Homer, an American Realist
I saw the Simpsons movie the other day. I can’t say much about the film, but I could say something about Winslow Homer (1836-1910). “If a man wants to be an artist, he should never look at paintings,” he once said.
Homer was a self taught realist who first started out as an illustrator, and by 27, began painting in oils. He didn’t care about outside influence and theory, and went with straight observation. He has said that after choosing his subject, that he paints it exactly as it appears. As far as European art? Meh, said he.
By 38, he began using watercolors. Back then, watercolors weren’t used as a major medium. It was more for sketching than for final pieces. But Homer used it masterfully, mostly brandishing his brush with marine visions of the sea.
August 6th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Homer was an excellent artist with watercolors. I loved his ideas of not painting insde the “BOX” today to many artists that have BFA’s think inside the box and never make it big. I think that if they took up Homers theroy and stepped otside the box extrodinay things would happen. (sorry about any spelling errors.