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| William Barkin |
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Born in New York, William Barkin studied drawing and oil painting with the American muralist and illustrator Alton S. Tobey, who instilled in Barkin his love of representational art and the means to express it. He was encouraged to study and observe the world around him, as well as the works of past masters in painting. Barkin's artistic influences range from Corot's early Italian plein air oil sketches to the starkness of Edward Hopper's scenes of America.
Barkin works from his studio in the Berkshires in Massachusetts. He has developed a style of painting in which he strives to articulate "the chiaroscuro of nature", he explains this as the amplification of opposites in a composition by suppressing middle values, the grays, and then heightening the darks and the lights. The end result produces a work with an interplay of many contrasts i.e. color, value (light and dark) and temperature (warm and cool).
Barkin begins his paintings by carefully sketching the composition on to the canvas in pencil. From there he produces a fairly detailed monochromatic under painting in burnt sienna. This under painting when complete will have the deep darks and bright highlights fully established for the final painting. Because it is thinly painted, he is then able to build the color scheme up with multiple applications of thinly applied color called glazes. Eventually thick opaque paint is applied for the highlights leaving the shadows thin and transparent but with a deep luster. Barkin has currently transformed this technique in his application of pastels. By using brown toned paper to simulate the under painting color, Barkin’s final pastels are simple colorful sketches reminiscent of his more involved oil paintings.
Barkin holds to the belief that the composition of a work of art, that is its over all design, is much more important than the execution.
William Barkin draws his style from early French impressionism. He paints from his studio in the Berkshires in Massachusetts.
William’s work varies from Oil paintings of New England and Italian scenes, pencil drawings inspired by timeless New England farm scenes to pastel drawings on toned paper of Italy – capturing snapshots of picturesque scenes and vistas from the splendor of Tuscany to the magical world of Venice.
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| "Venice- Canal Reflections" |
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| "Venetian Canal- Reflections" |
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| "Canal Vista- Venice" |
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| "Venetian Dusk" |
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“A great painter is one who has something to say. He paints not figures, landscapes or still lifes but an idea; the finished work is a surprise to himself. The true artist will know a great deal about how a work was created, but will still ask, How did I do it? Painting is drawing, with the additional means of color. To me, painting without drawing is just "coloriness," color excitement. To think of color for color’s sake is akin to thinking of sound for sound’s sake. “
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| "Venetian Canal- Sunlight" |
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| "Venetian Canal- Shaft of Sunlight" |
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| "Canale Mysterioso" |
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| "Venice- The Lagoon" |
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| "Jupiter Lighthouse" |
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| "Low Tide, Akumel Mexico" |
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