Oil Painting of Taz

Visting Exhibitions

Went to London last week and visited the Tate Modern and the Royal Academy Summer show for the first time. I could have spent all day in the Tate as it is so large . I only saw the main collection which was my main aim as i wanted to see the Mark Rothko paintings. Which i loved especially when i stared at them the shapes started to pulse with my breathing and heartbeat which was weird. I asked Martin if it worked the same on him and it did. Martin is not arty and explaining some of the art to him is futile as he he is totally sceptical and i must say some of the art in the Tate takes some justifying.
The Summer Show at the Royal Academy had been on the television showing the type of work submitted by the public so i was looking forward to this show. I did enjoy it and was amazed by the prices put on some of the work. Martin pointed at some water colour flowers and said "You have done something like this" I said "If i had done that i would put it in the bin!" He then said "Well you would've thrown away £22,000!" It was by Dame Elizabeth Blackadder. So now Martin says i know nothing about art! Which could be true. I can see this will be a standing joke for years to come. It is a very popular exhibition and i would like to make it a yearly visit and maybe one day actually exhibit.Nearly forgot that we saw Anthony Gormleys 'Blind Light' Exhibition. My favourite work was his Matrices and Expansions. He has made structures of stainless steel wire and has hung them from the ceiling so they appear to float. Within the sculpture are shapes of bodies. Some are obvious and others take time to see. The structures are open and could be described as drawings in space. I also liked 'Event Horizon' an installation where he has placed casts of his body on rooftops around the Thames all looking towards the Hayward Gallery. This kept you spotting them for the rest of the visit in London.

Sumary of Painting and New Media Project.

I feel that the paintings i have done may not be what i would've chosen to paint but i have learnt a lot about technique from each one. Painting on raw canvas was a challenge but when i got used to the surface i enjoyed it. Also i could see what Laura meant about the black looking more lively when it is mixed from burnt umber and cobalt blue. The response to the Soutine painting taught me to work out how an artist has worked, by building up layers of tone and colour. I used this technique for the colour collage painting. Working this way meant i tackled the whole painting at once and the composition could be considered for some time, especially using oils.Thinking about colour and not form made me think about brushstrokes achieving light and dark.I wanted to use white to try to match the colours but realised i didn't need to. I achieved light by leaving less paint on parts of the shapes. These lessons will stay with me and be useful for my next paintings.

Elemental Landscapes by Jo Budd 122x69cm.

Sewn Textile Collage.

Earth Sea Sky by Jo Budd 190x150cm

Sewn Textile Collage

Detail : Corrugated Iron by Jo Budd 170x260cm.

Went to Farfeild Mill at Sedergh which was interesting. They have artists work displayed in small areas and small work rooms for the artists so that you can see them at work or talk to them. Also there are rooms for larger exhibitions. At the moment it is the work of Jo Budd who is a painter who works with fabric rather than paper or canvas. Her work 'Beyond Surfaces' are feelings about landscape which are expressed through vibrant colours, subtle marks and textures. They are made up of layers of dyed and painted silk. From a distance they look like paintings but close inspection reveals the stitches and lose thread that add to the effect.

Fauvism and Henri Matisse.

The painting i have done reminds me of Fauvism, which was a french art movement in 1900s. It was led by Henri Matisse. It was abstract art that uses brilliant contrasting colour and simpilfied shapes. Fauvism did not last long and the word fauves means wild beasts in french so it was not very complimentary. I like some of the paintings done by this method such as this Lady In the Hat by Matisse.

Close up.

Liked where some areas of paint showed through the canvas because they gave a feeling of light without using white paint. Some areas are quite thick with paint which i am not as happy with because they look a bit like plastic.(Dark blue)

Close up.

Liked areas where the colours mixed over each other.

Close up of painting

Like this effect!

Finished Painting

The overall feeling i get from the painting is playfulness which is how i felt when i was experimenting with the colours,brushwork and textures. It looks child like probably because of the bright colours and simple shapes.

Howard Hodgkins Prints at Abbot Hall Kendal.

Went to see this exhibition over the weekend. His work is very colourful and i found myself wanting to look at certain areas of his work but was a bit frustrated with the reflection off the glass that was covering the prints. I suppose it is to stop the public from touching but it did spoil the viewing of the prints if you were stood in the wrong place. I was intrigued to work out the layers of the prints and found myself counting the colours and tones. The textures and effects he had produced were amazing and looked very close to his paintings. He has hand coloured some of the prints so they seem to have the vividness of his paintings. I could have stayed longer looking at them but i went over the road to the Brewery Arts to see what was on there. What a load of rubbish! I cant remember the name of the artist but the paintings were on bits of card pinned to the wall. That might not have been too bad if the painting was good but they were all very similar about the heart and the painting technique was poor. I stayed 5mins, wish i had stayed at Abbot Hall!

Kandinsky

Not sure i like much of his work which has lots of detail and geometric shapes flying all over. I like the circles and squares probably because it forms a pattern and it looks free without sharp edges.

Richard Diebenkorn

Really like the colours and the loose brushwork that create a textural effect.

David Hockney

I haven't really looked at Hockneys paintings apart from the swimming pool one but after painting with colour in mind i like this one.

Artists that deal with colour.

Patrick Heron.
I liked this painting because the colours are restful and there is a little bit of detail in the dripped paint area. I also like the idea that this is painting, just for the colour and shape which is what we have been doing.

PAINTING IS FUN!

Had a good day yesterday. I made sure i had a full day set aside for just painting and it worked for a change. I started by building up brighter colours on top of the shapes because the the colours had started to look dirty mixed in with the umber background. As i was doing this i was not happy with the flatness that was happening.So i experimented with thicker paint and different brushstrokes. This was it! I loved it! This build up of layers gave each shape more depth which is something that must appeal to me. I came away from the painting feeling excited that it was looking much better than i ever imagined it was going to be. I have not looked at the painting this morning so i hope i still feel the same when i do.

Close up of the painting so far.

Starting the painting.

I decided to start the painting in a similar way to how i painted the Soutine painting by building up the layers but this time i am using oils. I started with a burnt umber and yellow wash. Then i painted the shapes with a paler under colour for each shape. I needed to let the oils dry for a day before continuing. This is the painting up to this point. Lisa thought the shapes looked like sweets which i like the idea of since the shapes are from a childs game.

Painting with colour. My collage of coloured shapes

This is the third painting in the project. Laura gave us some coloured shapes that we could either, create a collage or a sculpture with wire. With oils or acrylics paint the shapes without using black or white and fill the whole canvas.