About Your Teacher For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been involved in some form of art. Drawing was my first love as a young child, turning my family into cartoon characters to create birthday cards. Then I went on to drawing my favorite teen idols (an essential stage in a teenager’s life) and gory sketches At your paint brushes, (that other side of every teenager!). After a very long break during which I get set,have fun! devoted my time to raising a family while working in the corporate world, i Welcome to class, everyone! I’m happy you’ve decided to join in rediscovered art through cardmaking. That led to mixed media art and art the fun. When Marieke confirmed that I was going to develop a journaling. workshop inspired by , I knew immediately which Ten years ago, I quit my day job to route I was going to take. This class is centered on making things become a full-time artist and simple, letting your inner child loose by using simple lines and YouTube original content creator. I vivd colors representative of Paul Gauguin’s primitivism style. The haven’t looked back since. My latest passions are painting abstract art and most important thing to remember : enjoy the process and HAVE sketching. Oh, and a good cityscape FUN! Sounds cliché but it’s so important. turns me on (true story). WHERE YOU CAN FIND ME :

Blog : www.creationsceecee.com YouTube : www.youtube.com/creationsceecee Facebook : www.facebook.com/CeeCees-Creations- 64144912197/?fref=ts Instagram : www.instagram.com/creationsceecee Twitter : www.twitter.com/creationsceecee Pinterest : www.pinterest.com/creationsceecee E-mail : [email protected] Who Was Paul Gauguin

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903)

Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist who was not well appreciated until after his death. Gauguin was later recognized for his experimental use of colors and Synthetist style and under the influence of the Cloisonnist style, paved the way to Primitivism. He was also an influential exponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms.

The Man and His Work

Like many masters, Paul Gauguin had an interesting and eventful life. He was born in Paris on 7 June 1848 to a journalist father and half-Peruvian mother. When he was 3 years old, his family moved to Lima, Peru during which voyage his father died leaving Paul, his mother and his sister to fend for themselves. After 4 years of living in Peru, the family decided to move back to Orléans, France, to live with Paul’s grandfather. Subsequently, he learned French, enrolled in the navy, married a Danish woman and had 5 children, 2 of which self portrait he would outlive. In 1884, Gauguin moved his wife and kids to Copenhagen, pursuing a career as a stockbroker.

By 1885, Paul Gauguin decided to return to Paris to paint full- time, leaving his family behind. Like his friend which whom he spent nine weeks painting in 1888, he experienced bouts of depression and attempted suicide. In 1891, frustrated by the lack of recognition and financial destitution, he sailed to the tropics to escape “everything that is artificial and conventional” to later settle in the French Polynesia. Gauguin’s vahine was 14 years old and gave him 2 mahana na atua children, one of which died in infancy. In 1903, he defied the church and the government and was sentenced to 3 months in prison. He died of syphilis, at 54 years old, before he could serve his sentence. Paul Gauguin is buried in the Calvary Cemetery in the Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia.

Gauguin had been interested in art since his childhood. In his spare time, he began painting. He also frequented galleries and purchased work by emerging artists. Gauguin formed a friendship with artist Camille Pissarro, who introduced him to various artists. He painted with Pissarro and Paul Cézanne. fatata te miti

2 21

ta aa no areois vahine no te tiare The Yellow Christ

It is said that Gauguin had a traumatic relationship Under the influence of folk art and Japanese with Vincent Van Gogh and found an unwavering prints. Gauguin evolved towards Cloisonnism, a style supporter in . Amongst the mocking were explained by the image being reduced to areas of pure , Pierre-Auguste Renoir and former colour separated by heavy black outlines (see The friend Pissarro. Yellow Christ, circa 1889, pictured above). In such works Gauguin paid little attention to classical perspective and boldly eliminated subtle gradations of colour, thereby dispensing with the two most characteristic principles of post-Renaissance painting. His painting later evolved towards Synthetism in which neither form nor colour predominates but each has an equal role.

Primitivism was an art movement of late 19th century represented by paintings and sculptures characterized by exaggerated body proportions, animal totems, geometric designs and stark contrasts. The first artist to systematically use these effects and achieve broad public success was Paul Gauguin. His bold, colorful and design-oriented paintings significantly influenced Modern Art. Gauguin’s influence on artists and movements in the early 20th century include , , Georges Braque, André Derain, Fauvism, Cubism, and Orphism among others.

The vogue for Gauguin’s work started soon after his death. Gauguin’s paintings are rarely offered for sale: his 1892 Nafae Faa Ipoipo (When Will you Marry Me?)

nafae faa ipoipo became the world’s most expensive artwork when its owner, the family of Rudolf Staechelin, sold it privately for US$300 million in February 2015. The buyer is believed to be the Qatar Museums.

3 A Word about This Class

My process My approach is quite simple – I used 2 of my own photos taken at a nearby park last year and made a composition. I incorporated the 2 people you see in reference photo #2 as nature watchers, looking towards the island in reference photo #1. The use of a mobile device that lets you enlarge a photo helps in this process but is not necessary. You will find the full size photos of these at the end of the document which you can print or photocopy and enlarge.

Using a style reminiscent to Primitivism and Synthetism, I then simplified the elements of each reference photos to render simple shapes, traced first with a pencil then painted in. With the help of a simple color palette, mostly analogous (next to each other on the color wheel), I was able to incorporate the man and the woman into the background therefore eliminating any predominance.

The photo on the right, Mata Mua, was my greatest influence in terms of color scheme. I also borrowed the tree idea as a vertical element that breaks up the predominantly horizontal orientation of my painting. It is a technique that I personally favor and that seems to be a recurrence in my works.

The colors of my final piece do not necessarily make sense in my regional context – I have yet to see turquoise water in my neck of the woods. As well, my photos were taken in the fall whereas the colors I have chosen are not quite representative of that season. But it is MY interpretation and what pleases my eye. I also like to provoke questions and interpretation.

I encourage you to do the same. Go with your favorite color scheme, reorganize the elements and follow your muse.

mata mua

4 12

How to Prep for this Class

Step 1 Step 3

The first thing you will have to do is find your reference Practice basic shapes around your reference photos material. They could be: images. This will help when you’re ready to start sketching in your art journal or on canvas. • Your own photographs • My reference photos Step 4

• A favorite Paul Gauguin painting Listen to the video lesson then pick up your brushes • Photos and images found on Pinterest and colors and start having fun. Keep it simple. Don’t stress. The fun is in the process. Speaking of Pinterest, I have created a board of reference material for this class. In that board, you will find Paul Gauguin’s most popular artwork and my reference photos. Feel free to use them as reference SUPPLIES LIST only. It goes without saying that these cannot be (these are the supplies I have used – can be reproduced mechanically for sale. substituted with whatever you have in your stash) MY PINTEREST PAUL GAUGUIN BOARD • 11” X 14” canvas • white gesso Step 2 • Citron Green Americana acrylic paint (Deco Art) Choose a color palette that you favor. I have found • Teal acrylic paint (Golden) this process to be essential in order to maximize the • Acrylic paints (Golden Fluids): fun. It is so much more enjoyable to work with colors o Permanent Green Light you love as opposed to ones that are imposed. So o Green Gold Ultramarine Violet what if it doesn’t make sense?! As long as it pleases o o Permanent Violet Dark you, I say go for it! o Turquois (Phtalo) I suggest you limit yourself to 3 analogous colors and o Anthraquinone Blue o Cadmium Red its different values. Analogous colors are next to each o Carbon Black other on the color wheel. In my case, I went for o Titanium White greens, blues and purples. With the addition of black • Paint brushes of various sizes, flats, rounds, of and white, I was able to mix different values of these your choice colors.

5

In Conclusion Thank you so much for participating in this Love Art, Happy Life workshop. I’ve had a blast putting this class together for you and I hope you’ll enjoy it and get inspired to create freely.

If you have any questions whatsoever, please free to communicate with me in the class Facebook Group and post photos of your own projects. I can’t wait to see what you create.

Last, but not least, a big thank you to Marieke Blokland for putting this worktogether this wonderful workshop and inviting me to be a part of it!

“Create for yourself, share with others.”

CeeCee

+ This PDF document was prepared by the Catherine Cote and is intended for students of the Love Art Happy Life workshop only. It may not be reproduced or sold. + Referenced sites : Paul Gauguin on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gauguin and Paul Gauguin, the Complete Works http://www.paul-gauguin.net/

Reference Images