Development of artist and movements that have influenced me. 1/12/20 updated 4/01/21
Early German Expressionists
These artists sought to create their own voice through combining elements of classical German art with tribal and Impressionism and Fauvist colour theory.
I am very drawn to the ‘modernist ‘ styles that they favoured and can identify with the passion and fervency that they introduced into their work. (Tate 2020) .They were keen to produce realistic images that suggested an accessible narrative for their audience. Struggling to find my own voice, I have been helped by their example . I do not need to produce images that family or friends may expect as the ‘recognised ‘ face of art. It has been difficult to break away from this traditional belief but this group’s paintings have been one of the influences on me to use unusual colour choices and textured rather than photorealistic work.
These are two works that I made between Parts 4 and 5 . My colour pallet contains areas of colour contrast ( image two) influenced by the fauvist aspect to German Expressionism
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, one of the founders of the Brucker ( bridge) movement (seen as the birth of German Expressionism ), particularly triggers connections in my imagination. He left the group early on but helped to construct their initial criteria and inspiration from. munch and Van Gough works(Reder , 2016) . I love the freedom suggested in his work at this time. It puts a modern slant on old classics eg Czardas Dancers (1908). This could be a Classical Greek vase depiction with dancers frozen mid movement . However the bold reds and green costumes contemporary to the date of painting and the heavier fluid marks making means that it becomes understandable and real to the audience of his time. The fluid movements suggest energy and passion . I do not understand the timeframe or culture of Ancient Greece but I cannot help but engage with Kirchner’s exciting depiction.
Later he moved to Berlin. In the 1910’s it was a typical European preoccupied by commercialism and class but also one enveloped in unease and resentment which would eventually lead to war. 1914 ‘s The Street and Postdamer Platz are works from his most remembered period. The narrative of The street ( masked prostitutes dressed in finery symbolising the notion at that time that everything could be bought) and the fluid elongated figures painted on angular streets attract me through their quirkiness. Underneath though there is another message . In contrast to the bold colours and energetic figures, the jarring angles of his shapes create unease in the viewer. ( Goddard, 2003) This is intensified in Postdamer Platz by the man stepping out into the road, his left leg advancing into the foreground like the jagged edge of a knife. On reflection, I suppose at an amateurish level, I sit at this stage. Full of energy and determined to tell my story in a new way. I like simple shapes that collide and create discourse in my pictures. I suspect that for me ( unlike Kirchner) this could be because I have not yet developed the skills to bring drama without the visual shock factor. I hope that I can develop my drama through texture and greater understanding of paint media.
Updated work (4/01/21) to show angular effects in my work- the waves take on a leaf like effect suggesting trying to push through a jungle.Updated example (04/01/21) I am trying to use mixed media paint effects to bring drama to my wave rather than the angular effect that can still be seen in the spikes at the top right. The swirling is too heavy a mix and jumps out from the rest of the work but it is a step on my journey to develop more drama with less shock factor.
Recent figure work. I have kept to a simple pallet tried and to incorporate tones and complimentary colouring . There is much less colour drama, dark panda eye shading and sharpness around my facial features as I have tried to show depth through impasto and scraping.
Recent Sea scapes using layering and multimedia to give texture and perspective. I am relying less on dramatic shaped rocks and strange angles. The picture itself is less complex.
After the profound effects that the Great War had on him Kirchner moved to Switzerland and as Goddard observers, with time he began to pull back from his clashing geometric shapes and figures became perhaps more as expected. He continued to use jarring perspectives but in a subtle more sophisticated way in interiors like the woodwork depicted at impossible angles in ‘Mountain Studio’ 1937 retaining elements of surreal but the composition fitted together in some sort of acceptance. The narrative remains and is joined by little jokes around his life suggesting the confidence that experience brings. I believe that the energy now comes from his choice of pallet. Goddard quotes from one of his late letters to a friend:
‘“Here one learns how to see further and go deeper than in ‘modern’ life, which is generally so very much more superficial despite its wealth of outer forms.”’
After tutor feedback, I have returned to my research into his life and find myself more and more intrigued by and in awe of his personal and artistic resilience . All along he moved in his own way to follow where his style took him. Throughout he studied his environment closely and found ways to vocalise his passion and emotion for his subjects. I live in hope that practice , emotional vision and the courage to change will inform my development over my lifetime of painting.
Tate: 2020 . Bricked: Brücke was a German expressionist group founded in Dresden in 1905 which developed a radical anti-traditional style characterised by vivid non-naturalistic colour and emotional tension.At https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/b/brucke .(First Accessed 1/12/20 and updated to 4/01/21)
Reeds and horizontals on water and hills made using impasto acrylic with the edge of a kitchen knifeCoiled rope dipped into gesso and above kitchen knife pressed into green acrylic to produce a feather effectImpasto for clouds( gesso and kitchen knife makes a freer cloud with loose mark making) pallet knife for blue sea in a thick paste into wet so that its treat he’s out like sand being pulled back and forward by the tide line
Dripping, dribbling and spattering p131
Preparing a textured ground p134
Gesso used as a textured groundSand ( green area) and glue( white lines) used as a textured groundRed /brown rock area has glued tissue paper on groundSand and gesso used in groundEgg shell mixed with glue and white paint over the topScratching into impastoSand in ground
Mixing materials into paint p135
Sand mixed into green paint- not enough for good effect. Pouring gel in red hill acrylic and feather stuck into sea acrylicTwo shades of blue( one is a metallic acrylic) mixed into shaving foam and the excess scraped off.Second use of foam/ acrylic mix. Fainter
Abstraction from study of natural forms p137
Broken shells washed up on the beach. Wave action breaks them in similar waysShell patterns which can be used to produce an abstract
Abstraction from man- made form p 137
I am attracted to the repetition of shell patterns and concentrated on these . It has distracted me from my initial man made abstraction closeup drawing of the metal spine on my sketch book!
Assignment 5 Sketchbook
Captions from top: rubbed with cloth; scratched in with tool and wipe off and
My favourite projects so far are those which have allowed me to work with loose mark -making and bold colour. In particular ‘ Painting outside’ and ‘ working from drawings and photographs’. The way in which they were written and structured inspired me to go outside and take notice of my surroundings again .’ Painting Outside’ began to allow me the luxury of a long time to contemplate the scene and consequently I began to plan properly what I was going to include. Furthermore I was inspired by the atmosphere and sense that I could engage with what to put into the painting and how to allow my self to progressively develop work. Building on this, time spent appreciating and noticing the energy of the sea at the lighthouse where I chose to paint the ‘squaring up exercise’ meant that I really ‘felt it’ before starting to plan the composition and early sketches. This helped to boost my confidence and marks flowed more loosely . In addition the process -skills behind all of the previous disciplined exercises in the course were finally beginning to make more sense and they were becoming more natural for me, further allowing me to relax a little and loosen up.
Through conversations with my tutor I have been able to identify and paint more towards my natural strengths to increase my confidence and understanding of what a more mature painting process might involve. We concentrated on exploiting my natural instinct to paint quickly with large loose marks and to experiment with mixed media to incorporate texture.I recognise that at certain points in the life -long learning experience of anyone who wishes to be a visual artist, there are light- bulb moments. This could be compared to learning to drive. A learner’s three -point -turn performed inexpertly and jerkily suddenly becomes a smooth process because the brain learns to perform it automatically. This frees the mind to work on other important driving procedures.Of course the skill is still quite elementary but each time it is used, it improves. This is how I have felt since painting my first light house ( squaring exercise Part 4 p 120).The squaring process allowed me to make a better composition with more accurate perspective.With the pressure off this ‘problem’ I began to relax, painted looser larger marks and managed to notice how to exploit the developing energy and movement in my painting .Initial studies of artists who work in this way has been revolutionary for me. On videos I have watched, Joan Eardley working fluid thick marks onto a large board with urgency and passion. I have studied photographs of her sea scapes, exploring the marks and textures left by her frenetic painting process and felt this movement coming through her work. Each painting and letter describing her views and emotional response to her work encourages me to try this style because I feel this urgency and passion to record the power of the natural environment. I need to keep practising technical skills and improving my use of tones and contrast but at last I feel that I have started my own journey influenced by the marks and textures that act as my vocabulary. Projects requiring linear perspective and fine detail were difficult but having said that it is rewarding to understand where some of my weaknesses are coming from and what I can do to improve. ( see the flow chart at the start of my course work in assessment- review of assessment 2 . I took a lot of time consciously trying to apply this checklist to my work in part 3 which was demanding and hard going.The portraits were not particularly good in terms of quality, my work became tight as I tried to concentrate on linear perspective. Texture, colour and impasto would have been a better was to approach this. Then I lost heart and didn’t develop the layers through tone and detail. To go back to my learner driver analogy, I was still at the beginning of learning and I could only concentrate on one aspect at a time. By mid way through Part Four I began to notice a change as I have described in relation to the squaring exercise. I can see development of a checklist and squaring my work as key events in developing my process but I cannot exclude the study of individual painters and artistic movements.
Project- Different ways of applying paint.
Exercise- Impasto p130
Exercises to add thick paint and scratch into the surface. I really enjoy the process of applying thick paint and found that by e peri eating with small quantities of medium I could alter the viscosity of some of my thicker acrylic colours to flow in a more effective way onto the page. The medium left a thick textured and glossy apple which I liked while the scratching technique worked better on a thicker paste acrylic that I flattened with a pallet knife.
I love the rustic effect produced in the pallet knife apple on its own. The fluid imperfect image feels much more real and suggests the fast energetic strokes that for me make paintings alive.
I spent some time experimenting with different methods of applying the paint by knife, card etc . This is useful to be aware of in different settings. It may seem quite trivial but a big discovery was taking the time to experiment and find the best ratio of medium to paint . Also my mixing technique was a bit slap dash previously- mixing away from the pallet in a tub and almost beating in the medium had a much better result. I think applying thick medium -assisted layers with a pallet knife would have brought much more drama to my portrait exercises.
Impasto gesso clouds and impasto acrylic reeds and horizontals on the water surface using the flat edge of a kitchen knife. Adding a metallic blue to the water have a kind of glassy still water effectI really enjoyed using a coiled rope dipped in white acrylic to form a fossil like impasto shape and underneath a thick layer of green has had a knife pressed into it leaving a fern like pattern. I really love these effects and being thick heavy impasto they remain after drying instead of disappearing.Pallet applied impasto is pressed out at the edges with a metal pan scouter to suggest spray from the waves. The rocks and sea wee painted thickly to give a loose feel to the workI have been lucky enough to be spending time by the sea and have had time to observe the mechanics of how the tide and waves move the beach ‘furniture’ about.
At the bottom of the picture is a thick layer of stiff blue acrylic- pulling it away at the top into a layer of wet paper allowed me to try to show how the sand moves when water is sucked back off the beach into the sea.
Exercise- Dripping , dribbling and spattering p 131
It is curious that while I love making big dramatic sweeps and curves, I do not find it easy to create good splatter work! My efforts below feel a little stiff and lacking in spontaneity. I think I am subconsciously worried about spoiling my work entirely if they are uncontrolled. I was working away from home in a limited space so didn’t embrace the Pollock inspired kinaesthetic dripping fully. I will try this in the future in a large area and following his idea to almost dance around a the painting while making the marks. I can see why this looks less stiff. I have also seen videos of paint cans pierced at the bottom attached to string which act like the fulcrum of a pendulum. I think that this could add energy to a landscape or a seascape work. I think it is possibly a case where more than 3 colours would become chaotic. Also stopping while I could still see lines and track marks would be important. I watched a Tate interactive exhibition which illustrates both of these points. The artist Yayoi Kusama is of course well known for her trademark dot work. In this installation she invites visitors to create the design using provided Ed stickers to place in a white room. The overall result is for me well past the optimum point but it is fascination to watch the time lapse video showing the installations progression over a period in time. At several points a really beautiful result is produced and then changes completely as different marks are laid down. This is a learning point in itself- if it feels like the work has gone too far, it may be that it just needs a fresh direction and it is not necessarily healthy to stick to an original idea. Here flexibility and courage to go in a different direction produced surprising and beautiful results.
Bloomsbury /Tate shots: Yayio Kusama ‘s Oblitteration Room accessed on 3/12/29 online at https://youtu.be/-xNzr-fJHQw
The LHS piece lacks variety – it was improved slightly by the random pattern border. The rhs piece ended up waterlogged so that the colours flooded together into a ‘pour’ work. This finished with a pretty gloss but was a bit muddy.Above I have discussed methods I will try to improve results . I could use effective splattering to finish off a landscape of flowers ( in contrast colours), to brighten if dull and probably to show sea spray in white or tones of the picture
Project- adding other materials
Exercise- preparing a textured ground p134- Rough sea
The first picture shows some of the materials that I used. Two shows egg shells and pva glue. The shells were crushed a lot more to give a better effect. The third shows salt which works much like granulating fluid does on watercolour. Next is glue and pva glue ,some mixed with white gesso to accentuate the white hi light. The last piece shows a wire wool scrubber.
LHS shows two shades of blue mixed in shaving foam, applied to paper and then scraped off. I particularly like this effect for sea scalpers. The second shows coils of thin rope used to print gesso onto a background and behind the effects of twigs and feathers dipped in gesso. I think that the rope comes out much better than the feathers and twigs.This is my finished painting for this exercise using knife applied paint and shaving foam effects. I really love the random waves produced using shaving foam. This shaving foam wave gives depth. I tried to introduce a faded colour behind to suggest further perspective by reusing the mixture. This didn’t work so well as the pattern produced is random and did not fit in with what was in the foregroundTissue paper was added between layers of acrylic. I had intended to use a transparent layer on top and would like to see if this produced a better visual effect. The mixture now contained glue and several layers of paint plus tissue. This was a good surface to scratch into and tho move the paper to produce thick areas and crinkles. I found that on decrying only the thick crinkles remained visible. Disappointingly The thick stack of tissue did not really show up.This is the summary table of my experiments – shown as photo as I can’t transfer the document
Exercise – mixing materials into paint p135
Experiments using pva glue of different strengths in the yellow acrylic and black ink , in the middle different mixes of paint and pva glue and pouring medium and on the rhs areas of sand in the ground ( around the base of the tree)and sand mixed into the top layer of acrylic ( below tree)
These exercises have been really informative and I can use the results to improve my perspective techniques eg using texture lines and patterns to suggest distance especially in the foreground.
Project Towards Abstraction
Exercise – abstraction from study of natural formsp137
I spent time looking at natural patterns in nature as I already find these fascinating. Eg looking at the light reflection ( rather than pigment) on butterfly wings and on bird feathers that produces their spectacular patterns.
This lead me to review my understanding of naturally occurring patterns in nature that can be described by mathematical formulae. The Fininache or golden ratio occurs in shells , seed -heads, petals and countless other areas and is copied in a basic form by artists to find the most impactful place for focal points. The Manderbelt Theory has been worked out and programmed digitally to show repeating patterns. Both of these formulae produce amazing and pleasing abstract like patterns. I decided to sketch broken shells from the beach as their abstract patterns make beautiful spiral shapes which I feel could be incorporated into abstract painting.
This led me to complete a small piece I had started for another exercise as a ‘ fantasy’ landscape where the twisting cloud looks a little like the interior spiral of the shell. On the beach this usually remains in some form as it appears the strongest part of the shell. The colours are influenced by the work of Giorgio de Chirico whose stark modernist works where full of bold colours. He managed to change the feel of a work by positioning of the subject using realistic objects placed out of context which triggered a feeling of unease in the viewer. In my quick sketch I can relate to his aims – the cloud symbolises the broken shell I drew above and is intended to reflect a brokenness in the landscape, further suggested by colour use – only tonal hues without a contrast. To improve this idea I would have to chose a more familiar symbol which any viewer would recognise
I became so carried away with the theme of painting shell curves that could form parts of abstract paintings that I hardly started on the man made forms. I did identify one repeating shape that I liked that reminded me of the mathematical formulae involved in art: the fabinachi series proves the correct ratio to position a focal point in a picture and can be seen in shells and sunflower seeds as well as a whole host of man made designs. A second formula produces a set of numbers which can be plotted on a graph. This is often shown digitally as a beautiful coladascope of repeating patterns. One example can be seen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGMRB4O922I I also became fascinated by the patterns created by reflection of light to produce wonderful fluorescent patterns that change with the angle of viewing eg in feathers and butterfly wings this is produced by scales sticking up at different angles to reflect light differently. At some point I would love to creat a project based on this finding in nature and how it can be mimicked
Assignment 5
Assignment 5 – reflection on studies and coursework to date
My path to Fine Art has been through self exploration and internet assisted discovery rather than the discipline and technical skills which I presume are taught during recognised academic art qualifications therefore the very necessary technical skills projects in Painting one have been tremendously rewarding but have required a great deal of concentration and I am aware that in doing this I have become tight and less confident in my process. Advice and encouragement from my tutor has kept pushing me back towards a looser style which allows me to compensate somewhat for my lack of technical skills in fine detail and linear perspective. I feel that I have had to start from the very beginning on most projects and worry that this leaves me completing exercises at a very rudimentary level.
Picking my topic
Although this does not disillusion me, I was delighted to feel that I may not be starting quite at the beginning for Part 5! It is inevitable then that I enjoyed exercises involving impasto and mixing techniques and believe that I have managed to loosen off my style more than in previous parts of the course. Therefore using the skills practiced in Part 5 on the topic I most enjoyed in the course- the sea felt the right area for me to develop my work for Assignment 5.
I mentioned earlier in coursework 5 that living on the coast I have become intoxicated by the rhythm of the sea and tides . Coincidentally I have been studying the effect of gravitational pull and lunar cycles on tides and sea conditions in relation to safety swimming at sea, so this naturally influenced my painting subjects . I have found myself looking more and more at the difference between high and low tides and how this and the local environment ( eg rip tides) affect the beach. [ Reflection and contemplation prior to undertaking a project was something that I learned to develop in Part 4, ex . Each new tide has an impact on the ‘furniture’ of the beach, making it into a constantly changing muse. Throw in the weather and light and the coast has become a place of amazing beauty and variety. Like so many artists I now find myself compelled to record its changing nature.
Aim
I want to try to express some of the many natural phenomenon that I see at the same stretch of beach over a few days.
Technical skills practice
These are Natural Mark making seen in the sand photos taken whitest I took time to ‘ contemplate’ my feelings about my selected landscape. After re- noticing the shapes and forms that I have always seen ! I spent time investigating how the patterns looked close up, how they interacted with the environment as a whole( did they constitute a dominant feature) and how were they made? Also I was aware of how I interacted with them as I walked : feeling the softness and suck of the sand around the ‘ tidal pull -back’ ; impacted ripple-beds created by the tide on the foreshore and the crunch of little groups of muscle and mollusc shells caught up in clumps of kelp.. I laughed at blobs of foam shooting across the sand at the mercy of the changing wind and noted the smell of freshness and decay in different parts of the beach and tasted the salt from spray blown onto my lips.In other words all of my senses were now engaging in the assignment project. This is a first for me and feels like a small victory in my desire to develop a personal process.
I spent a great deal of time watching the waves from the body of the sea right up-to the tideline and the beach beyond. I wanted to try to reproduce some of the effects I saw so got to work experimenting with different tools and ratios of paint and media.
Trying to capture the patterns in the sand left as the sea washes over seaweed and tracks of darker debris deposited in feathery patterns by streams of water finding its way back down the beach to the sea.
Of all of the effects I produced in my sketch book- I felt that this last and more traditional bleeding and dragging method worked best on a paper and acrylic primed support. It was perhaps a long way round to find this- but I desperately wanted to use one of the new techniques that I had learned. This teaches me that it is right to practice and experiment- and at the end to choose the process that works best in each individual situation.
Observation
The wave is usually blue behind and turquoise underneath the wave before becoming white and frothy at the end.Next I wanted to look at wave formation. This study shows some of the different hues in the sea. Most waves come in sets and break as they reach an object or the shallower water of a a sand bank or when waves meet water being driven in an opposing direction ( rip current). I began to notice a pattern : a wave begins to fold over at one end and the white crest forms diagonally up the wave in a chain reaction like a line of dominos each being knocked over by the fall of the one in front.
Next I wanted to look at wave formation. This study shows some of the different hues in the sea. Most waves come in sets and break as they reach an object or the shallower water of a a sand bank or when waves meet water being driven in an opposing direction ( rip current). I began to notice a pattern : a wave begins to fold over at one end and the white crest forms diagonally up the wave in a chain reaction like a line of dominos each being knocked over by the fall of the one in front. This produces the effect that is sometimes illustrated as running white horses. It is not easy to see but in the study below I had a go at doodling horse heads and front legs into patterns that I saw in the white already laid down.
Emotional response to work
During time spent over the last month with a local Uist artist Ellis O’Connor, I learned the importance of engaging with your subject. I spent time sketching the sea and painting in watercolour and acrylic on the beach to capture the energy of the waves. To recreate this when not in situe she told me that it is helpful to recapture feelings by looking back at sketches and a plan air work before starting work indoors. In addition I have looked back at photographs and videos from an emotional aspect rather than as a reference.
While studying this I thought about the domino wave effect where the white surf is sometimes illustrated as free-running white horses. It is not easy to see but in the study below I had a go at doodling horse heads and front legs into patterns that I saw in the white already laid down. This really engaged my sense of connection to a wild sea and is one that I used in the exercise using impasto white gesso and a steel wire circular pad.
I had previously practiced blending layers of blue and green with a pallet knife A water colour study sitting on the beachSome studies with tissue paper to see if I could build in perspective for the rocks and sand
Next I looked at how to show the ridges and ribs in shells
Interpreting the style that would best illustrate my understanding of place.
Composition and Style
I am extremely fortunate and have to appreciate the serendipitous timing of relocation and personal learning and feedback from part 4 .I have begun to realise the importance to me of a sense of place and how having an awareness of the ‘soul’ and history of a place can help me to find a narrative for my work. I have spent the last 6 weeks absorbing the natural environment and social history of the Outer Hebrides. Talking to local creatives has encouraged my sense of awareness of the ancient and modern influences on the coasts that my beloved sea beats upon.
I wish to quote some local and international artists who have affected my development of process and style as I have worked through this assignment.
Pauline Prior-Pitt from Shore Sequence
today the sea has left skeins of treasure on the sand each wave ebbs a necklace seaweed threads, broken shells, feathers, straw and fine peat grains
Recently I have become aware of how much my personal health and happiness is connected to nature around me. It gives me a sense of grounding and the raw power of the sea demonstrates so clearly that humanity is just one small part of creation. I want to share my delight in the sea’s changing moods, it’s energy and paradoxically the security that the constant rhythms of the tides brings to those who study it.
Sense of place is important in the work of both Joan Eardsley and Paul Nash and I have been influenced in how they communicated it.
When I first saw one of Joan Eardley’s street kids pictures I was struck by the freedom of her mark-making and her bold colour choices. Solid blue rings around a child’s eyes is not conventional- and yet it works. It is spontaneous and says something of the plight of the impoverished children that she knew so well from the streets around her Glasgow studio. The colours of the clothing are bright and used repeatedly as a complimentary colour technique to make her work ‘pop’ and to draw attention to the poverty of the residents – the same items of clothing appear again and again on different siblings . As one of the artists for recommended study in this unit , I returned to her work . New amazement hit me- as I felt the frenzied energy used in a breath- taking manner to portray storms she observed from the small fishing village that she spent a great deal of her latter years living in. She worked outside with huge canvases lashed down to prevent them blowing away in gales and apparently worked quickly and loosely to paint in the same spots again and again, claiming that the more you studied a site the more detail and feeling you got from it. I greatly admire Eardley’s bold mark making, impasto, application of sand in her ground and scratching into her work. This conveys the urgency of her paint application and therefore her passion for the subject. In her work I can detect the joy that she must have felt in her paintings and realising this I felt more able to try to loosen up and experiment in my assignment . I commented in part 4 that I realise I retreat into convention and lose the sense of what I am trying to paint. Therefore Eardley inspired me to be bolder in this submission.
Ellis O’Connor says that “ on stormy days the sea and sky converge” and this is what she tries to bring to her work.https://youtu.be/U6SZjQgeZIc
The next paragraphs about JE have been added after formative feedback. 12/01/21
I have taken Ellis’s words very much to heart and sat for many hours absorbing the moods and tides of the sea. I best love the bubbling white mass of foam as tall rollers crash in from the Atlantic and smash many miles worth of built up kinetic energy into stacks of outlying rocks or collide with rip tides bouncing of the bay. This wild caldron is imprinted on my mind to the point that I must try to describe it using colour,texture, splashes, pallet knife marks and anything that I feel will develop my depiction of this amazing and dangerous sight.
Until very recently I felt a sense of defeat when I picked up a brush or chalk to record this scene. It has taken technical ‘light-bulb’ moments as referenced in ‘Personal Development’ at the start of Part 5 ) and without a doubt the research into the work and emotions of artists like Joan Eardley to encourage me out of my previous artistic paradigm . It may sound over dramatic but I am convinced that discovering the level of passion and self belief and observing the mark-making that Eardley used in her seascapes opened up to me the possibility that I did not have to paint as a photorealist. My journey in art is to represent the energy that I feel in a subject through urgent mark-making and development of my emotional response to the subject and my evolving work.
A sketch from Part 1 painting. Looking back I can remember my frustration. I wanted to break out from a traditional path, not because it was wrong, just not right for my personal development.I have tried to interpret the anger in the sea with random broken lines and a dry brush technique. The sky shows a little development as I have tried to layer paint here but on the whole after an initial application of acrylic I gave up , disheartened at the impotence of my artistic voice. I did not know how to apply paint in a loose style or have the confidence to go with bold hues, tones and more daring expressive mark-making. The piece came from scant childhood and holiday memories but there was a complete absence of observation of the sea which I feel contributed to the lateness and lack of energyThis is a final image from Assignment 5. Eardley’s influence, I think can be seen in the choice of pallet , use of texture including impasto and sand and free mark -making that I have allowed to direct the way that my painting has finished. I hope that it shows the energy and passion that I observed in the sea. This is now the beginning of a long artistic exploration but I hope that my comparison with P1 shore scene illustrates that at least now I have metaphorically put on my boots and left the house!
Paul Nash connected again and again with environments that were of great significance to him : a hillside near to his home in Oxfordshire and the war torn landscapes of Europe in both world wars.
David Boyd Haycock gives an interesting incite into his process in a recent Heni Talk, revealing that Nash wanted to show the unseen psychology and feel of a place as well as how it looked. It is interesting that he often chose to do this by using trees as a metaphor: in his Great War paintings he uses the blown up stumps to describe what humanity has done to the world and in late paintings he returns to his favourite clumps of hilltop trees in Oxford to convey his feelings about the passing of life. Reading about this has made me think a lot about more deeply about how I can use the coasts around me to convey my message.
Donald Smith another artist originally from the Isle of Lewis uses colour in a powerful way. He chooses a limited pallet of similar tones and adds one complimentary colour – using a technique from colour theory rules that part 2 taught me to be aware of. In the untitled Stornaway harbour image below orange/ yellow tints form the main body of the painting study made to ‘pop’ by the inclusion of a single splash of blue winding across the scene.
Stornaway harbour study, p 63
Smith also uses a simple block pattern outlined in thick black to create landscapes that really stand out. See his image below.
Stornaway harbour P59
Joan Eardsley’s seascapes are full of understanding and abandonment to the wildness of the sea. In my reference work I have detailed sources explaining her plein air work and her love of painting the coast around her part-time home. She talked of the importance of painting it again and again to really know her subject. I have come to appreciate the importance of this point of view. For me knowing every inch of the rocks and how each storm and ebb tide interacts with the beach leaves less to get wrong in composition. It also develops a kind of muscle memory allowing me to relax into my painting , enjoying it and working in a looser manner. As my painting is my main recovery tool from long term depression this experience of losing myself in the work is key and as such I feel this the only subject that I could use for my assignment at this time.
Project paintings
Image 1 night sea- rejected
Sand incorporated into the priming layer. Gesso loaded on top with a knife for the breaking wave. Black ink poured over the top to suggest darkness.I like the impasto and the composition of this piece but feel that it does not quite capture the movement of the sea or the feeling of night.
Image 2 – wild sea- rejected
Red under layer drizzled with pva glue to create wild wave patterns. Blue tonal layers were addedI am pleased with the energetic feel of this piece but feel it needs more definition.
Image 3 -Alone on the beach- rejected
adding pouring medium to acrylic to give a vast glossiness, black felt tip to create lines in the sand. Sand was incorporated at the bottom of the primer layer using.pva This was washed over with a dilute transparent glaze.Alone on the beach- to demonstrate the patterns in the sand and vast sand expanse as well as showing ridges in the sand by the sea and black water lines throughout. I feel that this gives a feeling of expanse and I like the abstract effect of the red sky but feel it is too simplistic.
Image 4 – The storm
I have tried to stick to the influence of Donald Smith and used blue/ green tints and a single burst of complementary orange for the sun. I am pleased with the energy of the waves and the use of tones to give some perspective to the work- although I would like to remake this with a wider range of closely matched blue tones made up ready to blend in making it richer and less jerky in its colour changes and application of white surf. I feel that it manages to describe the beauty and power of the sea as its narrative without becoming too complex in structure.
Image 5 – Sunset
Basic colour shape blocked in. I added more layers of sky colour to depict the blues and pinks left after the sun has almost sunk. I observed that the balance looked lopsided and spent time blending in more blues and pinks to create layers of clouds for perspective in a more symmetrical way. I have learned that it is not always possible to pain5 just as you see and adjusting to something that is more pleasing to the eye can be a wise decision. I applied some squiggles of PVA glue to the middle layers in the mid ground to give some difference in texture to the tide line where water was running back into the sea. A white tinted was helped to make this look more like a transparent layer of water covering the sand of the tideline.
Close-up Showing the texture of the PvA tide line and scratched in area of sand and blended layers of clouds
Image 6- alone on a beach 2
I wanted to develop the theme of expanse that I first explored in Image 3. My main learning point was to add drama to the expanse .
I again used sand in the primed support layer. This time in a graduated line reaching from the far ground into the foreground to give a leading line and perspective. I planned that shadow around the sand would enhance the texture effect. Throughout the piece the work changed from a side on view of the beach to a peninsula with water across the foreground. I built up gesso impasto layers in the sand using a ribbed cardboard sheet and the flat edge of a spatula.The clouds developed and changed as I experimented with a rain shower , rainbow and sun through the cloud layers. The eventual result was what felt most believable. I worked more energy into the spray in the waves at the front to give more energy to the narrative of the piece. I feel that this is an improvement on work 3 but the story it tells is somehow not quite powerful enough. I work best with the energy of wild seas as the focus rather than the beach
Images taken from the section of beach I wanted to paint showing the topology, cloud structure, sand texture associated with different parts of the beach and around the seaweed , a guide sketch plan I made earlier of typical beach structure . I spent a long time observing the sea. It is not obvious from the pictures but the area on the left is an estuary and the beach sweeps round to the open sea at the top RHS. For this reason the fore and mid ground sea in this work will be slightly calmer and the splashes and energy comes from hitting the sand and small rocks. The sea state is choppy rather than sets of rollers. The sky is grey with rain clouds some passing quickly over head and one dropping its rain visible as a grey sheet stretching down into the back ground Atlantic. Clouds not clearly visible on a mobile camera device.
I spent a long time developing layers in the clouds and the horizon line. I feel that this has worked best to improve the work.
Image 7- sea eye view of the lighthouse
Tones of blue and green acrylic diluted with pouring medium to a runny consistency applied to the primed support with a large trowel shaped pallet knife. The edges were spread out to give a dry partial coverage at the edges to imply perspective.Shaving foam to add energy to the waves in a top layer
The last layer became a process of adding and removing detail. I smoothed in oil pastel crayon in blue to give further definition to the swirls made using shaving foam observed from a distance and blocked out with colour or white where the pattern was becoming too complex. Moving the position of the lighthouse was important to give a more correct perspective angle to make the viewer feel they were looking up from within the sea to the lighthouse.I added tonal difference to the rocks with oil pastel in mixes of gold, and brown which worked well with my acrylic layers as it could be smoothed in to blend the tonal transitions ( learning point from works 2 and 4). This was a learning point absorbed from Donald Smith ( simple blocking) and Joan Eardsley ( experimental frantic mark making). Re -discovering Joan Eardsley’s landscape work and watching videos of her painting was revolutionary for me in developing courage to make loose large marks and to tap into my energy and passion for the wild sea.
Image 8- Semi-Abstract seascape- fishing boat heading out of the harbour
So far I was really pleased with the development in my energy , use of texture and mixed media and loosens of my style. To push myself further I felt that I had to move more towards the work of the artist whom I admired most in my research for this course- Joan Eardsley. While the resulting work is not my most accomplished in terms of composition or technical skill, I feel that I must include it in my painting selection as it shows a turning point- my first semi- abstract landscape.
Eardley worked in fast vertical marks . I am not quite so confident to do this and find that for now I have found freestyle working from dribbled PVA glue and having foam patterns. This time I wanted a larger abstract form representing a wave so I decided to try an acrylic pour onto my primed support.
I added one part each of pouring consistency blue, shiny light blue and green and on top another three parts of pouring medium. The resulting inverted pour was moved around the paper, turning it to give peaks on a wave.
I developed the work using a mixture of acrylic, oil pastel and wet on wet black ink ( foreground water marks round the rocks). Thinking back to Donald Smith , when the sea patterns became too complex I worked them back to blocks of blue and instead of using Smiths black blocking lines , I used white gesso to delineate boundaries. Finishing the work involved working more oil pallet in to give a greater tonal contrast to the lighthouse and harbour and boar pots as well as developing the line to spray on the mid ground wave and delineating the black and water colour lines of sand worn away in circles by the flow round the foreground rocks.
Reflection
I have really enjoyed this assignment project more than anything else that I have done in Painting 1. I think this is partly because I am finally beginning to understand some basics around painting technique. Perhaps more importantly I have begun to pick up on recommendations and artistic good practise that I have read about I’m my research. This confidence has in turn inspired some looser work and combined with finding a subject that I am really passionate about, I feel that I have been able to explore my topic in an artistic way. I am pleased with the development of my surface preparation and the incorporation of grounds and the use of impasto and a wide range of tools to give texture to my work. Noticing the techniques applied by artists like Donald Smith and Joan Eardsley’s has allowed me to become aware of limited pallet and blocking, perspective through colour and expressive energetic mark making.
I cannot afford to lose sigh5 of the technical skills that I need to develop such as fine detail and linear perspective. However I have more confidence now to work from the areas that I have developed and have more confidence to explore new techniques.
Proposed order of viewing
The final selection and viewing order
I feel that this semi abstract work has given me greater confidence to develop this side of my work to incorporate more technical perspective and fine detail. However I feel that I have really pushed myself in the whole project and especially this last work. It has been a challenging but very rewarding process. These works best represent this development towards awareness of my surroundings: The voice of the Hebridean Seas.
Bibliography
Th Artist painting the climate change she sees on the horizon/Loop: BBC Scotland on You Tube, 24 April 2019. online at https://youtu.be/U6SZjQgeZIc Accessed on 08/12/20
Le Eileanach, D. Donald Smith the paintings of an Islander, p63. Acair:Stornaway. 2019
Review of Part 5 Assignment feedback
1.I am encouraged that mark – making and layering has improved my painting perspective and have gone back to some of my assignment 5 work to see if I can improve this further.
2.Thinking about my tutor’s comment re improving use of paint : medium. I have been able to go back and identify where this has worked and notice where my every has overridden planning to make it too heavy and laboured. I can see the importance of adding this to my pre painting planning. I have started to think about including oil work in my project .The amount of medium to paint used in oils has to be planned before starting and this will give me an opportunity to put this skill into practice in a measured way. I love the greater potential to blend oil tones and make more changeable responses as each layer develops. I have looked back at the flexibility of Joan Eardley’s waves, the flick of the foam on the rollers and the scratching into areas that added energy to her work are to me more achievable in oil.
Seascape(foam and blue sky) 1962
Elliot,P with Galastro,A.Joan Eardley.A sense of place.National Galleries of Scotland.2016.
Part 5 Research part 1 some of this page has been altered post formative assessment.
Applying paint
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) worked in several styles through his painting life: moving from Impressionism to pointalism and back again.
Pissarro used a wide tonal pallet . https://www.camillepissarro.org/the-cote-des-baoeufs-at-lhermitage.jsp In this example worked paint into the work , over layering the impasto leaving small parts of brush marks . It is also full of interwoven trees in the foreground giving an authentic feel and hiding the figures in the mid ground from initial view. In contrast , https://www.camillepissarro.org/boulevard-montmartre-at-night.jsp , one of few urban scenes that he painted the view opens out wide using the street angle to allow simplified contrasting tone perspective. The brush work in this one is much looser and it is suggested that this was because there was a time pressure to catch the light on the damp pavements. Both of his techniques use textured paint to create perspective.
https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-history/pastel-drawings-famous-artists-time/ shows techniques used by twentieth century and current artists. Ordin Redon applied pastels in a way that mimicked oil work. Use of contrasting hues and close tonal shades appear in heavy overplayed areas resembling paint applied with a spatula. Yet in some areas there is only a thin tint and leaving white areas and pencil markings.
In contrast Mary Casset was well known fir creating fine tonal work. She was able to blend in some areas like clothing but achieved a mottled skin effect by allowing marking lines in blues and pinks to stay distinct on arms and faces. Strands of hair where chiselled into the paper distinctly and a reflection in a mirror shows distinct over hatching to identify it.
Eardley painted coastal seascapes and landscapes at a fishing village called Catterline. She painted large works in situe and often in extreme conditions. Her work was full of bold and loose mark making, impasto , ground additives and scratching. She used quite a muted storm palette most of the time but could introduce translucent pinks and yellows to convey a change for the better in the weather. The energy in her work really inspires me as does the semi abstract quality of her paintings. They convey the power of nature .
Joan Eardley- behind the canvas
While her street children are perhaps equally or even more iconic I intend to concentrate on Eardley at Catterline where her sea scape work and insight from the late 50’s till her death in 1963 . Here her loose and impasto technique appeals greatly to me and I aspire to the same passion for a simplistic representation of the magnificence of the natural costal environment.
Second research notes
‘
In the 19th and early 20th centuries certain artistic disciplines, like sculpture, were regarded as unfeminine. Similarly, certain types of art were considered to be more appropriate for women: in 1860, French art critic, Léon Lagrange wrote of female artists: ‘Let women occupy themselves with those kinds of art they have always preferred… the paintings of flowers’ for example. However, have things have moved on for female artists today?
In this film contemporary artists Julie Roberts, Graham Fagen, and arts journalist Jan Patience were invited to discuss whether an artist’s gender affects the work they create or the subject matter they choose. ‘
Julie Roberts and Graham Fagen discuss pre 1980’s thinking on appropriate subject matter for female artists. They agree that Eardsley’s street children were a product of what she had access to paint ie not the life room or celebrity portraiture. (Fortunate though for social history that it forms a record though of a disappearing way of life!)
Around 2:30 in the video Eardley is shown working in her studio in Catterline. Her body language portrayed tension and an urgency to spurt out her work. She held large brushes and a pallet knife in both hands and applied the beginnings of a painting with large loose marks, possibly dark ( black and white clip) onto a mid – tone board support .Here work on seascapes became large and hosted longer, looser markings which apparently she painted in groups mainly outside no matter what the weather was, even strapping down boards in storms.
‘This work was painted in Catterline, a village on the East Coast of Scotland where Eardley owned a cottage. It suggests something of the power of the sea, with the wave approaching the shore like a wall of water. The artist has described the circumstances of the painting: ‘It was painted during February 1961 – entirely outside – as is the case with all my sea paintings. It was one of four paintings which I had in progress during a stormy period of weather. I worked on all four together – or rather from one to the other according to the tide’.
https://youtu.be/MOof0SdNsMI – Eardley’s technique in 1959 described and paired with Anne Redpath from a similar period. Both are influenced by the strong bold abstracts emerging from America. still uses a and realistic colour pallet for sea scales – odd as she uses Freudian surreal pallets for her street children. It is commented on that her bold and confident style was influential on Redpath , an artist with many more years of experience. She illustrates swirls and impasto techniques and pallet knife spreads of paint along the canvas .
‘There are several late oil paintings whose subject remains enigmatic, where the abstract quality is dominant, where the paint itself seems to the as much the subject as the view. The title, which derives from a Roland Browse & Delbanco label, has assumed we are looking at a waterfall but can we detect the form of a beehive (a favourite Catterline motif) with the light illuminating a path beyond? What is certain is the energy inherent in the paint, a determination not to let her picture become a topographical record that she shared at this moment with Auerbach, Kossof and European Tachist painters like Antoni Tàpies.’P38 TSG catalogue
See shape , form and colour for Trees and Haystacks. Paint etched out possibly with the end of a brush as described elsewhere. P29
‘For Eardley there was enough inspiration for a lifetime of painting and more and this drove the urgency in her work, the sense that nature would not be tamed or oblige with the same conditions ever again; her response was to work tirelessly’
P28 from Joan Eardley – Restless talent TSG catalogue
A Carter and His Horse, which the Government Art Collection bought in 1952 and then loaned to the British Embassy in Tokyo for decades. It captures the carter beside his horse, lighting a cigarette while he waits for goods to be unloaded from the harbour glimpsed in the background. Yet the 4ft-wide picture has an impressive scale. Eardley carries the eye across the surface by means of small connecting passages, without forcing the interest at any point. The brushwork is brusque, almost nonchalant, suggesting a confidence that feels no need to impress.’
‘…The North East, – it’s just vast waste and vast seas, vast areas of cliff – you’ve just got to paint it. I very often find I will take my paints to a certain place which has moved me and I’ll begin to paint there and I find by perhaps the end of the summer I haven’t moved from that place. My paints are still there. I’ve worn a kind of mark in the ground – no grass left! – and I just leave my paints there overnight and eventually it seems to have built up this other table and generally a studio seems to have arrived outside and that seems to be how I work. Once I’ve started in a place I don’t find I want to move, because I’m trying to do something and you’re never really satisfied with what you’re doing, so you keep on trying and the more you try the more you think of new ways of doing this particular subject and so you just go on and on.’
Joan Eardley by Christopher Andreae, Lund Humphries, 2013, p57
Three large canvases all worked throughout the day from my front door or thereabouts. It has been a perfect painting day – Not as regards climate! (I wore a fur coat for the first time). But for beauty quite perfect – A big sea – with lovely light – greyness and blowing swirling mists – and latterly a strong wind blowing from the south, blowing up great froths of whiteness off the sea, like soap suds onto the field behind our wee house – And towards evening the sun appeared shrouded in heavy mist – and turned yellow and orange and red, with great swirls of mist obscuring her every now and again – I wanted so much to paint the sun but it meant turning round and leaving my sea – or else running round paints and all to the other side of the bay. And I just hadn’t time or energy to do this – Tomorrow perhaps there will be the possibility of this sun again and I can take up my position, the other side, by the minister’s house. I think it could be good there.’
Joan Eardley, extract from a letter, Joan Eardley by Christopher Andreae, Lund Humphries,
‘I don’t think there’s anybody else that has painted two completely different subjects, in the same way, with the same passion, and caught both of them,’ says Eardley’s niece, Anne Morrison, who grew up in Glasgow, and knew Eardley when she was a child.
As Anne observes, Townhead and Catterline actually had quite a lot in common.
They were both communities on the edge. Catterline is still there, still much the same, but Townhead has been bulldozed – replaced with high rise flats and a new motorway. Her haunting portraits of its children are all that has survived.
Oliver describes her late landscapes as an urgent need to find expression ‘for a heightened response to the experience of all of her senses – the angry roar and tumult of the sea, the silence of the snow-bound village, the sussuration of the wind across the barley field, the scent of the wild flowers and the hum of the bees; all these are implicit in her paintings’.16
When I first saw one of Joan Eardley’s street kids pictures I was struck by the freedom of her mark-making and her bold colour choices. Solid blue rings around a child’s eyes is not conventional- and yet it works. It is spontaneous and says something of the plight of the impoverished children that she knew so well from the streets around her Glasgow studio. The colours of the clothing are bright and used repeatedly as a complimentary colour technique to make her work ‘pop’ and to draw attention to the poverty of the residents – the same items of clothing appear again and again on different siblings . As one of the artists for recommended study in this unit , I returned to her work . New amazement hit me- as I felt the frenzied energy used in a breath- taking manner to portray storms she observed from the small fishing village that she spent a great deal of her latter years living in. She worked outside with huge canvases lashed down to prevent them blowing away in gales and apparently worked quickly and loosely to paint in the same spots again and again, claiming that the more you studied a site the more detail and feeling you got from it. I greatly admire Eardley’s bold mark making, impasto, application of sand in her ground and scratching into her work. This conveys the urgency of her paint application and therefore her passion for the subject. In her work I can detect the joy that she must have felt in her paintings and realising this I felt more able to try to loosen up and experiment in my assignment . I commented in part 4 that I realise I retreat into convention and lose the sense of what I am trying to paint. Therefore Eardley inspired me to be bolder in this submission.
Ellis O’Connor says that “ on stormy days the sea and sky converge” and this is what she tries to bring to her work.https://youtu.be/U6SZjQgeZIc
I have taken Ellis’s words very much to heart and sat for many hours absorbing the moods and tides of the sea. I best love the bubbling white mass of foam as tall rollers crash in from the Atlantic and smash many miles worth of built up kinetic energy into stacks of outlying rocks or collide with rip tides bouncing of the bay. This wild caldron is imprinted on my mind to the point that I must try to describe it using colour,texture, splashes, pallet knife marks and anything that I feel will develop my depiction of this amazing and dangerous sight.
Until very recently I felt a sense of defeat when I picked up a brush or chalk to record this scene. It has taken technical ‘light-bulb’ moments as referenced in ‘Personal Development’ at the start of Part 5 ) and without a doubt the research into the work and emotions of artists like Joan Eardley to encourage me out of my previous artistic paradigm . It may sound over dramatic but I am convinced that discovering the level of passion and self belief and observing the mark-making that Eardley used in her seascapes opened up to me the possibility that I did not have to paint as a photorealist. My journey in art is to represent the energy that I feel in a subject through urgent mark-making and development of my emotional response to the subject and my evolving work.
A sketch from Part 1 painting. Looking back I can remember my frustration. I wanted to break out from a traditional path, not because it was wrong, just not right for my personal development.I have tried to interpret the anger in the sea with random broken lines and a dry brush technique. The sky shows a little development as I have tried to layer paint here but on the whole after an initial application of acrylic I gave up , disheartened at the impotence of my artistic voice. I did not know how to apply paint in a loose style or have the confidence to go with bold hues, tones and more daring expressive mark-making. The piece came from scant childhood and holiday memories but there was a complete absence of observation of the sea which I feel contributed to the lateness and lack of energy
This is a final image from Assignment 5. Eardley’s influence, I think can be seen in the choice of pallet , use of texture including impasto and sand and free mark -making that I have allowed to direct the way that my painting has finished. I hope that it shows the energy and passion that I observed in the sea. This is now the beginning of a long artistic exploration but I hope that my comparison with P1 shore scene illustrates that at least now I have metaphorically put on my boots and left the house!
Kurt Jackson-https://www.kurtjackson.com/exhibitions/. Jackson paints landscapes in thick oils. His mark making is not quite as loose as Eardsley but the splashing and dribbling of bright highlites really makes it pop.Thinking about how he uses perspectivehas been a revelation to me- that while hue fades into the distance, the shadow that forms behind or on the furthest hills, trees etc can be as dark or darker than closest points. See kJ sea picture s-Sea on horizon much darker than closest.
Barbara Rae-https://www.royalscottishacademy.org/exhibitions/barbara-rae-the-northwest-passage/ Rae uses simple semi abstract form and lines and blocks of bright colour. The colour is used effectively to show perspective and convey ideas but fir me it does not have the same feeling of energy as Joan Eardsley’s workBy 1942 Nash has added bright hues to his pallet. The yellows and soft pink/browns change the mood of the landscape adding warmth and cheer to his work. This is ironic as WW11 is still raging on and his Heath has deteriorated greatly before his death the following year. The strange tones and more abstract shapes are reminiscent of the dreamscapes that he is well known for. It is easy to trace the development of Nash’s work throughout his painting life. He sticks to themes that he is passionate about but within this his techniques and emotional awareness of his subjects develop his work.
Research altered 12/01/21 after formative assessment to include passages read but not included and explanations of Nash’s effect on my work.
Paul Nash – amended review of artist’s influence on my work
One of Paul Nash’s great strengths was his sense of place- feeling that there was an emotional connection to convey as well as the physical image. He returned over his life time to The Clumps ,Wittenham, Oxfordshire. (Brains & Dillon, s.d.) record his response to this landscape
1912- an early almost graphic work. The colours are muted and the movement in this work comes from pen and the well executed shadow work. This is before the Great War whose effect he never shook off physically and mentally according to his wife.( Haycock ,2013) To me it lacks the urgency and narrative developed after his life changing experiences.1935- I love this painting and have seen a similar version in Aberdeen Art Gallery which to me is even more effective as it has impasto and scratching effects on the trees which bring out the perspective even more effectively. The furrows in the field and the body of the tree suggest a rhythmic motion and are reminiscent of sea waves, illustrating both Nash’s fluidity of stroke and his surrealist ability to make objects resemble something else. This feels a strong piece and draws me into its narrative. Tote Meer (Dead Sea) a WW11 oil painting is another good example of his surreal imaging where a store of a German aeroplanes resembles a choppy sea.By 1942 Nash has added bright hues to his pallet. The yellows and soft pink/browns change the mood of the landscape adding warmth and cheer to his work. This is ironic as WW11 is still raging on and his Heath has deteriorated greatly before his death the following year. The strange tones and more abstract shapes are reminiscent of the dreamscapes that he is well known for. It is easy to trace the development of Nash’s work throughout his painting life. He sticks to themes that he is passionate about but within this his techniques and emotional awareness of his subjects develop his work.
I share Nash’s sense of place. In assignment 5 prep and the assessment work itself I have stated how much I have been affected on a deeper level by the seas and coastline that I now call home. I have spent much of my time since observing and getting to know how my local beach areas respond to different weather and tides. I have sketched the same parts of the coast line again and again looking forward development of my technical skills and experimenting with media methods to illustrate the sea in all its moods. It is a compulsion and connects me to my environment. As the shapes , forms and colours become second nature , I find that my style relaxes and I can look out for marks and textures to develop my understanding further.
Nash used trees to describe his work: whether the clumps of Wittenham or the awful blown up stumps of the aftermath of Passiondale. I have taken this to heart and see the sense in using shapes the I love and understand to convey a message.
David Boyd Haycock (12/03/2018) – Paul Nash: The landscape of modern war” from HENI Talks on Vimeo At https://vimeo.com/259680856 first accessed on 12/20.
Exhibition- online. This will not meet all of the criteria for physically visiting a gallery , however this is the best way for me to perform the exercise under COVID-19 restrictions. For the record, I do have notes, sketches and photos from quite a few visits but none are landscape based, probably because I am not particularly drawn to landscape work. This is a point of learning for me. Perhaps I need to extend my choice to include this genre in an effort to absorb and learn more.
Tate- online exhibitions weather and art.- Spring
A quick Google of spring themed art work confirms my own first impressions of the exhibition title: blossom covered trees; bright hues and sunshine and daffodil filled fields dotted with frolicking groups of lambs. On page 1 Alfred Sisley ‘ The small Meadows in spring ‘ and Duncan Grant’s ‘ Garden path in Spring’ illustrate the familiar pastel shades and gently blowing blossom ladened trees show that traditional artistic springs in 1880 and 1944 respectively alter little from my imagined image of the season.
However, if this is also your perception – you are in for a surprise.It feels somewhat like a rummage sale of everything who’s title includes the word spring from the Tate’s extensive collections has been thrown together in 47 pages of assorted images. This may seem unkind- and to start my impressions were negative. Oersiverence and engagement with the work on offer is the key to unraveling what is a real treasure. Page 3 shows Black and white engravings such as Frederick Walker’s’Spring days’ where children scramble through an overgrown bare garden and Barnett Friedman’s lithograph ‘ untitled .Verso: The real spring has come 1950 depicts a winning post picture of a horse and rider in earthy browns. There are sketches for paintings( only some of which appear elsewhere in the exhibition) watercolours, ink and gesso studies and oils from several centuries, cassette tape recordings of 1970’s sounds throughout the UK and all manner of sculpture from Hepworth to Raphael Montanez Ortiz deconstructed piano ( the piece played on it contained Spring in the title) all jostle for the viewer’s attention. A I flick through more of the pages, I find a page from Turner’s note book ( thankfully translated from his faded Victorian pencil scrawl) , I realise that this is so much more than I expected. It is a valuable reference source reflecting multiple medias of visual and audio sources. I will return to this again and again dipping into the social history and wealth of master artist preparatory work. In a short viewing I find my mind stretched on the true meaning , not just of the season but of any descriptive term.
Whilst I admit I could not manage or want to view the whole of this lengthy collection, I am impressed by the curators’ brave decision to go with such a wide brief. The very fact that there is no mechanism to select favourite images in search of the nostalgia invoked by Dame Laura Knight’s familiar cheery blossom and romance filled ‘Spring’ (page 1 ); means that viewers are forced to question their perception. Can it be altered by country, social circumstances and century? For me the answer would be yes.
I have decided to use the interface between inside and out- this has been a part of my subconscious thinking but not quite articulated into my conscious decisions till reading this unit.- the viewer is on the inside looking out. I am first struck with the issue of how much of the Van to include to make it clear this is the inside- too much adds complication- which is one of my aims to avoid after part 3. Once the interior ‘box’ or ‘boarder’ is selected I need to work on the shadows to give depth. This is the reason fir my first 5min sketch
It strikes me from my research of Dufy, he uses angled linear perspective- looking down on his subject to make sense of his inside-looking-out theme. ( He also introduces an element of aerial perspective in his work that shows cooler darker colours inside the viewer’s room.
I have tried out quite a few sketches and photos because I don’t want the link to be awkward or improbable- the view out of a van is not most people’s normal!
I was struck by this view looking at it, but realised that again I was over-complicating things. A simpler scene would be better.
View 2- sunset through the facilities open doorway at the back of the campsite
A quick tonal 5 min watercolour sketchTonal sketch in acrylic- playing with liquid medium to give texture. Unfortunately the permanent brush marks took away from this subject matter. I began to experiment with mark making and this became an imaginary scene!I like this watercolour image better. Using ink biro over the image to give definition by mark making helped to give it a bit more depth. I feel the couloir worked fairly well due to complimentary blue and orange / red. However this became a little darkened and was more muted than a sunset should be.This was a small 10cm x 0cm work which is unusual for me. However I did go back and added lots of layers. Other than diluting the brightness of the hue this did have a positive effect in that I was able to add more tones.
Reflections on window and door framing of a landscape using photos from my recent travels to inform my work
As we travelled around Tiree this exercise was on my mind. I was able to observe a lot of natural framing examples of door and window type settings which improved the view.
The gate is open at an angle and so forms a good invitation into the scene; sand dunes form natural curtains- like looking through a window but the darkness in the mid ground dune tunnel for me is better as it leads in to the action in the background ; looking through the van door but this time down a line of other vans- the inside and outside are linked and the path between acts as a good device leading through the picture; the pebbles curved on the outside of the photo lead into the sea giving depth; the view from the ship over the hand rail acts a bit like an inside looking out to the sea device and the strong diagonal lines of the boat wake and sky aeroplane track are helpful; like Dufy looking out of a door and down on the subject; looking through a ruined wall
excise hard or soft landscapes p 106
Tonal and perspective sketch showing the colours and placement of subject. I need to check if my subject is too complex.Mark making sketchFree and loose painting of the view. I used tones and colours loosely in the foreground to represent the beach and seaweed. To make this better I should have kept the sweep of the bay to help with the perspective.The tones in the mountain came out poorly as I used thick paint. I would have been better to use mor thin layers to get more tonal variety in and more detailed mark making..This version feels better. I have achieved a softer more natural feel to the scene bu using a palette knife to give a floater feel. I like the mark making in the foreground rocks . The big reapers were made with the edge of a palette knife and are pleasing but a little too big. I spent time trying to make the clouds stormer and with more movement. As I was working on this the weather worsened and I overpainted the sky colour. This has taken away some of the layers of different light coloured sky which previously were in the painting. These darker tones look more natural together and I am better p,eased with the slightly brooding autumnal effect. Before this last version I collected some samples which I think have helped me to concentrate on appropriate colours. The sharp feature of the cliff against the angle and sweep of the beach and sky should form a visual contrast and it is what drew me to want to paint this scene. The green bushes and worn rocks on the shore are soft features also. The green and red feel a strong contrast.
Exercise Linear perspective p108
On reflection a true example of linear perspective would be better to have lines and angles of buildings. As I am in a remote place I was compelled to paint this wooded scene where the line of trees receded and the old railway sleepers came forward out of the picture to give perspective. Technically it is also aerial as the tonal change in the trees rips important. I enjoyed the mark making aspect of this piece using a rigger brush and a plastic pastel blender for the brambles and blackberries. However I did not leave enough time between painting layers and the colours became more muddied and the tonal hues bled into each other.
On reflection I should have gone back.and reworked the sleepers to make them a more prominent depth effect. I forgot that watercolour fades quickly as it drys. I think going over the receeding tree arch with a biro would help to show the linear perspective line. Perhaps also introducing a horizon would help.
Tonal samples
Examples of linear perspective showing receeding size. The grave yard picture shows this best as lines could be drawn back to a single focal point near the horizon line.
Exercise Aerial perspective p109
This view shows different tonal values in the hills- getting lighter in the distance. The last brown hill in the middle distance on the right should be darker to make this work better. The three changes are in temperature, saturation and tone. I have used all three here as the furthest hill is mixed with a cool blue as well as white. This is important to think about when trying to achieve this effect.
Also the ducks in the foreground are proportionally too big.
In these pictures aerial perspective is demonstrated as tones grow lighter in the distance. Note on the sea often the horizon line is slightly darker and the sea and sky next to it are very pale.
Expressive landscape- Exercise creating mood and atmosphere p111
In my research for this exercise ( see research 4) , I am inspired especially by Nash, Sutherland and Nolde. Therefore while I appreciate the simplicity of the Surrealist landscapes- and am aware that this is one of my aims from assignment 2 & 3; the more emotional work of Nash and Sutherland appeals to me. I love Sutherland’s idea of humanifying objects in nature and Nash’s technique of making the landscape integrated into the narrative of the painting. I realise that these are not simple aims to achieve , especially for a beginner but I want to keep them in mind in my work. I was also struck by the impasto and bright colour theory employed by Nolde- this should hopefully be easier to incorporate into what I paint. Looking back at landscapes which I have recently painted I can see where use of colour could alter the mood. I think that I naturally am drawn to colourful scenes and try to work with colour- using Nolde I could emphasise this eg emphasising the brightness of my sunsets and autumnal leaves by using inks to lay down intense hue blocks which I can build up tones in acrylic and add depth through impasto mark making. Obviously I could use a grey shading wash to darken the scenes to show night or in rural scenes the rain clouds suddenly dropping a shower over part of the scene .
Thinking along the lines of Sutherland, I could make rocks and boulders into suggestions of grimacing faces. Sometimes I am drawn to the juxtaposition of beauty and ugliness; scenes where a rusty wreck of a shop is decaying on a beautiful shore line. It could be argued that this is an attempt to shock as Dali did, however as my theme is the tradgedy of abandoned livelihood and loss of a previous way of life , I could argue that it may be something that is Nash influenced?
While I am not particularly happy with this darkening of my previous scene, I think it was a useful exercise to try. I changed to mixed media- while this means that I can’t experiment with texture using a palette knife, the intensity of the ink blue base layer for the sky gives enough intensity to the sky to allow a layer of watered down black ink to be added on top. This gives a feeling of gloom and oncoming night? I liked this effect. I was also able to try some more robust colouring adding a magenta acrylic to the foreground rock to give it some solidity and definition. Because of the intense gloom, the features are rather lost and there is no focal point. I would need to think more about this for another painting- perhaps adding a moonlit reflection on the water?
Exercise painting a landscape outside p116
Tonal study
Although the sketch above is from an area unfamiliar to me the content is one that comes from my childhood and therefore is familiar for me to interpret. The shore line covered in seaweed with islands and hills behind is something I can imagine with my eyes closed so I understand why the exercise suggests this.
This sample of seaweed helped me to find the correct colour tone and the shape and form of the seaweed pods intrigued me giving me a feel for the sharp and swirling edges which I wanted to transfer to my picture.
Outdoor painting commentary:
I did not have time to finish this painting before leaving the area and so decided to start again, this time with a very familiar scene- the view out over a fen-land field with the watery winter sun reflecting off the dark black turned earth.
Sitting in this environment stirred me to paint so I made a series of sketches of the scene from different positions and focusing on certain aspects: the knotted tree in the foreground ;the horizon far away over the flat field line with faint trees dotted along it and a pylon line advancing from it. The straight lines of the pylon wires and the ploughed earth formed natural lines of interest . While it was tricky to give the far ground enough detail to illustrate the flatness and extreme distance that describe the fens, I was aware of the importance of trying to keep the content simple.
However after sitting for a while in contemplation I realised that what held the scene together was what the area is famous for- it’s big sky’s. That morning the sky seemed huge- there was no drama in the clouds- in fact they were barely visible as the whole sky was a very, very pale tint of light grey/powder blue. The sky and it’s stillness needed to form two thirds of the picture. I found it helpful to make a sound file of the words that came to mind looking at the scene and the tractors,birds and calm of the day. Unfortunately this device will not support a copy of the file.
While I don’t mind people being around while I am working, I realise that the time alone while I sat thinking about what mattered to me about the view was important. This is a key realisation for me and something I intend to integrate into my practice along with gathering colour samples and sketches.
Looking at my sketches I felt that the garden in the foreground with the apple tree would frame the work. In reality however I think it was too much detail. I am becoming aware that I try to add a lot of close detail in my foregrounds which flattens the scene. I want to try to change my focal points to the middle.
The flatness and colour seemed to take the feeling away from my work. I think that the silvery/grey of the sky called for the painting to be a tonal work because this was what struck me about the view. I remember that I instinctively chose a flat ultra marine and a special effect powder blue sparkly paint to make my sketches and tonal works. This was my gut instinct and on reflection I should have stuck with this. I suppose this means that I have to learn to be confident in my feelings and would like to be brave enough to go with this. Connection with what is making the magic in nature is fleeting , I feel that I must learn to work quickly to capture this in instinctive sketches and audio note and videos to take home with me. When I recorded my thoughts it was key adjectives that seemed important rather than formed sentences.
Exercise painting from a working drawing p119
I don’t think my heart was in this exercise and it really didn’t work well! My colour study was very Trish and lacked the movement in the fabric and dog fur that I tried to add in in the painting. I have painted from photos and drawings before and find that it is easier to use my imagination to simplify or make changes to emphasise sweeps and shapes. ( in this instance I was actually painting surrounded by my subject- no escape as I am living in a camper van!
Necessary constituents I think I would need for an effective sketch to paint from: textures, more detail in tonal changes and negative spaces.
Exercise squaring up p120
I am really pleased with this work. For the first time in ages I feel that I have connected with my media and tools. The square grid was invaluable . To use it effectively I was forced to spend more time than I had anticipated observing the subject, framing it to give the best and simplest view point and calculating how to make the proportions of sky to land work best. It is going back to basics and is a good reminder to use Learning Objective 1 key drawing and painting processes that I identified in my mind-map.I was able to decide objectively how much to put into the picture and how to frame the focal points( the lighthouse at the intersection of the bottom right square. I also paid more attention to the horizon – getting it straighter than I have for a long time by placing it in a guide line that already existed.
In addition I used a pallet knife to apply the sky paints and found that I could get more energy into it using this. It is a new technique suggested in this exercise and it is pleasing to apply in this manner. I am also enjoying the opportunity to be tactile and engaged with my work . Most of the previous exercises have concentrated on LO 1 skills. It is great to be able to focus now on application of different media to creat a visual effect as part of LO 2 skills. This feels like an important step forward. I believe that the energy also helps to bring a narrative of drama to the sky. Using some tonal contrast in the blue of the sky would have given more definition and depth.
Looking at the close up I could have made the scene better by taking away more of the land and thus increasing the proportion of sky. This is interesting as the thing that I thought would be the focus was the patterns in the cliff below the lighthouse tower! This shows how important it is to keep open to new types of marks and developments in the paint that can change the intended work into something better. The simplicity of the scene gave me the chance to keep the image loose and probably is why I am pleased with it.
I am not sure that the bird is quite correct in its proportion or in fact if it is necessary?
The colouring has come out the way I wanted- complimentary elements to give drama. However I could have added more tones to enhance the perspective in the rock- it looks quite flat.
Exercise working from a photograph p 122
The photograph was a good aid- memoir for a scene that struck me as unusual when out walking. I liked the way that the dunes framed the picture like a gate inviting the viewer into the action. The curve of the kite and the action of the kite surfer I hoped would bring a sense of movement to the work. I changed the angle of the kite surfer to make him completely visible and evened up the dunes to be aesthetically pleasing. I also added the dog to show movement.This may have been too much but I am glad that I tried it. I have used shells and sand and rock samples to help with the tonal balance. The local shells on the beach ( razor and muscle were pinky rather than blue so it felt right to use purple in the palette. I used a grid to position the shapes and experimented with a fishtail sweeping brush and water diluted acrylic and inks. This felt quite loose and freeing to start with. I liked the blue and purple tones together but didn’t feel the grass on the dunes was quite right. As I added colour I think I became more stressed and the image tightened up losing the movement. This was disappointing. Next I tried to add more colour changing the kite to red. Somehow this felt out of place and jarred with the harmony. Unfortunately changing back to purple made the kite heavy and unrealistic with little tonal change.
Assignment 4
Reviewed- final imageImage before review
Above and below close- ups from finished work
Photos of the process
Selection of subject: looking at all of my work, the view of the lighthouse left me with most satisfaction .I felt that it was most flexible and realistic, possibly because I connected most with the subject and found a way to bring texture and feeling to my work with a pallet knife and impasto acrylic.
Review of what I might wish to change from : I used my mind -map checklist (review of assignment two) for this. -Using a squaring device allowed me to concentrate more on developing mark-making to add definition and perspective (lo1). -. As the size was larger I had to resize my grid and reassess the view I was using to give a simple and well proportioned work. Therefore I decided to change the focus to the clouds in the sky and so decreasing the foreground to 1/3 (lo1) -I changed the lighting angle from overhead to coming in from the sea. This meant I could add shadow in the foreground of the lighthouse and cliff to allow more colour perspective. – I added waves to increase the positioning of impasto work giving more movement and fluidity to the foreground of the painting (lo2). – learning from other artists .The previous lighthouse I felt was not telling the whole story, the impasto cloud work was not enough to convey the energy and danger of the treacherous meeting of the Atlantic and North Sea at the tip of Lewis ( The butt). (Lo4) I decided to add a ship and waves crashing onto the cliff to suggest this. Changing the angle of view allowed me to show the horizon out at sea in the distance. I thought about artists such as Ernst Kirchner who looked to add energy throughout his paintings- not just in one section like the sky. This time I didn’t include the angles and jarring geometry of his earlier work but studied and tried to take inspiration from later Austrian landscape works. ( lo3) These contained contrast colours ( hence my tones of blue and golden yellow) and strong curved feature shaping. I tried to suggest this through cotton wool defined clouds rather than showing a bank of stormy rain being deposited from a heavy blanket. I also used negative colour( cf mind- map checklist) to emphasise the curve and structure of the cliff line.
Media: mixed. Acrylic ( heavy ) , coloured pencils (aqua) , sand secured by clear levelling medium, small filberts and 1/4 inch painter’s brush, pallet knife . Support cardboard.
Preparation: I used my research for my lighthouse exercise ( squaring up exercise P120) . Using my mind- map checklist ( review of assessment 2) I realised that I needed to reframe the view to create a more interesting painting and one with a better perspective . Focusing on the sky as 2/3 there would be more scope to introduce colour perspective to the clouds and using impasto would suggest turbulent weather to give a narrative to the work (Lo1) .
I also chose grass samples ( green /yellow/ red), previous prep sketches and tonal sketches and observations on my finished acrylic and pallet knife work. (Lo1 and 2)
original paintingOriginal photo of locationdrawing program used to play with image to test moving the lighthouse and using less ground in the lower third
Intention and narrative: I knew that I wanted to focus on the sky as I had enjoyed using impasto acrylic and a pallet knife to make what I felt was a more realistic scene. I also wanted to constructive narrative. Thinking about the instruction in this unit I used a lighthouse local to me and the sea and sky which I love. Then I added a fishing boat returning from a trip as my minded had been occupied lately by a story about loss and social poverty in the local fishing community.
preparation: I wanted the lighthouse and fishing boat to be the main focus in the bottom right third quadrant with cloud lines diagonally focusing the eye into the lighthouse area. Therefore I needed to alter the perspective, making the lighthouse a little closer to the viewer and the sky bigger 2/3 ) . For this reason I used a new grid to create a rough pencil sketch.
important points: I wanted to make sure that the horizon line stood out clearly and that the sea and sky were in the correct tones. Spending a lot of time observing the sea I knew that the sky lightens from the top down to become transparent on the horizon line. The horizon then becomes a little darker blue and again recedes to a pale blue/grey becoming darker as it gets closer. I have also been watching breakers in the storms . They develop a roll in my experience from right to left where the energy throws up a wave curve of turquoise green. As it falls it becomes a white tunnel, sometimes with tails coming off the top if there is a prevailing wind.
method: After the initial background ( blue) dried I applied large amounts of heavy acrylic white and folded it into clouds with a pallet knife. The blue for the sky was smother on with some impasto ridges and white added to ensure toning . The clouds in the furthest away paler sky were applied as lines with the edge of the pallet knife. As areas dried I added layers of detail. Sand from the location was useful to add texture to the ground and in the foam of the waves. Finally I began to make finer detailed tonal layers using wet and dry aqua coloured pencils. As I work quickly and loosely with brushes I have discovered that I can bring some controlled detail with pencils. This means I can add more layers and hopefully more tones to increase perspective. I was pleased that I had managed to keep my acrylic work looser. This was a problem in the original squaring work and I attribute this improvement to the use of heavy acrylics and pallet knife work , leaving the detail to wet and dry pencil.
The final two layers were applied with 24 hrs between each to give me more time to observe what needed improving. For the final layer I identified the left hand side clouds as needing more definition in grey and tinted yellow light and the lighthouse was reshaped and to ally improved by adding negative space colouring around it. I also realised that blue needed to be added to the glass area as it is see- through.
Artist’s influence:
I have found myself thinking of landscape in a much looser sense since viewing more of the work of contemporary artists like those recommended for me to study in feedback 3. Although I didn’t write up their reviews till the end ; I spent a long time in contemplation before starting the unit properly looking at their work methods on you tube videos. This was really helpful and I feel gave me a sense of permission to try exactly what I wanted to do to put expression into my working process- eg changing tools (knife instead of brush) , new materials ( large amounts of heavy acrylic) and more bold colour. However as I often do , I abandoned my practice doodles fir the exercises and returned to my usual formality. This felt so frustrating and many of the pictures really suffered as I didn’t connect properly until the squaring exercise where I finally let go and was brace enough to experiment. Yao Pei Ming , although working in a different genre really had an effect on me to try effects with different tools. I. My assignment piece this included using a knife again and introducing a small 1/4 inch decorating brush which added smoothness which I felt balanced with the impasto in the sky. Studying the German Expressionist Emil Nolde inspired me to try colour and loose marks ( eg the foreground in my final work). I think the whole process of a block of time spent studying h theses artist’s beliefs and techniques has been absorbed into my creative thinking. What I need to do now is to relax and listen to my instinct to let this come through.
critique: I am happy with the construction of the picture and the lighthouse being in the right place. However, I notice that as I worked the foreground splash from the sea has taken over as the focal point. ( the fishing boat is really too far away to be a focus). The receding coastline looks better being lighter with dark negative colouring behind it. The clouds work fairly well but still look a little stiff. Putting more definition into the edges helped to make the larger clouds on the left foreground stand out more. However as I have already stated I need to relax to the same extent as I do when experimenting in order to keep fluid.I like the colour contrast between the sea blue and the green and yellow tones of the ground. Observing the reds and oranges in the ground helped me to make more definition and adding some blue puddles in the foreground helped to draw the two areas of the painting together. I could have added more detail in the front in acrylic to make it stand out better. I am pleased with the mixed media format as it has allowed me to work more effectively with my strengths and weaknesses ( eg texture to help with perspective as linear perspective is not a strong point and using heavy acrylic and a pallet knife has helped to keep my work looser with the pencils for necessary detail and to give more layers of tones.
Blue is the only color which maintains its own character in all its tones it will always stay blue,” the artist mused. “Whereas yellow is blackened in its shades, and fades away when lightened; red when darkened becomes brown, and diluted with white is no longer red, but another colour—pink.” http://www.artnet.com/artists/raoul-dufy/ As his observation suggests Dufy does seem to have a passion for blue and uses it frequently as the predominant colour in his Mediterranean work. It appears in its primary hues and as cool blue toned reds and greens. This gives a harmonious feeling to the paintings. Sometimes he uses a little darken yellow but this is less dominant . I have not been able to find examples of where the cool colours suggest shade inside. The only one that I could find showing the window has dominant areas of empty canvas inside and out and the interior is only suggested by angles slat marks fir the window shutter.https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dufy-open-window-at-saint-jeannet-t03565 Open window at Saint Jeanette
Most of the time he paints loose gestural watercolour works resembling pen and ink sketches: leaving large swathes of empty white canvas. The white space adds to the light and warm atmosphere of the region. Meanwhile his trademark scrawly free marks indicate movement and emotion. I am interested that Dufy also manages to produce oil on canvas versions which viewed online look extremely similar to the watercolours. This to me seems unusual and possibly much harder than it appears as the temptation with oil is to fill the canvas with colour. Occasionally there are instances of this artist using a conventional oil style ( throughout the years that he paints) which often takes on a heavier , darker appearance altering the mood completely.
Research point 1 p111
Erie ,dream-like Surrealist landscape eg. Salvador Dali, Max Ernst and de Chirico
The development in Dali’s landscape style is astonishing. By the early 1920’s there is evidevidence of change in his early impressionistic scenes of Spanish ports as he begins to introduce brave pinks and reds in unexpected places. In one short decade. His rather rough and rustic canvases have transformed to flights of imagination in photo realistic finely painted detail eg perhaps his most famous persistence of memoryhttps://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/salvador-dali-the-persistence-of-memory-1931/
The landscapes are often deserts of orange with bright blue contrasting big skys. The absence of foliage and space are dreamlike and unsettling as I am sure he intends. The sky blends softly with clouds into nothing at the horizon and contrasts with the hard contours of rocks and foreground objects of nightmare.
De chirico landscapes again depend on the element of shock- his landscapes are sparse with a few significant man made objects in the foreground shown in harsh angular shading. His landscapes in the background are simple scene setters; a blue sky meeting a stark single toned grass or sand earth. His work is stark and hard to creat effect I think.
Emotional and subjective landscapes eg Paul Nash and Graham Sutherland. Nash, still a surrealist painter is famous for his First World War work as a war artist. He uses sharp angles and simple sky’s but now the landscape is the art work rather than being the backdrop for a dream. This and his sensitive use of dark torn up earth colours make his work much more emotional and give a credibility to him. Unfortunately his job is to communicate very real horrors and he earns respect from the viewer by the honesty in his scenes.
Sutherland has fallen out of favour with critics but I have always been fascinated by his work since I saw Black landscape at the Tatehttps://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sutherland-black-landscape-t03085
Similarly to Nash Sutherland is affected by war- in this case the treat of the Second World War and the gloomy black in his hills darkens the pink ominously. In other works of the welsh hills he builds rainbows of colour into the stark shapes of his mountains. Several articles including the Tate referenced above describe how he developed a unique system of finding natural objects that he liked , drawing them in situ and then in his studio he ‘humanised ‘ them in his paintings. I admire this approach.
German expressionist landscapes( de Boucher-exaduration of and distortion of line and colour to express the spirit of life and nature.)eg Emil Nolde and symbolises Gustav Klimt, Gustavo Moreau, Leon Bakst, Friad Kahlo. Nolde is quoted as saying ,”colour is strength strength is life.”https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sutherland-black-landscape-t03085 . His landscapes are filled with bright colour applied possibly by palette knife in an impasto format.
Research point 2 p 113 –
The golden mean – found in nature and derived from Fabinachi.
The rule of thirds and foreground, middle and background- basic rules for locating focal points to lead an observer into a painting.
Research artists recommended by tutors :
Yan Pei Ming- impasto and conveying character- paints using large decorating brushes in monochrome.
He says if his style” it is between abstract trying to create a work between abstract and figurative trying to create a confusion between reality and imagination”. His emotional connection to his work becomes apparent in this interview- whether he is painting endangered animals or humans in positions of power he uses colour ( often black )mark making and size (often 4-6 m tall) to allow observers to ‘penetratrate’ into a figure.
Cohort, A. “ invisible man’https: //YouTube.be/Ed2nIPvUvkQ . Accessed 13/11 2020
Egon Schiele- ambitious poses with suggestions of marks
Blackshaw (2007) raises an interesting theory. Proof has been found that in 1900 photographs ( courtesy of a photographer called Jean-Martin charicot ) in a medical journal allowed Viennese artist access to pictures from the city’s psychiatric community showing “ the body in pain”. It is already understood that Schiele ‘s life contained much poverty and illness so it makes sense that this psychiatric ‘pain’ would be relevant and must have inspired his work.
Blackshaw,G. ‘The Pathological Body: Modernist Strategising in Egon Schiele’s Self- Portraiture’. Oxford Art Journal Vol .30.No. 3 (2007), pp.379-401 . JSTOR,www.Katie.org/stable/4500071. Accessed 1 Nov.2020
Nechvatal,J.”Egon Schiele’s Quivering Line Tells All. An exhibition full of drawings shines light on the history of the line in this artist’s work”. Hyper allergic,Art. https://hyper allergic.com/467484/Egon-Schiele’s-quivering-line-tells-all/.Accessed on 1 / 11/2020
The author recognised Schiele’s drawing and painting is enhanced by “quivering” lines. There is debate as to whether this is down to the artist’s anxiety or to a connection to Art Nuevo ‘s sexuality , however it gives a sense of humanity to figures as does his tendency to leave parts of the work unpainted.
Glen Brown – working with heavy brush marks and alternative tools. He puts his own slant onto famous images. I have struggled to find anything relating to his technique.
Agnes Cecile- using mark making to bring dynamism to the work.
Agnes Cecil produces beautiful dreamy watercolours. Watching a you -tube video of her process I can see that she uses a combination of photographic and fluid painting. She starts by painting in key facial features in fine detail and then works in the hair and extra details using wet on wet in quick loose strokes.
Listing of the development aims and criteria that I will follow in this assignment.
Repetitive engagement with learning objectives has been integral to my development during Unit 3 . As I have has lists of general and personal objectives it has been challenging to keep all fresh in my mind. Therefore I feel that it is right to list them and record my responses to each.
A. General aims and objectives
Assignment instructions P 97
show how skills in handling paint have developed
[the skills that I currently want to demonstrate development in are: applying more layers of paint to increase detail and perspective; using a variety of brush marks and tools to suggest texture and movement and using inspiration from suitable artists. I have enjoyed researching recommended artists ‘s work more than ever this time, possibly because the more that I am immersed in the painting process the more I can begin to appreciate about individual style and technique and also how the social history and knowledge of the time informed artistic creation. Freud in his portraits used a lot of impasto texture which seemed to record his rapid brush work permanently on the canvas, adding a sense of urgency and intensity. I like this technique and wish record the speed and excitement which I feel when painting. As I am working in acrylics I feel that I can best do this by applying fast loose strokes in a variety of ways. For this painting I have been practising with different sizes of brushes and using both wet and dry brushes. I have noticed that the manner of application and the unique characteristics of each type of paint can be exploited to produce different effects.I also want to use thinner paint application to allow more tones and detail by working in many layers.]
–
show development in interpreting the subject
[Earlier in the unit I observed families on a beach and drew a selection of family groups. I learned to observe the quickly,watching each how each gesture or change in posture affected the whole body and the dynamics and positioning of the rest of the family. I reused a selection of these sketches to work out the best pose for my model and how to notice the effect her grin had on all of her body.]
Consider and explain lighting, sitter consideration, medium selected and landscape positioning of my paper instead of the more conventional portrait.
[I have begun to notice how artists use aesthetic as well as technical skills. For example; interior, background and colour can be used interpret the subject by suggesting emotions such as warmth in Van Gough’s sunflowers or the melancholy of Picasso’s blue period. My tutor has recommended the work of E Kirchner as an artist who uses colour and sweeping shapes to give a particular look to his subjects. I particularly like his simplified moody dark backgrounds which pop with what appears often to be distorted suggestions of pavements and buildings in complimentary bright hues. I admire his figure work which is sweeping and elongated giving an unsettling allure to the street girls in his Berlin 1910-13 series. His paintings appear simplistic but are hugely illustrative . I tried ,with partial success, to employ his thinking to a background in the ‘ telling a story’ exercise in unit 3 to suggest the close bond of a family grouping. However for my assignment piece I drew back a little as I didn’t have the confidence to go completely into blocks of colour background and elongated shapes. I did feel able though to attempt his uncomplicated colourful palette. One more artist whose paintings I used as comparisons throughout the unit was the contemporary oil artist Clare Shenstone . Her version of simplified backgrounds are monochrome spaces that are given depth by tonal variation which seems to both anchor and hilight the subject on the canvas. Initially I hoped to work more towards this style in my work. I intended to show dark water stretching out to the suggestion of branches on a far off river bank .] make preliminary studiesshow how skills in interpreting the subject have developed
[
I decided on an outdoor theme knowing that I am more able to work with this than interior scenes. Observations of my model were made around noon on a dullish day so the light direction was straight downward on to the face and meaning shadows would fall up and down rather than to one side. The choice of media was one of practicality rather than taste. I have been away from home so acrylic was better for it’s shorter layer drying time. The portrait would be a close-up face looking back over a shoulder from a river background , so I felt that a landscape format was best for spacing. My idea was that the close up & eye -level line could be used to make the viewer feel that they are in the boat behind the model. Also I reasoned that it would allow me to show a story narrative of and movement through wind blowing in the hair and background trees.
Demonstrate practice handling of paint and choice of skin tones-
[I spent
quite some time practising paint application, transparency of paint layers and mark making to understand what would suit my purposes best. The acrylic paint brands that I had were of different textures so I used these sessions to find what spread best and flowed well off the brush. I got a better coverage and flow using Artiste brand liquid acrylic brand while my abstract brand 200ml sachets that I had previously favoured were thicker, more buttery and therefore more difficult to use on a brush without dilution. I was surprised that although cheap and not intended for studio use, my liquid brand gave intense even coverage and flowed well without diluting intensity.]
I learned during these practices to slow down my painting speed a little and make a better attempt to cover an area evenly. This enhanced the intensity and smoothness of the surface. I had one pearlescent blue which gave a depth and shine to the sea.
Module assessment criteria : 
Unit aims and objectives
⁃ to use drawing and painting for investigation, generating ideas and recording and selecting visual information ⁃ to make skilful use of a range of media ⁃ to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the work of some important artists and movements in painting ⁃ to reflect perceptively upon personal learning experience
B. Personal aims and objectives
Tutor feedback outcomes that I have tried to carry through my learning in this unit : –markmaking to suggest form -colour giving dramatic effect -take time to observe shape and tone ⁃ using curves to tell a story ⁃ using different tools ⁃ observing perspective in a way that I can show it
–layering ⁃ textures to accentuate feel ⁃ study artist’s work ⁃ Use rawness and fluidity in my style
See coursework three

Materials used: Liquid acrylic: red hot and cool hue; primary yellow; iridescent blue. Soft acrylic abstract dark brown; white and blue. Thinning medium for acrylics. Large flat brush; medium filbert and round brushes;a medium fishtail brush; pencil and rubber pointed pastel blending tool.
Multimedia A3 paper 200g
Preliminary studies   These are some of the sketches that I made while people watching on a beach for my ‘telling a story exercise’. I found this extremely beneficial in training me to observe the body posture of each pose my model made in terms of how it attested the whole body. For example when told to smile a child often tilts the head back and tenses up the whole body to appear taller as well as stretching wide mouth musculature! I was able to look at my model with greater awareness of how she held her head looking back over her shoulder and how her eye brow , mouth and even the angle of her shoulders and crown changed as she widened her grin. Over time working out correct anatomy for each part of the body has become more like imagined -sculpture , by this I mean that I think about how muscles and skin must flow and connect to each joint in the body rather than just copying a mark as if isolated in space. From a group of different positional drawings I decided on the background and how the face should fit in to it- ie to the right third rather than in the middle to invite the viewer to look into the painting. I also wanted a simple colour block of background with a few clearer tree branch marks made using different brushes and strokes.  I experimented on scrap paper to select best leaf marks that were not too distinct and distracting from the subject.   The initial pencil sketch is not a flattering drawing of the model but allowed me to loosely explore the curves that flowed across her face eg the natural line expanding across her face curving round the nose, mouth and cheeks and creating her broad grin of enjoyment. Movement was to be suggested by the curling strands of hair flying out behind her and by tree branches.
Next I tried several outline drawings in yellow to check positioning of the person,explore the connection between marks across the page and to indicate negative spaces and shade. One of the yellow outlines was far too close to the right hand edge . I also found it useful to use a mini post-it to mark things that I liked or wanted to avoid as a reminder to myself.     I also spent a lot of time painting colour blocks to learn how the two types of acrylic acted on the paper. The fluid colours are for me much easier to use when making loose marks. The soft abstract brand are less mailable and therefore I wanted to use them more for texture. They also didn’t mix well with thinning medium. I also worked out which colours would give translucent layering.
  
Next I worked on skin tones to find the best balance of tones that worked well to give depth. Then I checked this by painting a practice face. 
Stages of painting and Influence of artists
One of the main skills that I have taken onboard is about looking deeper at subjects. What are the stand out features of this person I am . Looking at portraiture I have begun to observe the importance of this. rying to depict? It is not just simply trying to get eyes right or the shape of the nose.
In order to bring a narrative to a portrait physical features are important.Looking at my model and a photo of her canoeing, the thing that really stood out was her cheeky smile. Trying to capture this would add realism to the likeness and would suggest enjoyment. Kirchner was able to stretch the proportions of his figures making the a little grotesque and surreal. As an inexperienced artist I am finding that this is not something that I get away with as my skills are not developed enough. For this reason once again my practice head looks a little cartoonish as I have enlarged the eyes and accentuated the curves of the cheeks and eye brow. I known from earlier exercises that this is a tendency that I repeat and to minimise this I must keep standing back and take time to observe what has happened with each layer. Have I used too heavy a line, does in need to be faded or broken up? Is the tone to different, do I need to mix a closer match? I found a useful tool for this. A flat plastic food tray allowed me to place my mixes over the top of my work to see exactly how the new tone will look.
One of the technical aspects that I am not good at is linear perspective. While I will benefit from practicing this, I have also had a discussion with my tutor about trying to pick up on other perspective techniques that I am currently better at to achieve the best that I currently can. The human smile is created by the entire muscle as it tightens across the face and cheeks and therefore correctly positioning the tonal shadows cast by stretched muscles would help to show perspective round the mouthfeels my model. I also practiced mark making for the sea using the soft creamy thickness of the darkernear blue, the blended turquoise pearlescent of the shallows of waves and the dotted thicker application of white foam ( using a pastel blender and cloth) contributed to give definition.
This tonal practice was trial and error. As I gain more experience I hope to use this skill in planning. Eg as I learn what is translucent and produces a good effect on top of another layer I can use this to my benefit rather than losing effects and having to redo layering !
Maintaining significant features: As the layers advanced I had to keep the curved lines visible but not too emphatic. As I discovered in my previous exercises, the suggestion of a line or form or the painting in of negative space works better than creating a bold unbroken mark. Eg on the cheeks , nose and eyebrows. I notices the features that were most striking about my model were her beautiful wide grin and the cheeky looking line of her raised eyebrows. I spent a lot of time lightening and darkening and trying to break up some of the solid lines by adding tonal difference.  I also used the thicker quality of the white paint to create textural ridges that I could build up tonal wrinkles near her eyes. I feel that this helped to give definition and show that the head was turned slightly so that the side of the head was seen as a darker tone. I also tried to give less definition to the ears to help with proportion.
Dry brush strokes: I also overpainted broken dry hair marks on the side of the head to help with proportion.
The background: As I worked in the different layers I found that I was moving away from my original plan. The formal banks and green abstract of trees seemed to be drawing attention away from the subject. The green was out-of -step with the other blending tones and caused disharmony. Therefore I decided to cover it over with a layer of blue to tone it down. Michael Raederich and Peter Doig were recommenced artists in my feed back from assessment 1. So I decided at this stage in my painting to go back and research their work to find some influences that would help me to add markmaking in further layers that connected the work up and improved the narrative. I reread my thoughts on Doig and how his colour choice and markmaking in the background awakened in me an intriguedand sometimes uneasy feeling . I wanted my work to create drama and movement to add to the riversailing narrative. Looking further I found this account of Doig talking about a fellow artist, Sigman Polke who had influenced him. He felt that Polke did not produce photographic images but took pleasure in markmaking that he had ‘discovered ‘ in his practice. This is inspiring and opens up a whole new line of thought for me. Further Doig talked about how Polke had developed a way to make his painted markmaking into a language and even though he broke normal rules of positioning and form he did it in a way that ended up looking authentic . I have read in the past that when we let our drawn ideas emerge without concentrating on what we want to produce, the result can be surprising but beautiful ( reference for this quote is unknown). Perhaps by relaxing I could learn to adapt this more into my work in the future? The background that emerged is still rather stiff because it was a first experiment and I was not sure about following my idea to start. However for me it represents the future of a new technique in painting for me to produce a more connected wholistic piece.
This gradually evolved into a different story for the painting. I enjoyed the depth of the darkening sky and found myself getting connected to a new narrative: a dusk river trip. I was reminded of Michael Raederich’s dark blue/grey atmospheric work which pops due to the embroidered white, yellow and pink abstract forms. I added yellow in various layers to look like the start of a sunset. While the positioning of the yellow in the darkening sky was not naturally accurate it felt more pleasing than the harshness of the river scene. I have learned to have more courage to go with changes in my work and am glad that I did so here. Eventually I wanted to pull things together and added some red as pink and a suggestion of purple in the sky. This abstraction evolved and I have to admit that my inexperience allowed me to play too far. I wonder if a bit of restraint ( as exercised by Raederich) would have produced a simpler and more effective message? This was a good learning and excites me for further experiments in the future.
Lastly I turned to the question connecting up the parts of my painting. Without the river bank where was my model? I gradually evolved a new narrative by adding in a horizon and tonal alteration to show where the sea and sky met. However this would have been more effective if there had been more room to develop it’s change slowly. Next I felt that as the paddle board that I decided she was on could not be seen clearly I could add a small silluette to give authenticity to her positioning in relation to the sea and sky. Finally I thought that instead of a white tee shirt it would be better to make this darker to suggest depth as the rest of the painting was also fairly dark. I added final fine shading around the eye and a little very dry red brush to some area to pull it all together tonally
Analysis of what has worked and what I want to improve
In most portraits that I have worked on background has been an afterthought for me and I always feels that it sits uneasily with the figure. While I need to have more courage to take the background further into my imagination it feels like a technique that could improve the spontaneity and flow of my painting in future. As I described the background evolved and possibly I could have made the whole painting bigger or decreased the size of the subject to allow the proper space to develop the change from sky to sea, to show the waves in proportion and to make the silluette more realistic. However I do feel that my process is evolving.
I feel that as I described in my comments agains the assignment aims, I started out with ideas to demonstrate my deepening understanding of technical skill, context and creativity. I am especially pleased that took time and discipline to make many more layers with a much larger variety of tones and to observe and correct as much as I could at each stage. Looking at the final image, I can see that in order to ensure that the raised brow stayed as the predominant feature, I lost some of the looseness. However I am confident that I am more confident to explore and find ways to develop my range of techniques.
Finished image
After writing up this assignment, I thought again about one of my personal learning aims: to use a variety of mark making. i have made three further alterations:
I used the spine of a feather to add fine detail to the eyes and to make smaller hair details. Then I used the long flat side of the spine to make a dragged hair mark to add contrast and bring the darker hair out in front of the wave. I also worked on the waves to add a blue green before the white surf ( the green was added using scrunched cling film for texture and the white was blended in and stippled using the end of a flat brush. I also took some of the darkened area out of the eyebrow to make the gesture more subtle ( as I observed in my analysis) .it occurred to me that I could blend in skin colour again stippling with the end of a flat brush. I feel that these additions improve my painting.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernst-Ludwig-Kirchner described his art as an “ immediate, powerful inner conflict into visual terms”. Unsurprisingly his influences included Drurer, Van Gough, Munch and artists of the Fauve movement. Angular, sweeping brush strokes in Swiss landscapes (1930’s) and the Berlin street series are iconic to his style. The street series really attracts me: colours are bold and his brush technique add so much to the post WW1 energy and captures the mood of the city. His subjects tend to be outlined in dark ( often black) bold sweeping lines. Inside this the deliberately obvious diagonal brush marks bring movement and along with the bending street views and elongated figures suggest a sort of malevolence as prostitutes mingle with passing smartly dressed men.
An exhibition at New York’s Neue Galerie ( January 2020) includes a quote from the artist about his work across a variety of media including textile collaborations, pastels , wood cuts and oils as “a tightly woven, organic fabric, in which process and completion go hand in hand and one aspect drives the other on.” ( unfortunately original source of quote unknown) For me this sums up his approach to creativity: no matter what support or material he uses all that he learns by working through the piece adds to his understanding of the subject he is trying to portray. Perhaps he is using his learned wood block skills as he carves expression out of oil paint squeezed directly onto the canvas and worked possibly with a variety of tools he sculpts his emotional message .From the freshly squeezed daubed strokes of skin tones in ‘Two nudes’ to the urgent agonised sweeps of them street’; each are a true hands on processes – each are experimental and tactile and each are expression of his take on life rather than fine art reproductions of a classical subject.
I been unable to locate the original source for a Kirchner quote mentioned in several review articles for an exhibition in New York .
Dry brush- Lucien Freud- layers to create depth.
Henry Moore’s sheep drawings- for the essence of the characteristics of the subject.
John Marine- use of cold colours to evoke mood in a landscape-https://www.redraggallery.co.uk/showInventory.asp?iId=12151&title=Valldemossa&artist=John%20MARTIN. Martin has found a way to turn colour mood theory on it’s head. Instead of the meloncoly of Picasso in his wonderful blue period; this contemporary artist uses his technical knowledge to bring out the fresh and calming side of blue. While he does not appear to use as many clever tones, by placing it along side complimentary shades like terracotta the blues of his Mediterranean skies pop. It is interesting to note that white alongside a powder blue makes light on a tablecloth or building wall look equally radiant – again showing an experienced use of colour theory. I find this use of colours quite breathtaking ( even though this is a little ironic as blue is thought to lower BP and make breathing deeper
Gerhart Richter- Look at his ‘Atlas’ works so you can see the considerations of marks on semi-abstracted subjects.
Michael Raedecker- use of subtle colours which are atmospheric.
https://issuu.com/grimm_amsterdam/docs/mr_doc_issuu/22?ff – much of the commentary on Raedecker’s work acknowledges the strong atmospheric gloom in his works. He uses subtle tonal changes mainly hues of grey and a slightly washed out blue with strong black and green/ grey outlines. This contrast and strong markmaking hi lights his simple forms beautifully and somehow awakens all of the viewer’s senses to the gloom and smoky ashen world of his works. However, I also love how he uses the texture and contrast of white , pink and yellow embroidery on top to make the images pop.
Peter Doig- working with atmospheres and landscapes. Doig has worked all round the world and spent much time in the gloom and snow and dark of American forests and the bright colourful world Trinidadian . He uses these influences in the environment around him to produce an abstracted landscape- sometimes impressionistic dots and sometimes a tangle of lines and circles in transparent layers over scenery. For a long time this has evoked a sense of mystery and deeper meaning in the work- as if the viewer is there in a snow storm or voierism peering through trees at the back of someone’s home- there is both a peak in interest and a feeling of something sinister to come!
Charlotte Verity- working with textures and expressive marks on natural subjects- a wealth of delicate flowing marks that feel like thin and delicate stems and petals.
Tutor led formative feedback is the fuel to fire my next work, inspiring and filling me with energy. I have taken notes from my feedback discussion to construct a mind-map . I find this process consolidates learning. In addition it will act as a summary checklist for future projects.
My last comment in assessment 2 was a realisation that part way through projects I run out of energy and self -belief. This is a challenge that I have carried with me from Drawing 1. Consequently demotivation causes me to abandon my experiments and slide backwards into my comfort zone for the rest of the exercises and assessment work. The mind -map will focus my attention on key processes from PoP Learning Objective 1 while I am also attempting to learn new skills and research artist work in coming exercises. The map addresses aspects of perspective, texture and mark-making, composition and colour which then feed out to other tools to achieve these aims. I notice too that many of the skills feed back in to affect each other. I intend to look back at these regularly throughout each painting and project to keep me on track of development aims in a more considered and continuous way.
For example to achieve LO1 aims check- that my perspective works ( by observing the subject closely/ looking at lines in relation to each other/ by breaking structure into simple shapes) – this feeds into two points (1) a reminder to check back at results and build up layers giving definition and correcting mistakes and (2) picking the type of perspective that I find easiest to use effectively.
Again working quickly with raw fluidity will help me to observe effects that appear in my work – leading to checking that I use fluidity as a recognised strength as the painting progresses to new layers – then leading to checking that I use another passion of mine , curves that are built through attention to negative spaces. This pathway will remind me to keep loose and fluid using a range to techniques. Of course the dotted lines indicate that fluidity leads me back into checks and tips for mark-making. The whole process is inter- related.
Close ups of my mind-map
In the centre- concentrate on basic structure, shapes and tone
Mark making can be suggestive- it does not need to be refined into a polished image. Therefore it allows the mind to form its own story based on personal circumstances and preferences
Colour can suggest mood eg hot and cold , dark and light and red and green hues.
Use a viewfinder to find the most appropriate view. Noisier what is important and crop the rest.
Pay attention to definition of images. Have the discipline to slow down and use appropriate tools to make this right eg a rule for horizon and credit card for straight blades of grass- don’t be lazy and paint free-hand
Observe perspective carefully and pay attention to lines in relation to each other. Break structures into simple shapes to make this easier.
Take the time to work in layers and build these over time. This helps keep texture and thickness of paint right and enables perspective to be achieved through shade and tone and to correct image structure
Study other artist’s work so that their good and bad habits begin to subconsciously affect choices in painting
Maximise use of the type of perspective which works best for me – for now this is non- linear
Observe textures to accentuate perspective and create an illusion of touch for the viewer. Experiment with this including using non- traditional tools to encourage loose marks
Some examples from past work to start me off:
Notice the rawness which I naturally put into my work and have the courage to use this to creat fluidity and development in a piece
Use my tendency to work quickly as a strength- to suggest movement and energy in my work
Use negative painting to accentuate the curves and flow that I love to put into my work
Evening at the stone circleColour from my check list- gives the dramatic contrast that I want between the coming cold night and the fire of the sunset still spreading over the ground. The orange /red is almost complimentary to the blue . This combination is striking and draws the attention of the viewer. It suggests a dramatic and slightly mysterious mood.
Following the dotted lines would show that dramatic mark-making links into this point and suggests drama.
However I do feel that if I had looked to the other points on my check list I could have worked further on this piece. For example , while I used mark – making and fluidity of stroke for the standing stones, I ignored this in the sky and lost the chance to make it more expressive and energetic. Looking further round at perspective, I have not tried to break the sky into small segments or compare lines in relation to each other and I have not used non- linear effects like graduated tonal values in the blue. I am glad that I have begun this process and recognise that it will not happen overnight. However if reminding myself of these perspective techniques as I go through the painting reminds me to think about the possibilities open to me, I may eventually hold the techniques in my head and apply them to work automatically.
Texture and colour to suggest perspective. However to improve this I could use a variety of tones of blueI used pouring medium with undiluted liquid acrylic to increase the fluidity and texture of my stone. I like the way that this produces shine when areas of concentrated pouring medium hit the light. The rough mixing on the support gives a nice diffused watercolour like effect where binding of colours is incomplete. A close up reveals that I used too many unblended tones and short strokes: learning point- observe, experiment then observe the results before attempting a painting then use fewer large sweeping strokes. Come back later to add more tones with a finer brush as required – next observe and build on more layers. This also need to work on the thickness of my paint to get the correct mixture.I can see that looking at lines in relation to each other and making better use of tonal values in colour could have improved the perspective in this painting.The image has been cropped from its original (showing the window, wall and a calendar) to concentrate on the best part of the painting which I feel is the curves and fluid marks on the tray. I used negative space between the red petals on the tray to accentuate this. It is one of the perspective tips from my mind map.I have again used non- linear colour perspective to suggest a third dimension.
Zucher S. and Harris B. 2020: Khan Academy.Albrecht Dürer, Self-Portrait, 1500 (Alte Pinakothek, Munich) Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker & Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker
Credited as the first artist to produce a recorded self- portrait, Durer turned against the traditional tide of religious subjects. His reason was that of self promotion in a time before artists were seen as important. He depicted himself : initially as a confident young man wearing the apparel of man of wealth ( promoting the idea that artists were much grander than the Renaissance craftsman around him) .Two years later he revisited his self image portraying himself on this occasion as a figure of power, face on ( an angle of portraiture reserved in those years as the sign of Christ). Again his intention was to suggest for himself power and knowledge ( through his clothing).
In the 1498 picture he has long well painted curves and a very detailed features. The skin tones give perspective and show lighting from the right side. The way his head is tilted high and his sharp features suggest proudness in the stance rather than the usual sad or thoughtful poses of many self portraits.
The second portrait , face on ,show the same strong features and sparkling eyes. The skin tones differ greatly as it is painted in candle light showing only the forehead and hand bathed in rich yellow light. This is used as a powerful imagery of Christ and inferring for himself a status of power.
Judith Leyster – self portrait in 1663
Zucher S. and Harris B. 2020: Khan Academy. Judith Leyster, self portrait. On line.
This is an important and essential work for Leyster and is believed to be an audition for entry to her local guild of painters I particularly like the way this has been painted as a moment caught in time as the artist turns to the front to talk to the viewer. The hi lights on the skin are beautifully painted in pale skin tones and the mouth is slightly open almost in a smile. I feel that these points make it very engaging. She has chosen to portray herself in fine clothes with a portrait in progress to prove to her peers that is is their equal. She is leaning casually back suggesting that she is happy and relaxed using a chair as a prop.
Later in life another self portrait shows her more serious this time- sitting straight back in her chair. Perhaps now she has a reputation as an established elder to maintain? This time there is only muted colour as a background ( she needs no clues to suggest who she is) and the colours are more muted perhaps again to give the feeling of seriousness. However that work is still engaging as the subtle tones do all the perspective work required.
Both of these artists use colour tones applied in a practised and skilful classical fine art technique. Backgrounds are painted in strongly and are photographic in quality. Interestingly no portraits by other artists have been found.
JM Turner
Although better known for land and seascapes, this Self portrait (1799) as a young man, is classically produced showing light powerfully hi lighting the front facing head and shoulders portrait, strikingly against a plain dark background.
He appears not to have painted himself in later years meaning there is no real comparison with the portrayal of other artists. It is interesting that others such as Thomas Smith choose to portray Turner from the side- profiling his rather large nose.https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558. Smith also uses impasto in a rather unflattering heavily applied manner suggesting a roughness not present in Turner’s own work.
Van Gough
Van Gough painted many self portraits throughout his life. I especially like the movement and emotion created by use of strong complimentary colours and impasto mark making. His strokes are thick yet achieve much definition. He paints head and shoulder pieces and rarely adds props – the most famous exception to this is the famous bandaged ear painting. This leads me to believe that he was trying to evoke personal internal emotions rather than making a statement about power or artistic accomplishment like Durer or Leyster.
Gogain paints his contemporary in a completely different manner: much flatter in perspective and seated at his easel painting his trademark sunflowers to identify him. Is this because Gogain may not be so confident in his likeness? Like Van Gough he paints in free sweeping strokes but the darker hues and flat less toned
Work somehow lacks the energy summoned by Van Gough himself. It is interesting that Van Gough felt Gogain is making fun of him- perhaps the overhead slightly stage angle does suggest the “ mad man” that Van Gough feels he is being portrayed as?
His late tryptic is striking. The heads stand out from the thick black background and as each is an angle to the left, centre and right of Bacon’s head they suggest something in-nerving. This is perhaps not surprising as in this article Bacon is quoted as saying he hate to look at his image. This may also be reflected in the unfinished appearance and slightly muted colours. However I spite of this the centre image is a clear resemblance to the artist and very similar to the version painted by fellow artist and muse Clare Shenstone. As her mentor she paints him in a more serious way- not poking fun as Bacon himself does. Shenstone chooses to direct his hands and posture sitting in a chair to show him thoughtful or relaxed. She also picks up the light in his face with some impasto and flecks of cream hi lights.
In this unit my aim is to go further than simply working through the technical aspects of study. In tandem I want to explore where possible how artists have approached appropriate tasks and what their process and thinking (ie their context ) was while working. I have discussed with my tutor ( as part of assessment 2 feedback) how important it is to take my research a stage further than simply investigating artist’s work. Now I would like to interpret their ideas and process into my own style and experiment with this. Therefore I have reviewed these sources in the reference section. As well as the personal selection that I am drawn to I will use tutor suggestions selected as being suited to support my artistic growth.
For the first exercises I will be using information researched from :
. Gerihart Reichter’s Atlas collection- a huge catalogue of the artists’s personal phitographs and cuttings which helped him to find inspiration and contextualise his work.
. Clare Shenstone- a contemporary portrait from her exhibition cataloguePersonification.
Shenstone says that her motivation is to move on in her understanding of art and life through her work. She tries to do this by connecting with her subjects through biographyand photographs that inform her understanding of a sitter. In a similar manner to Reichter. Of course face to face dialogue with models will not always be possible butI can apply any additionalphotos or facts to notice more about posture and visual traits.
Project 1 – observing the human form
looking at shapes, spaces and objects that locate the figure in space.
I used a series of 1minute, 2 minute and 5 min model poses from Croquis Cafe to practice initial anatomy. Then I used my husband as a model and other poses from Croquis Cafe which showed how props helped to support the model’s body. This was useful to see how posture and musculature changed between standing poses and poses supported by a prop eg dance bar or stool.
This model exhibits a ballet dancer’s posture in several of his poses for Croquis Cafe. I have tried to use sweeping strokes and curved musculature to suggest the movement of his body. The addition of a dance bar in this picture helps to anchor his limbs and gives credibility to the unusual angles of his body. Looking back at my drawing I feel that I have not been bold enough- I need to be confident to use looser strokes in my initial drawing as mine still appear too controlled and wooden. However – I have learned that it is important to anchor the figure by using appropriate props( less heads floating in the air that I am usually renowned for) .
The sitting figure again benefits from the stool to place it properly in into surroundings- this pose would look even more ridiculous without showing the prop! I cannot help feeling that my male figures require even more practice than my female ones. I realise that I have drawn women much more and need to redress the balance to improve .
Artist’s use of props
Shenstone uses chairs as a favourite prop. Looking at the following images it is obvious that she uses this prop in several ways: to emphasise poise or slouch in the sitter; to position arms to show them off better and to anchor the model realistically in the surroundings.
I am very drawn to the Francis Bacon portraits. Each are set in the same chair but look so different.The chair arm are perhaps like a prop within a prop: to control whether the sitter is slouching or sitting erect and then the arms- to support a pondering finger to the lips or a tight grip of fingers on the frame showing tension ?
Exercise- painting the figure
I experimented with different brushes and varied paint consistencies to see which worked best for me. I was surprised to learn that the brush that I had most control using was a rigger ( below) . I also liked a watery acrylic burnt umber which allowed me to move from light to darker , thicker applications to indicate areas of shade and depth. The chair allow3£ me to practise foreshortening and turning of one knee on a chair. I had to observe this closely and it took several attempts to sort out how the leg turned and how to try to achieve perspective as the raised foot disappeared back into the chair. Accuracy and my ‘ memory muscle’ for figure drawing will only develop the more I practise. Therefore I have made lots of different drawings and painted figures which are shown in sketchbook 3.
Looking at the background to develop perspective, the bent over figure above works quite well with just a single line to denote the background- is this because there is more tonal work on the the man’s back to show depth so it is less needed in shading work in the background.? I like the dry paint strokes as they help to convey movements in the random bushy hair strokes.
The pose to the right works less well proportionally. It has strong unconnected lines to represent the folds in the backdrop cloth. However this is not enough to distinguish the figure as being in front. I think it would have worked better on a faint backwash.
The two above show elements of tone and movement in the hair ( top right) but there is not enough to suggest a proper degree of depth. The proportions of the torso work better than the legs.
Tonal study exercise
The initial studies shown in sketch book 3 illustrate my initial attempts to complete a kneeling study. As I got more accustomed to the anatomy and perspective positioning I found it a little easier to imagine the piece in 3D as I worked and this helped me to add more layers of tonal colouring.
First attempt shows little tonal work- I think I was so focused on trying to produce a background I forgot about tone and proportion. This would have been a good time to look at the impasto techniques of Ernst Kirchner ( see research 3)
Next I moved to oils and although both of these pieces are small ( meaning I forgot about sweeping lines) I feel I achieved a greater variation in tones.
This feels more natural to me and the scratched areas in the hair add to depth and suggest movement in the face?
This one has lost definition in the face and needs more tonal values added. I did feel pleases with the layering to show shadow and fabric marks in the towel.
I used mixed media to creat texture and experimented with a black background to try to put a different atmosphere into the work.
I am pleased that I have managed to use some impasto techniques and some sgraffito to add depth to my painting. I think this has been of some effect and works better for me that linear perspective as a technique. Unlike Kirchner I have not been able to combine the mark making with large simple blocks of colour. Especially in the last painting above the effect is diluted as it is difficult to pick out the human form from the surroundings. Superimposing background colour blocks gives an indication of how to improve this.
Exercise – self portrait
Lighting- natural
Medium- liquid acrylic limited pallet: canary yellow; Bahama blue and cherry red. Thick Acrylic titanium white. Black biro pen. Medium Fishtail brush and small flat brush.
Background- mid blue to act as a contrast to the green and yellow hues in the portrait- darker layers of blue worked in behind me on the left hand side – the light source is coming from my right.
Positioning – mid paper with body at bottom to ground in space as if looking in the mirror
Mood- lighthearted- as a conscious counter to the unit advice about sitters becoming serious and sad while maintaining a pose. This is indeed true and has been helpful to be aware of in this work. As an smile self consciously I naturally have a thin to disappearing upper lip – it helps to reset myself to a more normal look. I am not going for shock value so it is important on this occasion to make the expression more normal and easily read for viewers. I am also aware that the corners of lips alter completely in frowns and smiles and this needs to be accurate as well to give a balanced look.
The work began as a second pencil sketch which I roughly blocked in with background and lights and darks. I began with loose sweeping outlines for the figure using a fishtail brush. Then I came back to the piece constantly over the next day to build up many layers; adding detail, correcting shape and tone, stepping back to view from a distance and then adding more detail.
Response of an observer- this was quite encouraging. My husband is extremely supportive but very honest so to hear him say that he liked this a lot was very encouraging. He felt that it was realistic and more dynamic than usual. I feel that it has been an important lesson for me to create a new working discipline around my painting using the feed back flow chart ideas that I described in feedback 2.
Observations- I am also quite pleased with the outcome.
Using a fishtail brush and rough blocking enabled me to keep a free and sweeping shape to my outlines.
The limited pallet reminded me to keep observing and trying to show tones of each hue.
I stuck to loose shadow in the tee shirt and background which felt less restrictive and I think works better for me at this stage.
Using repeated layers allowed me to review and refine tones
The most challenging issue for me has been obtaining a fair likeness. I feel that I have achieved this better in this piece as I have not lost the initial distinguishing marks but built on them through layering. I still feel that the proportional angles of the left hand eye and the lips are least convincing. I need to keep observing and reworking to improve this.
Exercise – head and shoulders portrait
Scale- A3 to try to practise larger sweeping initial mark making.
Position- face on to give power to the piece*
Background- experimental mid brown murrled- to add interest but can be easily altered to give a complimentary effect to lights and darks in the portrait outline.
Light – from the right
Observations- I have altered the pose* from front facing to a slight side view. This happened as the unit predicted- I forgot to mark the head position at the start and my model ‘ sagged’ a little!
Also I caught myself gradually altering the pose to suit the right hand side eye gaze which l liked. However I know from experience that this leads to problems with the angle and this is indeed what happened. The eyes are out of proportion and I have had to correct the head shape and lips- this has not been particularly successful especially for the top of the head. Consequently the piece looks flat.
I was quite pleased with the initial sweeps of the headband which seemed to suggest movement – this also had to be altered with the angle and became less successful.
The glasses were quite tricky to position to prevent them becoming like a barrier – the right hand side was looser and more successful than the left hand side.
At this stage I also experimented with oil and scratching into the surface to show texture in the beard. I used a plastic comb and was quite pleased to see the marks that can be achieved . I will incorporate more of this in future. The hues are wrong but I was using the odd colours of oil that I had to hand. Consequently the tonal values are also not representative as I did not have enough medium or white to add.
Exercise: Head and shoulders p88
I enjoyed painting this image of my sitter. Having painted my husband from this angle before , I felt that I would stick to the same light angles and profile. This time I tried to capture more of his character: by using moving brush strokes flicked around his head and sides to indicate a three dimensional aspect. The strokes seen in the close-up are more gestural than image perfect as I want the viewer to get caught up in the process of putting the pieces together around his beard and glasses. This gives a lighter feel which fits in with the sitter’s character. Again I tried to use a wider tonal pallet to show shadow and depth. Sadly the head shape is not quite right making the image unrealistic- I should have stepped back and observed more frequently- the misshapen aspect was a result of a last minute alteration of the head. While the hues were bolder and added to the cheerful mood that I was trying to achieve; I still did not achieve enough tonal variation making the work very flat and 2 D.
I also tried to use a colour contrast limited pallet, where I could matching light background to dark areas of hair etc. I feel that this works better than previous colour schemes. Using a limited pallet feels simple in the message and allows me to use white to indicate the more significant light patches as it is not too busy with many colours. I like this colour selection and would like to work it into further pieces.
I am more pleased than usual with the glasses lenses – this usually looks artificial but here works fairly well and allows me to show a bit of twinkle in the eyes. I was conscious of the unit advice that sitters can become artificially serious after sitting for a while.
My model did not see it as a brilliant likeness but did seem fairly pleased with it. Maybe I have gone too far with the looseness – does it appear cartoon – like?
Thinking about artists head and shoulder portraits:
Claire Shenstone paints Francis Bacon in a frontal pose and thus achieves an engaging view which she uses to good effect. Taking up my last point of producing a cartoon like effect; this artist manages to use the natural curves of Bacon’s face as a feature- even to the extent of shapes in his wrinkles! Perhaps the reason that her piece works is the experience with which she has learned to interpret in the right balance. The lines are shaped but broken and the colour is delicate. Therefore is is the suggestion of lines and the colour employed in negative areas creates the illusion that is read by the eye. My curves were accentuated and full therefore probably too emphasised and so unreal to the eye? The head-on face looks sincere and thoughtful due to the upwards glance of the eyes and the expression on the lips. Although the pupils of the eyes look slightly up , they are central enough to make the observer feel that Bacon is looking out towards or just past them. This captures the attention.The background is very dark suggesting darkness to the right and light coming from the left. The face in general is much lighter in hues than the background giving good contrast and definition. I like the green and light blue layers around the face- somehow these appear like an aura and although they are not realistic it works well by giving added definition.
Exercise: conveying character p 91
I was captivated by this little boy’s face with his tongue out- showing concentration and a cheeky smile. However I learned one of the downfalls of painting friends. I didn’t think it would be appreciated by the family if I painted him with his tongue out , especially as the boy wanted to keep the painting. Also it is not fair to expect young models to sit still for more than a few minutes so I worked mainly from a photo. The pressure to produce a likeness for the boy and to change the pose that I had captured proved too complex for me at this stage and I forgot to employ loose sweeping strokes in the paint- it became tight and lost perspective. Of course the more I tried to fix this the less of a likeness it became. Sadly I also became attached to my drawing which was not really like him but I liked the strokes and patterns which were what I was trying to achieve. I know that an artist should not get too attached to marks that they cannot be flexible to improve however I wonder if for the purpose of this exercise I should have stuck to my original Mark work to see what I could produce from this?
Part way through I stopped to draw another practice piece( wearing life jacket below) to try and reconnect with the initial marks that I made. However any natural loose marks that I had made were lost by this time . One of the things that strikes me is the hard rigid look to the eyes. The child naturally had quite small eyes but I am naturally drawn to making eyes big and overemphasised. ( As I write this it occurs to me that this perhaps also causes problems with my work. I am not aware that I am cartoonifying all of my figures with oversized eyes. This error obviously causes a problem with likeness! The expression of cheekiness disappears from my painting as I rework it. I know from feedback and practice that when I become tight and lose confidence my image suffers. This definitely happened here with the final painted image.
As I struggle with the eyes being smaller and nearly closed and not having a mouth photo to work from , the cheeky smile which was supposed to convey character to my work- disappears! This is a very good learning experience. I am happy with the contrast colours in the picture, I took time to think about this and deviated from the real background to achieve a better stand- out image. I also reworked layers of the background once I had finished applying tones to the skin, hat and tee- shirt to make sure that lighter toned skin was next to darkened sky areas and darkened areas on the child to a cloud in the sky to emphasise the contrast. I am beginning to realise that it is not good enough to treat the background and figure hues as one shade only. I also managed to add some shading to the tee- shirt but need to notice more about where the darker crease lines sit. I tried to use the lettering to emphasise that there were creases in the shirt.
Exercise:Mood and atmosphere
Mood and atmosphere exercise
I tried to use an image of a little boy sitting in the dusk huddled up in a chair with the only light source coming from his iPad. The image is dark but not meant to be sinister, the cheeks and facial hi lights remind me of candle light so should be endearing and the dark is dusky rather than enveloping blackness.
Sadly Looking back at this work I can see that the colour choice is wrong and the darkness was painted in too quick and too thickly ( ie in one block rather than leaving time for several layers to dry and . This would have given me the opportunity to introduce tones in the darkness . As so thick it makes the atmosphere sinister rather than endearing. Probably I could have changed the tones to yellow instead of harsh whitish for the light and grey/brown for the dark. I could have softened the dusk by using a dry brush technique.
Exercise:conveying character
Time to compare my work with the assessment advice from my tutor:
I have chosen to use the last child in image for the comparison as I feel that it’s the more successful of the two-it looks a bit less stiff as I have allowed myself to relax. I also spent more time concentrating* on layers of paint to give perspective and detail.
mark making to suggest form: I have begun to use this in the foot esp left tankless and toes
colour giving dramatic effect: I attempted to use complimentary colours orange and blue as main colours
take time to observe shape and tone: I examined the face and looked for curves in the face. Unfortunately the curve on the left cheek may be a bit too pronounced? Also I have spoken about the difficulty I had drawing the eyes- I wanted to show a curve in the eyelids and pupil but this was not a likeness as the boy actually had narrow eyes -almost closed.
using curves to tell a story: I tried to use the curves around the cheeks to show his mischievous look. However the dimple look of the muscles being pulled in a strange way did not look correct and the more I tried to refine this the further I got from the original intention!
Using different tools: Biro to show shading
observe perspective in a way that I can show it: I have shown a background requiring linear perspective – it would have been better to make this an Ariel perspective somehow. Not quite sure about this yet? However I did try to add more layers of tone in the intersections between figure and background.
come back to create further layers: I painted this over many sittings and made lots of tonal variety especially in the nose area.
textures to accentuate feel: A little on the surf in the sea but I could include more.
study othe artist’s work: I have made comparison with the work of Claire Shenstone using suggested lines in the body. I need to use this more in prep for pictures.
use rawness and fluidity in my style: I have tried to stay looser than in the first picture of the boy witch was overworked and tight.
work quickly to maintain fluidity: I worked quickly to make initial colour layers containing fluid curves.
use negative space: used especially in the arm areas and round rather outside of the body
People in context
Exercise :people in an interior
See my research page looking at E. Kirchner’s clever use of colour and shape to set his figures into space. His ingenious effects do not simply act as an anchor: they give suggestion and context to the story ( the work place of the street girls ).
describeS how the places that Doig has lived in have influenced his work; especially Trinidad and Canada. Doig states that he sees his paintings as ‘ filmic’ allowing the viewer to capture part of a story narrative taking place in front of them.
The effect that I want to achieve and introducing new elements into a familiar setting– the background is the brick wall in the conservatory of a friend who has a life changing illness and who is not able to go out. I wanted to convey the irony that she is trapped but really cheerful. It struck me that her home sadly was like a prison. Perhaps instead of simplifying the brick pattern too much , I could use it to suggest a prison walled-in effect? There is also a bit of a joke in the stripy jumper. I emphasised the lines by thickening them to portray prison film like garbe? Both the wall and stripes could be used to show perspective by using fading tonal valueS, change in size and direction. exploiting skin tones:
the hair and skin tones could be light to contrast with the relatively darker walls and jumper.
Simplifying the background – see above. I also cut down the amount of room and table decor shown and cut rows of bricks after a few to suggest a fading out of the image
locating the figure in space and suggesting depth – I tried to use the table as a marker in space for the figure sitting behind it. The table curve and markings at the edge closest to the viewer were disproportionately large to suggest depth.This looming infront of her also suggested that she was stuck- in the interior behind the table.
Eye level – after a while I decided that looking slightly up at the figure allowed me to emphasise that she was stuck behind the table.
I simplified the face as it was in the mid ground but managed to show as smile and I feel this helped to put over the right message. From the head and shoulders picture I realise that emphasising the curve and proportion in the cheek helps to suggest a better smiling mouth. I enjoyed the free and varied mark making in the plant closest to the viewer and hope it gives a sense of proportion to the work? Figure in an interior exercise and Research 3 : compare two works
Telling a story exercises:
As I have been living away from home it was not simple for me to get two models. Therefore I spent quite a few afternoons on the beach studying and drawing figures of passers by. I have done this before and of course learn something new each time. This time I learned more about the need to speed draw as people change position quickly. I also spent much more tome observing how limb anatomy works in several people before trying to draw a certain pose. The hope being that I would be better placed to draw a pose like walking down a set of steps more naturally. I also found that clothing and hair could be used to indicate movement – eg the wind billowing out a coat or washing blowing in one direction and puffing up clothes on a washing line in the background. I felt much more confident after this. it was by watching families moving around that I became attracted to how each posed for a photograph to be taken. This became the subject for this exercise and I drew a bunch of studies of a mother and two children. The mother was looking protectively down at her family while almost scooping them up in her arms. As suggested in the pink notes I felt I could emphasise this grouping and oneness by making wind marks tones and blowing fly away hair strands in the background around the group.
The girl in the group was leaning back very heavily on mum so much so that her stomach was arched out in front of her. This seemed unusual and quite sweet so I was keen to use this pose. I tried to paint in negative shadow tone between the mum’s coat and the arched back of the child. This gave a crispness to the colour of the child’s coat and emphasised the arch in her back. I had to notice carefully how her head was positioned looking up and back.
The boy plumped out his cheeks in a cheesy grin and straightened up for the picture and again I had to look carefully how to position his head and hair again. I tried to change the clothes to contrast against the background and identify each person against the shadow. One thing that did not seem quite right was the simplified beach background. I imitated Krichner’s street women painting using two contrasting colours in a Simple shape. I used the blue sea and added white for the waves. Instead of parallel lines I made an Apple core shaped sand for the group to stand in. It kind of works but not quite. Maybe as I am not as skilled as the artist I cannot get away with the oversimplification and need some tonal depth?
I fully concur with my tutor’s comments and feel excited to move on as the feedback has hi lighted areas for me to work on.
We had a discussion about treating paint layers as a kind of sculptural process to build up colour without it becoming muddy. This visual image was really helpful to me as I tend to approach art making in a tactile way. This has encouraged me to look at painting in a new way. I am always concerned that I mess up work when I paint it because I have little training in technical ability making painting rather a chore than a joy. Turning it into a sculptural process makes sense and frees me up to try new things. This also has a positive effect on my mark making allowing me to try using different tools. ( again a suggestion from my tutor) . In turn using my fish tail brush in certain sweeping areas allowed me to express my love of curves and addressed another goal from assessment 1 – to work on shape and form.
I feel that I have begun to address depth and simplicity in my work ( see assessment 2 last paragraph) which were the other recommendations from Assessment 1. I am pleased that I have a developing awareness to address these problems which will help me to continue improving in these areas.
Initial practice drawings from Croqui Cafe ( referenced elsewhere in coursework)
Exercise: drawing the human figure p 82
These are all figures for Project I – linear line exercise
Below are tonal exercises for figures
Exercise: tonal studies p 84
Above are pencil studies for the kneeling posed model- still tonal exercise.oil sketches
Exercise Linear figure p 83
Start of work
Mixed media study- white XL charcoal with ink ( applied by brush) and pen for outline markings. There is also a small amount of white gouache as texture( right forehead and left calf)
I find still life challenging and recognise that I need to find a simple scene allowing me to demonstrate growing understanding of use of perspective and colour theory.
Aims for inclusion:
I am drawn to use sweeping and curved objects in my work. This can be used to show aspects of optical mixing – eg the black and white optical illusion in a diamond grid top of my patio table.
I enjoy using blocks of colour with tones and shades to suggest depth.
I love how artists like Gwen John use tonal light to suggest perspective.
I would like to incorporate elements of how Picasso and Matisse use complimentary colour in small adjacent blocks ( eg Picasso weeping woman which I used to experiment with complimentary colour)
rough drawing of proposed scene, selected as the best through a view finder card to simplify the picture. I used a viewing frame card to help me limit how many objects I put into the scene as I have a tendency to choose to many which will make the view too complex and therefore less effective.
simplicity through blocks of colour and a few objects that tell a story is my aim.
I like the arrangement of these three red pieces. The plan was to include greenery behind the garden tablet as a backdrop giving a complimentary block of colour for the red tea wear. I was also struck by the lines of light caught in rims in the pottery and thought this would be effective to show how light enhanced the scene.However on rereading the brief I found that it had to be an interior setting. I like the large areas of reflection produced by overhead light and want to keep this. Therefor I propose to use a small shaded window at the back of the table to give interest but far enough into a recess to suggest it would not complicate the scene with secondary side lighting. I then hope somehow to indicate that most of the light is from an interior overhead source. I am not sure how to achieve this other than by having a lampshade at the top which is not subtle? ( question to tutor please.)
Rough plan of perspective and colour blocks
While using a 1/2 inch decorating brush to make exploratory perspective marks , I noticed how much I liked the curve and sweep in the teapot and heart shaped sugar dish. Using this decorating brush allowed me to loosen my drawing and get a better idea of how I wanted the shapes to form in this assessment piece. Using this type of brush is a new technique for me and definitely one that I will use again. It also helps me to play with different angles of view and how these affect the sweeps and curves seen to create the composition that best suited my purpose.
I want to show how the strong overhead light falls on my objects reflecting their shapes and curves and opted to view the scene in a seated position which would allow me to show the pattern and tone on the side of the teapot.
I found that I had several hues of a ‘primary’ red acrylic that helped me to show tone without flattening the colour by adding too much white or water. I realise that this does not conform to how the unit has looked at tonal production, however in this case the strength of red in the hue seems important to maintain.To produce the darker shades on the lower part of the sugar dish I have used methods practiced in the unit producing tones by added varying quantities of blue.
Later I decide to practice this effect with a closeup of the sugar dish. This also allowed me to explore light falling on it and study different tones present in the red. I was also able to echo the curves by showing the pattern of a similarly coloured flower tray underneath the objects.
I want to introduce complimentary colours so made sure that the yellow centre of the flower is in view and matched this to a blue suggesting shaded areas. Note that this is an artistic choice to maximise colour theory and blue was not actually present in the tray.
I used a rich heavy body red for the darker areas in partial shade and combined it in some areas with ‘phthalo. Blue ‘ liquid acrylic and an intense ‘primary liquid red’ for the full bodied areas of colour.
The main lines were drawn with a medium filbet and the sweeping pattern below the dish with a fish tale brush using long single sweeps.
Experiment above is with wet in wet as background for the table lattice pattern. I liked the softened pattern but decided that it didn’t really work with the strength of hue and curves that I wanted to concentrate on in the objects in my work. Next I tried using the edge of my paint knife with varying pressure and amount of paint. I liked the fading out effect that this gave and decided that I could use this as a tablecloth to suggest merging perspective lines at the back of the table (demonstrating a very simple element of optical mixing).
Looking back at my objectives, I wanted to examine how an artist using modern techniques would tackle the tricky topics of perspective:
I chose to look at the work of Matisse as he uses free style and bright colour rather than photo realism which I like.
The Matisse techniques that I can take on in my piece and assessment of points that worked and did not work in my painting.
1. Strong bold patterning to indicate different surfaces eg the table top tray and tablecloth.
2. the use of optical mixing theory with the diagonal line pattern of the table cloth retreating into the wall worked fairly well and I was please by the true straight line produced by using a ruler dipped in paint. I was able to show some distance by ensuring that the paint began to run out on the further away lines. In a further attempt I would practice this technique using more accurate techniques like a perspective viewing guide to get a more accurate vanishing point. This is a big step forward for me as I am typically quite impulsive and find measuring is something that I rarely do!
3. large blocks of colour in complementary hues eg red teapot and sugar which guide the eye through the painting to the window above which has greenery behind it works fairly well. Sadly the window and calendar are a bit contrived as I had to change from my planned far ground content.
4. lighter colouring in the far distance eg the receding window where I have tried to suggest a wide sill Going back into the distance by using grey in the cream colour at varying strengths to make lighter shades going towards the window pane. Also the greenery outside is a block of complimentary green but I have made this a much lighter tone of green as simplified the greenery pattern into vague shapes to indicate distance.
5. I ran into problems with the credibility of light from above ( see my reasons for trying to do this above in italics) . It didn’t feel as if it worked as how is the viewer to know that the light is above if the window is the only visual clue of light suggesting to the mind that light comes into the painting from the back. Therefore I tried to use a diagonal of light coming in from the window as Matisse did in the studio painting referred to in my notes. Sadly this came out looking wrong so I painted over it again. So far I have not come up with a good solution.
other learned techniques to suggest depth:
1. I have tried to emphasise areas of negative space to show distance. Eg the empty space behind the teapot nob at the narrowest part which attaches to the lid. Instead of putting definite division lines to show the red border of teapot I have kept this broken in shaded red and white light. The definition is made by an area of shadow behind it.
2. Colour theory suggests that light and dark allow both colours to look stronger eg. the hues of red – a light pink designating the back of the tray meeting the red of the sugar dish. The bottom of the sugar dish was a dark red due to shadow but I deliberately lightened the tray red with white and darkened the dish with blue. I believe that where they sit next to each other this suggests the narrative of distance.
Also with the spoon. I lightened the opaque silver in the curves where light is reflected and deliberately made the shadowed darker to Payne’s grey parts of the edge and handle of the spoon and its shadow to emphasise that the spoon was not flat.
3. I used long sweeps while painting the teapot curve and the sweeping forms of the tray flower . I intended this to suggest movement in the work and feel that this has worked fairly well.
4. the movement and addition of a calendar on the wall are meant to suggest a time narrative to suggests my emotion and artistic commitment to the piece.
other errors:
1. Due to the time of painting taking place during lockdown I could not get supplies of larger paper than A3. I had to use two of these sheets and glue together on a card backing. I am not happy that some of my paper fixative spray has not stuck down well and the paper line is very visible.
2. While I have achieved some degree of depth which shows best in the tray, the teapot and sugar dish really would benefit from more layers of red tone. I tried to introduce this but felt that I was using shorter strokes between established shading and it looked forced. I should have had more shades of red premixed to use during the initial painting.
3. The lid of the teapot looks lopsided. Standing back more often during painting would have allowed me to spot this and make better adjustments at the time of painting.
4. The yellow walls and calendar look rather distressed and perhaps grubby. This originated for two reasons: shading for contrast to the square of light that I later removed and then further darkening to the walls and calendar to suggest that light from the window was limited and must have come from above as the white was only on upper Surfaces of the teapot and dish.
5. I was fairly pleased with the rich hue of red in the teapot body- this is not quite as balanced as the blues and red in my watercolour on cardboard flower and vase. In future I want to work more on balancing complimentary blocks of colour throughout the painting. Maybe I should have chosen green for the painted wall.
Fit to assessment criteria:
. Development of technical and Visual Skills Materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills- I have tried to use techniques practised and learned in this unit . In particular I have chosen to use areas of complimentary colour and a range of red tones ( especially) to indicate my growing understanding of colour theory and perspective
.Quality of Outcome Content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, with discernment. Conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas.- I am learning to use a process of thinking, planning and exploring to inform my final piece. In this case I have used previous paintings , sketches and tonal and colour studies to gain understanding of the subject before I began to paint. I have found this a difficult but rewarding development as my natural response is to get started and make things up as I go. For me it was a clear statement of intent for me to use a small view finder before anything else to refine downwards the complexity of what I chose to paint. I also thought about what would convey my desired message- in this case how light played on large curved blocks of colour producing shading and tonal hues.
.Demonstration of Creativity Imagination, experimentation, invention, Development of a personal voice. Context– I have had to simplify what I chose to portray. My tutor helped me in Assessment 1 to look with fresh eyes about what I can portray as simply as possible without clutter and techniques that I have not yet had time to master. I am pleased that I have been able to focus on a simple and small group of objects. It could be argued that fitting your imagination to work within your skill set is an appropriate use of creativity? Wishing this simple idea I found that I had more time and confidence to experiment with different brush strokes and mark making. (The fishtail for the sweeping flower on the tray and the side of my paint knife to print a fading straight line pattern on the table cloth. This is a learning point from Assessment 1 that I have tried to take on.)
It is also interesting to note that in simplifying , it gave me confidence to experiment and I feel that the marks and tools that I have learned will become part of my evolving style.
.Reflection, research (evidenced in learning logs). Critical thinking (evidenced in critical review).
I have enjoyed researching how artists have used colour theory and perspective. I feel that it has allowed me to experiment with their ideas and begin to plan to try some of these ideas in my own work. For example, I have been particularly influenced by the bright complimentary colours that Matisse used in his work ( see my drawings above ) and this encouraged me to use bright red and yellow in my painting. Also Matisse worked in a free expressive style using a variety of techniques to bring perspective to his work- often showing table scenes such as in this assessment. I have always avoided table perspective as I find it challenging. Studying Matisse’s method’s has given me new confidence to try. I have tried to pick up on elements of optical mixing and tonal hues to develop my table top perspective. I recognise that I have a long way to go with this and need to have courage to loosen up and paint free and single long strokes to achieve Better shape and texture in my work. I also need to take time before starting to have a wider variety of tones pre mixed before I start. ( Looking back at my Assessment1 feedback I note that my tutor mentioned this so Sadly I find it is something that I had not fully appreciated and Ai hope that pre mixing will prompt me in the future.) Experienced artists can do this as they go along but I need the visual prompt to discipline me to use a larger variety – in this case especially of my reds. I have tried throughout my commentary to look objectively at my work and assess what and how I can improve. I now also realise that having a mirror to look in or disciplining myself to step away from the painting much more frequently would help me greatly to influence what needs to be changed and do more of what is working well- before the paint dries and it is much harder to correct.
supporting work:
To illustrate colour theory: contrast in hue and tone
colour study- exploring blocks of colour and how light affects them
study exploring shape and tone affecting perspective
I was introduced to this painting through a NG social media post which talks about how light is used to produce colour contrast. Sargent understands so well how the light diffusing onto the table cloth is reflected showing shades of the surroundings. He also uses negative space to accentuate the shape of the table and panels in the outdoor room.
I enjoyed exploring how artists have approached interior still life painting and have made notes in research.
My particular favourite is Ariel perspective eg beautiful light and tonal work to suggest depth. However I recognise that my tonal differentiation is not very developed and I need to work on this as well as one point perspective drawing .
When I started to make drawings of my room as instructed in the exercise for this section, I realise how rusty my drawing skills have become. I have got out of the habit of daily practice and would like to restart that. Working around my living room , I could not find an inspiring scene that is not too complicated but allowed scope for shade and perspective.
Eventually I found a more suitable scene and spent some time making study drawings from different angles and distances. This is a valuable exercise to add to my ongoing practice.
The resulting painting in acrylic leaves me frustrated. I have struggled over the past few days to make anything of a descent standard. This is perhaps a reflection of the current worrying climate and personal circumstances. I think though it is contributed to by the pressure I feel to consider a whole different side to my work. I am noticing this and realise the truth of my tutors comments on unit 1. I need to slow down and try not to work on too complex examples. Therefor I left for now my rework of a staircase ( the subject of my assignment 1 for drawing ) The work is not accurate in terms of colours but I feel does show evidence of shadow. I tried to stick to a limited palette to make tonal change easier and help me to understand make up of light but the lack of brown made the work more difficult in the end. My frustration led me to paint quickly and less carefully. Consequently my walls are not straight. I did notice standing back that the corner where the table was looked better with a tonal change showing shadow rather than the initial red painted guide line- showing that I need to stand back and look frequently.
Above: further exercises using paint layers to reflect light
Below : Perspective exercises
interior of rooms standing and sitting. Sitting position is more natural in my lounge and these proved the more suitable subjects to draw. Strong lines in the corner view of the tall lamp and the corner cabinet framed by the settee felt more natural and pleasing to me.
Struggling to find an appropriate subject for study painting.
After several sketches narrowed down and painted:
Tonal study for an interior I tackled for my assignment unit 2 drawing. It is still a challenge for me to work on.
Comments that I read during a research project on xxxxx now come back to me and are echoed in the study notes- drawing places that you know brings understanding to work. However stressing about my technical level of ability overcame these words until I took things back to basics
I am happier with this piece. It goes back to exercises on simple perspective and a limited muted pallet. The work is quick and while it is demonstrative of my style, it lacks some accuracy as straight lines appear a little bent and moving quickly it becomes more representational than accurate so not fulfilling the brief. However the freedom to paint quickly in an acrylic medium more familiar to me enabled me to concentrate more on linear perspective theory . To combine this with tonal accuracy and colour perspective O need to have acrylic tones pre mixed or use a medium to slow drying time as I tend to mix into colours on the page.
I also tried to concentrate more on the spaces made by negative shadows between objects. To some extent this worked but I really needed to introduce further layers of shade and tone by the means discussed in the last paragraph.
It is interesting up note that while I previously struggled with standing view perspective in the lounge , in the kitchen I found this more natural- possibly because time in the kitchen preparing food is standing!
My insight into this genre has moved on from my understanding while studying this topic in Drawing 1 unit 2. Then I imagine that I ranked it
s importance as minimal – simply a study tool to practice technique. Now however I have come to agree with Sontgen (2007) in her assessment of it’s importance in recording art culture and history. Further She quotes the art commentator Hegel to describe how interiors painting is not a soft option. It lays bear someone’s home and gives a snapshot into their life and difficulties in a deeper way than a landscape work could. I might also add that if the artist allows it to it will expose them as a person and such vulnerability has added greatly to the work of modern artists like Van Gough. Reading letters to his brother alongside looking at his bedroom and living room interiors shows that he has put his circumstances and his passions into paintings. He describes aspects of furniture and what he wants to capture about it as colour shape or texture- all the better because he lives with it and knows it.
Other artists have used it as a tool. Pieter de Hooch uses windows and doors to frame parts of the picture and lead the eye, in the case of ‘ interior with Woman beside a linen chest’ out to the exterior world through the far off front door. ( from Songet again). It is a piece about so much more that a domestic chore:the clothing and contents show the status of a household at the time and give clues to the rest of the building. I wonder if it also suggests tensions perhaps between the adults working and the child wishing to play outdoors? Light an dark are used to creat beautiful contrast : window light at the front of the work falls onto the clothing and gives opportunity to show depth in the drapes of her dress while shadow in the mid-distance hi lights the open door at the back of the painting and pulls the viewer through the work.
Since being introduced toGwen John’s drawings I have long admired the simple beauty of her art and how she translates this into her painting.During her later life in Paris, her interior still lives reflects her need for solitude and simplicity of life at that time . It is often portrayed as the consequence of rejection by Rodin but it is refreshing to see McCabe (2020) argue that it was actually sstrength in her conviction to dedicate herself to art. Therefore she worked and reworked paintings showing corners of her studio and areas of a local religious order who interestingly held the same principles of uncluttered life! The result in Interior 1924 is a glorious feast of light. Only one small corner of one of the Nunnery rooms is shown. Walls, tablecloth and tea setting are all bathed in dappled shades of white with a single lightly glazed red tea pot popping out as a focal point. In the far ground lie the unmistakable clues to the room’s identity:a crucifix outlined in grey shadow against a high cell like an alcove arched window. The sole source of the room’s light comes from this window and a simple triangle shape shaft of the lightest grey glaze directs both the light and the viewer’s eye into the mid ground which is in deeper shadow as a second arch jutting into the room which must be a support for the building ( the inside of an external flying buttresses structure perhaps). have sat and marvelled at this simple work for a long time and my eye is repeatedly drawn back to what for me is a touch of genius.Whatever the mid ground structure is it is , John uses this light shaft as a tool to emphasise the feature and suggest depth in the work. She uses yellow glazing in divisionism style to suggest window light and shadow in the foreground on the tea set. This to me seems unusual as traditionally to conform to perspective laws foreground objects should appear the clearest. However this departure from ‘ rules’ worked very well here to suggest a haze ( as in Seurant’s Bathers painting). The teapot is again the only foreground exception- it is painted traditionally in a rich crimson (?) to suggest its simple curved form with white light patches to show light and depth.
Light areas in the room are glazed in white and the darker area of the floor is glazed in a warm pink which feels the right atmosphere as I believe that John is saying that the message is warmth and beauty in nature rather than the austerity of a hidden religious life?
McCabe, K. (2020) Art UK London: Public CatalogueFoundation. Available at solitude#https://www.artuk.org/discover/stories/what-gwen-johns-portraits-can-teach-us-about-solitude# [ accessed on 19/04/20]
From the fifteenth century onwards artists began to understand how to bring a third dimension into their previously flat work by incorporating perspective. Da Vinci, in the article above, is quoted as comparing the result with looking into the real world through a window . This must have been revolutionary for artists and viewers alike. It would seem that this all happened around the same time as colour theory began to emerge- I imagine as science began to develop. To me the path has been a journey ever since back towards feeling and true expression of idea. I feel this because the natural order in everything is to concentrate on the new to improve but this comes at the expense of totally valid ideas from the past.
I have been restudying the history of cubism and begin now to understand how the necessary progression through colour theory and perspective lead to Impressionism at a time when the world was especially in need of a change from the clutter and fuss of the rich Victorian era- artists began to strip back ideas with the knowledge of technical methods behind them and began to look for the mystery and aesthetic aspects of art that had become so masked by the desire for perfect realism.
The three types of perspective used to bring depth to a work are:
. Single point or linear perspective where parallel lines in the scene ( railway lines, straight paths etc) can be traced back to a single vanishing point on the horizon
. Two point perspective is seen in architectural work where the corner of a building is seen with walls regressing back to two vanishing points on the horizon.
.aerial perspective is achieved by use of lighter tones and blurred edges on the horizon line and in the furthest recesses of a scene with the closer parts of the work being darker sharp shades.
Although the above reference is a Journal article comparing Dutch 17C Realism art 19 C realist Novels , it notes that the reviewed author , Ruth Yeazell, has a good understanding of this genre of art. Yeazell believes as others do, that this form of genre art specialises in small scale every day subjects lit spectacularly by light . However she also feels that it’s proponents place figures against uninteresting backgrounds or “fractionalises’ them Agassi a large plain landscape to achieve the moral Protestant message of the times by depicting anonymous middle and working class people.
commentators such as Hegel (1) argue that artists such as Vermeer tried to simplify and control what the viewer looked at . It’s subjects ‘verging on boredom’ were only looked at as their technical portrayal of light and therefore we’re capable of ‘eliminating thought’ . I don’t agree with this as anyone from any era can interpret art as formulaic symbolism or as a creative spurt ways according to the way their brain picks up information and their previous experiences of the world around them. Despite the chastity of thought required by the age history shows that in science and art some did break through the mould and produced new and innovative ideas.
Typical to the genre in subject and style- anonymous girl captured in a domestic and ordinary scene. The most striking part of the painting is the bright sunlight from the window and how this reflects off the girl’s forehead. Skin tones on the face and In the mirror show very detailed tonal difference giving depth to the skin. The simple hi miler hues in the dress and wall suggest that the attention is only in the light from the window. However similar light tones do not look as flat as colour theory might suggest. However the compliment between light and dark areas in the dress is very distinct.
Gabriel Metu’s painting ‘ man writing a letter’ shows a male figure seated at a desk with light shining from a side window. The light reflects on a fold in the table cloth and this gives most of the detail in the work in some respects the man’ s plain black and white outfit blends into the background.
I am intrigued by Salman’s unique use of colour and mark making.
Colour
He is unusual in that his paintings are works of limited pallet but he achieves amazing interaction not through complimentary hues but by using 3-4 tones from the same area in the colour wheel. By the laws of colour theory theses should make each other more dull , however they don’t. This may be because of the subtle use of light and dark. It may also be due to his particular form of mark making.
Brush work- mark making
Salman intentionally leaves brush marks in his work and blocks of colour are expertly broken by his trademark style of movement marks. Walls take on shadow achieved through choice of tones; cloth appears to shimmer with a few crucially placed squiggles in a contrast colour and a spectacular pink wool jerkin has all the texture of a real jacket through shading.
As I begin to develop my shape and form from the last posts do to consider exploring contrast and successive contrast exercises,
I realise that it would be easier to establish colour relationships by using colour blocks as Picasso did in his Weeping Woman.
I have realised that after initial noticing detail in form and tone in a subject it is important at my stage to go back a step and forget detail in order to envisage colour.
In the same way that I have had to learn to sacrifice initial drawing detail to establish form; I now want to begin colour planning without much tonal analysis. Tone and shade will follow during the painting stage.
Suddenly it hit me that I could cut out the key shapes to make colour blocking simpler. Then I realised that putting pieces on a black background would give me an opportunity to play with aspects of optical mixing. The rush of excitement and possibility that fills me at this time is rare and definitely one to cherish and remember in the many fallow idea times!
I was not able to enlarge the side profile without sacrificing the shadow shapes ai want to explore. This gives me a further opportunity to expand the project in a completely different way later.
Meantime I moved the head on the same plane to emphasise the LHS- enlarging this side of face and hands and flattening out this side of the nose. ( I chose the LHS as it is most in shadow which is what I want to develop. The Left hand has moved out larger and forward. This will help me to indicate shade and depth in my similar colours ( orange and red).
in pictures 4 and 5 above I increased the negative space between blocks.
in 1 and 2 I played with the classic candlestick negative space that I realised had appeared and is mentioned in a lot of well known samples of optical mixing.
2 shows a diagonal move to suggest different between the blocks but I note that it also show movement?
3 is an attempt to give significance to the space between the cupped hands. I have a notion to use tonal shading in this. Such spaces have been used by artists to represent the heart and also the centre of femininity in the reproductive system. I am still to develop where I choose to go with this!
Doing e recises to show complimentary colours together I can confirm colour theory findings that both are enhanced. The use of complimentary colours to frame a subject is particularly effective. While doing my weeping woman project I have discovered thr even though I like certain combinations eg blue , violet and pink it is of little surprise to see that Picasso’s choice of yellow , yreen and complimentary red wirk much better. Here lies a dilemma for artists!
Still life and still life with colour used to evoke mood.
The best example of this that I have is the kettle oil and tomatoes still life. Here I found it easier than usual to move through a fuller tonal range of red , blue and their mixes. Working on depth and looking at the result from a distance I was able to go back and add lighter and darker shades to give greater depth. Mixing more tones before would help me to make this more effective.
In the fruit study I kept the study small and simple. Using red and yellow tones I believe helped to create a mood of warmth of these summer fruits. This is better than previous studies where I mixed in blues to cool it down unintentionally. This latter picture is not successful in terms of linear perspective. It does use a doorway to frame the scene which is a useful device. AS I struggled with appropriate shades of shadow under the table and worked into it while still wet I muddied the effect.
I found the podcast interesting and inspiring, that artists do not just “wait for the creativity to descend upon them”. One contributor described that environment and emotion can be so exhausting that inspiration dries up. It is important to go back to what was found to give inspiration and work to recreate the feelings that gave ideas.
The Tate article also uses Picasso’s Weeping Woman to illustrate his drought period in the 30’s and how he moved on from this. Looking at the Weeping Woman in the context of the colour wheel and optical mixing I suddenly got part of what Picasso may have been saying. Immediately this became an inspiration to make a response and fulfilled the criterion of the still life exercise on P68 .
An interesting web article on inspiration sources lead me to re-examine Picasso’s Weeping Woman. Wow- finally I am beginning to understand my own sense of something that Picasso is tiring to convey. For me I see his attempt to show the most important shapes in the human form. These are not necessarily allow a linear plane. He moves perspectives of the face so the half of face in shadow is front on and the lighted right side is a side profile. Why ? Perhaps to emphasise what are possibly the more attractive curves and line relationships? For example the shaped curves of shadow encompass the eye sockets, sweep round the mouth and flick down through the cheeks to the chin – creating a slightly different geometric pattern on each side of the face.
His genius takes this further for me as he effortlessly suggests pleasing combinations of colour triads ( two similar shapes in closely positioned tones of cold pale yellow and green matched with an almost complimentary partner purple). This had never occurred to me and took some time to work out as I worked through shape and form drawings to produce this:
It occurs to me that it has it has vocalised for me an idea that has been forming in my head for the last few years: the geometry and shape that shadow forms on the human face.
Now to add colour. I tried to use oil pastel lines to identify blocks of colour but found that this looked unconnected.
Following a Picasso’s blocking , I worked out my own triad shapes: red for the shadow side space on and orange for the right hand side of the face with the perspective swirled slightly to emphasise the light shapes on the RHS of my face.This is mirrored in the hands.
Using a black out line helps to differentiate.
Next steps:
.add whitened tones to suggest depth?
. emphasise the swivel in the right hand side of the face and hand
. add the third compliment colour blue. Picasso used this as shadow ( small purple triangles) I need to work out my response to this.
I have been reflecting on the way that artistic education moves every creative who indulges in it from naive use of colour theory to conscious exploration of the science of optical mixing.
This is demonstrated by my reaction today to a Tate virtual exhibition of Andy Warhol’s work. It has always fascinated and attracted me without knowing why. Now one look at his pop art and especially the series ‘ ladies and gentlemen ‘ show how clearly he understood and applied contrast and optical mixing.
In one work in the latter series the model’s skin is depicted in orange with red gloves on a yellow background. Thus the figure melts into the background ( detail and shadow are provided by single lines of complimentary blue). The most striking part is the model’s head scarf. Black and white swirled lines suggest movement.
This article gives a more illuminating explanation of Impressionism than I have previously read. Impressionists used complimentary lines of colour to produce beautifully expressive depictions of light. While paintings look disjointed up close the mind joins up the suggested picture when viewed from a distance. This is why sunsets look especially realistic, because the natural behaviour of light is shown through aspects of simultaneous and successive contrast.
While the consensus is that Impressionists used this theory intuitively, it is agreed that new Impressionists and in particular the Pointillist movement started by the french artist Seurat and his colleague Signac used colour theory intentionally to enhance their painting. Their work was the first example of mixing colour by perspective the brain rather than add mixing on the pallet. This is of course of increasing importance as digital art becomes more prevalent and explains some of the anomalies to colour theory seen in printing and online .
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/seni/hd_seni.htm shows various examples of Seurant’s work. I especially like ‘ calm evening’- a beautiful suggestion of the shadowed light of early evening is suggested through interspersed use of blue and orange carefully arranged to depict may more subtle tones to the viewer. There is a definable time line, traceable from Chevreul’ s colour theory influencing many movements through to today. Pointillism and indeed Signac’s continuation of Seurant’s work through Divisionism in turn influenced Cubism, Furturism and later the Op artistic movement.https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/glossary-terms/op-art explains how British stylist Bridget Riley made mainly black and white illusion all works in the 1960’s. She was aware of what is called Seurant’s’ heat haze’ – a shimmering effect in his bathers painting. It was influential in he experimentation with line and colour and how the human brain perceives the edges of colour blocks to interpret movement where there is actually none https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/glossary-terms/op-art explains this. Riley’s work is clever and provocative, however this and fellow Op artists using colour make me feel rather nauseous and I find it difficult to study. I also see successive contrast effects in Riley’s work and again this is too harsh for me.
Thinking what I would wish to use from 19th-20th C optical mixing techniques :
Adding depth to hue by placing complimentary colours next to each other
consciously employing impressionistic strokes and divisionism to contrasting colours could assist the effects that I want to achieve in my work
I decided to work from white to dark but made this mistake of using a dark violet to mark out the deepest shadow. In order to cover this I got frustrated, layers became thicker and I fell into the same mistake of using too much paint again! However I enjoyed the plant mark making and like the way that the loose leaves were expressed- one positive point to take forward!
the vase worked better here. I managed to start with a clearly defined shape and an idea of how I would add tints and tones to the blue in thin layers. I also managed to incorporate some of my loose strokes into the plant. The drape is unfinished but as the makings of being better because I worked slowly towards a darker brown over time. I must confess I was not confident enough to complete this process and left it as seen! The skull is too clumsy and I seem too stubborn to leave it out until my technical ability catches up. ( I put it into the lamp study below but finally got the message and dropped it for a simple apple after that.) I used my fingers as an experiment with movement marks. I like the tonal values in them but believe that I should have used a fine brush to apply deeper layers of tint between the dark shadow red with added ultramarine and the white set tint. I like the softness and movement achieved by using my finger tip but admit that it is not neat and again touching up with a fine brush would help. Perhaps this softer look is better for mid picture work?
The lamp study used some tonal variation but not enough and I still got the sheep head wrong. I am much happier with my Apple work. This is a simple shape on a piece of white paper . Therefore I was able to concentrate on making a range of tints and tones . I recognise that it is not giving up to go back to basics- I need the technical skills before I can progress! The shadow is wrong in form and colour . Grey would have been better.
This painting is watercolour on cardboard. I found this medium pleasing to use on cardboard as it flowed smoothly allowing long sweeping strokes.
White gesso was used as the background and provided a good colour contrast to the dark rich blue and pink. In order with colour theory this contrast enhanced the blue of the vase very well. I am pleased with this effect.
The roses that I was painting were double headed and in an attempt to depict this I have lost the fluidity and shape of individual petals. I am quite happy that I have used a variety of tones in the pink petals .
This is a particularly helpful exercise to concentrate my mind on accuracy rather than my usual rapid draw style. It also gives me a reference point to think about how I use tones in my work.
I found it useful to play around with tints, shades and tones afterwards to visually test out what I had read. My understanding of tints was greatly enhanced by this. I also gained a better understanding of adding warm yellow to make a mixed colour warmer and observed what happens to the hue against different colours. This aspect became important in the next set of exercises. I observed that to create the complexity of colour in a red lamp, I needed to look at the source of the light being added( natural white light) or yellow artificial light as the component colour wavelengths affected what was seen by the eye. Also the toning was not just a case of gradually diluting a colour with white- dark shadows enhanced the brightness and hue of adjoining parts of the lamp and white light tints seemed often to appear as a Matt effect- fuller than the shines bright hue absorbing red wavelengths to ‘pop against ‘ the lighter tone area beside it.
I have tried to cover my main observations in the pencil notes above this still life of man made objects. I was most surprised and pleased that during the processes that I went through to paint this, I felt more aware of how to think about the scientific production of tones and this helped me to recreate them a bit better – I hope it makes the depth and perspective more realistic too. I enjoyed the work better as I felt that I was doing less pure guess work and more observation of the scene. Of course there are still many errors in the work: there is not enough definition of the budah figure and the surface is not accurate in its tone. However I feel it better represents the constitution of the natural light processes in this environment. I was also happy that I took time to creat more layers of tint, tone and shade and that the construction of the colours was informed by the different natural and artificial light sources. I instinctively added a hint of warm or cool to reflect the environment too. response to exercise questions: As I have commented through out part two- I am learning to step back and enjoy the planning phase, realising that this does not need to kill spontaneous ideas. I will have my sketch ideas and have already begun to jot ideas and concepts onto a digital mood board. It is rewarding as I begin to realise that intuition was heading me in the direction of considering colour theory – however now having access to the knowledge allows me to use it in a more effective way. I selected objects that had strong tonal values-a blue paint container, a red lamp. The small neutral coloured Budah gave contrast as a neutral colour to promote depth and allow negative painting between my two primary coloured objects and it was also something of interest. I placed the objects in front of a mirror with natural light from a window to the right and a secondary artificial light bulb coming from the left as I was interested in the comparison between the two types of light. my scale was close up- I am aware that I am biased to this rather than wide angles – perhaps something to do with the way that I see the world as I am short sighted! My dilemma is whether it is good to stick to this as my own response or whether I would learn more by taking a different view from a distance. I at least need to try this theory out! Looking from a distance at my group of objects takes away from the detail of objects like the Budah but may give me a better way of using negative spacing as the objects can be separated more allowing me to use the shadow space between them to greatest effect. This would indeed solve a problem that I know is in my painting: the Budah does appear indistinct and unrecognisable from a distance so negative shadow space would help me to define it more.
as I indicated in previous paragraphs I am pleased that I have the patience and seen the need to use multiple layers of paint in tints . I believe that this is a positive change to my paint handling technique.
Flower still life exercise:
I decided to make sketches of a modern vanitas set up in my work area- thinking about my observation that I “go in too close “ on my subjects. This helped me to select the best position to work from.
( see sketchbook2)
I made a paint quick drawing and began on the work. Unfortunately it was a problematic piece from the beginning. I have not yet grasped whether frustration brings a worse painting or the reverse is true. I ended up changing positions and colour tones of all grew subjects making them less effective. This is especially true of the skull. While I managed to keep paint layers thin and eventually reached a degree of tonal balance and perspective, this eluded next for the skull. Maybe it’s rich layers of very similar tones was too complex at this stage- it ended up being thick layers of undifferentiated colour without depth.
At this point I had my assessment I feedback ( postponed at my request).
main feedback points that I would like to incorporate into my next painting are:
Pull back from being too ambitious on my subject- use a view finder.
use thinner transparent layers to make the variety of tones and tints richer
Applying this to my picture:
too much thick paint in the shadow and skull
too little definition in the mug- it would help me to mix up a scale of reds before starting.
making the skull much less complex would be a good idea- put it at the back and concentrate on the areas which work better may help.
This article shows two of his works: one a mixed media tree house made only from close tones of light blue. Definition is achieved through use of thread to form the tree house planks but it is in readable to believe how much depth and perspective Raedecker achieves from this close tonal work. It is beautiful
the other work in this article is a row of plastic chairs with cushions. Definition is achieved by tonal shading, this time in purple. Both works are extremely effective as realistic scenes but their light pastel colours give the scene a safe, calming atmosphere.
at https://www.charlotteverity.co.uk/work-on-paper uses beautiful washes of simple colour as backgrounds. The flowers that she places in front seem strangely to fit in. The flowers themselves are often made up of long single strokes suggesting rambling movement. Often they seem suspended in space but somehow they work beautifully.
Still life painting originates from the Flemish lowlands
…in the 16 th and 17 t centuries.
For the first time it gave the wealthy a chance to express themselves in subjects other than traditional Religious depictions and portraiture. It began as displays of flowers and ladened tables of food to reflect the prosperity of Dutch traders . Soon though symbolism became a significant part of still life scenes : skulls, clocks, fruit and insects inhabiting the flowers represented the transience of life and death itself while books suggested art and science. The style became known as Vanitas. https://www.britannica.com/art/vanitas-art
Looking at images , I can see evidence of colour theory in the rich lustrous reds and yellows of flowers against light reflected in silver and neutrals of vases and fabrics.
The influence of Vanitas can be seen in the centuaries since ; famously through post impressionist work right to today where visual and digital artists still throw back references to it https://wsimag.com/art/20372-contemporary-vanitas
The colours aware a sunset pallet: yellow to orange/ yellow to pink; then blue graduating to grey and black. The foreground is in almost complete shadow giving a large tonal contrast to the lights of the sunset sky behind. The stones themselves are black and without much feature. This is a little bit of a challenge as I had hoped to use them as a feature to emphasise depth. Therefore I will have to work on building up tonal difference in the mid ground and a the ‘front’ of the sky to give perspective.
This is my second attempt at an oil sunset. This time instead of adding thick layers and overworking ( see coursework 1) I used a light yellow/white background and thin transparent layers of yellow, orange , rose , mauve and blue. This worked better. The foreground was lighter than intended to add detail to the stones. However I felt that I would like to try darkening the foreground and sacrificing detail to add more to the chiaroscuro contrasting light effect.
Here is my next study in acrylic which I believe works better. The painting is roughly worked so there are still white areas in the foreground. It allowed me to explore tones for the land .
The term chiaroscuro stems from the Italian words chiaro (“clear” or “bright”) and oscuro (“obscure” or “dark”), and refers to the arrangement of light and shade in a work of art. Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci is said to have invented chiaroscuro, discovering that he could portray depth through slow gradations of light and shadow. A century later, the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio spearheaded a new method of chiaroscuro, using a single light source—such as a lit candle or an open window—to dramatically brighten his figures against a dark background. This emphasis on tonal contrast quickly spread across Europe, with followers of the style named “the Caravaggisti.” Still today, artists like Donato Giancola and Gülin Hayat Topdemir work in a “Caravaggesque” style, evoking the aesthetic of the European Old Masters through intense contrasts of light and dark. — Read on www.artsy.net/gene/chiaroscuro . This is taken from the Italian fir light and dark and was originally work on coloured paper with tones of light in gouache and graded tones of black in ink. The theory is that shades of white on a black background become more three dimensional. This brings a new level of meaning to my I understanding of why paintings like Rembrant’s nightwatchmen ( single candle source) and peter and Paul disputing ( areas of light tonal shades)are so appealing. The artsy article explains that Rembrandt ‘ sacrificed detail’ but gained striking realism through the dramatic 3D effect.
painting1 