French painter Henri Rousseau once said, “Nothing makes me so happy as to observe nature and
to paint what I see. Just imagine, when I go out into the countryside and see the sun
and the green and everything flowering, I say to myself "Yes indeed, all that belongs
to me!"
Happy Sunday, everyone! Here’s another 5 artists in 5 minutes, all about nature.
Anna Atkins was an english botanist and photographer. In 1842, her friend Sir John Herschel invented
the cyanotype, a photographic process, and she began to make contact prints of dried
algae. She privately published a book called Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions.
The book is considered the first to be illustrated with photographs, and she is known as one
of the the first woman photographers.
Henri Rousseau was the one who gave us that beginning quote. He was a French Post-Impressionist
Primitive, or naive painter. He was nicknamed Le Douanier, which is the customs officer,
referencing his job as a toll collector. He didn’t start painting seriously until his
early forties, and by 49 he retired to paint full time.
He’s best known for his paintings of jungle scenes, despite the fact that he never left
France or saw a jungle. Rousseau claimed he had "no teacher other than nature", and studied
illustrated books, botanical gardens in Paris, and taxidermy wild animals. He would listen
to the stories of soldiers who traveled to Mexico and their description of the subtropical
landscape.
Ridiculed during his lifetime for his flat, childish style, Rousseau was later recognized
for his influence over younger avant-garde artists.
Ansel Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist. He’s known for his large
format, black-and-white landscape photographs of the American west, especially Yosemite
National Park.
Adams was a “master of control”, and wrote many books about technique. Along with Fred
Archer, he developed a process called the Zone System to determine optimal exposure
and development time for a photo. He also advocated something called previsualization,
where the photographer would imagine exactly how they wanted the final print to look before
he even takes the shot.
Agnes Denes is a Hungarian-American conceptual artist known for working in a wide range of
media. Possibly her most well known work was Wheatfield, a Confrontation in 1982. For six-months,
with the support of the Public Art Fund, she planted a field of golden wheat on two acres
of landfill near Wall Street and the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, which is
now Battery Park City and the World Financial Center.
David Hockney is an British artist who was an important contributor to the Pop art movement
of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th
century.
He’s probably most recognized for his acrylic paintings of swimming pools in Los Angeles,
where he lived for several years.
In the 90s, he frequently returns to Yorkshire regularly, and in 1997, with the encouragement
of his friend, he started to paint the landscape. At first he painted from memory, even memories
from his childhood, but in 2005 he began to paint en plein air.
He would paint intensive studies in watercolor, then created large, mural sized paintings
by painting multiple canvases that he would place together. To help him visualize the
work he would take a photograph everyday,
Hockney hasn’t shyed away from trying new things. Also a printmaker and photographer,
he’s also made films, set up similar to his large paintings, as well as numerous paintings
on iPad and iPhone, which he like to send to his friends.
Now there’s a ton more artworks out there that have to do with nature that weren’t
in this video. So share in the comment section below: who/what is your favorite artist or
artwork that have to do with nature.
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Thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you guys next time.