Who Paints ?

[cameramanic]

I was wondering how many photographers paint, some artists start as painters and then find photography, and in the end go back to painting Cartier Bresson is a prime example.
But has anyone seen his paintings I mean commercially.
I have searched the Internet but cannot find any of his paintings, perhaps he only painted for his own pleasure.
I have only started painting in the last few months ,and find the feeling I get when I finally stand back and look at the finished painting on the easel is akin to
watching the images appear in the trays in my grandfathers darkroom 50 years ago, when I first started to learn Photography. This started me thinking about the Philosophical side of Photography and mans need to create artistically,
from cave drawings done with sticks dipped in blood to Photoshop and the Digital age,many of us have this artistic creative urge.
My Photography is now totally Black and white, I am fed up with all the over saturated images in every magazine you look at, only my paintings are in colour .
so how many here Paint ?

 

[kully]

I am the same as sitemistic... my paintings tend to end up looking a lot like a cross between Picasso's 'Guernica' and a paint spill.

 

[ClaremontPhoto]

I once went to to an evening class which was one hour of painting/drawing and one hour of photography.

A very satisfying mix.

I made a good friend there who was a soldier at the local barracks and the class finished after her curfew so I had to help her climb over the fence.

 

[Sparrow]

I am the same as sitemistic... my paintings tend to end up looking a lot like a cross between Picasso's 'Guernica' and a paint spill.

Jackson Pollock made good money like that




That’s just a joke to any of his fans out there
:angel:

 

[JOE1951]

Don't paint, but draw..

Don't paint, but draw..

I got into photography for the same reason a lot of photographers did. I couldn't draw for crap. Well actually I could, but it wasn't good enough, I was seduced by the technology, ease of use and spontaneity of cameras in my late teens.

28 yrs. after abandoning drawing, I took life drawing classes at the local art school. Love it!! Not looking for realism, that's what cameras are for, but I love the spontaneous, subjective, abstraction of pencil on paper!

I find painting and managing colour too overwhelming for what I want to do (reduce, reduce, reduce), but I don't think colour photography can hold a candle to paintings expressive potential, maybe photoshop will change that!!!

My biggest interest is in figure drawing. I was never very good at fine-art nude photography, and it rarely interests me when I see work by others. I prefer the subjectivity of drawing and painting. Thinking of artists like Lucien Freud, Jenny Saville, and Chuck Close's huge portraits!!!

Have a lot a friends (10+) who are advanced or pro photographers and cinematographers, but collectively they are rarely as interesting as the few (4) painters I know when discussing images.

I haven't abandoned cameras, or photography by any means, and its my prime creative interest, but I find drawing gives me an outlet I just can't get from photography.

As far as Cartier-Bresson is concerned. I he trained as a painter before taking up the camera but I don't think much if anything has survived.

Based on the few examples I've seen in books, his draughtsmanship, IMHO, isn't the same caliber as his photography. But I think it is unfair to expect him to excel at another medium so late into his life. He did it for his own enjoyment, more power to him!!!!

The name of his book of drawings is "Line by Line".

 

[Frank Lambert]

Probably the biggest use I get out of photography, is to record images that I would like to paint. I only do watercolors but have lately wanted to try oil. Not good at it and only do it for my own enjoyment. I have three sisters who are accomplished artists and, I guess part of my desire to paint is to try to "keep up" with them. Photography "helps" support my painting efforts and, really comes in second 🙂

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

The little picture of my you see by my posts was a painting I did in art school. I don't really like to paint and draw but I can do it.

 

[nikon_sam]

I cannot draw or paint or even make decent stick people...I tried to for a bit when I was a teenager...photography was a more natural fit for me...it came very easy to do...
I have a cousin who can do it all when it comes to painting or drawing...if I could have his talent I would give up photography...

 

[Nando]

I used to paint watercolours during my high-school days. I did mostly drawings though. It must have been 5 or 6 years now since I last made a serious drawing. It's how I got interested in photography. I used to go to libraries and make photocopies of photographs found in the photography books they had. They would be the basis of my drawings.

 

[Chris101]

... my paintings tend to end up looking a lot like a cross between Picasso's 'Guernica' and a paint spill.

Exactly:

 

[terrafirmanada]

I love to paint, and I got interested in photography a few years ago when I took some slides of my then current work. The slides themselves were a new take entirely and got me more excited about photography and painting at the same time.

 

[tensai]

I'm an illustrator so I draw for a living.
I'm interested in the strong points of one medium versus the other. Sometimes I make a drawing of something that is not even 10% of what the photograph would say, and vice versa.
I find that when I go out to take photographs on a certain day, my sketches mostly come out alright, but they never end up being really hot. I seem to look/think differently when doing one or the other.

 

[Larky]

I haven't painted for a while, I still sketch if I want to get away from technology. I like to use inks, dip pens, calipers, anything old really.

http://www.ingenieursonline.co.uk/sketch_1_gallery.html

http://www.ingenieursonline.co.uk/sketch_2_gallery.html

 

[John Robertson]

Yup still do watercolours, at least they cant digitise that!!!!!

 

[Larky]

Hmm, Painter does a good job if your machine is powerful enough. 🙂

 

[richard_l]

I like to paint. You can paint scenes which can't be photographed because they don't exist. This is not a Hobbit hole, it is Mrs. Underhill's dwelling in the John Crowley novel _Little, Big_.

Richard

 

[edodo]

I draw and I shoot! Actually some basic rules of composition are the same, but painting tends to be more abtract instead of the obligatory figurative photography!

 

[Artorius]

Painting

Painting

Started there(not the greatest), went on to photography(really good), and on to pencil sketch(so-so) and am still with photography. I will often go out without a camera and draw areas I want to photograph. As a matter of fact, I HAD to do this recently on a trip to Jamaica, as my wife forbid cameras(long story) and when I go back in August for my final 2 shoots, I will be taking my notepad with me to get those shots I couldn't do on that trip.
I would recommend to everyone out there, even if you can't draw or sketch, carry a notepad to at the least, make notes of the interesting areas, lighting, backgrounds, etc.

 

[tritiated]

I used to paint and draw, and didn't really like photography (doing), but admired the skill and the work people produced. I have always been very influenced by photography.
Now I mainly (draw + ink and) shoot film, although I am warming to dSLR photog.
I hope to get back into painting soon and incorporate some of my own photography in there.

 

[sepiareverb]

I started out in school to be an illustrator, was making photographs for reference, but got completly seduced by the print. Except for a brief foray into mixing the two, and a similarly brief period in the mid-eighties I've not painted at all. Don't miss it.