Sunday, 21 February 2010

Colour Compostion






Johannes Itten was a teacher of design and colour at the Bauhaus. His theories on colour have inspired many of my works. I have made these smaller versions of each portraits inorder to experiment with the colour composition and relationships between each painting. There are a wide spectruum of clour and i want to make sure that there is adequate thought gone into making each painting work together aswel as individually.

ALL PORTRAITS SO FAR



Alex O'Rouke



Ashley Cooper



Belinda Lawrence



Brett Macpherson



Chris Chapman



Chris Soul



Chris Wittington



Dee Brien



Harriet Dhivar



Hazel Tremellen



Ian Denne



Jade Turner



Jessica Crookes



John Clements



Jordan Ring



Lauren Harrison



Lizzie Beamer-Rimmer



Louise Green



Lucy Greenfield



Maggie Cronk



Matt Redman



Nicole Cudsen



Pat Grindley



Patrick Wilkins



Pete Walsh



Rhys Ellis



Sam Worthington



Sarah Wilk



Will Grey

Saturday, 20 February 2010

The Cube



The destinction between painting and scultpture is the dimensions in which each exsist. Painting is a 2-dimensional image. 3-dimensions are created in painting by tone, depth and colour relationships. When you apply paint to a surface you have to go under the surface to create the 3-dimensional illusion. With sculpture it is seen in 3-dimension. However, when sculpture is viewed as a photograph then the work itself becomes 2-dimensional. With painting you can use various tricks to show form and the viewer might not pick up that the anatomy isn't accurate. One tool is the use of colors to distract the eye. Whereas with sculpture, the only color is the shadows created by the material itself. It can be viewed from all angles to see if it truly is accurate.


Painting is in 2D and sculpture 3D. Painting is one degree, one angle. Sculpture is 360 different "paintings" all in one piece of art. 360 degrees.



The idea behind creating a painting/scultpture is to explore the uses of colour and shape in both media. Sculpture and structural crafts have provided painting with its very foundations. Despite their differences, both Michelangelo and Leonardo both were of the Florentine tradition of painting which would eventually be eclipsed by the Venetian way of handling paint. Both were contour oriented in the crafting of their paintings. This "structural" approach to painting has much in common with sculptural ideas. By combining what is found in the colour and structural experiments the end result will evolve into a multi-faceted piece of work that denotes several meanings.



The concept for the cube came about when I decided that i would not hang my paintings on the wall, like tradition suggests I do. I played about with placing them on the floor and hanging them from string. These experiments turned out to creat a murky cloud over the idea. I chose the Cube as it would enevitably lead me into a realm of shapes and forms that could be manipulated and arragned according to the concept.



The Cube will have structural identity. The interior will be constructed by Triangles. The exterior will be made up by the painted cirlces. These three shapes are the basis of architectural study and design work. This fitted well with the experiments in colour I started doing with the portraits. By allowing the shapes to act as their natural form the expanse of other forms being made is vast.

Friday, 19 February 2010

Sitter's - More


Chris Chapman - 1 hour

Sitter's - 3 More

Matt Redman
Pete Walsh
Sarah Wilk

Tuesday, 9 February 2010

Sitter's sontinued




This is a portrait of a good friend of mine Chris Soul. He is a painter, play write and poet. He sat for me for two hours whilst he read.

Sitter's



I decided to try painting some portraits from life as opposed to from photographs.
This is my brother Sam. It took 2 hours and was completed in one sitting.

Having the chance to paint a person in the flesh makes a difference. The smallest of details are noticable. The person radiates mood and the decisions made in paint are far easier. This study into having people sit for me will be explored further.

Monday, 8 February 2010

Félix Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon)





Nadar was born in April 1820 in Paris (though some sources state Lyon). He was a caricaturist for Le Charivari in 1848. In 1849 he created the Revue comique and the Petit journal pour rire. He took his first photographs in 1853 and in 1858 became the first person to take aerial photographs. He also pioneered the use of artificial lighting in photography, working in the catacombs of Paris.



I find Nadar's portraits very ostentatious and fill me with a desire to paint his photographs. The lighting and mood of each portrait is enough to present each sitters inner personality.

Rose Wylie



Looking at Rose Wylie’s 21/2 D paintings is taking a journey back through time to those idealised drawings of the homes and gardens of our childhood where we paid graphic homage to the people and places that nurtured us. Wylie, however pays homage to much more than that it her zany, eclectic paintings, the references range far and wide, from primitive painting through Ancient Egyptian and Roman painting to the medieval, and on to contemporary animation, also, autobiographically, they scan experiences from earliest childhood, through to the mini inspirations sparked by details of contemporary consumer product packaging

Julian Opie (1958-)




Sitter in 1 portrait
Artist of 5 portraits
Julian Opie is a leading contemporary artist. He studied at Goldsmiths' College (1979-82) under Michael Craig-Martin, for whom he briefly worked as an assistant, and he emerged as an influential figure on the British art scene in the 1980s, with a series of painted metal sculptures. Opie's highly stylised work, involves the reduction of photographs or short films into figurative reproductions, created using computer software. In his portraiture, the human face is characterised by black outlines with flat areas of colour, and minimal detail. Opie's work has been exhibited extensively in galleries and museums around the world and is held in many public and private collections.

Ken Kiff




The world of the imagination, like that of the dream has attracted many twentieth century artists, for it is a realm of experience unspoiled by logic.

Ken Kiff's work displayed the innocence, candour and privacy of such a world. Vivid colours and obscure figures narrate tails in strange landscapes.