Contemporary figurative painting using old master's techniques

Abstract

This creative project consisted of four figurative paintings and a paper centered on whether the artist could incorporate convincingly the oil techniques of the past with contemporary content. Several popular techniques used by old masters were researched, documented and adopted for use in the paintings of this project. Techniques discussed included early Flemish egg tempera with oil introduced by the Van Eycks, methods of Durer, the Venetian style of Titian, Veronese, Caravaggio, and the methods of the Dutch and Flemish Baroque, Rubens, Hals, Rembrandt, and Vermeer.In addition, the techniques and intentions of three contemporary figurative painters, Jack Beal, William Beckman, and James Valerio were discussed.