Monday Motivator: A Painting is Two Things

“… life isn’t a support system for art, but the other way around. … Art teaches us to be whole because it is whole.

“A painting is two things at the same time: a flat surface with little piles of color and a fictive world into which we expand our consciousness.

“In a Rembrandt self-portrait, creamy oil paint suddenly becomes translucent flesh with warm blood coursing beneath. Scumbled brushstrokes instantly transform into the folds in a cap.”

Brian Rutenberg, “Short Life Lessons“, World Class Performer.com 21 Feb 2021

Rembrandt also liked to use the handle of the brush to scratch into wet paint, a technique called sgraffito. Look closely at the curls in his hair in this self-portrait for exanple.

Rembrandt, Self-Portrait, 1660, in the Metropolitan Museum in New York

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