painters/artists - I looked at... (graded unit and painting, mixed media)

Egon Schiele

Below are works by the artist Schiele. The reason I like these are the use of colour, they have energy for such a still subject matter. While he didnt produce many landscapes I feel these images have a quality different to other landscape artists. His characteristics do come out in is work and his style was unique to him Compositionally I feel the tree and earth are somehow despondent to the sky in the distance. while still not as one. does this mean anything? Or do I just overthink? Its hust a landscape isnt it?

oil on canvas

This image looks like it doesn't fit either!!

Anselm Kiefer

I love his use of textures. the scale on which he works excites me and I feel I can relate to this size of work. I love pouring, throwing and adding texture to any work I do. I want energy and life in the work.... Aesthetics aren't important to me (until the big reveal then I'm ashamed of the childlike image produced) When I see of view a landscape its the texture I want to capture... not the picture detail. Sometimes I want to incorporate the actual thing of interest. An environment. full of life, texture and art. Humble too.... I like the idea of humble uninteresting and only a select few can relate too. Like a secret cult or understanding of the true nature of life. I feel Kiefer does this and I like the hidden political or social meaning his work can have. Composition well its whole isn't it. full and impacted but with meaning. I love him

 

 Damien Hirst

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living

This plays a part in the art because of the title rather than the meaning. For me death is a subject that has haunted me since I was young. The lack of control and the unknown. As a kid been paid ..... yes paid 50p a week to go to church without the firmly held belief that god did exist. In the reality my young mind played along but being thrown in the deep end without any knowledge or proof that this god did indeed matter. the stories for a young person with an active mind were just that! stories..... my young mind needed and still needs evidence, facts and trust in this area. I do love how the new testament can be modern in the sense of truth. Emotion and experience are expressed and this for me makes it more real.



The raw and impersonal look into the psychology matter is what is important to me.

mother and child divided

Also his veil painting and the post-impressionist refer to Bonnard



From these came the cherry blossom painting, (below) which comes into the matrix of life and death reference also. His work gives me a feeling of understanding and on a level that interests me to know more and give more.





Symbolism (inspired by) and the antithesis of it, the emphasis on the meaning behind the shapes and colors.

Symbolism artist's showed greater concern for the interior life rather than external reality.

 Looking at the effects of light of the outside/exterior world, concentrating instead looking inward to explore themes of love and jealousy, loneliness and anxiety, sickness and death.

Also other statements regarding the movement state Symbolism is an artistic and poetic movement or style using symbolic images and indirect suggestion to express mystical ideas, emotions and states of mind... It originated in late 19th century France and Belgium.


Edvard Munch

Norwegian artist Edvard Munch created a work or works relating to this style called Frieze of Life. He spend over 30 years of this career on this work and for me gives a sense of the truth and torment an artist can create for working from emption and life.... Real vs an ideal.

Munch suffer with mental health issues and ill health, with this came disappointment in life, love and depression. This influenced the artist's emotional state. Many of these works are frozen in a moment and this is like a memory of the artist.. Some come across as different in the ways the figures are joined together almost merged as one..... This was to indicate the unity of man and woman and the sense of belongingness and togetherness.

For me this seems sad in many ways but the idea behind them for me helps to empower the work..they emotional and honest and yet portray desire, grief and despair. embraced as a need of love and wonderment like, once they let go all will be lost.  This for me this is a strong and intense image than lets you feel the connection between the two. Like you shouldn't be there.... its special and needed like they have no control.... a must and desire, intense and hurried..... I like the movement you feel from it , like the mans arm lifting and grabbing her, she looks empowered by him.... feeding him her breast, making him want her......

Jackson Pollock




He was widely noticed for his technique of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface (‘drip technique’), enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. It was also called ‘action painting’, since he used the force of his whole body to paint.

From this I made 

While canvas was just a happening I do think it ties in with the mixed media sculpture I did. The symbolism of birds and the nest etc all have to me, relevance in the outcome. The circles of paint feel like my busy and confused mind at the moment. The unknown happening and lack of control.

However, in doing these circles you realise Pollock's work has control, movement,  composition, thought and meaning.


Marcel Duchamp and his happening/movement work were of inspiration to both the mixed media and painting topics.  The photography and the way it creates a tricking image on the brain. The psychology again coming into play. The repertory presentation of the compositional works. 

  



His fountain work gives me inspiration because of me bringing the dead wood into my work and making it my own.  Is it art if you didn't make it? Many artists have people working for them and yet we assume all of the work was done by the one artist!



Questioning! Im always asking questions!

Dubuffet and Art

Art Brut - Outsider art or raw art made by people unscathed by artistic culture.  Dubuffet wrote it was motivated purely by the need to express the festivities that take place in the mind.

Art Therapy - Had an Art Brut Collection displayed and had wrote about the works passionately,  the works had been do by asking patients of a psychiatric hospital to draw and create work. Interesting stuff and this is a way of working that I haven't really tried... Why do we always need an idea or a plan. Set in stone.........

Stone or brick in my case - and again I'm back to the brick man idea and a full circle of ideas........ 

Dubuffet rejected many concepts beginning with beauty, he worked methodically and explored materials, subjects and methods in rapid succession. He was the first artist to use a thick textured paint called bitumen. He also used sand, clay, tar and straw in some of his works.

Below is a work called the busy life. I like the marks and scratches he has created, It does seem busy and crazy, full of body and movement. Sort of abstraction landscape mixed with a childlike innocence.

The colours are a mix of harmony and the red bold colours do give off a sense of confusion to ones eye..  I notice how the darker brown at the top works to create distance. 

I like the graphic nature

textures and paint (this makes me wanna paint with stuff....everyday stuff.

Oldrich Kulhánek

My opinion, my conviction, is that in his work an artist should give an account of himself, and of the time and place he inhabits. The artist should reveal the pretence (or lies) of the establishment, unmasking what is happening to man and showing how man is manipulated and dehumanized. The artist should present an account of the soul of his contemporary.

My work of the bark and tree,  gave an account of myself and the importance of my mental state of mind. All of this ties together.

Poets and poems have been inspirational to me also. Something I've never been interested in.  This was the first poem I used last year to reference my work. An environment was my intention with most of my ideas and like any environment, many things are at play.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.