12x12"
Studies Project
"Still Life"
(Homage to Giorgio Morandi)
December 2023
Introduction
This 12x12" Studies Project (the sixth in the series of 12x12" Projects) draws images from a large blog project "Still Life" : Homage to Giorgio Morandi which consists of fifteen "chapters" beginning with photographs made in our house, then extending into the studio context, then on to landscapes, flowers, abstractions (Brushstrokes) and finally pictures made away from home, the Walkabout photographs, which are in many ways similar to my many other Studies projects, although the Still Life images are imbued with a formal language which resonates with a heartfelt remembrance of Morandi's vision, the way he structured relationships of shapes in space, qualities of light, the land, etc. ~ I worked on the Still Life blog project for a full year, 2013-14, and loved every minute of it which included studying many books and reading two biographies about Morandi and his work. Two additional projects followed the Still Life project that were inspired by Morandi--I invite you to visit The Light of Memory, and then a project about a letter Morandi wrote to the great jazz musician and composer Thelonious Monk! click here.
All of the images from the earlier Still Life project were originally square images, thus I have not had to change them much for this 12x12" Project. Of course in this 12x12" project I have added the surrounding tonal mattes which I feel provides a new dimension of meaning or visual life to the earlier original works. At the time I made the blog Still Life project I was not making inkjet prints. All the images you will see below now exist as 12x12" inkjet prints (though the files are large, permitting me to make larger prints if the need ever arises).
Please be sure to see my other 12x12" Studies Books and Projects. If you want to see my explanation of why I have included the tonal borders or mattes surrounding the 12x12" Studies images please visit my project The Pandemic Inkjet Prints.)
Note: for those of you who are viewing this project with a desk-top computer:
you can enlarge the images below by clicking on them once, and once again;
you can also zoom-in- and zoom-out, and you can change the brightness of
the image on your screen. To learn more about how to get the highest
possible viewing quality for my bog published images click here.
12x12 "Still Life" Studies
The Photographs
#1 : 12x12" Still Life project: (Metal sink, oval dish, metal canning jar rim, in water)
#2 : 12x12" Still Life project: (Red cup in the microwave oven)
#4: 12x12" Still Life project: (Cake decorating stand with two pieces of blue tape in the background)
#5: 12x12" Still Life project: ("Studio Still life" : stack of metal objects and red handles behind)
Morandi carefully constructed his still life compositions, so I tried it myself.
The red handles belong to something like a large garlic press.
#6: 12x12" Still Life project: ("Studio Still life" - Amarillo plant)
#7: 12x12" Still Life project: (Plastic flowers in a black square, a white dish, horizon lines.)
Morandi made many "Flower Paintings" and he often painted the same flowers over
and over again. This was possible because he kept most every thing he painted
so that he could go back to the objects and see how they changed over
time. He also painted plastic or artificial and dried flowers, and he
enjoyed observing how dust which accumulated on them changed their appearance.
#8: 12x12" Still Life project: (Plant in a metal shelf)
#9: 12x12" Still Life project: (Dried Plant in small ceramic vase, & shadow)
#10: 12x12" Still Life project: (Black Metal Canning Pot)
This pot is alive, with luminous blue eyes; its body is filled with the stars that pervade
the entire universe. The image, and the one's above it, are very animated for me
and their aliveness presents in varying humorous ways.
#11: 12x12" Still Life project: (Squash on a piece of glass in front of our picture window)
It was a cold misty morning when I made this picture for my Morandi inspired Still Life
project. I seldom create compositions and them photograph them, but I wanted to
experience how it feels to work like Morandi. In the background we can see
part of the North Meadow and its pond on a cloudy, misty fall morning.
I like the green edge of the thick glass which I had moved out of
alignment with the table's top edge. Their lines cross at the
very center point of the image, just below the point where
very center point of the image, just below the point where
the squash sits on the glass and touches its own reflection.
#12: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" project: (Christmas Candle and house plant)
#13: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" project: (Wood vase with dried flowers in warm light and a "blue moon.")
This Morandi inspired image, which contains a blue moon and a dried flower
begins a set of four images with very warm, golden light.
#14: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" project : (Flower & Garlic Still Life)
This Morandi inspired flower still life includes a garlic and the warm light
from a setting sun over the meadow which was coming through our
picture window and reflecting on the door of our stainless steel
refrigerator. The foreground reflections are being seen in our
granite kitchen counter. I like the way the warm tone of the
dark matte becomes an integral part of the still life's visual context.
#15: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" project : (Wooden blue bird, golden lamp post, reflections in our picture window)
#16: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" project: (Silver serving tray; reflection of tea kettle & illuminated lamp)
#17: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" project: (Stainless pots and pans on stove top, Memphis
After studying Morandi's painting for several years it seemed
everything around me turned into a still life homage to
Morandi. I took this photograph at my friend
Larry's house in Memphis during a visit.
~
I love the metallic grays, the light, the movement of the dark shapes in the lower
half of the image, the reflections of light in the space above the
stainless bowl, and just below the top gray matte space.
#18: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" project: (book, papers on corner of a ping pong table)
One of the things I love most about the border tones is the way I can separate the dark
tones just slightly between the inside image tones and the border tones which often
creates a fascinating sense of the image floating is space.
#19: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" project: (Two round hay bales wrapped in white plastic in a landscape)
I took this picture after a light snow on an early winter morning in the rolling hills
of Canandaigua. It's obvious (I know) but just look at the way the soft warm
light touches the one bale! The way the small clouds in the background
echo the shapes of the bales and the snow shapes on the ground! The
way everything is connected and rests peacefully in the frame.
The way the bales are cuddling up to each other. I love
Morandi's landscape paintings. They were the
inspiration for that part of the blog project.
#20: 12x12 "Still Life" Project: (Landscape, Canandaigua Lake, and a house with a white square shape)
#21: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" project: (Landscape constructed with triangular shapes)
#22: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" project: (Landscape with long tapering form of sun-streaked clouds)
#23: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" Walkabout project: (Salt shakers, soy sauce bottle, blue light)
This image and the one below belong to a sub-series of the early blog Still Life project
which I call the "Walkabout" projects. Each project includes still-life like
photographs inspired by Morandi, though found in everyday life
outside of my home or studio context.
#24: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" Walkabout project: (Water Bottle with Lemon Slice)
#25: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" Studio project (Corner of Studio)
The 12x12 print reveals a space, a line, a light that the blog reproduction
does not do justice to. The blog project devotes a chapter to the theme
"Studio". My subject matter was my wife Gloria's ceramic studio
in the basement of our house.
26: 12x12: Studies "Still Life" Studio project (Enclosed space used for throwing on the wheel)
#27: 12x12" Still Life project: (Dried flowers in tall ceramic vase)
#28: 12x12" Still Life project: (Bananas and tomatoes)
*
This project was first published and announced
on my blog's Welcome Page December 12, 2023
(revised Jan 17, 2024)
Related Blog Project Links
Please visit the Welcome Page to my blog The Departing Landscape. It includes the complete hyperlinked listing of my online photography projects dating from the most recent to those dating back to the 1960's. You will also find on the Welcome Page my resume, contact information . . . and much more.
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