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"Scrib"
by Charles Csuri
Consider the Mat - The Fine Art of Printing
Loose prints? Would you go out in public naked? Then why not consider the mat for your print: It protects; it holds supports; it defines a space for an image; and it sets a TONE. It’s more than protection; it’s a statement.
There are three things to consider when choosing a mat; materials, size, and color. Most mat board materials should be smooth, with little or no texture. Avoid texture, which can distract the eye from the image, particularly with the super-smooth surfaces of most photographic prints.
Use Archival Materials
If longevity is of concern - and it most always is - be sure to use archival materials that are chemically inert with relatively low acidity. Archival materials age well over time and won’t degrade prints. This includes all materials such as tape, adhesive, tissue, etc. Ask your art supplier for assistance.
How big should your mat be?
Mat size depends on the size of your prints. Avoid equal depths for the mat and the frame. Large frames often support mats thinner than they are. Contemporary practices tend toward thinner, simpler frames and so favor wider mats -- sometimes significantly thicker. Mat borders rarely drop below 3 inches no matter how small the print. They are rarely less than 15% of the width of the smallest dimension of a print and they may be more - sometimes significantly more. Big mats make a statement: They provide space in which to better consider an image. As long as the image doesn’t get lost in the space, it’s not too big.
The window of a mat is usually placed slightly higher than the center. The sides may be of equal width but the top and bottom aren’t. Add a little space to the bottom to create a visually more appealing appearance and provide a stable base for the image. If the mat overlaps the image area, the mat is signed. Mats are created for the image, not the reverse, so no matter what never crop the image to fit the mat.
Color - and essential characteristic
The classic color for mats is white but which white? And how do you choose? Pick a white, any white, but be mindful of the other whites when you do: the whites within an image and the paper’s white. Pay attention to the whites within your image. You can create color contrast or color match with the mat, accenting it’s natural characteristics or reinforcing them - in both cases making them more convincing. It is usually best to customize the white to be compatible with your image.
While white tends to be the standard for digital and photographic images, it is not the only mat color. Neutrals are the second most-popular color, ranging from very light to very dark. Semi-neutrals can be effective, introducing trace amounts of hue. Earth tones are also popular, whether light, dark, neutral, or saturated.
Some mats use two colors, one for the top mat and another for the bottom mat, usually seen as a much thinner line of color - an accent. There are two particularly useful approaches with two-toned mats: 1) Create a progression color; if the image is dark, the small accent of color might be medium and the outside color light. 2) You might also make a subtle transition from one hue to another, such as an earth tone to a cream color.
French mats color the cut line. The small, angled plane left by the creation of the window is painted, stained, or even gilded. It takes care to do it well, but it can be distinctive.
Don’t get too fancy. If you hand paint the surface of the mat or cover it with another image, the images may clash [or detract from one another]. Support material should not compete with the image.
Also, in general, standardization works better with the presentation of many images together.
Get a good look
A good mat has straight, clean edges with flawless surfaces. No nicks and stray fibers; no chipped corners or over cut lines. It doesn’t have fingerprints. It makes a statement but doesn’t scream for attention. If your work isn’t getting the reception you think it deserves, change the presentation. The way you present things can have a big impact on how they are received.
Source: Photoshop User Magazine, Nov 2009
"Magnetism"
by Damn Engine
Henri Matisse in Mid-Life, 1913 to 1917
When we think of Henri Matisse we rush to indulge in the pleasure that his art provides without coming to grips with its complexities. Compared with the Cubist-period work of his near contemporary Picasso - one picture after another that can be like a cheese grater for the eyes - even the most recondite Matisse is pretty beguiling. All those canvases flush with rose pink and aqua, filled with dancers and flowers and fruit -- it’s hard to look at them and remember the tough-minded choices that went into them.
So, why focus on just four years? Because they were the moment when Matisse fundamentally reinvented painting. His works of that period - including canvases, prints, drawings, and sculptures - were radical inventions, new answers to the fundamental question of how to construct a picture. They were also, no surprise, considered ugly and incomprehensible in their time. Matisse once said that he wanted viewers to feel about his art the way they would about “a comfortable chair” - an odd sentiment from a man whose art was more like and electric chair.
Between, 1913 and 1917, Matisse was anxious. He entered his mid-40s more visible than ever in the art world (thanks to a single Russian patron, Sergei Shchukin, a wealthy merchant willing to fill his drawing room with Matisse’s most difficult pictures while Moscow society snickered), while to the French his work was still considered an eyesore. Even Matisse’s fiercest pictures, with their dizzying color, could look a bit “decorative” - a dismissive word thrown at him all of the time. During these years he became no longer regarded as avant-garde losing this title to Picasso, 12 years his junior. As a result, his life would leap into radical distortion and near abstraction. Creating much of this work in the shadow of World War I.
Under the conditions of war, Matisse began to produce pictures based on what he called the “methods of modern construction.” Struggling to mount a personal response to the challenges of Cubism, he approached the very edge of abstraction. Things and people were reduced to concise signs of themselves, always remaining attached to the visible world. For Matisse it was the sum of the impressions created by line and color that conveyed expression and physical appearance. He would often draw out full conventional renderings and them deconstruct them with angularity and flattening.
After 1917, Matisse returned - or you might say retreated - to more conventional renderings of space and form. A post-Impressionism style of building pictures out of colliding zones of pyrotechnic color. But it is his mid-life work, fertile experiments that leave us truly mesmerized, that speak to his complexity and depth.
Read More about -- Henri Matisse
Source: excerpts from an article by Richard Lacayo; Time Magazine;Vol 175 no.14, 2010
Here's a thought -- How about Working for Free!
Unpaid internships are common among students who get some academic incentive in lieu of a paycheck. But during a “recession” interning for a company can be a great way to get a feel for the job without making a long-term commitment. It can also be a way to get yourself noticed in a very competitive job market. Even middle-aged professionals are willing to work for free in hopes that it will land them a paying gig or their dream job.
Do you have questions for MOCA‘s staff?
The Portsmouth News Featured Artist, Des Kilfeather
Paintings Inspired By Short Stories
Des Kilfeather’s continuing philosophical exploration of power and apathy has taken him on a collaborative journey with James Joyce and his Dubliners texts. Each of the 15 stories inspired deep contemplation on the superficial narrative, how this relates to Joyce’s sophisticated and complex use of metaphor and what might have been his actual intention.
Drawing from personal experiences of his Irish Catholic childhood and adult life, Kilfeather has made a series of 16 scanned watercolor paintings that interrogate the perpetual cultural relevance of Dubliners and offer a fresh metaphorical interpretation. As a second act within this process, Kilfeather revisited his interpretation of the early twentieth century Dubliners philosophy of Joyce, applying a contemporary “contextualisation.” Kilfeather then added photography and digitally handwritten text to his scanned paintings to make further digital montage works that bring his interpretation into a late twentieth and early twenty first century cultural context.
As a concluding stage of the process for this exhibition and to combine physical substance with his metaphysical thinking, linking the past to our present, Kilfeather made a digital pigment ink print of the scanned watercolor Ivy Days with contemporary photography, then pulled the digital print through a traditional press, intaglio printing from an etched copper plate, finally adding press cuttings, impasto acrylic paint and drawing with charcoal.
Des works in many mediums including photography/digital imagery, oil paint, and pencil. See More of Des’ inspiring "Outsider" work at: Des Kilfeather
This page posted 12 April 2010
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