Photography is nature seen from the eyes outwards. Painting is nature seen from the eyes inwards.

Happy Birthday Charles Sheeler

Charles Sheeler was born in Philadelphia in 1883 and studied in the School of Industrial Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadlphia. Although he supported himself at that time as an architectural photographer, he dabled in vernacular art and architecture during the weeekends.

During the 1920s, Sheeler was associated with a group of painters called the Precisionists, known for their realistic style of painting. Sheeler focused strongly on industrial subjects and was a distinguished photographer of machines; surprising based on the fact that the subject was rather unpopular between the wars.

In painting Upper Deck (a portrait of the USS Majestic) during 1928, Sheeler perfected a method of acheving photogrphic quality with paint. Accuracy in painting would continue to be his mark, as seen in Steam Turbine. He also transfered his exacteness to abstract art.

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