Project 2, Still Life. Research point 2, Dutch still life painters.
Research the still life and flower painting of the 17th century Dutch Golden Age. Make notes on particular paintings you admire and find out about techniques. Research at least one with iconographic significance and discuss the meanings ascribed to the objects. Explore still life through the 18th to 20th centuries and discuss how the subject matter was dealt with; in particular the early Cubist approaches of Braque and Picasso. Consider how contemporary artists are interpreting this genre. Specifically, this task refers to 17th century masters from what’s known as the Golden Age. Running an initial search, my first thought was … Continue reading Project 2, Still Life. Research point 2, Dutch still life painters.
Dali – Deep Faked and Personalised
We’re hearing more and more about the down side of deep faking – that ability of AI to make one person look like another, to ‘place’ someone in an incriminating position or make the seem to speak words they would … Continue reading Dali – Deep Faked and Personalised
Bisa Butler – portrait artist in quilts
Somebody remind me of this for when portraiture comes around in this module. I’m a child of the flower-power generation, a hippy, a 1960s Brighton art student who somehow ended up in science. Butler’s colours sing from that palette but they’re singing a very modern tune, setting right some cultural wrongs by depicting black men and women with a dignity they were never quite accorded at that time and which our white world still struggles with. Butler trained as a painter and describes herself as a portrait artist, but uses the medium of fabric and thread to make her art. … Continue reading Bisa Butler – portrait artist in quilts
Bisa Butler quilts
Sometimes you look at something and absolutely wish you’d been the one who made it. These are quilts depicting black men, women, and children ‘whose stories were forgotten or overlooked’. Bisa Butler is essentially a portrait artist who uses fibers and quilting as a medium according to My Modern Met’s Sara Barnes (6th Feb 2020), and it’s spectacular. Perhaps the colours take me back to the vibrancy of the 60s; but if they do, these are the 60s grown up and giving a population of people, allowed at the time and for many years since, only to be niche, their … Continue reading Bisa Butler quilts
Brighton galleries
Where can you see Banksy, Damien Hirst, Grayson Perry, Sir Peter Blake, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Wood, and Billy Connolly originals within a few yards of each other in right-on-the-street galleries? Brighton. There’s a detailed account of these galleries on my Drawing blog. Castle Fine Art – Lanes. Dylan, Wood, Connolly Kellie Miller – no photos. Art Republic – Banksy, Hurst, Perry, Blake Continue reading Brighton galleries
Colour theory revisited – Part 2, research point 1
I’m coming back to this after a few months’ break while finishing the Drawing1 module and my understanding of how to tackle these research areas has grown, along with my ability to process and retain something of art’s back story. The purpose of this research point is to discover more about Chevreul’s role in the development of colour theory and look to see who and how this has influenced in their practice of painting. My first stop was a paper by Georges Roque (Chevreul’s colour theory and its consequences for artists, 2011) which details the manner of Chevreul’s insightful discovery … Continue reading Colour theory revisited – Part 2, research point 1
Time to start painting again
The final assignment for Drawing 1 is with my tutor, feedback is in a week or so, and all (all?!) that’s left is to prep for formal assessment in July. So I’ve been exercising my painting muscles and starting with … Continue reading Time to start painting again
Drawings of several faces & a cat
After finishing with the hot whales, I realised I’d been asked to revisit line drawings of faces from an earlier part of the Drawing1 OCA module and so I recruited some suitable internet models and bashed out a few interpretive copies in conte crayon on A1 flipchart paper. Cheap as chips. This first one took just five minutes and probably met the brief somewhat, whereas the later ones took rather longer, having not met it at all. There is at least some line visible in this one. This rather gentle old chap I managed to turn into a Burglar … Continue reading Drawings of several faces & a cat
Rapidly updated final submission piece
This was the piece I’d been developing – A1, grand vision, waves and whales in ice cold blues. I liked it. I also liked the crops I’d used to help focus the energy of it and I’d put those into … Continue reading Rapidly updated final submission piece
Strayfish Arts 