Contemporary Art with kids

This is more like it.... 

Mummy can I help?

I decided to work along side by side with my son to produce a work . The idea for the rocket lollies came from the fact that they've been eating them in the hot weather. Trying to paint alone with a four year old is some what impossible and he kept asking to help... so I thought why not relax and enjoy painting in the now together.  The way he just made the marks and never doubted the fact of what or where things like eyes etc were was really inspiring. He still knows who each person/figure is.

After searching for images of the rocket lolly I found the artist ad illustrator Martin Wiscombe.

I love the fun colours on this canvas. 

Reminds me of the fun colours by the artist's two artists Gilbert and George who work together as the collaborative art duo Gilbert & George. They are known for their distinctive and highly formal appearance and manner in performance art, and also for their brightly coloured graphic-style photo-based artworks.

Louise Bourgeois - has been an influence to my work before and after our painting was finished I could help but see the resemblance in the work I created last year and the one Nathan and I had done. The print and sewn fabric I did i had named, Life with kids. Here was another work this time made with kids.

 Nathan had the idea for his family and friends and also the rainbow, mine last year had the rainbow and dots etc. funny I think. This I guess is what life with kids can be like most days.

Jean Tinguely

(22 May 1925 – 30 August 1991) was a Swiss painter and sculptor. He is best known for his sculptural machines or kinetic art, in the Dada tradition; known officially as metamechanics. Tinguely's art satirized the mindless overproduction of material goods in advanced industrial society. I like the colours and childlike expression

Jean-michel Basquiat

The work below has childlike qualities..

Jeff Koons was another artist I looked at afterwards . His work has a fun and childlike quality also... he works on a large scale and has people working as a team along side him... 

Another look at still life continued

I think it helps to review and be honest with yourself about the marks you make, for me this is something I've been doing from the start.

The next day I'll go over bits again and slowly build up areas of weakness. You may not see these changes on the photos but adding little things like light and shadow do help lots. Plus some bits I feel go to dark and I have to lighten later. 

The bigger thing tonight was my shadows were all over the shop. I had to re-think this and decide where my light was gonna come from. This changed everything but for the better. I'm not afraid to redo pieces, but this has been a hard lesson to learn. Esp when you spend so long on doing something.

I've nothing to lose and for this I seem to be gaining better understanding. I'm finally close to being bloody happy for once with my art. Ive still lots to do and think about, like the table cover and legs. shadow underneath the table.  Even now I thinking maybe it will be a darker colour pink than the above for instance. 

all these fruit have been harder than I thought

still to dark

lacking depth in the sheep skull. wont touch it again unless I have time. notice the light croissant below too

Still to add these pearls. Plus Nathan did take a bite of the apple.

Next blog will include artist looked at and final images

1984 final......

With all the planning and looking at illustrators, it has somehow came down to a day to start my final for the novel 1984.  (4.5 hours)

While I did this in a day I can see the work and planning has got many of the ideas I  came up with but didnt think relevant at the time. 

The etching I used was from a study I looked at by Edvard Munch for another brief. While he isn't classed as an illustrator he was a Norwegian painter and print maker. With the etching he did of a couple I feel that this could fall into some category and share characteristics of  illustrating.

The ink and roller work I did of a city in the classroom was something I re-used by rollering paint onto the glass surface.

The orange and lemons are reference to the poem in the novel and if I had more time I would have painted or etched some church bells somewhere.. While I didn't use the floor plan of St Clements the circles are also referenced to that. The colours I wanted muddy and dark to give the sense of a book that had a dark plot.   The back of the novel I kept simple and the circles are to look like an eye or the world at war. Again keeping the texture and colours similar to the front. 

The typography I just scrapped off with my nail. I got this idea from the hands pulling down the red on the back page also. it wasn't my plan at all to have these hands but the paint colour and texture just looked inviting and to be honest I thought let see what happens... Lovely thing with glass is you can wipe it off.... However, acrylic and glass dont like each other very much and I quickly learned you have one go with over painting.  no scrubbing just quick and steady marks. 

marking out my circles for etching onto the glass

rubbing the edges of glass so no sharp bits.

Etch the circles was harder than I thought as you have to keep steady and continuous marks. I have to say that I don't think the etching onto glass did much to my final images. 

first part of orange to build up

At this point I was doubting myself and wasn't sure if any of it would work

what I could see while painting.....

turned around the right way

The roller and bigger circle. The bigger circle reference to the spy hole in the bedroom.

The size and shape of the glass looks more like a cd cover or record cover. But the layering and etching I think makes it into a class of illustrating and I think it works for what it is.   

The hands and sense of doom, panic and fear

I think its much nicer in real life viewing... 

Cant see the back cover so well in the light