It is strange, given I work in London and am on an Art Degree, that this was my first visit to the National Gallery. In visiting the Gallery I needed to focus, at least to a degree, and so I chose to consider primarily Landscape images. That didn’t restrict me too much, as there are large numbers of them in there, but it at least allowed me to have a meaningful approach.
Continue reading “Visit to the National Gallery”
My artistic excuse for this visit was nominally the current exhibition of work by Rembrandt – though I never need much of an excuse for a visit. I didn’t limit myself to the Rembrandt work though, and so the range of interesting work was quite wide, as the following image summary illustrates:
Continue reading “Visit to the British Museum”
This started a productive week and weekend of art visits. I happen to be working very near the Tate Modern at the moment, and so decided to “pop in” over a couple of lunch time sessions. Even in such short sessions I managed to see a lot of new material, and found Galleries I hadn’t been in before. The following image summary gives an idea of the range:
Continue reading “Visit to the Tate Modern”I started this with the Schiele experiment:
Now, lets try a similar experiment with Egon Schiele, who I have less exposure of. Again, I’ll start by looking at some images:
We were recently in Bruges for the Wintervonken (Winter sparks) festival. As we were there for a few days we also decided to get a general “Museum Pass” – which turned out to be a very good plan. We spent quite a bit of the trip looking at Art in the Museums.
Continue reading “Brugge Art Galleries”On of the challenges that I have is that of considering artistic style and approach. One challenge my tutor left me with is to:
“Link your work to that of others and make it clear
Part 3 Formative feedback
that this is what you’re doing”
So, lets start by considering one artist whose figurative work I admire – Maggi Hambling. To start, lets examine a number of her figurative drawings that I like:
… You have responded well to the challenge of working things out THROUGH drawing that I set you last time. There’s a palpable sense of you taking control of the work in this submission. You’ve deliberately avoided doing in depth ‘book’ research in order to focus on making. This has worked. Well done. Obviously there’s work to do, but I feel that you have made good progress with this submission and that the work you have made is more ‘you’. Continue reading “Assignment 3 Feedback”
I chose this building because of the interesting curve in combination with the glass and concrete look. Quite typical for this area near the Barbican. The light was coming from behind in the early morning, with the building opposite throwing a shadow on it.The horizon was below the image bottom, which I felt emphasised looking up and size. For a taller building I’d need a touch of vertical foreshortening. Continue reading “Project 5: Townscapes”
With my previous experience of Picasso’s work I looked forward to seeing this exhibition. The year was very productive for Picasso, and he was inspired by a new mistress.
It took some re-reading and thinking to understand what this exercise was really asking for. I decided that this was one of the projects which is effectively a single piece of work. The first part is to play with ideas for a major composition. The second part is to create an A3 landscape drawing based on the selected composition.
Some initial thoughts in my sketchbook…
The research point states “Research artists from different eras who use landscape as their main subject.” I will also include a slightly wider catchment than this, as there are a number of interesting artists who produce Landscape images but without this being a primary subject for them.
To start considering this I decided to start by throwing the net wide. Searching for landscapes on WikiArt , at the Tate and the V&A provides a host of landscape based artwork to consider. Some of this falls within the approach that’s suggested by the question, but not all. Kandinsky, for example, might not be considered primarily a landscape artist – but the following is of interest:
In addition to those searches I also subscribe to a number art feeds on Twitter, and this regularly provides landscape material that I like. The resulting set of images quickly provides an idea of just how vast the field of landscape drawing and painting can be. Continue reading “Research Point: Landscape Artists”
This is from Part 2, but I intended to do a quick write up. I tried an experiment with Oil Pastels quite early on in part 2, when I was trying a range of media for the first time. At that point I made the observation that this is likely to be a medium for avoiding detail. Continue reading “Technique: Oil Pastels”
Not strictly part of any of the exercises, but this has been an interesting experimental journey:
These images make up an experimental sequence where I was experimenting with soft pastels in an A3 sketchbook. In the first I thought I got some nice water reflection, interesting overall feel, and Quite liked the semi-line quality of the marks. I wasn’t so keen keen on the chairs unfortunately. I wasn’t trying for accuracy – but they’re a bit too far out. Need to concentrate a bit more on relative angles. Continue reading “Soft pastel experiments”
In the following extract I’ve retained the relevant feedback for my development and removed content which seems inappropriate to share. Missing content is denoted with “…”. My initial reflection on the feedback follows it.
…
In the blog you write about your research method. It would be good to use drawing as the principle research method. When you spend time with a subject and forget about what’s ‘right’ you make some good work. At the moment though, you tend to be hidebound by the discoveries / methods of others. Allow yourself to investigate the media and the subject THROUGH drawing and not through reading about other people’s way of making things. Continue reading “Part 2 Feedback and Reflection”
Note: Reworked following Part 2 feedback, including merging together the parts of the thread.
I’ve had a few ideas for Assignment 2, but since my earlier lichen drawing it’s a subject I’ve wanted to revisit. This time, however, I’m planning to take a different approach. Continue reading “Assignment 2: Lichen revisited”
When I receive tutor feedback I tend to make a minor action plan on what best to do about it. In this case, the report pretty much had the main action plan in the summary:
I recently ran into Susan Gathercole’s work. Looking at her web site’s Galleries there were pieces from the last few years present. The work seems to have been inspired by a range of artists, including Picasso. She doesn’t try for a highly realistic view, and has some of the multi-viewpoint properties of other artists. (I have to assume this is intentional, rather than due to lack of skill.) The colours she uses are rich and representational, and there is some feeling of depth from the use of tone.
Overall, I like her work because of it conveys a feeling about the subject as much of the reality of the subject. As always, it is worth seeing personally rather than via Internet based images if you get the opportunity.
Featured image: Stella and Sissie Rum Cup, Susan Gathercole, 2018, from http://www.susangathercole.co.uk/gallery_735176.html#photos_id=16052160
