Who is your favourite artist? Mine is Edward Hopper. Edward Hopper was born in 1882 in Upper Nyack, New York. Hopper was raised in a comfortable environment. A part of it included exposure to arts through museum visits and cultural events. Hopper was a good student at school. He showed his talent on drawing as early as age five. His parents were supportive to his art development. This allowed him to enter the New York School of Art and Design later in life. He initially worked on illustration. But he later realized that he did not like it. Through several trips to Europe (mainly to Paris), he began to create his own art. Like many artists, he went through years of struggle when he needed to do commercial art to support himself and when he desperately searched for his own style in his artwork. His breakthrough came along with his re-encounter of Josephine Nivison, a classmate at the New York School of Art and Design. Jo was working as an artist and she helped Edward exhibit his work at Brooklyn museum. After marrying Hopper, Jo continued to support her husband in different ways, including posing for Hopper’s paintings. And Edward Hopper eventually became one of the great American realist whose work is largely about loneliness and anxiety in urban settings. 

Edward Hopper was an artist who worked slowly. He planned carefully and attended to every detail in his work. He mentioned that he tended to think for a long time on his work and only when he was all right would he go to the easel. Looking at his sketches allow you to have a glimpse of the artist’s mind. I found it interesting to look at his sketches. Some of them look like a storyboard. Others show careful planning on composition, color and light arrangement. I remembered that I once saw a sketch on his work Morning Sun. The sketch shows a sitting woman with marks noting how much light is on each part of the body. I was amazed by how he decided the amount of light on the woman’s body. This inspired me in my preparation of my own work too. 

In addition to his way of working, I am also drawn to his way of depicting light. The very first painting I got to know Edward Hopper is Nighthawks. The lighting arrangement forms a big contrast on the space inside and outside the restaurant. With the bright light in the restaurant, one can see how people are wearied and disconnected. When I looked more closely at the painting, I noticed different geometric shapes form the space outside the restaurant. Among these geometric shapes, I found the angular shadow most interesting. I learnt that the mix of light and shadow is caused by multiple sources of light. Some come from several light bulbs in the restaurant, others are from streetlights. One could see how strong Edward Hopper was in dealing with light and shadow.     

More on Edward Hopper:

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hopp/hd_hopp.htm

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/06/08/edward-hopper-and-american-solitude

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/111628/nighthawks

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/edward-hopper-morning-sun-jo-1895972

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/these-sketches-will-take-you-into-the-artistic-mind-edward-hopper-180950255/