A Making A Mark Project - Working in a series

Wheatstacks (end of summer) 1890-91 - Claud Monet
Oil on canvas, 60 x 100 cm (23 5/8 x 39 3/8 in);
The Art Institute of Chicago

Working in a series - looking at the benefits of repetition and developing a series around one motif; picking up on Monet's series paintings and other artists who've developed major themes and painted the same motif several times. I'll be looking to feature artist bloggers during this project and hope to do some interviews.
Making A Mark in 2008 - The Plan

My work plan for 2008 indicates a project about working in a series during September and October. I've been looking forward to doing this one as it's a practice I ponder on quite a bit - and hopefully it's going to get quite a few people who read this blog thinking about 'working in a series' too.

To some extent I think this project will pick up on and reiterate aspects of art highlighted during the earlier projects about composition, colour and Japanese prints. I'm hoping that focusing on specific artists and specific series might make the different aspects appear more like a coherent whole.

In this particular post I'm going to highlight some of artists and the series paintings I'm hoping to cover in the next few weeks - although that might be a somewhat optimistic hope! It maybe that this is a project is a series of posts with an indefinite end.......... It'll naturally finish when I've nothing left to say.

Claude Monet

Monet is a really great painter of series and had a number of themes at different times. His primary interest was in the impact of light on colour underpinned them all. He tended to paint the same subject matter repeatedly, recording how its appearance changed with the time of day

• Buildings: Rouen Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament, Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross Bridge
• landscapes: haystacks, (see image at top) and
• trees: the Arm of the Seine and Poplars on the Epte
• the garden at Giverny: nympheas (water lillies) and/or the Japanese Bridge

Nypheas by Claude Monet
Musée Marmottan

I might try and have a go at following in his footsteps and drawing the two London bridges he painted - both of which are very familiar to me.

Edgar Degas:

Series paintings by Degas tend to feature people, who are very often women.

• ballet dancers
• laundresses
• women washing and combing their hair
• racehorses and their riders

This aspect will mean I'll also finally try and finish my draft of the information site for Degas in my Resources for Art Lovers series.

Vincent Van Gogh -sunflowers. I've already added in a new section to the Vincent van Gogh - Resources for art Lovers site and will be looking to develop that further.

Andy Warhol - paintings, drawings and silkscreen prints

• shoes, shoes, shoes
• Campbells Soup cans
• Marilyn Monroe

Venice: There are a number of places which exert a huge draw on artists and generate very many paintings over the years. One such place is Venice.

A lot of artists have found Venice particularly inspiring across centures - including Canaletto, Turner, Sargent and Whistler - I'll be trying to highlight just some of them as well as looking at more contemporary artists who paint Venice - such as Ken Howard

The Balcony from "Second Venice Set," 1879-80,
11 5/8 x 7 7/8 inches, etchingby James McNeill Whistler

I think this may well be an interesting way of examining how people can portray the same subject matter as a series and still produce something which is entirely unique to them. I'm hoping this might provide some more pointers about creativity of vision and style eg what are the main ways in which a painter differentiates their style when making a painting.

Other artists
I'm interested in:

• learning more about other artists who have also painted in series (maybe Wayne Thiebaud and his cakes and pastries) - although this might just develop as a list for the time being.
• learning about examples of bloggers who have painted in series (eg Duane Keiser and the eggs and the PB&J sandwich; Tracy Helgeson and her barns) . If you've painted a series this is you, please leave a comment below and identify your blog URL and the series you've undertaken

I'd be interested to know which artist and which series paintings sprang to mind for you when you saw this topic?

Art project - overall apprach
As with all my Making A Mark projects, I'll:

• try to find a sensible structure to order information
• learn as I go by generating links to websites providing more information
• produce a blog post synopsis of the main learning points identified
• make a record of what I've found in a permanent site - and a summary of the relevant blog posts. During the course of the project, I'll develop an information site called Working in Series - Resources for Art Lovers as well as adding in relevant information to already existing resource sites.

I'll let you know when the latter is published and you are very welcome to bookmark and/or link to it. If anybody has suggestions for good sites which might be included in it please do leave a comment below.

Similarly if anybody would like to join in with this project and maybe do some research of your own you are very welcome. Let me know by leaving a comment.

I've no idea at the moment where I'm going to start - any suggestions?