Random Comments

[Arcadia]

9 hours ago, Caya said:

I watched it another time - do you mean that the 1932 animation mimics three dimensions by shading the chars and trees and such, while the 2018 one is unapologetically two dimensional?

And Caya wins the no-prize! It struck me that they were attempting some level of dimensionality in the older film, and it actually feels quite natural, in spite of its antiquity. But in the newer one, with all the 3D tools now available, they went for a strictly 2D (and to my eye, overly-simplistic and unnatural) look. Good catch, and I like all the other observations as well. The '32 film is pretty gorgeous, in animation terms.

1 hour ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

 (there was one painter, whose name I never can recall, who somehow made round things look even rounder than round).

Ooo, I'm intrigued, any chance you can recall the name or find an example?

[Carol the Dabbler]

I'm sure you'd recognize the painter's name, and would then apply some technical term to what I'm calling rounder than round.    I don't offhand even have an inkling of that person's name, though -- I just recognize their work when I see it, which will presumably happen again sometime in the next few decades.

Near as I recall, the basic effect is that anything that's normally more-or-less cylindrical is very cylindrical -- trees, people, etc.  Maybe it'd be more accurate to say that they portray things as even rounder than usual?

[besleybean]

Ben Nicolson?!

[Arcadia]

Not unless there's more than one of him.  

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, besleybean said:

Ben Nicolson?!

Google says I must mean Ben Nicholson, but the paintings they show for him are just geometric shapes.

The person I'm talking about (an American man, I'm pretty sure) does basically representational stuff, just somewhat exaggerated in a geometrical sort of way.  Mostly showing places with people, as I recall.

[Arcadia]

Hmm. Well, if you run across him, let me know, I'm curious.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I've been trying to think where I might have come across those paintings, and thought it was probably when I was living in Cedar Rapids, so I've been googling artists from Iowa, and I think I'm on the right track.

Robin Moline isn't the one I had in mind, but her style has some of the ultra-round effect that I was talking about.  Note the spherical trees in this Saturday Evening Post cover:

Some of Grant Wood's paintings have some of that characteristic too -- note the woman in this painting:

So maybe it's a regional style?  How would you describe it?

My current best guess is that I'm thinking of some lesser-known artist whose work I saw at the art museum in Cedar Rapids.

 

[Arcadia]

Hmmm. I don't know if there's a name for this style of art. Grant Wood was called a Regionalist, but that's to do with what he painted, not how.

Anyway, how they both achieved that rounded effect is by smoothing out the details. No rocks in the fields, no creases in the clothes, no sky holes in the trees, etc. Then apply your usual shading technique and voila. It's very peaceful, isn't it? I could live there!

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I've been looking up some other American Regionalist artists, and many of them also have some of that roundness in their work.  Thinking back, I believe I've also seen it in Midwestern WPA murals from the 1930's, where it added a heroic element to the depiction of ordinary Americans.  Moline (a younger artist inspired by Wood) describes her own style as both Regionalistic and surrealistic, and I'd have to agree on both counts.

Still wish I knew whose work I'm thinking of, though!  It was even rounder, I swear.

[Arcadia]

Ah, you mentioned the WPA murals and that does ring a bell, there are some in that style. Good eye!

Stop me if I've told this story before ... a friend and I were driving to Maine a few years ago, and I discovered the hard way that she was a terrible navigator. (ahem) Anyway, we ended up on some road at rush hour  (my memory says the Taconic Parkway, but don't quote me on that) that had nightmare traffic; we were inching along. After a while I started noticing the bridges crossing the road -- they were all strikingly different and quite unusual. Somehow we discovered they were all WPA projects, each one designed by a different architect. It was beautiful and fascinating; we probably wouldn't even have noticed them if we'd been going at speed. Almost made the nightmare journey worthwhile. No, my friend was not allowed to navigate on the way home.  

I love that I'm so close to the Skyline Drive/Parkway … views aside, the road itself is quite beautiful (for a road). All those rock walls and tunnels built by the WPA. My uncle worked up there, somewhere. Amazing project. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

I started noticing the bridges crossing the road -- they were all strikingly different and quite unusual. Somehow we discovered they were all WPA projects, each one designed by a different architect. It was beautiful and fascinating....

If you're ever over this way, we can tour Columbus, Indiana.  One of the big local corporations has sponsored well-known architects (e.g., both Saarinens) to design various buildings -- its own and others.

[Arcadia]

That's a nice thing about D.C., too --- some fabulous architecture. Can't say much for most of the statues, tho.  

[J.P.]

… and columns. I remember A LOT of columns. Everywhere.

[Arcadia]

We do like our Greek influences.