Learning About a Dutch Master

Tim’s Vermeer is now showing until Thursday at TIFF Bell Lightbox thanks to Mongrel Media. It’s a film with a pretty interesting concept. It follows Inventor Tim Jenison on his journey to understand how Vermeer was able to paint with such realism. For a better synopsis, I encourage you to watch the trailer below. I can almost guarantee you’ll be fascinated.

It is completely understandable that someone like Jenison, would be wary about how Vermeer was able to create such masterpieces. After all, his paintings are nearly flawless. So flawless that I'm tempted to join Jenison in believing that Vermeer had an incredibly complicated method, just to feel better about my own abilities. That said, the trailer leaves me wanting to know more about Vermeer and his techniques, and luckily enough I know just how to find out. After I’ve gone to one of this week’s screenings I’m going to follow it up with some light reading:

A good place to start is with Vermeer: The Complete Paintings from Abrams. This book, which is a survey of all of Vermeer’s works, will help a reader familiarize themselves with the artist’s catalog immediately.

Next, let's jump to Masters of Art: Vermeer from Prestel Publishing, the perfect read to help us understand the more intricate portions of Vermeer’s works.

This book offers full-page spreads of masterpieces as well as highlights of smaller details--allowing the viewer to appreciate every aspect of the artist's technique and oeuvre.

Tell me that doesn't sound like a great way to understand the method of our favorite dutch master.

Finally, now that we know all about Vermeer’s work and technique, we can follow in Tim Jenison’s footsteps and create masterpieces of our own. Of course, I’ll have a copy of Colouring Book Jan Vermeer from Prestel to help me in my endeavor. After all, not all of us can be masters!