Hockney portraits

Hockney.D Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy 1970-71

Throughout his career David Hockney has produced many portraits and figurative work using many diverse methods and styles. I find his work really interesting as he seems to be forever experimenting and discovering new ways to produce new imagery.

His portrait paintings played an increasingly dominant role in his career . His early iconic double portraits are particularly interesting as he was more concerned with portraying the relationship between the two people he was painting. Hockney's friend, Marco Livingstone, the subject of several portraits and the author of the essay in the Encounters catalogue7 wrote 'Sitting for Hockney', in David Hockney: Painting on Paper (2003). In it, he reveals many of the artist's motives and methods:
In every case, no matter what the relationship, Hockney was interested in capturing not just the appearance of the sitters but something of their psychology and their interaction with each other. This, he soon discovered, was most visible from their body language: whether they acknowledged each other's presence from the way they sat or seemed to exist in separate spheres; whether they touched or at least approached each other, or seemed on the other hand to be recoiling; whether they seemed at ease and affectionate or tense and mistrustful. 1

Another characteristic of Hockney's portraiture is the manner in which he has used the same sitters over many decades. Celia Birtwell has remained one of Hockney's closest friends. She is one of the few women to be painted and drawn by Hockney. He describes her thus:
Celia has a beautiful face, a very rare face with lots of things in it which appeal to me. It shows aspects of her, like her intuitive knowledge and her kindness, which I think is the greatest virtue. To me she's such a special person … Portraits aren't just made up of drawing, they are made up of other insights as well. Celia is one of the few girls I know really well. I've drawn her so many times and knowing her makes it always slightly different. I don't bother getting the likeness in her face because I know it so well. She has many faces and I think if you looked through all the drawings I've done of her, you'd see that they don't look alike.2

1.Livingstone M.Sitting fot Hockney. In:David Hockney:Painting on Paper. London: Annely Juda Fine Art,2003.

2.Notes on Sitters. In: Howgate S, Shapiro BS, Glazebrook M, WhiteE, Livingstone M. David Hockney portraits. National portrait gallery, London, 2006: 222

Peter Blake fairy paintings.

Blake. P Flora Fairy Child 1977

I have recently seen a series of fairy paintings by Peter Blake that he created during his Ruralist period. These paintings are very inspirational and very unique in that his fairies are firmly rooted in the present, they are very real people painted as fairies, and not mythical creatures who exist only in the imagination. The painting, Flora is a painting taken from a photograph of a model named Florence, she is painted with a wreath of flowers round her head and its such a beautiful evocative image. She looks very much like a magazine model with her made up eyes and pouting lips but by adding a wreath of flowers the meaning of the image becomes completely different she becomes the picture of innocence almost like an earth goddess. The whole picture plane is filled completely with the portrait, there is no background and the image stares directly out at the viewer. Its a lovely painting.

studies for portrait

I have decided to paint a portrait of my daughter, so I have experimented with different head positions. The first image is more of the positon that I will paint but the skin is too pale and the face is far too stern at the moment. i want to try and get a softness to the finished painting, but I have more of an idea of the composition. I think I will also paint this portrait in oils as I have not yet worked in oil paint and I would like to be able to get used to working in both acrylic and oil, I also love the blending quality of oil paint.

sketchbook portraits

This project is taking too long for me its a combination of too many things going on, and maybe still a reluctance to paint this portrait. I actually think that there is almost a fear or anxiety attached to this project and its holding my progress back. I have however completed some quick watercolour sketches in my sketch book.


John Berger
The art critic John Berger made a series of programmes in the 1970 s that was critical of the art world and its collaboration with the wealthy. He made many far reaching comments that were at the time considered shocking to the art world, but as time has gone by his views have become more accepted. His views on the portrayal of the female nude are really thought provoking. He claimed that the majority of paintings were painted in such a way as to be not far short of soft porn . Hence portrating that female beauty is about being passive and available. Maybe his views are slightly blunt, but it has to be taken on board that men hold the majority within the art world.
The artist Jenny Saville has taken the challenge of the portrayal of female nudes within contemporary society and they are painted in such a way that although "traditionally" they would not be considered as beautiful . She has painted large nudes, that fill the whole canvas and look out with a kind of arrogance. She paints the skin with large purposefull brushstrokes, which often appears bruised. The images aren't soft and gentle they often appear severe and even angry looking. But they are still beautiful in an unconventional way . I really love the work of Jenny Saville it is bold and she is really not afraid to tackle subjects that most people would avoid. She has painted a transvestite who has both penis and silicone breasts. In this link here http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/jenny_saville.htm she talks about her work .

Redon,O. Portrait of violette Heymann. 1910.

My research for this project has drawn me to an artist that I was enthralled with a few years ago when I went to visit the galleries in Paris. The artist Odilon Redon, again I find myself being inspired by an artist who creates mythical and magical images sometimes of a nightmarish quality.
The majority of his portraits seem to be painted from the side, and they have a lovely soft, magical feel to them,which gives them a dreamlike quality.
In researching portraits I have just read an argument from the photographic historian,John Tagg who argues that during the nineteenth century the head on stare in photographs was sometimes taken as a sign of the "bluntness and "naturalness" of a culturally unsophisticated class",in contrast to side on poses, which were associated with people higher up in the social hierarchy.(1).


(1) John Tagg, The Burden of Representation: essays on photographies and Histories, Basingstoke and London, Macmillan,1988,pp.36-7.

portrait

I have to admit I really am not looking forward to this next project, painting a portrait. I can only admire artists who manage to capture someones personality and image in a painting. Its quite interesting because I have noticed that even when I am taking a photograph of someone I actually much prefer to capture someone when they are not aware that they are being photographed, compared to a false, uncomfortable pose for the camera. So I am not sure yet how I am going to approach the positioning of the sitter yet.
Painting a portrait of someone however is going to pose a whole lot of problems for me. I know that painting people is not my strongest point and I suppose that in a way having my hand forced to tackle this project can only be a good thing as normally i would avoid it. Previous problems I have had in the past is getting a good likeness, and if I do manage to get a reasonable likeness, there is often a lack of vitality to the image. Its hard to entirely explain how I am going to remedy this as its hard to pinpoint exactly what it is about what makes a portrait that works and one that doesn't. I think that it is often a deadness in the eyes, it seems it is the eyes that really help to define a portrait, and they are the hardest to get right.
My next challenge is going to be getting a model, who has got time to sit for me and is not going to laugh to much at my attempts.

Peter Blake and the Ruralists.

I have just started reading a book about Peter Blake. I have always admired the work of Peter Blake and have seen a couple of his paintings at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. One of the reasons I picked up his book is to find out a bit more about his subject matter and find out some of his thinking behind his paintings and how he himself is inspired, basically what makes him tick.

The era I chose to have a look at, at this point is the 1970s, as the times that he was producing these particular paintings, the country was going through struggles that draw parallels to the problems that the country is going through now. It was during the 1970 s that global economic crisis loomed and opposition politics were drifting ever further into radicalisation. It was during this time that Blake and his family moved to the countryside in search of a less hectic life away from the city. A group of like minded artists began to grow and the Ruralist Movement was formed. There was never a manifesto as such but Blake summarised their aims best:


"Simply, our aims are the continuation of a certain kind of English painting;
We admire Samuel Palmer, Stanley Spencer, Thomas Hardy, Elgar,Cricket, English landcape, The Pre Raphaelites, etc... Our aims are to paint about love, beauty, joy, sentiment and magic. We still believe in painting with oil paint on canvas, putting the picture in the frame and hopefully that someone will like it, buy it and hang it on their wall to enjoy it. " (1)

In a time that the art world was ruled by the minimalist and conceptual practices of the Avant-Garde this could have been considered as career suicide. The theme that drew the practice of the Ruralists , Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood and the Brotherhood of the Ancients was the interest in myths and English literary subjects.
Peter Blakes work during the 1970's could in some ways be considered a healthy escape from the concerns at that time, many of which are still ongoing today. From concerns with the environment and economic decline, his work offered a fantasy world of beautiful images.
Ophelia, which Blake painted around 1977 has his own contemporary twist, unlike the painting by Millais, Ophelia is painted standing waste deep in the water staring directly at the viewer . Her impending death is further emphasised by her holding a bunch of twigs. Her figure appears so pale and ghostly against the dark of the background as she gazes out at the viewer. I really wanted to post the image here, but the copyright in the book disallows any reproduction of any of the images.

(1)Peter Blake, "Contrariwise" , Aspects,no.3,Summer 1978 pp.1-2 A planned magazine titled "The Briar Rose"(after the celebrated series of paintings by Edward Burne-Jones)which would have functioned as manifesto and voice piece never came to fruition.

Sutherland,G. Pastoral 1930 etching print. courtesy of Tate Britain.
Klee,P. Nocturnal Festivity 1921
Palmer,S. A Hilly Scene 1826-28. Courtesy of Tate Britain.
personal sketchbook work reproduction of Early Morning.
Having recently seen some drawings by the artists Samuel Palmer I was so blown away by his attention to such detail, his drawings are so intricate. I have replicated one of his drawings in my sketchbook, called Early Morning. I find that by recreating a drawing like this, I get a better understanding of his techniques. Also I noticed so many little things, like the little huddle of figures in the centre of the picture and the little details of various plants and flowers that he had created. Each blade of grass is drawn with equal importance as is each little leaf on the branches. I particularly like his mushroom shaped trees and the little half moon cottages in the distance. This is one of those drawings that you could spend hours looking at and never get bored with it.

Samuel Palmer was an english painter, draughtsman and etcher he was a key figure in the English Romantic movement. Poetry was a lifelong inspiration to him and he went on to play a central figure in a group of artists who called themselves, The Ancients whose aspirations focused on the ancient poets and painters.
His best friend and mentor was william Blake, but unlike him his work was inspired by his complete love of nature.
I can see in his work how much he loves his surroundings. There is an almost mystical appeal to his work they are like little fantasy drawings. His painting, Hilly Scene which is in the Tate Britain can only be described as a mystical dreamscape. The bright Indian Yellow leads the eye into the painting onto the hills in the distance, which are illuminated by the light of a crescent moon. The picture plane is framed by the foliage from the trees which echoes the shape of the hills. It is a lovely painting. Which when I saw it a painting by Paul Klee sprung to mind. I couldn't remember the name of it but the image was clear in my mind. I later found out it was called, Nocturnal Festivity. Both of these painters although very different in style have a dreamy mystical quality to their work.

I was also interested to discover that the artist Graham Sutherland was interested and inspired by the work of Samuel Palmer, and he produced a series of prints during the 1920s. Although his scenes had less religious and mystical overtones. His landscape scenes come across as more sinister with the twisted trees and unusual shadows. Graham Sutherland began his career as a printmaker but he changed his medium following the Wall Street crash. It is also in his paintings that you can still see the influence of Samuel Palmer, but instead of a celebration of nature, Sutherland portrayed a disconcerting and brooding landscape. This was particularly heightened during the advent of the war, providing the onset of Neo Romanticism.

landscape/ townscapes what I have learned

The construction of a successful landscape or a townscape painting is down to a lot more than just a recreation of the scene. It is often an emotional response to the surroundings.
The paintings of bombed out buildings and landscapes of Great Britain during the second world war by John Piper with his turbulent skies depicting the desolation of the area, provide a nostalgic sense of loss of the traditional view of the English landscape and buildings.
Paul Nash who is possibly one of the greatest modern day painters of the english landscape found his inspiration in landscapes with a strong ancient history, his paintings often have a mystical feel to them. He was inspired by the painter Samuel Palmer. His work as a war artist depicting grim landscape scenes from the frontline show the twisted tree stumps and barbed wire, a metaphor for the devastation inflicted upon the land and its people.
A letter to his wife claimed that he no longer saw himself as an artist, he was a messenger who will bring back word from the men who are fighting to those who want the war to go on for ever.

John Constable is noted for his scenes of ordinairy scenes in a rural landscape in an age that looked for more romantic visions of wild landscapes and ruins.
Constable rejected the formal or "picturesque" rendering of nature found in the works of artists like Gainsborough. Instead, he tried to capture informally the effects of changing light and the patterns of clouds moving across the country sky. He loved the countryside, and his best work was of outdoor scenes in his native Suffolk and his London home in Hampstead.

In Art and Illusion by E.H. Gombrich it is quoted that,
He was inspired by the work of Gainsborough and he wrote of his native Suffolk:
"It is a most delightful landscape for a painter. I fancy I see Gainsborough in every hedge and hollow tree.

Every artist has there own personal response to an area and it is that very response that is so elusive to capture. It is not too difficult to recreate an image that is representative of what you see, but to dig beyond that and to try and show what you feel about the landscape and to try and get other people to understand as well that is what requires skill and practice..

Townscapes

C.Monet.The Rue Saint-Denis, Celebration of June 30 1878

Hopper,E.Summertime 1943.



John Virtue. White acrylic paint,black ink and shellac on canvas - in the collection of the National Gallery.

Although I chose to paint the landscape project , instead of the Townscape
I have investigated what I consider to be three very different approaches to painting a townscape.

Edward Hopper is known for his realism, he paid close attention to detail and chiaroscuro. A lot of his paintings seem to capture a moment in time when the viewer is looking into a private or lonely part of someones life. He painted american life in a town ranging from people sitting in a cafe late at night to the out of town gas stations. His paintings find beauty in the most mundane aspects of life and he captures a truth in the day to day life of ordinairy americans. There is often a sense of loneliness in his paintings, his use of strong light and shadow add to this atmosphere.

The Impressionist painter, Monet was concerned with the treatment of colours in the open air. The colours were painted quickly with rapid strokes and he was not concerned with capturing detail but for the overall effect with the aim to capture the impression of the moment.

John Virtue has painted abstracted landscapes using just black ink and white acrylic since 1978. His inspiration comes from the oriental brush painting and the american Abstract Expressionists. Some of his paintings are on a monumental scale of which these are his best as he manages to create amazing space and depth in his paintings. His loose expressionist techniques are created by smearing, throwing and spraying paint onto raw canvas.

Amanda Hislop exhibition.

Amanda Hislop, Twilight Trees
Amanda Hislop, Rain Coming in.

Amanda Hislop is a textile artist who had an exhibition at Oxford castle. Her landscape paintings are created using a variety of paper, linen, paint and stitch. They are really beautiful.
Her images dont reveal the landscape directly, but her response to it. They capture what it feels like to be within the landscape at that moment.She manages to capture the light, giving an impressionistic sense of place.
Her colours are quite subtle and combined with the tactile qualities of the threads throughout the image she evokes atmosphere and stillness.
This was an exhibition worth seeing and I will look out for her work again..

john William Inchbold landscape artist

John William Inchbold In Early Spring.

This is an artist who I must admit I had never heard of, although I instantly recognised the Pre Raphealite style of painting. He is a figure who stood on the periphery of the Pre Raphealite circle. He was highly significant in the context of victorian landscape painting and was respected by many comtemporaries including Millais and Ruskin,

Ruskin was the most important and influential art critic of the victorian era. Rukins doctrine was that nature should be painted truthfully in the minutest detail.

In Early Spring, shows a photographically precise scene using bright colours. The light of the sun hitting the tree opens up the whole painting. It is amazingly detailed in true Pre Raph style.

john Piper Landscape

John Piper, June Landscape 1969. The Artists estate.Ashmolean museum Oxford.
'...Abstraction is a luxury that has been left to the present day to exploit. It is a luxury just as any single ideal is, and like a single ideal it should be approached all the time, but not pre-supposed all the time. To pre-suppose it always, if you you are a painter, is to paint the same picture always: or else to give up painting altogether because there is nothing left to paint...'

Extract from 'Abstraction on the Beach' John Piper 1938

John Piper often focused on the British landscape, paying particular interest to the depiction of churches, castles and stately homes.

The colours of this painting immediately captured my attention. It is a beautiful painting which has no reference to any recognisable scenes, but his use of complementary colours create a sense of space. Maybe the orange is the heat of a summers day and the complementary blue, a summer sky. There are various different paint applications with flat areas contrasted with areas of layered colours probably applied with a dry brush.

His styles often changed throughout his career and although he became frustrated with abstract art his return to realism had abstract elements to it and a very unique style.

John Nash landscape artist

Studies of A Gloucestershire Landscape,1914. John Nash. Ashmolean Museum Oxford.

I recently went to Oxford to visit the Ashmolean museum and an exhibition that was on at the castle. As I am studying the different ways that artists have painted the landscape I have chosen a few paintings that I thought were relevant to the subject.

One of the paintings I chose was A Gloucestershire Landscape by John Nash. I created a quick drawing in the gallery, and found that the painting was essentially a collection of abstract forms, with each one being carefully balanced to echo the other. For example the shape and form of the landscape is balanced by the form of the clouds, with the light of the sun through the crowds, hitting and highlighting diagonally through the composition. The tree in the middle of the composition dominates the painting.

John Nash had no formal art training, and he always had a life long love of the countryside and nature. He said of his work that, he was searching for the basic form of things, and often painted from drawings that he had done on the spot. This painting was painted in the summer of the outbreak of world war 1. He would later become an official war artist and painted the war torn countryside.

project 12 a landscape

What I was tring to achieve.
My aim was to try and capture a magical quality to the painting. inspired by many artists such as Peter Doig and earlier artists Samuel Palmer and John Piper. I didn't just want to replicate the scene completely I wanted it to be recognisable but slightly mystical.

How did I try to achieve this?

The flicking of paint was an experiment which I hope helps achieve a looser feel to the painting as I still have the tendency to paint a little too tight which often results in my image looking too overworked. I am interested in the effects when using gels, which when worked back allows the paint underneath to show through, giving a luminescence to the work, which I wanted to help add to the magical atmosphere. I also think that this helps add some unusual interest to the painting.
I am happy with the colours in the painting, I always seem to aim for a vibrancy in my work. The bands of orange and green in the landscape happened by accident it was such an unusual play of light and it was these two colours that seemed to work so well together. I have deliberately tried to keep the two colours well defined as I have noticed a lot in Doigs work that he has these strong bands of colour running through and it really has a striking effect. I chose blue tones for the stonework so that it would provide a strong contrast against the orange tones.

The Composition
The point I am not entirely convinced about is the composition. I hope I have got it right. I have used the sunlit path to lead the eye diagonally into the painting.
The main focal point is the structure itself, but I also wanted to place the same importance to the landscape behind, by heightening the colours of the area behind the arch. Which I suppose could be a little unusual as it is normal practice to paint the distance in blue tones to give a feeling of depth.

peter Doig

Peter Doig,Concrete Cabin, 1994.

I really appreciate the work of Peter Doig, and I have found the way that he captures a moment of time and the way he manages to portray a perfect tranquility and render a wild and fanciful quality to his images really inspirational to my landscape project.
The painting, Concrete Cabin is quite a bizarre painting. He has captured a view of a modern apartment block in the distance, while the viewer is looking through a woodland copse. The way that he has painted the trees is really unusual and gives them an almost ethereal quality. It looks like he has built up the greenery using a stippling technique.
The composition has been cropped so there is no view of the sky or ground which adds to the overall effect of the viewer spying through the greenery.

I think I will stick with painting the arch. At this point I prefer the second image, as it places more prominance on the arch rather than the viewpoint which is painted from further away. I feel that this is too centralised in the composition. I also want to use the light coming through the arch to lead the eye diagonally into the painting.

Friedrich Caspar David,Ruins in the Riesengebirge.1830-34.
Friedrich Caspar David,The Tree of crows 1822.

I have researched a couple of landscape artists who I find quite interesting. The first artist is Caspar David Friedrich. He is a 19th century German Romantic painter. Who is best known for his allegorical landscapes which generally feature contemplative figures, gothic ruins and moody mists and fogs. He sought to portray the spiritualness of the world around him, through the contemplation of nature, often using the landscape to express religious themes.
His paintings to me are beautiful, the way that he can capture a mood of a landscape is quite inspirational. His painting, The Tree of Crows is a particular painting that I saw many years ago at The Louvre it is work that really stood out for me and out of all the painting s that I saw that weekend that one really had a lasting impact on me.

Landscape Project 12

I have chosen to paint the Landscape option. The brief is to paint a landscape which focuses on a particular feature.

The place that I have decided to paint from is a local place near where I live which is full of follies it is such an interesting place and I think that it should provide me with some interesting images for me to use.

I want to try and capture a sense of atmosphere, an almost otherwordly feel to the painting.

Patrick Caulfield

Caulfield, Patrick. Coloured still life,1967

© The Bridgeman Art Library - London, New York, Paris.

I have deliberately chosen artists who paint in very different styles. It is so interesting to investigate the variety of ways that a still life can be portrayed especially the more contemporary artists.
This image is bold and colourful, and could be described as Pop Art. The difference being though, Caulfield does not paint the same subject matter as the American Pop artists, such as Andy Warhol.
Instead of painting advertising products and celebrities he tends to paint everyday objects and interiors. His work is characterised by the flat planes of colour with each object surrounded by a thick, black line which further emphasises the strength of the colours.

Lucien Freud

© Freud, L,Still life with melon 1946.

Lucien Freud is probably one of the most important figurative painters around today . His works now, concentrate on the depiction of the human figure; but his earlier still life paintings are very different from the stark observations of his subjects in his more expressive painterly style that he is now famous for. This lemon is meticulous in its control of both the brushstrokes and line.

Lisa Milroy

Milroy.L. Melons (1986) oil on Canvas. Location Southampton City Art Gallery


© Milroy.L. Shoes(1985) oil on canvas

During the 1980's Lisa Milroy created a series of paintings of everyday objects arranged carefully on a neutral background. They are arranged in such a way that they almost begin to take on abstract qualities. The apparent realism of the paintings is questionable as the paintings consist of painterly tone and texture she does not aim to paint them in a photographic way, and she often paints them from memory.
These paintings to me are as much about the space in between the subjects as much as the subjects themselves. The melons have been arranged in such a way that they have more spontaneity to the arrangement. Whereas the shoes are arranged with slightly more regimentation.

the single object finished painting

The idea behind the painting
My thinking for this painting was to try and convey how the so called innocent pair of shoes can be considered. Firstly the aspect of how the must have pair of killer heels are displayed provocatively in a shop window, strategically placed and lit in such a way that is so tempting. They take on a life of their own with the magical ability to change all aspects of your life with skinny models strutting down the catwalk and being advertised in all the glossy mags. Also the male reaction to a woman in heels with the added sex appeal. This is of course an over exaggeration but it is true that all adverts certainly aim to sell with this attitude. Just thinking of the perfume advertisments which offer pretty much the same.

The use of collage in the previous project has inspired me to try something a bit different and to try and incorporate it into my painting.

The composition

The composition is loosely based on the placing of shoes in a shop window with the collaged images of figures looking into the window with varying expressions.
I think that the use of collage in the work has really enhanced the finished image. The images of people looking at the shoes has changed the mood from just a painting of some shoes to a painting that has some more surreal undertones, which I hope will make the viewer question what its about.

To make the shoes more interesting, the addition of pattern created out of texture paste and overlaid with gold, give the shoes a rich and textural appearance to make them even more inviting, and to make them stand out even more strongly.

in this project I wanted to move away from just recreating a painting of a single object I wanted to try and get deeper into something and to try and create something with a little more magic and mystery even through the portrayal of a relatively simple object.

I personally am happy with the collaged figures looking at the shoes, I feel that it works on a slightly creepy surreal level.

In my quest to try and find my individual style I find myself questioning more about what it is that I want to try and portray in my work. Before I start I need to question the underlying concept or idea that I wish to incorporate in my painting. This is leading me to investigate more techniques and media in an attempt to try and create something individual .

sketchbook studies and colour studies for 8: painting a single object.

Having been inspired with the previous subject I have decided to incorporate some collage into this painting as I want to have some faces looking at the shoes showing the different reactions. I have experimented with tissue paper to create texture and ripped pages from a glossy mag.

8 Painting from Objects

I knew straight away what subject I wanted to paint for this project, it has been an idea that has been floating around in my head for a while.
Its quite a simple idea, a pair of shoes and the reaction of both men and women to the stiletto. So what I want to capture is a whole mixture of issues, from that amazing pair of shoes that is presented in a shop display that almost takes on magical qualities until they are bought, the must have fashion accessory advertised in all the glossy mags that is hugely uncomfortable and inpractical and the mens reaction to a woman dressed in killer heels. Thats the thinking behind the painting I have a vague idea of how i want to create this but I am going to see how the work develops along the way.

collage

I have found working with collage and researching other artists who use this media really interesting. I can see the importance of a strong underlying structure in order for the collage to be successful, particularly in a completely abstract piece. It is a lot harder to make what is essentially a completely random collection of pieces into something beautiful and harmonious.

What I have also discovered is a lot of collage artists often have quite a strong message within their work I particularly like the artist Hannah Hoch and the contemporary artist Peter Kennard.

I would like to work more with combining collage into some of my paintings as it creates some interesting textures and some unusual abstract qualities particularly when it lays under translucent colour.

Staek Klaus

Staek,K.(1982)Bet we Can Smoke the Most. collage:
Image courtesy of http://homepage.ntlworld.com/davepalmer/cutandpaste/staeck_big5.html
Klaus Staeck is a political artist, who for over thirty years has created many photomontages in the form of posters and taken his art onto the streets in the form of postcards, stickers and flyers. His political stance has remained throughout the years based on freedom of speech,the environment, poverty and peace.He aims at educating the people to the madness in which we all live. The works are simple but the messages are clear, and his work has been the subject of many court battles in an attempt to gag him.

Kennard Phillips

I have discovered this current collaboration of artists who work with photomontage they create work with a very strong and clear political message. I absolutely love this work and the message that is conveyed and the methods that are used to show the work...
Like some of the work by the Dada artists, some of their images have been used in magazines and newspapers to make a strong political point.

project 10 Painting and collage

What was the concept behind this collage?
This collage is based on the theme of the city and travel and the way people become invisible when in such a busy impersonal environment. Hence the headless body running to catch the train. The headless figure was actually a bit of an afterthought as the collage became more developed I chose to rip the head off to further the concept of invisibility in a crowd. Particularly how the commuters on a train always go out of their way to avoid any sort of eye contact. It always has struck me that the commute to work that most people endure is an almost inhumane way of travelling. By removing the features of the figure that would normally be the point of expression in a human makes the whole concept stronger.

The basic composition
To aid the composition of a collage I found it useful to create a couple of basic sketches. Of course this is a lot easier to do if you know exactly what materials you are going to use. I found that with my blue collage based on how the female is perceived was created more intuitively as I wasn't completely sure as to what materials I was going to use. I think the composition should still take into account the rule of thirds and leading lines to a certain extent otherwise the image could end up a bit messy and haphazard.

Different materials
In some ways it is harder to create a collage, as you have to also take into account the textures of the materials. It occurred to me that a piece that was too thick, too thin or too textured can throw the whole composition out of balance. Just by moving a piece a little too much to the right or to the left can make all the difference between success and failure. it is based very much on intuition and it is difficult to put into words exactly.

Problems I encountered
Apart from the challenges I have already written about. A further problem of a more practical nature was fixing the heavier materials. In the end I found by applying sticky tar gel thinly, this seemed to be the most successful way of adhering the heavier pieces. I also discovered that when lifting images with image transfer, the colours can become quite dull. I discovered however that if they are transfered directly onto silk and then varnished the colours seem to retain a lot of their vibrancy.

Further use of collage
I thought it would be quite a challenge to create a large piece of collaged artwork at some point in the future. Most of the pieces I have seen have been quite modest in size and I thought it would be an exciting thing to try one day. It has also occurred to me that there is nothing to really stop me from incorporating collage into my paintings. I have been interested in using texture in my paintings and I think the use of collage would be quite an interesting idea to explore. I also like the surreal aspect that collage often creates it does seem to make the viewer stop and question the concept.

I actually really enjoyed working in collage and using mixed media in my work. It has been interesting researching and working in such different styles, from complete abstraction to using images to convey a deeper idea.

project 10 Painting and collage.

For this collage I have combined both paint and ink with collaged pieces. I have used image transfer onto silk as it keeps the colours so well and doesn't smudge when the ink/glue is applied. The various layers of blue has been applied in such a way as to draw the differnent images together.
I have based this collage on the so called role and perception of women in days gone by. Has much really changed in that time ?, so very much through the eyes of Hannah Hoch but the techniques of application inspired by the American artist Rauschenburg.

7:project 9 a collage

This collage has probably kept to the brief a bit more . I have used "found " products to create a collage. This has been inspired by Schwitters and you can see by the sketches I have tried to keep the scraps balanced within a grid paying attention to the diagonals and verticals within the composition.
It is very difficult to keep entirely to the original sketch, as although I have a vague idea what materials I am going to use, until you put them into place its tricky to see what the impact is going to be. The textures and colours have to be balnced out as well and it seems to me that it is something that just takes a bit of adjustment with pieces added and taken away until it looks and feels alright.

7: A collage finished .(project 9)

By cutting the Mountboard into triangular shapes I then used gels and drew textures into the gels. Waited for it to dry then used acrylic inks, This created an interesting effect, which resembled broken china. I have kept the colour scheme simple as I wanted the shapes of the mountboard and the negative space of the white to create the impact.

The thinking behind this was to attempt to try and create a sculptural feel to the image where the two shapes are almost merging together. The finished piece resembles a mosaic, but I have discovered some different materials that can be worked with that would otherwise be scrapped. I am pleased with the effect of the straight edges of the triangles forming the circles, and the overall fragmented feel to the image.