"One of the things that attracts me to vintage and antique things is they have stories, and even if I don't know the stories, I make them up."
-Mary Kay Andrews
In my recent few years of doing art I've grown to have a deeper appreciation for vintage and retro things. If you step into my workspace, you'll find several pieces of decor that are vintage, or that I have made to look vintage. I like vintage colour schemes, and I like vintage movies. I'm a big fan of vintage clothing, and handwritten letters, grandfather clocks and typewriters. All in all, the saying "old is gold" really resonates with me. I absolutely love owning, or looking at things and items that has some sort of history, some sort of story woven in into every fibre of its existence.
A few months ago, for one of my minor classes in my university, we were given a painting assignment. The subject and the medium were left to our choice. I, immediately without hesitation, decided that I wanted to paint something under the umbrella of "vintage". Just thinking about how to tackle this project got me so excited. In this blog I'm going to share with you my process of coming up with a series I'm really quite proud of.
the idea
The concept for this painting started off a little different. The first few ideas revolved around creating a composition with one antique item.
some of my preliminary sketches
I tried out some key sketches with gramophones, record players, cameras, radios, and anything antique that called out to me. And as excited I was about these items separately, I felt there was something missing. I struggled to come up with a concept for this for a while, going back and forth between ideas and sketches. I found myself rather stumped on what subject to go with. And at one point I was so close to completely changing my idea all together.
I had to find something unique about my work for this project- something that didn't make it look like just another still life painting. So I went to my professor for a review. He suggested a simple idea but it just made so much sense.
my professor's scribbles
He advised that I look at this painting in terms of panels; separate pieces of artwork that connect together somehow. And that was the turning point.
As soon as he mentioned "connection", I thought of wires and connectivity. And that was the new subject for my assignment. I was still very attached to idea of painting some vintage items, but now I had some good direction.
my inspiration
I scoured through several Pinterest pins in search of inspiration. I collected a few pictures to inspire the art style and the subject, I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and paint something not quite like the work I do. So I took a little help. I looked up some references to follow for the form of the vintage equipment that I decided to paint, due to the lack of owning them myself.
the art style
There was one particular picture I came across that I was really inspired by. I wanted my painting to emulate a similar vibe. I wanted visible brushstrokes, a clearly visible brown outline and some texture using lines.
This is the image that inspired the style of my painting. I loved how loose the illustration feels. And yet, it has so much dimension. I love the use of the brown outlines and I especially enjoy how in some places, its just filled in to resemble black or shadow.
I decided to make my paintings in a similar fashion, adding a bit of my own flair to it as well.
the colour scheme
I actually had a very clear vision for the colours of this painting. A nice retro set of colours- a little muted but suggestive of the times gone by.
These pictures accurately represent the vibe I was aiming for. I tried my best to limit my colour scheme to these browns, oranges, blues, teals and yellows. I was very careful with mixing my colours, as I do get carried away quite easily.
the paintings
These paintings are done on 4 separate, square canvas boards, connecting to each other in a linear fashion. Each panel contains a retro piece of equipment inspired by connectivity, and each panel is connected to the next with something that the equipment uses to function. For example, the wires and the film.
Everything is done in acrylic paints, and varnished over with an acrylic varnish. I haven't used any gesso on the canvas boards as they came pre-primed.
"isometric" 1 : of, relating to, or characterized by equality of measure especially : relating to or being a crystallographic system characterized by three equal axes at right angles.
To add a bit of dynamic interest in the subject of the paintings themselves, I decided to experiment a bit with an isometric design for each of the equipments I've painted. And boy, was this a struggle. Figuring out the angles and the perspective from the get-go was quite a challenge. I saw myself needing to re-do basically all of the sketches. But in the end I did in fact figure it out. And dare I say, I'm quite pleased with the result. I don't always turn to isometric designs, I feel a little uneasy looking at them for some reason, but I think this project helped me appreciate it maybe 3% more. And I'm not complaining.
I also decided to leave a pretty thick border for each painting. I did this to suggest the presence of a frame, like precious art displayed and taken care of on a gallery wall, preserving the beauty of the aged vintage items. Obviously, the frames are not protruding, and are in fact a part of the painting itself, but I'd like to think they're suggestive of the above.
the tape recorder
The first of the panels shows a tape recorder. I looked at a few different designs online to inspire my own design, and came up with a medley of the elements that spoke to me the most. It may not be 100% accurate to the original designs, but I'm okay with that. I also added in part of a set of headphones that could be used with the tape recorder.
For the final look, I based it more off of the colours and aesthetics of this one-
Did you know, that in 1928 Fritz Pfleumer invented the the first magnetic tape device to play back tapes? Thanks to the magnetic tapes, the acoustic quality was of a much higher level compared to the previously used steel wire records.
the radio
The radio is the very next panel in this series, and perhaps, my most favourite one of all. This panel features a much brighter set of colours as I wanted them to compliment the yellow of the background. It also has a cassette tape up in the left corner that you would use to play your songs on the radio. This panels shares connectivity in the form of the tape reeling from the cassette, the wire from the tape recorder in the previous panel, and a bit of the film peeking in from the next panel.
My inspiration-
Did you know, that Guiglielmo Marconi was the first to ever send across and recieve a radio transmission in 1896 in Italy!
the camera
I love film photography. I actually purchased my first film camera a few months ago and have been hooked ever since. So, there was no doubt that I had to include a camera in one of these panels. And it was this third one.
I originally planned to make an even older camera, perhaps a Rolleiflex. But that evidently turned out to be far too complicated- I struggled to understand the parts of the device, and put it in an isometric perspective. I would have redrawn this one at least 7 times. And that is not an exaggeration.
In the end, I went with a much simpler camera. I also ended up liking this one for its simplicity since its details were cohesive with the other panels.
Here's some of the images that I kept in mind while painting this panel-
Did you know, the first ever "selfie" was taken in 1839 by Robert Cornelius, an amateur chemist and photography enthusiast. He took the image by removing the lens cap from his caemra, running into frame, sitting there for a minute till the camera capture the image, and then returning to cover up the lens again.
the walkman
The final panel- the walkman - a device that I have never seen in person, but am rather fascinated by. After hearing about it from my parents, and mentions in my favourite TV shows, I ad to include it in this series to feel a further connection with the device.
Obviously since I do not own one, I looked up images of a walkman to inspire this design.
This panel connects to the previous with the film from the film camera. It also has headphones supporting the bottom right corner of the layout. I put headphones here to balance out the headphones in top left corner of the first panel.
Did you know, the Walkman was a successor to something called the Pressman. The Pressman was a tape recorder intended for use by journalists. Sony removed the recording feature, and included a simple set of headphones to the machine, and thus, the Walkman was born.
I'm quite proud of this series. It's unlike anything I've ever done, and I'm so glad I did. Being able to put my love and appreciation for everything retro and vintage was for sure a fun ride.
a bonus~
Keeping in theme for this series, I also went ahead and did a gouache painting on an A3 cartridge sheet with a simple composition of some antique equipment that I was not able to include in the 4 square panels. I m absolutely in love with the result. The colours, the style, all of it. And, I got to include a Rolleiflex-esque camera. So that's a plus.
Updated: Jun 15, 2022
"The way to know life is to know many things."
If you’ve been following me for a while, you are well familiar with my obsession with Vincent Van Gogh. It’s really no news that I absolutely adore his work. In this blog I’m going to make an attempt to share a little insight to what draws me to his paintings and his story.
I grew up familiar to the name of Vincent Van Gogh, I knew he was a famous artist, but it was only recently I realised that he is in fact one of my idols when it comes to art and living as an artist. Especially after starting my undergraduate degree in fine arts, I became so much more invested in Van Gogh. I have tried recreating his paintings and I own an art book about him and I turn to it when I need a break from life. Just flipping through those pages brings me a sort of peace that nothing else can quite achieve.
Starry Night
The Starry Night was the very first painting of Van Gogh I was introduced to. I was gifted a framed painting of this work several years ago, and it hangs on my wall till today. Looking at this painting at around 13 years of age, I felt a weird surge of magic. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but the strokes and colours were like magnets.
the painting on my gallery wall
I’ve been drawing and painting almost all 21 years of my life, and for all those years I’ve been told
to stick to the rules, stay inside the lines, don’t get messy. And here I was, staring at this magnificent painting, a mind of a 13 year old, thinking- how do you make something look chaotic and calm at the same time. All of the calculated yet free brushstrokes… I was so utterly fascinated.
I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but looking at this painting, it almost seemed to be moving- a restless motion, an incredible blend of madness and serenity. I was blown away. And at some point, that is what I wanted out of my art and out of my life. It was inspiring.
The Sunflowers
I have pretty much told every single person in my life how much I love sunflowers. They’re my favourite. I like to think that if we were ever to describe a happy smile in terms of a flower, it would be the sunflower. And in terms of a colour, it would be the colour of a sunflower. It brings me joy just looking at them. I like to think they are kind and joyful, and if you were ever feeling down, they’d know just what to say to cheer you up.
And there was some thing special about looking at the painted sunflowers of Van Gogh. I’ve never seen these paintings in person ( and that is something I would really like to do one day) but they fill me with certain emotion.
some sunflowers painted by Van Gogh
I learnt that the sunflower paintings held special place in Van Gogh’s heart, as to him they symbolised light and gratitude. I read that he had filled his sunflower-coloured, rented "yellow house" with sunflower paintings upon learning that Gauguin would be arriving to live with him. He did so to contrast his mental and financial situation and make his house a bright and cheerful place to stay for his friend. And somehow, I actually understand that symbolism.
some art I've made inspired by sunflowers
The bright yellows and gleaming golds of this flower really do evoke a feeling of gratitude in me as well. Its like this wonderful psychological resonance. I wish I could describe how and why, its just plain magical. Learning the reason behind his sunflower paintings made me more appreciative of sunflowers.
Painting even on the bad days
I admire Van Gogh's work ethic. And you can tell from his paintings his ambition was to always show up. In a world of artists that wait for the right time of day, wait for the right light, or wait for inspiration to strike, Van Gogh picked up his brushes regardless of his atmosphere. The bright, sunny days, and the gloomy, dark days got the same amount of attention.
It shows such great passion and it is a quality I'd like to work on. I tend to give up on art every now and then if I'm not "feeling it". But showing up everyday is a work ethic trait that I would like to possess not just in my art and art endeavours, but my life endeavours alike.
You pick up your paint brush, you show up, and you just see how it goes.
Loving Vincent: loving the movie
This movie was inspiring. The art, the making of, and the entirely painted film was nothing short of life changing. It was a visual treat, to say the least. An entire movie depicted in the signature style and colours of Van Gogh- truly humbling to watch. Even though this is in fact a motion picture, the way it was painted brought a certain added-on dynamic motion to it. I was hooked till the end. It was a craft. The film brought such life to not only the characters, but the backgrounds and the scenes as well.
I had been a fan of his paintings, but upon watching this movie I had a heightened curiosity to learn more about his life. I purchased my very first Van Gogh art book describing his life and his work. It is a priced possession. And not even stopping at that, I continue to watch documentaries and videos about my favourite artist.
Van Gogh's incredible manner of painting certainly touches my heart. The sharp, short brush strokes from his impressionist style paintings mimic the art of woodcuts. I feel a certain resonance with the colours in his paintings, the contrast, the pastels, the boldness, its all so very breath-taking. He used his colours in such an astonishing and impressive way, a quality that not many could quite possess. He genuinely saw the world differently.
I'd like to leave you with one of my favourite quotes by Van Gogh.
“It is good to love many things,
for therein lies the true strength,
and whosoever loves much
performs much,
and can accomplish much,
and what is done in love
is well done."
