Elmer Bischoff started out experimenting with surrealism and abstraction when he started as an artist, however he began to work figuratively in 1952. He was part of the post-World War II artists that experienced this switch from more abstract to more realistic work. After roughly 20 years of working figuratively, he returned back to abstract work full of color and light. He is most well known for his figurative work.
I came across his piece “Orange Sweater” (pictured below) in one of our art magazines while looking for some inspiration. Although his work is unrelated to what I’m currently making, a lot of it has similar elements to the work I used to make last year. Bischoff uses oil paint to make rough, fuzzy, and colorful paintings of different scenes and people. He uses wide strokes of paint and layers of colors to give the essence of a greater form or scene. I think part of what drew me to his work is that I miss doing my paintings where I studied spaces and tried to represent them with little detail. The cool thing about his paintings is that he paints on an incredibly large scale as opposed to my smaller paintings. This allows him to be more generous with his stroke and blocks of color. I wish I had found his work last year to give me inspiration, but now I’m more inspired to try and create more paintings like I used to.
I came across his piece “Orange Sweater” (pictured below) in one of our art magazines while looking for some inspiration. Although his work is unrelated to what I’m currently making, a lot of it has similar elements to the work I used to make last year. Bischoff uses oil paint to make rough, fuzzy, and colorful paintings of different scenes and people. He uses wide strokes of paint and layers of colors to give the essence of a greater form or scene. I think part of what drew me to his work is that I miss doing my paintings where I studied spaces and tried to represent them with little detail. The cool thing about his paintings is that he paints on an incredibly large scale as opposed to my smaller paintings. This allows him to be more generous with his stroke and blocks of color. I wish I had found his work last year to give me inspiration, but now I’m more inspired to try and create more paintings like I used to.