The Forger's Masterclass - Ep.10 - Paul Cézanne

my name is John Myatt in my time I've been a teacher a painter and an art forger in 1999 I was jailed for forging over 200 paintings a crime that rocked the art world and I paid the price for it these days I paint in the style of the great masters and sell them legally as honest fakes and I started teaching the tricks of my trade to aspiring artists because all painters can learn by copying others today we'll be painting in the style of an artist whose work brought about a revolution that opened the door to modern art Paul Cezanne don't tell anyone but no idea I'm doing there is no method in my madness the art world is full of great men who became famous early in their careers biron Picasso Mozart of course he was writing piano concertos by the time he was five but our artists today worked in relative obscurity and often great frustration before he finally emerged to lay the foundation stones for 20th century painting born in France in 1839 forces and had little critical success in the first part of his career early on he explored the subtleties of Impressionism but he rejected this to seek out new ways of defining space line and color this finally brought him success in his late 50s he used discrete blocks of tone and color to reduce the landscape into what he perceived to be its very essence his almost geometric patterns were a truly radical departure from the impressionist style of tiny dabs of color and they heralded the arrival of abstract painting his contribution was so important that later artists like Kandinsky Picasso Braque Matisse said that he was the father of us all and I'm hoping he'll be as much of an inspiration to these three they'll have just one day to paint versus an my first student is ceramic artist Beverly spans Wieck from Bournemouth I started doing the sculptural pieces because of the course I was on and we were given a remit and we had to work with that my name is James Lovegrove I'm from London and I'm a tattoo artist I'm Isabelle Manning and I'm from Cheltenham and I've just graduated from the Royal College of Art it's easy to copy I would think a lot easier to copy than painting the style of someone because you're imitating that person not copying their work so that is quite tricky I would think my main concern about it day has not been able to paint and just looking like an idiot at the end of the day with like some dodgy canvas that I need to stand by somewhat dear runner if happens it would be really interesting to really see how other artists did see things because you get very wrapped up in your own style in the way that you see things there you go from here now this really is an interesting trio to take on today's task Isabelle Beverly James welcome to this beautiful view over the English countryside today your task is to see this landscape through the eyes of the great artistic innovator Paul Cezanne is about your first thoughts on this painting I'm just really looking forward to doing the colors I've never done anything like it before in my life goodness me I'm struggling to see how I'm going to paint what's out there looking like that this painting of the Messiah Victoire was a feature of Suzanne's work in his later years this one probably painted about 1904-1905 a year or two before he died it's a good example of how Suzanne took the representation of a landscape and distilled it down to what he saw as its structural almost abstract elements and that's going to be the biggest challenge taking that step from the representational to the almost abstract I just make a couple of points which I hope will help you first of all obviously you can see that there's there's not much outline in this painting the drawings such as it is is done with just blocks of color laid on one at a time and with this he the eye builds up a series a sense of structure in in the landscape he does use impressionist technique um the colors do become slightly bluer as they go away but if you ever see this mounted in the background in real life it's nothing like this nothing at all he has exaggerated the shape of this hill to suit what he feels the painting needs so he was an impressionist because he's because he used atmospheric color he was a post-impressionist because he didn't dissolve the form with paint he actually had a look and try to understand the solidity of what was out there at the same time it's a hell of a task to do frankly James just simply do you like it I wouldn't hang it on my wall is that a yes or a No it's a bit weak for my tastes it's quite different from the way I'd approach things and I can see from the tattoos on your ticking on your left arm there you really do like a strong outline day she outlines import outlines important and you're going to toggle with no outline you can't use outline well you can but I'm I'm determined particularly you I'm going to get a result today we're sick off you go what I'm going to ask you all to do before you start just to give you a just that little bit of extra confidence before you attack the canvas is to rough out a series of squares on piece of paper either in portrait or in landscape doesn't matter which way up you orientate your thing and just indicate the outlines of your composition so you roughly are going to know where you're going to go before you actually start painting you don't have to draw your brush marks Beverly what you have to do yes is take it may I yeah no gone take a square rectangular area like that right it sound right I don't have pink I'm gonna have the nice tree here okay I'm going to have the fence there right but it's to the day know which carrier I like it's a very good thing that you know which area you like I know what I what is not a very good thing if you're trying to is it you're doing these funny little Mark's here this is what you do with a brush another pencil yeah I know but you said brushes and I thought what for me and you said Cuba earlier and I thought what's he mean so you're my tutor and your teach I'm worried I've already made a series of professional catastrophic errors you just got a daft woman not at all so so I know what I like what they want to be do you know the view you yeah I do that's kinda sketchy for me in that wrecked okay when you're ready to start painting ultramarine blue if you will please and quite a lot of water in the brush and just transfer your sketch idea to the canvas in blue outline ultramarine blue and where do I start well well get what brush do are you brush to you this is the only time we're probably going to use outline so we're going to use a watery blue like you've got there nice and watery and you've got your sketch idea now so we want some kind of lies just to you know just go over the canvas surface which look like this it's just as we suggest where the main where the foundation blocks of the composition are going to be okay so nice and bold I'm quite worried it's hard to imagine how someone who only works in black and white a ceramicist and a tattooist can cope with painting Suzanne what kind of colors shall be mixing up I think we've got to start with white here James I think we need quite a bit of white because we're after a very atmospheric blue so let's try and find a wedgie I mean I'd prefer these silver ones we'll use these later but let's mix a really light blue here we're in danger of course with the heat of the Sun of everything drying up in rapid time but start with something even as light as that just touch the top of the canvas and see if it corresponds to anything saying at the very top they're too light too dark not greeny enough is it really why that one James that looks more like it doesn't it yeah more like it coverage is all you need isn't just a bit of courage that's it is a bill the more you look up and down up and down head out head down the better that paint is going to be because you're constantly referring to the landscape to the brush I'm not doing very well with my color touch more blue I'd say Suzanne wasn't I mean you know he wasn't Impressionists he was a post-impressionist so he so he did use impressionist devices like you know blue is a recessive color and all that come that's all in there so don't be frightened of having a few Monet moments as well okay know what I mean sorry now this part of the process can be quite speedy and it would be quite nice if we got the entire canvas covered the white disappearing in roundabout 20 minutes from now at the end of the 19th century Paris was abuzz with artists the young Suzanne himself hung around with the Impressionists but he was a misfit he was a shy moody unpredictable man with a strong obsessional streak on one occasion while he's painting a portrait he makes the sitter sit for 100 times before he abandons the work and he says the only part of this painting that impresses me is the way I've done the shirt this is probably one of the toughest challenges we've done and here we have at least two of those students who haven't picked up a paintbrush in many a long year and you know what we're actually getting a result I can hardly believe it Beverly has established the outlines and she's actually starting to to put some body and structure in her painting but James James soon thought he couldn't do this job in a month of Sundays James is actually working the whole canvas area and I hope coming towards some sort of structural unity on the canvas surface beyond James Isabelle there is well into it now she's got a she's got a nice she's got a nice structure I think you can see it from here a nice structure actually established a nice composition a nice balance and the verticals and the horizontals so in different ways each of the three of them is getting a good result Suzanne's personal life was almost as troubled as his painting he fell in love with one of his models a girl he knew his family were considered to be his social inferior and for eight years he kept the existence of autos and their illegitimate son Paul jr. a secret from his mother and father when they finally found out they threatened to cut off his allowance Susanne persisted with the relationship and when his father died he was able to inherit the whole of a vast estate in the south of France and eventually in that same year he married or chance at last he was free of that shadow of parental disapproval that had hung over him for all those years there is no method in my madness I'm sorry it's much harder than I thought much harder don't tell anyone but no idea what I'm doing just making up as a cuddler pretty much why not come from time to time and just have a look how he did it come and have a look at a Suzanne because what he's doing here is what you're doing there except of course he's doing it better than you are but of course it's one thing to be able to paint a picture in the style of a great master but it's another to make it look genuine I found good old cold coffee does the trick so here's my trusty bit of black coffee Cheers and I'm going to put that got a strong now I'm going to put that and us on the flop and tip on the coffee on the idea is that the coffee sort of gets in the tooth of the canvas you know years of cigarette smoking and all that kind of noises people - it just sort of gives it that little acting out of age get in there so you're back then I can see it now picking up the tooth of the canvas they're already standing on the easel let me be able to watch the coffee slowly dripping down front of the painting but what you don't want is any obvious drips so you're kind of working away here at the same time hundred years of Aging in four and a half minutes what there is in here is what none of us are getting really really some subtle transitions of color look at the way he's used the different kinds of green all the way over he's not locked into one kind he's got a pale green a yellowy green a gray green just a line for a roof across there a shape down here a shape the whole thing the whole thing really strictly two-dimensional he's not actually saying there's any distinction between that mark here and that mark here he's just recording a thing but the subtle changes in color I really some people say he was a brilliant colorist I'm not so sure that myself but certainly was a good one he's about we've got the whole painting covered we've got the lines of structure basically they're what I'd like you to start doing is to think now abstractly to think in terms of if you've got a movement that way let's have a movement that way if we've got a horizontal let's have a vertical to arrest it let's let's juggle the shapes that nature's given us assemble them on the canvas and make them into a kind of make them into an abstract conformity uniformity that suits you do you know what I'm trying to say where there's one of these let's have one of those where there's one of these let's up one of those let's let's kind of kind of exaggerate it forms yeah tricky one good luck well done lovely painting lovely painting James this is a really good result now we've started to introduce some of these blues here can we find them somewhere else in the painting can we just find this blue can we make it work somehow down here as he would say we're starting a kind of color harmony going across the whole surface like we saw in the original alright just a thought I think I need some help John you think you need some help yeah what can I suggest yeah that you actually go back to the small silver brush and let's now establish a few lines of structured you see across there you see how he's used its the mark almost a stubbing mark like that look you see it's good and refer out there I guess just a line a horizontal line to to attack all these verticals now I'm looking there like I see a strong line down underneath the shadow of those trees that clump of trees there so I find a mark and I go off yes I look further along I find another one I go off and and then it moves look it doesn't get that it gets like that now so I go both okay and then I look for these structural things and guess what sooner pretty soon I'm getting a shape taking place and look at the tree like Oh hold on I'm gonna go a roof oh yeah so I'm looking for a a rhythm yep a rhythm of curves horizontals and verticals on the surface of the painting which function on the surface of the painting but are referenced to what's going on out there and you think I may not either it's no no I need full of the line no no I don't want any of those kind of movements I want just oh yeah look it's there just look yeah look look ah yes yeah look at it yes yes I see it yes right got it thank you come on oh don't rush me I'm new at this so I'm going to there's one yeah go on okay stop that's it now look already already yeah we're starting to define the shape too so maybe we can do something here yeah now we're looking at this as an abstract arrangement on the surface we're not enclosing the fall with with solid lines like lead round stained glass yes quite just hinted and we're always finding our starting point out there but we're always thinking now what about the painting itself is actually leading this yeah I do talk a lot of rubbish but sometimes sometimes there's a nugget truth in there no you're right okay now we're just reaching that crossover between the representational and the abstract and my top tip at this point is actually quite simple would you will all please turn your canvases upside down now and I'm just hoping that this will give you just just the opportunity to look at your work with fresh eyes and when I'm talking about this these abstract elements now most of the kind of recognizable features of the landscape have disappeared because the things upside down you are actually looking at abstract elements you're looking at bands of color and moments of warmth and cool so you now I'm not asking you to work with with blue line to just notate - to articulate these shapes so they're recognizable as shapes on the surface of the canvas two dimensionally you must reference these marks to what's happening out there even though we're trying to actually configure the painting two dimensionally as well as three dimensionally that's the kind of that's the knack in the Suzanne that's why he was so important to Cubist's and really write the way through the first half of the 20th century that was the discovery by the turn of the 20th century Suzanne had finally found success he had perfected his post-impressionist manner and his work was becoming hugely popular at last he got that degree of recognition and admiration that no amount of money can ever buy but it wasn't to last one day in the autumn of 1906 he was out painting when a vicious storm broke out suzanne stubborn as ever carried on working but it was all too much for a man of 67 and he collapsed he was rescued by a passerby who carried him home they put him to bed and he said tomorrow I'm gonna go out start painting again but he wasn't able to he contracted pneumonia and a few days later he passed away filled completely and out like on thisone steel and but I'm warming to it I think I've got the basic elements but I could probably just keep working on it and working on it okay everybody brushes down time to stop painting and let's have a look at the results what a task to try to paint this countryside in Suzanne's style well let's see how they've all done Beverly the moment of truth you were painting in a gilt frame what do you think Beverly well I think I don't think I think I need to stand back I think it may be better from a distance yeah yeah I do but for a first try it well it could be a lot worse let me say two or three things about this painting and all of them I think are positive I think there's a unity of color across the whole surface which is pretty much what he would have done early days shame you didn't get that white out but when you did we did establish a sort of pictorial unity we haven't had the time to break into these these greens as we could have done just to you know to introduce a bit of a big colour music in them but um nevertheless a whole unity and this lovely yellow a moment here which kind of contrasts with all these so all this kind of all these shapes come bumping along up to this this line here there's exactly the kind of thing the abstract thing that Suzanne would have been looking for I'm so pleased with this I really am honestly I rejoice for you I think this is just a great achievement and I think it looks good close-up never mind standing back for me it works from here I don't think I will give up my day job which is creating abstract ceramics but I've really enjoyed today you never know I might I might never say never and now James we're going to see your painting in a gilt frame and can I ask you James what are your thoughts on this it's difficult to know what to think of it really and as I don't have a great deal of experience in painting and I'm pleased that I've managed it and I'm not sure how good it is but you know that at least I achieved a finished product you bet I just think this is such an achievement you first thing this morning we met you've got your you've got your get me out of here feyza I don't want to be here do I like scissor hell no I don't like the painting even and look at what we've got I mean parts of this painting quite frankly odd to me I'm awesome I mean these moments here you've really looked into the that the way colour can be modified and and changed musically look at that there we've got that moment there that Brown touching that blue touching that blue here creeping along the surface oK we've had an afternoon and he had two years but you're on the bus you're going there more time and you definitely have a result here today's really helped me it's given me something else that I can do and I'm definitely going to carry on painting it's definitely going to be something I do outside of tattooing and I think it will help tattooing in the long run as well it's about thank you for all your hard work today now then let's have a look at your painting in a gilt frame and what do you think I'm really pleased with my efforts because I actually haven't painted for a really long time and and I haven't really used colour for years actually I love the way you've got these abstract marks and they and marks is what they are across the surface of the painting most of these are our um vertical marks and we have to get a considerable way back from the painting until we can read them as a line of hedges or as a sort of tree shape here and that's so so right it's just so good what you could have done and I think we more time would have allowed us to is to start introducing these warmer colors and getting the sort of harmony of the colour the breaking up the greens with warm greens cool greens we saw a bit of that in James's painting but the way you've registered this surface I think everything above here frankly is absolutely super this works both to dimensionally up close and three dimensionally far away it is a real result I was quite surprised that my painting was actually kind of more colorful than the other two paintings because I never use color and and I'm always quite scared by it but because I only had color to use there wasn't any really there wasn't really any black and white available at all so and I was quite impressed actually I kind of impressed myself I cannot choose and say to any of you three today but that anybody is really better than anybody else all I do know is if I could get all three of you and roll you into one I would have a really great Suzanne between the three of you it's all there well at the start of our process today I was seriously worried we've got one art student we've got a tattoo artist who hadn't picked up a paintbrush in 16 years and a lady whose expertise was in the field of ceramics but what a result we've got they've created this panorama with blocks of colour and tone just in the same way as he would have done the father of modern art himself Paul Suzanne this talented trio all seemed to have understood Suzanne's style but as to which of them has created the best painting well that's for you to decide you

Channel: TheArtyBartfast

Views: 276,593

Keywords: art, forger, forgery, forgers, master, class, artist, john, myatt, cezanne, painting, paint

Id: Fax0PNoPHOM

Length: 28min 22sec (1702 seconds)

Published: Thu May 31 2012