Topic: Impressionism and Monart

[aa]

In 1987 I began working on a series of  impressionistic landscape vessels that were inspired by Monet’s paintings. I happened to show these to Eric Knowles who commented that they were reminiscent of Monart. At  the time I had never even heard of Monart and so I was a little disconcerted at the reference, which today I realise was a compliment! I only made about thirty or forty pieces before I moved onto another body of work, but on and off during my career I have continued to make landscapes, experimenting with various styles and effects.

Recently I have been working on a series of landscapes for a couple of forthcoming exhibitions, one in London and one in San Francisco. These have changed completely over the years and each one is completely different from the next.

On Easter Monday we went to the superb "Turner, Whistler, Monet" exhibition at Tate Britain, which I loved and would thoroughly recommend. Yesterday I made a number of pieces for the exhibition, which have undoubtedly been influenced by our move to a flat overlooking the Thames, coupled with my being imbued with the light treatments highlighted in the "Turner, Whistler, Monet" exhibition.

I was surprised this morning by how similar this particular piece was to some of those pieces I made in the eighties. http://tinypic.com/2ilt7t

I have often wondered whether there is any evidence that suggests that Monart palettes were inspired by the impressionists or is this just conjecture on my part?

Monart enthusiasts may be interested to attend my forthcoming demonstration of some of the techniques used to achieve the effects in the vase shown above, on Saturday 2nd April and Saturday 16th April. Details can be found on the main glass message board under the thread heading Exhibition and Glassblowing Demonstration.

[Frank]

That is an interesting theory and why not.

 

[chopin-liszt]

:shock: Well, That's the nearest to google-eyed, Adam. The vase is gorgeous!  just doesn't quite hit the right mark. There's not an emoticon with wide open eyes AND mouth :!:  I LOVE the vase!

Impressionism was THE thing at that time, so I suppose you're probably right about the influence, with Liberty and so on.   Cheers, Sue

[aa]

Thanks....come to the exhibition?

[Frank]

Adam, just a thought. Your piece is reminiscent of the earliest Monart in which the colouring enamels remained on the surface resulting in a delightful texture, this was further enhanced by adding lustre to the piece. Landscapes are by their nature textured so why not try without casing?
Early Monart vase

[Frank]

Or on second, third and fourth look perhaps your colouring is on the surface and the lighting is softening the texture?

Forgot to say, it is a lovely piece.

[aa]

Thanks for the image Frank. The piece is very interesting. Although it isn't quite clear from the photograph, I don't generally case my landscapes. the pieces are made by heating up and blowing a piece of rod colour, casing that with sufficient gathers for the final piece and then layering quite a lot ofsilver leaf on the outside. After melting the silver into the surface I roll the piece onto a marver onto which I have laid out powdered glass colour. This is melted into the surface to create a textured finish, and there is often a reaction between the silver and the powdered colour. This can vary, depending how hot the piece becomes on re-heating. The day after the original piece I illustrated I made these two pieces.

http://tinypic.com/2jfyc3
This one has  transparent green on the inside, silver leaf on the outside, and despiet appearances, I have only used three powdered colours on the surface!
http://tinypic.com/2jfyua
The second image shows a similar piece with a copper ruby, or chestnut, interior. I have used the same three colours..the residue from the previous piece on the marver.... on the surface but added a fourth. Both pieces are quite textured.

Meanwhile, the pieces are getting bigger. Here is one from yesterday that I was quite pleased with. http://tinypic.com/2jgjm1


All the images and the pieces referred to above are copyright Adam Aaronson 2005

[KevinH]

Well ... if you keep this up Adam, you might get me back into thinking about possibly wanting non-paperweight art glass pieces again  

[Max]

Adam, the last vase pic you posted is very lovely indeed.  Would it be ok to say that imho I prefer this shape, rather than the straightforward cylinder?  I especially liked the way the silver leaf lightened the base area....really great stuff!  Mmm!  

[aa]

KevH thanks for your kind words....but there are also landscape paperweights....here's one I made earlier http://tinypic.com/2lcoyo

Max, the new flattened shape has been quite successful as you will see when you come to the show, but there are some other new shapes as well as cylinders. Glad you liked it