Texture

1. Texture Chapter 8 ArtTalk Textbook

2. Texture • Texture is the element of art that refers to how things feel, or look as if they might feel, if touched. • Every surface has a texture. • Texture plays an active part in many decisions we make – what to wear, what to eat, how things taste, etc.

3. How You Perceive Texture • You perceive texture with two of your senses – touch and vision.

4. How You Perceive Texture • When you actually touch something to determine it’s texture, you experience texture. • When you look at a photo of velvet, leather, concrete, or ice, you see surface patterns of light and dark that bring back memories of how those surfaces really feel.

5. How You Perceive Texture • Visual texture is the illusion of a three-dimensional surface. If you touch it, it’s not what your eyes told you to expect.

6. 2 Types of Texture • Simulated texture imitates real textures. For example, plastic laminates can be made to look like wood. Manufactured fabrics imitate leather and fur. • Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun’s Self Portrait has many different kinds of textured surfaces – all simulated. Look closely at the textures of the fabrics, jewels, skin, and hair. Yet the actual texture is that of the painting. Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Self Portrait. 1781. Oil on canvas. 25 1/2 in. x 21 1/4 in ( 64.8 x 54 cm). Kimbell Art Museum, Ft. Worth, TX.

7. 2 Types of Texture • Invented textures are two-dimensionalpatterns created by the repetition of lines or shapes. • Faux finishes are an example of invented texture. Both of these wall treatments are invented texture.

8. Texture and Value • The look of a surface depends on the manner in which it reflects light. • Every surface is an arrangement of dark and light values. Jeffrey Smart Baisden, Night Watch. 2002. 20 x 30 in. Colored Pencil on Strathmore Museum Board Arlene Steinberg, I Found Them! Colored Pencil. 6” x 8”. Jeffrey Smart Baisden, Silver Linings. 1997. 22 x 30 in. Colored Pencil on Strathmore Museum Board

9. Texture and ValueRough and Smooth Textures • The roughness or smoothness of a texture can be determined by looking at the shadows. • A rough surface reflects light unevenly. Rough textures show irregular patterns of light and shadow. • The high places of a rough-textured surfacecatch the light, creating shadows of different sizes and shapes. Arlene Steinberg, Bountiful. Colored pencil. 10 x 8 in. Soren Emil Carlsen, The Surf. 1907. Oil on canvas. 64 X 74" (162.56 x 187.96 cm.).

10. Texture and ValueRough and Smooth Textures • A smooth texture reflects light evenly. • Your eye glides across these objects uninterrupted by shadows. Wendell Castle, Ghost Clock. 1985. Bleached Honduras mahogany. 86 ¼ x 24 ½ x 15 in. (219 x 62.2 x 28.1 cm). Smithsonian American Art Museum Carolyn Brady, Tonalization. 1984. Watercolor on paper. 53 ½ x 75 ½ in.

11. Texture and ValueMatte and Shiny Textures • A matte surface is a surface that reflects a soft, dull light. Some examples of matte surfaces are paper, denim, unfinished wood, and skin. • A shiny surface is the opposite of a matte surface – it reflects so much bright light that it seems to glow. • Artists can create shiny surfaces with the use of high contrasts in value.

12. How Artists Use Texture • Artists use texture to appeal to the viewer’s memories of texture. This is why when we look at velvet, we can almost feel it. When we see ice cream, we can almost taste it. When we see sharp knives, we can sense the danger.

13. How Artists Use Texture • Artist Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) used a lot of texture in his art. Because of this, his art is amazingly sensuous – you can almost feel the material that the clothes are made of. Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Portrait of Madame Henriot. 1877. Oil on canvas. The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA. Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The Toilette; Woman Combing Her Hair. c.1907-1908. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France Pierre Auguste Renoir, City Dance (Suzanne Valadon and Eugène Pierre Lestringuez). 1883. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France.

14. How Artists Use Texture • Ivan Albright (1897-1983) was another artist who used texture extensively in his art. • Albright focused on themes that included life, death, and the passage of time – in this case, the wrinkles of old age. • Albright spent years completing some of his paintings. Ivan Albright, Self-Portrait. 1935. Oil on canvas. 30 3/8 x 19 7/8 in. The Art Institute of Chicago

15. How Artists Use Texture • Look how Janet Fish (b. 1938) handles texture, reflection, and transparency in her work.

16. How Artists Use Texture • Trompe-l’oeil (French for “fool the eye”) painters were masters of visual texture. • Every color and valuepattern of every surface is copied exactly, which is what makes the work so believable.

17. How Artists Use Texture • Many painters add real textures to their paintings. • Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) used such thick paint on his canvas that his swirling brushstrokes created a rough surface. • The light catching the ridges made his colors look brighter.

18. How Artists Use Texture • Some painters add real texture to their work through collage – pasting bits and pieces of paper and fabric onto a painting. • Miriam Schapiro (b. 1923) is a famous collage artist.

19. How Artists Use Texture • Max Ernst (1891-1976) used three unusual techniques in his art: • Frottage • Grattage • Decalcomania

20. How Artists Use Texture • Frottage is a rubbing technique. A piece of paper is put over a textured surface, and some kind of drawing implement is rubbed over the top to create a textured look. • Max Ernst used a slight variation of this technique. He would put a freshly painted canvas right-side-up over a raised texture and scrape across the surface of the paint. • Max Ernst was responsible for the bottom two images – the leaf and the color frottage pictures you see. Max Ernst Max Ernst

21. How Artists Use Texture • Grattage is another technique used by Max Ernst. Grattage consists of scratching into wet paint with a variety of tools, such as forks, razors, and combs. • This particular piece by Minsk was done with pastel and gouache (opaque water color), with black tempera painted over the top. Then the design was scratched into the surface so the underlying colors could show through.

22. How Artists Use Texture • Decalcomania is yet another technique used by Ernst. In essence, decalcomania is forcing paint into random textured patterns. • One way to do this is to put paint on a piece of paper or canvas. Put another piece of paper on top of the wet paint and “blot” them together. Ernst would then use the random patterns as part of his fantasy landscapes.

23. Meet the ArtistSandy Skoglund • Sandy Skoglund (b. 1946) is a contemporary American artist who builds installations, working with found materials and strangely colored animal sculptures. • Her installations are often reproductions of everydays environments being overrun by nature. • Then, she photographs the installations, which is as much a part of the piece as the installation itself.

24. Meet the ArtistSandy Skoglund • Her installations are often intricate reproductions of everyday life – lawn, living room, etc., which are being overrun by nature in the form of brightly colored animals. • Each installation takes about six months to complete.

25. Meet the ArtistSandy Skoglund • The environment is constructed from found materials. • Skoglund hand sculpts each of the animals you see in her installations. • The “set” is painted in a single color and then filled with objects to create a fantastic and absurd scenario.

26. Meet the ArtistSandy Skoglund • Each of Skoglund’s pieces conveys a symbolic message. • The title of The Green House indicates the message of the work. • Just as the man and the woman seem unaware that they are literally living in a green house and are surrounded by blue and green dogs, many people are unaware of their own relationship with nature. • The title suggests the dangers that man creates for nature – the “greenhouse effect” being a global warming created by pollution. • The artist is pointing out that pollution is out of control, and many people, like those in the picture do not notice or care.

27. Objective Assessment – Building VocabularyWrite the entire definition, then add the term that best matches the definition. • The element of art that refers to how things feel, or look as if they might feel if touched. • The illusion of a three-dimensional surface. • A surface that reflects a soft, dull light. • An artwork onto which bits and pieces of textured paper and fabric have been pasted. • A method of producing textures by rubbing crayon over paper placed over a rough-textured surface, or scraping across a freshly painted canvas that has been placed over a similar surface. • The technique of scratching into wet paint with a variety of tools to create texture. • A technique of creating random texture patterns by applying thick paint to two surfaces, pressing them together, and then pulling them apart.

28. Objective Assessment – Reviewing Art FactsWrite the following questions and then the answer. • With what senses is texture perceived? • What is the difference between real and visual texture? • What is the difference between simulated and invented texture? • Name and describe the four types of texture. • What determines how a surface looks? • How can the roughness or smoothness of a texture be determined? • What kind of a surface reflects light unevenly? • What kind of texture reflects light evenly?