Gerhard Richter Townscapes 1968

This birds eye view of Madrid was Painted by Gerhard Richter. The painting is constructed using gestural brush stokes and a black and white colour pallet. This painting displays a purity of painting, this is exhibited through the mark making that shapes the buildings. What becomes interesting is how the image disintegrates in certain places, this plays with the audiences urge to recognise the composition. The painting of Madrid however is one of the more clear and structured townscapes that Richter painted between 1968 and 1970. For example also in 1968 Richter painted 'Townscape Paris' where the image is swallowed by the gestural mark making applied to the painting. To create these pieces Richter took inspiration from architecture magazines which contained birdseye views of cities and architectural models. Despite taking inspiration from what would've been idealistic, modernist architecture Richter noted how closely some of his abstractions related to the destruction in Dreseden throughout the war.  "When I look back on the townscapes now, they do seem to me to recall certain images of the destruction of Dresden during the war."

Towscape Madrid (1968)

Townscape Paris (1968)

Dresden 1945

Patrick Caulfield - After Lunch (1975)

In this piece Patrick Caulfield has depicted a restaurant using a construction of lines, several shades of blue and a photograph of a landscape which has been used to represent the view from the restaurant. Caulfield has chosen a restaurant as it is a familiar surrounding that the viewer can relate to instantaneously. It is clear the audiences involvement in the piece was something Caulfield held great importance in. This is shown not just in the everyday environment but with the scale. It alludes the viewer into feeling as though they are a part of the scene in front of them.
Caulfield used a lot of elements to build up this piece for example he included the chair in the foreground (one that would be rare to find in a restaurant) as you can see through it therefore it does not dominate the foreground and creates a feeling of intricacy and complication in the design of the piece.
What I liked about this piece was Caulfield’s combination of figuration, line and the juxtaposition of the real photo image next to the cartoon like scene. I feel the photograph works well however I chose to leave out the combination of real life photography and cartoon like imagery as I felt it had been done before and I also hadn’t got the hang of photoshop fully at the the time I made these pieces. However over Christmas I would like to experiment more with this idea.

Michael Craig Martin

Michael Craig Martin is an artist I touched upon briefly last year as his use of layering interested me. Although now looking at his work it relates quite closely to my own work.
Martin’s work focuses more on everyday objects and he creates still life compositions using these objects with varying scale and colours. Also due to the way Martin has layered the objects different relationships start to become apparent. Looking at Martin’s work has given me inspiration to expand on using everyday objects and begin to look at creating still life compositions using the technique I have developed.

Photoshop Art.

I have chosen to include this work as I believe it was a key exercise and process for my work to develop. The use of quality of lines and high key colours is something that has been consistant throughout my work; therefore this work has become one of the stepping stones along the way.
What influenced my decision for these pieces was the induction into photoshop and computer art. I wanted to combine my previous use of geometric shapes, pattern and colour. I was a bit lost at first until I began drawing what was in front of me which happened to be a bin. I drew it out free hand before outlining it with a pen and ruler. The drawing itself was constructed from different panels and it interested me to see what the result would be if I filled these panels in with a variety of high key colours.

 

This turned out to be quite an effective result so I played on the idea of repetition taken from Andy Warhol. I then started to include Warhol’s work in mine by taking his Monroe piece and placing it in one of the panels. I took inspiration from the postmodern movement in the sense of re-using/recycling found imagery. These Pieces created a different effect in comparison to the normal bins, however I am unsure on whether it is a positive or negative effect so I can only conclude that it is different.

 

I moved this idea of repetition and basic outlining of an everyday object a bit further by outlining a guitar. These prints were good to experiment with but overall I didn’t find them as successful as the bins.

After becoming more confident using photoshop I started using an architectural space (for example a hallway) as the subject. These pieces were my favorite and in my opinion the most effective. This is because the combination of colours held an obvious contrast but related in a positive way throughout the piece. I also began to alter the space itself by de-cluttering/removing things from the composition, making it very clear and clean cut. I also changed areas such as the tiles in the kitchen to a classic black on white combination behind a grey microwave. I chose these colours as everyone can relate to them and are familiar to the area they are seen in. Also when changing the colour of the entire piece these colours stayed the same and consistent. I made sure of this so no matter what different colour combinations I had, each piece related to the previous.

I then thought of ways to expand on this technique and make it more challenging. I did this by adding a figure into the composition. I feel as a space it works well and the figure related better with the surrounding space than I expected. However I disliked the curtains in the background and parts of the figure as they weren’t created using straight lines, meaning the consistency of quality of line was broken down. Although this piece included more decision making when choosing what to keep in and cut out of the photo to give the best effect when it came to drawing it out. 

I expanded this technique even further by taking a photograph I took of Amsterdam and using this technique to recreate it. I chose this photo because when looking at the style of the buildings you can instantly recognise where the drawing is set. This was by far the most time consuming due to how intricate the building designs were. I also I had to crop the original photo, as it was too cluttered with things that didn’t have a clear outline. I also chose to use a similar colour palette to the one in the original photo, this was because I felt if I changed it to bright, bold colours the feel of Amsterdam would be lost. However if it didn’t take so long to fill the colours in I would have experimented with this idea further. Also if I were to expand on this idea I would go back to Amsterdam and take a head on photograph as it would be much easier to work with.

 I chose to use the hallway picture as my final piece, as I found it the most effective overall. I also chose to present three of the same piece varying in size and format. This was because I wanted to still use the idea of repetition in my work, however I didn’t want to go down the conventional route of displaying the same picture in different colours as I felt it lacked the innovation I was trying to achieve. When it came to printing I had to get advice from an outside professional, who told me to go away and re-draw the hallway so that it could be put to any size without pixelating. This took forever as I increased the canvas size to 10 by 12 meters and photoshop found it difficult to function with a file of this size. I am glad I redrew the hallway as I think I did a better job the second time around and there were less mistakes along the way.

Ian Monroe

Ian Monroe's pieces are something that has inspired me to experiment with photoshop and other technology. I feel this is an avenue that I haven't  explored, therefore not knowing how or if my work will benefit from using technology as a method of working.
Monroe's use of perspective is a vital part of his work creating a virtual architectural space which confronts and indulges the viewer. This is created by Monroe's technique of construction, which gives a sense of solidity to the work. What is interesting with Monroe's work is how he makes the viewer navigate a built up space that is non-existent. It is Monroe's understanding and bending of perspective, along with the scale of the piece, which makes the work engaging and accessible to it's audience.
Something else that that is interesting about Monroe's work is the variety of materials he uses in his work. This aids his constructive process and maintains the freshness his work holds.
I would like to experiment with abstract architectural painting as I feel that is the direction my work is heading. However I feel that creating a piece that is so precise and correct is too restrictive.

Outpost

Tomorrow

 

 

Newspaper and Paint

After starting experimentation with masking tape the idea of layering and using collage as an aspect of the work became the way I wanted to develop my work. I began with trying to incorporate magazine cuttings with paint with I thought was incredibly unsuccessful. The work lacked meaning and form. This was probably because I didn't know what I was trying to achieve when building up the work. This was problematic because even if I start a piece not knowing what it will become or what my intentions are they usually become apparent whilst working on it.
This is when I tried working more systematically by using grids and simple shapes such as squares when constructing work. I still wanted to keep the element of collage in my work so I started using strips from newspapers. This brought out some new issues in the work. This is because when you add text to something you automatically give it meaning, whether it is to show the piece has no meaning or to convey a strong and obvious message to the audience. This made me experiment without text and by covering the text completely in paint. However I felt the headline text was the most effective and it broke up the evenness in the painting and highlighted the grid like form.

After my first piece I tried I experimenting with very vivid colours. This didn't work well as it made the painting too loud. Along with this the work began looking like a checkered distasteful table cloth due to the way I had applied the paint.

 Looking back at the previous pieces I'd made I decided to limit my colour pallet and see if this made the end result more predictable and successful. In this case I feel it did create a more successful effect. However the use of text was more of a thought in the back of my mind and at the end it seemed to consume the piece. While choosing the text I was looking through so many different newspapers and they all had the most ridiculous headlines. This is when I decided to cut them up and put them in a set order within piece giving an intentional meaning.

In the next piece I moved onto I focused more attention on the text used and I continued to limit my colour pallet. I also increased the scale to see what effect this had. I did find this piece was the most successful but it had taken practice and experimentation to get to this point. I was worried about over thinking my process and knowing when to stop layering was vital. So in this case I documented each layer.

 In this piece one of the main issues was knowing when to stop. This is because as I increased the canvas size there was more canvas to fill and in the previous pieces each layer would take up a specific area. I ended up stopping after 4 or 5 layers because the work was beginning to drown in itself. Overall I feel the end piece was successful however my tutor felt that the piece was too even which through me slightly. Because that was my intention and the beginning however it has given me a motive now to maybe bring indecision and unevenness into my work as an element.

First Masking Tape Drawing.

I felt a bit lost at the start of the course as I was given much more freedom and had to almost force a direction for my work. I found this difficult so chose to refer back to my end foundation piece as I felt there was room for my work to develop from there anyway. This started a variety masking tape drawings.

I felt this piece was reasonably successful. There is a consistent and dynamic relationship between the shapes. Alongside this the indecision of colour which is separated and contained by defined white lines works well. However I felt the white lines have the ability to direct the eye across the painting and in this case I have not used that to it's full potential. Also unlike previous work in foundation I chose to only produce one layer. This has stopped the work from becoming too busy and the end result wouldn't be as clinical as if it was created using screen printing.

End of Foundation - Geometric Print

 

Fred Tomaselli

Fred Tomaselli is known for his powerful collages, and use of illegal substances within his work.
Tomaselli's work can be described as psychedelic and beautiful. His pieces over power the eye with a chaotic array of colour, mark making and materials. However the way tomaselli works is incredibly systematic and organised.
Tomaselli admits to his involvement in the 'stoner' culture in his earlier years, although Tomaselli said that this time of his life was what inspired him to create his work. 'I’m not trying to depict a trip or depict what it’s like to be stoned on LSD. That’s an impossibility, so I don’t even try to go there. But psychedelic drugs directed me toward art-historical objects that have informed my work.'

A key aspect of Tomaselli's work is for the viewer to get lost in the work and become overwhelmed by it.  'I want people to get lost in the work. I want to seduce people into it and I want people to escape inside the world of the work.'
The work itself does give off the idea that it is a world of it's own, and doesn't look dissimilar to galaxy's in outer space.

Another thing that is interesting in the way Tomaselli works is the way he uses layer's of resin and varnish to encapsulate the work. This method of working allows Tomaselli to continuously work over the pieces.

I am fond of Tomaselli's work, and this unique style of collage and use of resin is something I would like to experiment with in my own work.  This is because when it comes to working over a piece especially in collage it can become quite complicated and too busy. Where as if layers were encapsulated and separated I feel it would help me clarify my own intentions with what I'm trying to achieve within my own work.

Glassy (2006)

Big Raven (2008)

Richard Hamilton: Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? 1956

This collage piece produced by Richard Hamilton in 1956, is a clear representation of the consumer culture of the time. However this piece was more of a reaction to what the ideal home should be like rather than supporting the idealistic consumer vision from the late 50's early 60's. This is shown through the provocative imagery of a naked woman of the sofa and an imaged obsessed body builder, holding an over sized lolly pop in a prominant position.
What is interesting in  this piece is the relationship between paint and collage and the contrasting images, overall giving a punchy effect.
This piece also has a freshness about it as it broke away from the conventions of abstract expressionism and minimalism. This made Hamilton become referred to as the father of pop art.
However he did not share pop arts idolisation of advertisement and magazine strips.
In 1960 Hamilton wrote that "I have always been an old-style artist," this was his view on himself. Although this is quite understandable because when looking at for example Constables work, who responded to what he saw around him, which at the time were picturesque landscapes; Hamilton responded to what he saw in everyday life as though it was his landscape.