Famous Marks

Whilst I've been mark making I've dipped into lots of work by famous people and been amazed at how differently they paint both from the point of view of their personal style and the way they use marks to achieve the end result.  Here I've highlighted just one or two because they represent very different styles and evoke different feeling in  me.

Pablo Picasso  (1881 - 1973)

Self portrait 1907 (oil on canvas)


Angular lines
Hard lines
Feels sympathetic even though it's sharp
Some shading

Head of a woman (Olga Picasso) 10th March 1935 (oil on canvas)


Mix of straight and curved lines but feels hard and uncompromising
Feels unsympathetic
Blocks of colour, little shading












Gustav Klimt  (1862 - 1918)

Emilie Floege, 1902 (oil on canvas)



Marks are both smooth and angular
Many different shapes as marks
Lots of dots
Creates texture
Seems to use this instead of shading
There's lots of love in this picture

Houses at Unterach on the Attersee, c.1916 (oil on canvas)

These marks are much more linear.  I've noticed that Klimt's paintings of people tend to be characterised by marks like those on Emilie Floege and scenery more like this.

Vincent van Gogh  (1853 - 1890)

Self Portrait with Felt Hat, 1887-88 (oil on canvas)

This self portrait is made entirely with short straight marks.
The marks look rather like hair.











All images from the Bridgeman Library