July 2nd: Tims Vermeer. Yes, another documentary. I swear I dont watch them exclusively! A coworker recommended this film, which was written, directed, and narrated by Penn & Teller. The Tim in the title is Tim Jennison, the man who invented the program Video Toaster, among other technological products. Hes wealthy and has free time, and after many other adventures becomes somewhat obsessed with trying to determine how Dutch master Johannes Vermeer painted such realistic paintings, in a way that was singular in his work for the time. As a lifelong artist, I loved the subject matter, of course. Tim demonstrates some really fascinating techniques which he believes were the same ones that Vermeer used. Martin Mull, the actor/comedian has spent a lifetime painting as well, and he gets to participate in a demonstration of the techniques. Within minutes he is creating a painting that would be considered stunning by almost anyone. Amazing to watch, actually. Tim gets a little hardcore in creating his own pigments and lenses, all with the same materials available at the time the originals were painted. He then constructs all the elements in the painting The Music Room in a studio and spends months recreating it faithfully. The results are jaw-dropping. The film looks and sounds fantastic. Its clear this was a labor of love for all involved. Its not easy to photograph the kind of incredibly tiny movements of a paintbrush up-close, but you can see every tiny movement, every detail as its created. Far from being tedious (to the viewer, its INSANELY tedious for Tim), its absolutely fascinating. The soundtrack is appropriately light and baroque, and it carries the creation montages along well. This movie is insanely inspiring from an artistic standpoint. It was all I could do not to stop the movie and grab a canvas. I will definitely be attempting this technique soon, or at the least adapting it to my own artistic style.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 04:15:02 +0000
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