aqueous medium like watercolor. Tempura, however dries to a tough and insoluble firm surface, similar to oil paintings. The advantage of tempura is the preservation of its original brilliance and lucidity” (Getlein, p 171-172 ). In Lawrence’s’ Daybreak - A Time to Rest primary and secondary colors are employed so intensely that it gives an impasto affect, where it appears the colors were applied in multiple layers to magnify their value. For example in the background of the piece a blue hue is used in varying value to give an illusion of a sky that is slowly fading from the darkness of a night sky to the brightness of a blue daytime sky. There are small lines of a very thin strokes of blue that almost allows the whiteness of the canvass thru that further suggest the dawning of a new day. This blue is contrast against a much intense value of blue that may be perceived as either the darkness of a night ocean or the darkness of a very far away night time sky.

Jasper Johns, also an American artist medium of choice is an “encaustic canvas in which powered color (pigment) is mixed with wax and resin. The wax when heated eases the tasks of spreading the pigments for the Artist. This technique originated in Ancient Greece and is not a popular method for contemporary artists. The advantage of using an encaustic canvas is that the wax overtime is more durable than oil paintings” (Getlein, p 169). The encaustic canvas gives the painting more visual texture, that is the paint appears to be thick, but the thickness of the paint provides a totally different affect than the thickness of the paint in a Tempura piece, in which the thickness gives a vibrancy. In an encaustic the thickness almost gives off a roughness to the piece, it provides a visual texture. In Perilous Nights, John employs all tertiary colors and the piece is divided in two halves. The right half of the portrait, there are differing values of black, the paint is spread so thickly in some spots that it is true black whereas in other spots the strokes are so light that they are vary from gray to small spots that appears void of color. There are very faint lines of violet that runs thru the right side as well, that has no apparent pattern. On the left side of the piece, John uses vertical and horizontal lines to create rectangular and square geometric shapes each with their own varying color pattern and texture. In addition to the multiple patterns and texture, John also make use of objects that definitely opens the piece to more interpretations. The arms extending downward in the upper right hand corner of the piece are objects. The objects are not obvious to the eye when viewing the piece as an image, however in the Gallery the objects are detectable and gives the piece an additional dimension.

Getlein, Mark. Living With Art 8th. Ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2008.