The paintings of Peter Blake

The paintings of Peter Blake.


Sir Peter Blake has had a very diverse career, embracing many styles and subjects throughout his lifetime. He has become known as ‘the godfather of British Pop Art,’ with the iconic imagery that he has produced during the 1950’s and 1960’s. His work is fundamental to the traditions of figurative realism, and collectively throughout his lifetime he has engaged with Victorian folklore and literature, illustrated children’s books and created images using a variety of media such as collage and assemblage.

From the very beginning, Blake has had a definitive style with his integration of trivia and banal objects and literature into his works. This gives his works a nostalgic feel which sets him apart from his Pop Art colleagues. This sense of nostalgia, and his attachment to his own childhood memories has remained a theme throughout his career. Grunenberg, C and Sillars, L( 2007)
On The Balcony 1955-57 Oil on canvas.


On the Balcony (1955-57) is a significant early work and still stands as one of the iconic pieces of British Pop Art, showing Blake's interest in combining images from pop culture with fine art. The work, which appears to be a collage but is in fact painted, shows a painting of a photograph of the royal family, a copy of Life magazine, a boy on the left of the composition holding Manet’s, The Balcony, and various images of paraphernalia that is so readily recognisable by the majority of people, making the painting accessible and maybe less daunting to the wider audience.
WJT Mitchell argues that, “Blakes paintings are about looking at pictures, the excitement of about how we collect them, display them, and treat them as objects.”(Mitchell, W.J.T 1994 P.35-82)

There is so much to look at in this painting; it is very much a visual diary of what was going on at that time. The flat plane of colour which I think is the lawn, appears to make the picture recede but the assortment of images which are strewn over the top, also appear to flatten the area at the same time.
The introduction of popular imagery and typography alongside the contemporary application of flat planes of bright colours was the beginnings of his interest in creating art that would appeal to the majority of people not just the art world elite.

The 1960’s is very much associated with the counter culture, the younger generation had more expendable income and freedom compared to the more austere 1950,s it was a time of youthful exuberance and excess. The media and the art world were very much a part of the era, which was increasingly becoming saturated with mass produced popular images.
Blake began to use posters and photographs as models for his paintings and assemblages portraying the pop and film stars of the era. His work still however remained very personal to him, unlike the finished, slick artworks being produced by the likes of Warhol and Richard Hamilton, his love of collecting and his attachments to anything that has been weathered and used in the past being incorporated into his work.
He also began using household gloss paint in bright colours in many of his collages and assemblages, creating works such as, Marilyn Monroe’s Dressing Room Door (1962) and Girl in a Window (1962)

The Toy Shop is an excellent example of the type of work that he was producing. He incorporated old knocked about second hand toys into this piece, which is still very much in keeping with his love of nostalgia and collecting incorporated into an original contemporary work of art. His use of everyday objects to symbolise the identity of someone (in this case himself) is something that many artists have explored and is an example of how diverse an artist he is and how he is not afraid to explore and examine new methods and media whilst still painting and producing work that was still very much about the fusing together of old and new. Osterwold, T ( 2003)

The Toy Shop, 1962 Mixed Media, Glass and Wood. Tate Gallery, London


The bringing together of both high art and popular imagery that is so intrinsic to his style is brought about by his education at art school and his working class background. In an interview with the Guardian, he states.
“I was in contact with artists who introduced me to high art and classical music, whilst my home life was very much about working class pursuits. This contact in my life paved the way for my involvement in Pop Art.”
Wroe, N (2006)

His gradual move away from the cosmopolitan art world during the seventies and a move into the countryside paved the way for a change of direction for Blake. He and a group of artists formed The Brotherhood of Ruralists, which was very much in keeping with the ideals of the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood.
A quote from Blake Cited in, Grunenberg,C and Sillars,L ( 2007) pretty much sums up the manifesto

“Simply our aims are the continuation of a certain kind of English
Painting; we admire Samuel Palmer, Stanley Spencer, Thomas Hardy
Elgar, cricket, the English landscape, The Pre- Raphaelites, etc..........
Our aims are to paint about love, beauty, joy, sentiment and magic.” (Blake P. 1978, p.92)

He revisited literary subjects such as Alice in Wonderland which eventually culminated in his fairy paintings. But all are painted in a way that they are not so much ethereal, but real life figures that are very much in the present.

“A girl might have been a pin up in the sixties, then when I became a Ruralist in the seventies she would’ve become Titania or Ophelia.”
Lambirth A , (1997)




Titania 1976-83. Private Collection.
In an interview from the Independent (1997) Blake explains how his Titania painting developed from a photograph of the model Twiggy. Although it is not a direct portrait of her, he used her image as reference.
The fairies that are painted underneath look like they could be models whose dancing movements are hugely exaggerated, and includes an image of a fairy that looks very much like Marilyn Monroe.
So even if the subject matter could at first be considered to be traditional and even old fashioned, Blake has taken the idea and painted it in such a way that it is still very much his own style, again combining the old and new within his imagery.
Blake has gone on to create many works of art since his Ruralist days which only lasted a few years. One of his more recent exhibitions is a series of paintings entitled, “Duchamps World Tour.”
Duchamp, who paved the way for all artists claiming that anything could be considered art, if the artist chooses it. Travels the world in a tour bus meeting subjects of his previous paintings, such as Tarzan and his family. In other works he meets Elvis and the Spice Girls, has a game of chess with Tracey Emin and goes to the Congress of Unusual People. The Artists’ Fancy Dress Ball is hosted by Damien Hirst dressed as Watteau’s ‘Pierrot’ and includes Picasso dressed as Touchstone from Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The American artist, Edward Hopper also makes an appearance.
Tate Liverpool (2007)
Although Blake has really not been taken seriously by the art world elite. It could be argued however that his contributions to the arts have been considerable, and his ideal to make the visual arts as accessible as Pop music, has been achieved. Despite his recently announced retirement he is still creating works of art, it’s just now he doesn’t intend on being under the watchful eye of the art world. Alkayat, Z (2010)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alkayat,Z. ( 2010) Blakes Progress . Artists and Illustrators. Dec 2010.p.14

Grunenberg, C and Sillars , L (2007) Peter Blake a Retrospective. Liverpool:
Tate Liverpool.

Lambirth, A (1997) Beatle fan who still has fairies at the bottom of his garden. The independent. Tuesday 2nd December 1997

Mitchell, W.J.T , (1994) Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

Osterwold, T (2003) Pop Art .Koln: Taschen

Tate Liverpool (2007) Peter Blake A Retrospective, the National Gallery[online], Available from:
https://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/peterblake/exhibitionguide6.shtm) [accessed 20th Jan 2011]

Wroe, N (2006) The Bigger Picture. The Guardian. Saturday 21st Jan 2006.

artists statement

ARTISTS STATEMENT by Laura Strong (402296)

The need to paint and draw has been with me from a very early age and the need to create is more of a way of life to me than a pastime. It has however become an increasingly important aspect of my life as I have become older.
I am also very interested in photography, and I find that the combination of photography and painting often works well together. I use my camera as a tool to collect images as reference points for my paintings and by using my camera I can also experiment with unusual angles and close up abstractions. These can also be manipulated within photoshop, which can quite often further influence my painting. Because I use the viewpoint of a lens as a starting point, it is also the reason why I am keen not to produce a photographic reproduction, and in a painting I attempt to try and capture something beyond what the camera lens can capture, and my aim is to create my own personal response to the subject, to manipulate the colours and attempt to recreate a more fanciful composition. The photograph is only ever used as a starting point in a creative journey.
With this in mind I find I am often wavering between abstract qualities and the more representational elements in my paintings, and I find that I do like the freedom to be able to combine both in my work. My aim is often to create an abstract or dreamlike quality within my painting, and to explore the imagination and therefore push the idea of what is real and what is not real.
One of the artists that I feel has particularly influenced me is Marc Chagall. I find his work leaps across the boundaries of reality and the world of the imagination. His work has a poetic dreamlike feel to it and is often quite humorous and light hearted. His painting s often have a childlike quality to them, which is something that I find myself increasingly try to recapture.
As a child my paintings were often created with abandon. They were painted freely and there was no fear attached to them, they were painted or drawn because I loved doing it. As I have grown older, although I still love painting , I find myself attempting to free myself of the tightness that sometimes creeps into my work, and paint in a more loose and expressive style.


One of the most challenging things I find about painting is the need to create a work in my own distinct and personal way. There are many artists who I have found to be inspirational on my learning journey and there are many styles and techniques that have been useful lessons in helping me to find my own voice. I have found that the use of colour plays a major part in my work, with the work of Matisse, Franz Marc and Paul Klee being major influences in a lot of my work. I like to use colour with the aim of creating a strong visual impact, often building up areas with thin translucent washes. My use of colour is often strong and bold and I am not afraid to experiment with unusual colour combinations to create an impact if the subject calls for it. I am open to experiment and I often work on ideas using different media, including collage, without an end painting in mind, just to see how things turn out and just for the love of doing it. This for me, is an important process, as quite often it will lead to interesting techniques that can be used in future paintings.
In studying painting I am beginning to feel that the more I know, the more challenging a painting becomes. I see every new painting as a challenge, and a chance to try and tackle something new and experiment with different techniques. Each stage of a painting presents different challenges, and I can never be sure how a painting is going to develop and turn out. It is not unusual that as the painting evolves the original ideas may change, this is part of the creative process, and so although I try to plan in advance, quite often it doesn’t turn out quite the way that I first imagined.
The subjects that I am interested in painting are varied. I find exciting subjects in anything from landscapes to still life to more figurative art. But I find the underlying theme is to try and capture something that is beyond realism and sits in the realms of the imagination. At the moment I feel that my style is constantly evolving. At this moment in time I am becoming interested in exploring the mystical and more fantastical elements within the mundane. My aim is to try and produce something that is beautiful, even if the subject matter is not considered especially interesting or pleasant; I find it is exciting to apply vibrant colours and incorporate textures and /or collage to the image and to create something that is aesthetically pleasing even if the subject matter is not particularly beautiful.

Finished painting.

This is the final painting. I am reasonably happy with the outcome of the painting and I think I have managed to create the nostalgic and dreamlike atmosphere that I wanted to try and capture.
I am also pleased with the final colours that I have used. I have kept to a limited palette and have mixed the colours . This has gone towards creating a more balanced feel to the painting as very few have been used straight from the tube. Most of the paint consists of several thin glazes of translucent colours built up on top of each other, this has helped produce an interesting depth to the colour instead of one flat tone. I feel it works particularly well for the castle .

One of the problems I had was making the dragon and castle part of the painting, I wanted to show the spark of a childs imagination and in creating this there were times when I doubted whether this was actually working, there was a kind of seperateness and disparity between all the elements of the painting and it was hard to work out the remedy . The smaller colour studies seemed to work, yet when painted larger I lost a bit of confidence with the idea.
This I have found is something that is occurring more and more with me . It seems the more I learn the harder it becomes. There is always so much to consider and I am my own worst critic . I very nearly gave up at this point and left the painting for a few days and thought on it a while .
I didn't want to completely disregard the painting as there are elements that I really like, but there were parts that needed a bit of work.
The dragon felt too separate for a start, I didn't want it to be REAL, as it is a figment of imagination so it seemed the best way to deal with this was manipulate the positioning, and by running a translucent wash over the boys leg it helped to create a connection between the two characters. I also used the same idea to create the castle .By running the colours into the background and creating subtle linework in white for some of the turrets helped to add to feeling of imagination .

My tutor agreed with me about the disparity between the separate elements of the painting.She suggested that I look through some of my previous workings as there were ways of bringing the whole painting together
I have taken another look and have tried a few things that I think have gone some way to solve this problem. The dragons tale I have wound over and through the boys legs which has helped draw the eye into the painting and therefore helps to create a link with the foreground .
The linking of the castle, dragon and boy has been a challenge, I have decided to very subtly paint the castle across the whole background and with subtle use of line incorporate the three images together as though they are all merging together. The ethereal nature of the painting allows for a subtle use of line to suggest and allows the imagination to do the work .

A complete change of media use this time. I have used photoshop for my colour studies. Photoshop is such a useful tool, although the mouse control can take a bit of getting used to, it has enabled me to scan in the original sketch and then I can experiment with the different colour schemes.

Here I have gone for two different palettes, a more vibrant and colourful version, and a toned down pastel image.

I actually quite liked the brighter palette more than I thought I would, but because I know that it is probably more of a personal choice for me to be drawn towards strong colours. I think that the dreamlike effect that I am after is actually better achieved with the more muted and pastel shades.

I am unsure also at this point as to the final position of the dragons tail and have tried a couple of positions in photoshop.

childhood second painting colour study

This is the first colour study . i am reasonably happy with the composition of the previous tonal sketch albeit for a little tweaking in places, and now I need to decide on the colour palette. I think that I will probably try and aim for painting in more pastel shades for this painting as I think it will add to the overall feeling of dream and imagination. I need to do a couple more colour studies though to make sure that this is the best idea before I fully make my mind up.

Lady bird books and Grayson Perry

The theme of fairy tales has been investigated and painted by many artists including Paula Rego. Her prints show a darker and sinister view of the traditional fairy tales and rhymes, and they are indeed often horror stories. Fairy stories are dark and are often told to children to keep them in line . The natural imagination of a child will happily ingest the stories and imagery however dark they may be. When I was a child I did not consider the stories of Hansel and Gretal and Little Red Riding Hood for example, to be horrific . I loved the fairy stories it is only as I have become older that I realise that they were actually quite horrific.

For my painting I want to create a more nostalgic and wistful feel, that is reminiscent of the feelings and imagination of my own childhood. I want to try and capture a softness and dreamy appearance.

My research has lead me to look at some books from my own childhood. The ones that I remember with the most nostalgia are the Ladybird books. The illustrations and paintings in these books, although they are quite dated they are exactly the kind of style that I am interested in for this project. It reminds me of my childhood when I would read these fairy tales and stories, the pictures just remind of a certain time in my life which has long gone .

In researching some of the artists who created the book illustrations , I have found many of them have been trained at the RCA and taught by the artist Bomberg.

The artist CF Tunnicliffe who is an accomplished wildlife and landscape artist is among the artists who created works for Ladybird.

Another artist who is much more contemporary, that I particularly like the works of is, Grayson Perry. He is a ceramacist but the motifs and drawings on his pots are very contraversial. He has responded to his own life by creating stories on his pots, tackling overtly sexual fetishes to transvestism. It may seem a strange connection at first between his works and the works of artists in the Ladybird books. But to me the connection is about nostalgia. His work is very much based upon his own memories and he tackles issues that are shocking and possibly distateful to a lot of people but the way that they are painted onto the pots they come across as nostalgic ,and pretty even if the images themselves are most definately not . The particular images that I am referring to for this project, are a couple of pots that he produced in the mid nineties and early 2000 . The first pot is called Plight of the Sensitive Child (2003). Perry quotes,

"This pot shows a London landscape around the North Circular.Its about the way we sentimentalize children on the one hand and demonize them on the other. Its about the horrors of growing up and how if you have any kind of sensitivity, peer pressure is a horrible thing that will beat it out of you."(p92)

The images show idyllic little girls dressed up in pretty dresses doing things that every parent fears there child will get up to. Drug taking, stealing cars and and killing each other.

The second pot is called Peasants with Fridge Freezers (1995)

This pot is based upon what was happening during the nineties in Yugoslavia. Perry was listening to a news report that was trying to draw attention to the fact that the people who were massacring each other were in fact Europeans like us, who came from homes with fridge freezers. As if the fridge freezer was a symbol of our civilised society and cultures. It was an analogy that was supposed to draw parallels with our lives and the lives of the people In Yugoslavia who were murdering their own neighbours, just because they believed in different things. (p.74)

The background of the pot is covered in the motifs of the 20th Century. Macdonalds, Coca Cola , Walkers and Marlboro. That places us very much in the now .

These different approaches to aspects of childhood are interesting and influential in my own work ,for this particular project , both in style and concept .

Throughout this course I have found myself being drawn towards investigating themes that are dreamlike and of the the imagination. Inspired by artists such as Redon and Chagall I am keen on portraying the dreamlike themes of the imagination. So for this final painting I have decided to paint a scene inspired by fairy tales. Thus returning to my original ideas , I often find that I go full circle with my ideas, after a time of investigating and experimenting with many ideas I find myself returning to the original one, with a bit of a twist to it.

The above drawing and colour study are a couple of ideas for the composition of the study.

Ideas for my second childhood painting

Again for this painting I have a lot of ideas and it is a case of working through them all and getting a clear idea of what message I want to portray.

I am at the moment thinking along themes of childhood imagination again. I have touched upom this idea previously and I think that it is an interesting theme to use. I have some studies that I have previously posted , that I am going to revisit and maybe rework.

I have always loved the way little children manage to lose themselves so completely when they play make believe games and dressing up.

In these studies I have used my son as the model .When he was younger he used to dress himself up in anything that was to hand, a wooden spoon would become a weapon, and a kitchen colander would become a helmet.

I have experimented again with lifting images and collaging them into the image. Both the images have a political message of war and imperialism. It seeks to portray the contrast of the innocent childhood games of soldiers, with the real life war that that children who grow up to become soldiers.

Its a serious piece and I am in two minds still as to what direction I want to go . I am also still interested in the investigation of fairy tales.

finished painting

This is the finished painting . I have played around with the size and final positioning of the child. This was quite tricky actually, because although I wanted the child to be a major focal point, at the same time I wanted to be able to convey the feeling of smallness and vulnerability of a small child in a grown up world. To help overcome this I have painted in a path to lead the eye from the child into the tower blocks and fencing.

The painting has been inspired by the ideas of a Paula Rego and Nancy Spero. I feel both artists work are narrative and although their styles are very different, they have an underlying message which the viewer can decide upon, and it is left up to the viewer to make their own interpretations.

In this painting I feel there are many messages. To me its about the increasing detachment that children have to the natural world, and how much they miss out on natural beauty when the emphasis seems to be on the destruction of the natural environment . Its also about the loneliness within a huge city, and the smallness of a child, and the natural curiosity and wonder of a child over a small wild flower which has managed to grow and survive despite the environment that it is growing in. It could be interpreted as strength in the face of adversity.

Its not so much a realistic interpretation so therefore I have tried to manipulate the fencing and buildings so that they loom over the child to help create an almost sinister space, whilst the foreground with the child and bright flower add a sense of hope to the place....

I decided to use texture as it helped to break up the colours and added further interest to the foreground . The tower blocks were originally collaged on using newspaper, which actually wasn't as successful as I originally hoped as the image was not dark enough, in this event the newsprint was lost underneath the layers of paint. You can just about see it in places, which I think adds a bit more interest to the image.

I am aware that throughout this painting I have chopped and changed my ideas and the thinking throughout, and although it is good to have lots of ideas to work with it can be a little confusing to fine tune the final idea into a finished painting. I also feel that I have got a wealth of ideas and sketches that could well be used for a further investigation at a later time.

For my second painting I think I would like to investigate a different aspect on childhood.

I think this is kind of what I am after for the foreground , a rough texture which will help add further interest to the foreground. This is tissue paper which has been rough ly stuck down, Then I have added texture paste and pulled a pallette knife through it and into it which created ridges. When this has dried the paint and inks can be added . The raised edges have been further accentuated by pulling a pastel gently over the top of it.

childhood further colour studies.

I have scanned the original colour study into photoshop and this allows me to experiment further with colour schemes. The red overtones to the third image gives the image an overall warm feel and makes me think of a hot sun drenched late afternoon . Its quite an interesting pallette, the only thing that dissuades me is the warm reds and oranges give a comforting feel which is not what I want to portray. It is clear that I need to consider the pallette carefully for this painting.

I think the most successful colour scheme is using the blues as it lends itself to a somewhat more dour atmosphere . The use of orange coloured highlights help to further accentuate the light. I think also at this point I need to experiment with texturising the foreground. .

The overall painting I want to be painted with a freshness and a vitality which is something my preliminary work often has, but the final piece often lacks it due to my overworking the image.

Paula Rego - Telling Tales [Excerpt 1]

Paula Rego

Rego. P Little Miss Muffet 1989 Print.

Rego. P. Jack and Jill. 1989 print

Rego.P Untitled (1986)

Rego. P Two Girls and a Dog (1987)

Another artist that I am researching is Paula Rego. Her works tell a story, but they have dark undertones, she shows the viewer scenes that we would not normally want to see . Her subjects at the same time are familiar as in domestic family scenes, little children and dogs but she paints them in such a way that appear grotesque and there is always an unsettling quality about her work.

Her art is principally to do with her own childhood experiences and the mother and daughter relationship are a recurring theme. With the mother portrayed as an overbearing and suffocating influence.

The women that she paints are often tough and muscular with malevolent expressions on their faces . Her work is not conventionally beautiful, but it is both ugly and beautiful at the same time .

She has painted scenes of schoolgirls having abortions and scenes that hint at incestuous relationships. They are dark, but she is not afraid to paint them. They are the experiences of women, and Germaine Greer has claimed that she she is the greatest painter of womens experience that has ever lived.

The prints that she created based on nursery rhymes which she created for her grandchildren are equally as disturbing. They are brilliantly executed, and she has such an amazing imagination. I think I read somewhere that as a little girl she was obsessed with Blakes paintings of Dantes Inferno and that is where she got a lot of her inspiration from for these nursery rhyme prints .

Rego quotes in an interview for the Guardian that," In Painting you have an emotional freedom to express everything. You can't do that in life - you wouldn't want to. I can turn the tables and make women stronger than men. I can make them obedient and murderous at the same time."

Jaggi M.(2004)
Her work is interesting to look at and it is definately subjective, as the paintings could have so many different stories depending on the viewers experiences and outlook. Perhaps this is why more women seem to relate and enjoy her work than men.
The Paintings that she created in the mid to late 1980 's which show one or sometimes two girls caring for a sick dog, were painted two years prior to her husbands death of Multiple Sclerosis.

The paintings show the girl helping the animal to eat and drink and to get dressed.

Jaggi, M (2004) Secret Histories. The Guardian. Saturday 17th July 2004.

A line from a poem by Carol Ann Duffy springs to mind whilst working on this painting,


"Wherever you have touched the earth, the earth is sore"


This kind of sums up the essence of what I am trying to portray in this painting.





Here, I am considering the colours and the positioning of the child. I am not too convinced about the size and the positioning of the child as he is a little too central.


I think I want to make him look really small and almost insignificant against the huge backdrop of tower blocks and fencing. So positioning is going to be important.


I have collaged newspaper and layered thin glazes of paint, in this colour study which does add further interest, but I am going to consider using them for the tower blocks .

a lost childhood pencil studies

These are a couple of pencil studies taken from my sketchbook. I want to be sure of the correct position and posture for the child.

I am thinking at this point I prefer the position of the first study, and I will probably use this one.

a lost childhood Sketch and colour study.

Returning back to my paintings for childhood. I feel that I have made the beginnings of a decision. I have so many ideas for this one that I have forced myself to make a final decision otherwise I am never going to get anything done.

The idea for this piece has an environmental twist, I am thinking about the theme of lost childhood. The natural sense of wonder that a small child has, seems to disappear so quickly and so many children grow up in cities where green fields and flowers are only pictures in a book. This is so sad to have such a strong disconnect from nature and probably contributes to so many ills in society now. I want to capture that innocence and wonder of a child who is surrounded by such ugliness and concrete.

This sketch and colour study have been taken from a really early sketch that I had in my sketchbook and I have reworked them slightly. For the colour study I sketched some tower blocks in photoshop, printed them out and used image transfer. The image did not actually come out strong enough and did not make enough impact so I had to paint into it. I am also not particularly convinced about the positioning of the child as he is a little too central so it may be better if he is moved to the side a little .

Art:21 | Nancy Spero

Nancy Spero at the Serpentine Gallery.

Snapshot taken from Artemis, Acrobats,Divas and Dancers. Mosaic on 66th st New York (1999)

Torture in Chile
silkscreen 1975

Maypole Take no Prisoners 2008

I visited the Serpentine Gallery in London in order to see an exhibition by Nancy Spero. Her work has always interested me and is kind of loosely tied in with my final project. Her work tackles issues that were considered at the time to be controversial. The movements of the New Left during the 1960s led to the growth of the counter culture and the blossoming of the Anti War movements. It was here that Spero began producing images that were indeed shocking. She would play around with the sexuality of the war machinery, for instance there are images of huge exaggerated phallic bombs with dismembered heads sticking their tongues out and vomiting . The images are obscene deliberately as she considered war as obscene. They are not aesthetic and pretty to look at. Her use of plenty of white space is another interesting feature as there are no distractions in the image . The viewer is forced to look at the central image and contemplate what she is saying.

She has used pen, pencil, ink Gouache,stencils, printmaking, collage and the use of text place a major part in a lot of her work. This is another interesting aspect of her work. I am interested in incorporating mixed media into my paintings and I am always interested in looking at other artists who use similar techniques, its always good to have a variety of skills at hand .

Spero is considered a feminist artist and she was not afraid to tackle issues that concerned the abuse of women. She empathised with the French author Artaud whose works were considered the writings of a madman. He was an outsider and although he was considered violent in gesture and language , he is masochistic and passive, therefore playing the part of the female victim.(Spero 1989)

Torture of Women is the first piece that Spero considered to be implicitly feministic . Typewritten texts from Amnesty International that illustrate institutional violence against women are cut and collaged onto large panels of paper, they are joined alongside female figures from ancient art. Her later works that followed tended to depict women less as victims and more as heroic characters who are very much aware of themselves and their sexuality.

I feel her work is even more significant now with the amount of political unrest and wars around the world. Even her work on feminism is still relevant as the female artist still struggles to be recognised within the art world compared to the male artist.

Childhood more ideas

I am still exploring ideas, I am undecided whether to produce work that is purely aesthetic or to produce something that is more conceptual.

The thinking behind this piece if I choose to go ahead with it, is about being considered a commodity as soon as a child is born. I can remember when my children were born I was innundated with samples and coupons for various baby consumables. This I feel is something that has become worse as time has gone on . There is a tapestry produced by Grayson Perry that explores the labels and brands that follow you through your life journey and this is very much thinking along similar lines. Its kind of about being tied to and trapped by marketing and money from a very young age and this is something that becomes even stronger as the child gets older, with peer group pressure and fashion and electronic goods etc the young consumer is even more trapped and apparent. This would serve as the idea for the second painting with the impact of lost childhood as they are forced to grow up so quickly.

So for this first piece of sketchbook work I have painted a rough shape of a baby on acetate as I am going to experiment with placing it various backgrounds to help give me an idea what to use. I am considering collage and image transfers at the moment.

final project CHILDHOOD.

My final project is going to be on the theme childhood . Throughout my course I have been doing some background work, investigating different ideas and themes . I am still not entirely sure at this point what I am going to decide upon. These are a few ideas and sketches from my sketchbook that i have jotted down while the thought was there. They are not finshed products by any means and are just the beginnings of what is proving to be a very diverse theme.

My first idea was to create a theme of fairy tales and a childs imagination. This would involve investigating both the fantasy world of dragons and castles and traditional fairy stories . The second would involve a rather more nightmarish quality of monsters under the bed and dark shadows. The traditional fairy tales that have been told to generations of children are themselves often quite gory and frightening. Hansel and Gretal is one tale in particular that remains in my head that takes on the quality of being a nightmare with the witch fattening the children up so that she can make them into a pie.....

So thats my thinking so far, and it may be that this is the theme that I will return to I can see that it has much potential ...

Gabriel Orozco Samurai Tree

I have found an interview with Orozco and the thinking behind his paintings , The Samurai Tree.

Orozco Exhibition

Orozco Gabriel Samurai Tree (invariant 3R) 2007 Tempera and gold leaf on wood

I went to visit the Tate Modern and the Orozco exhibition, I wasn't sure what to expect from this exhibition, as I had not seen anything by this artist before, so it was quite nice to approach this with no preconcieved ideas or opinions. It was interesting to see a large amount of media that he has used to convey his ideas.

I took my sketchbook round with me and done some quick sketches alongside writing down my first impressions about some of the pieces. I will type up my notes on here so that I can keep the impression fresh without doing any research. These are a few write ups on the pieces that had the most impact on me.

MY HANDS ARE MY HEART 1991

The first piece is a piece of red brick clay squeezed into a shape of a heart, the shape clearly shows the imprints of his hands. It has the appearance of just being squeezed aimlessly without any forethought of the outcome and I did wonder if this was just the result of a happy coincidence. There is a photo of him holding the clay piece over his heart, and the clay piece itself which is enclosed in a glass case. I suppose as an artist this is a statement about his hands which create his works are very much connected to his heart and his love of creating his art. Thats the impression I immediately took from it anyway.

OBIT SERIES 2008

This part of the exhibition was quite intriguing and for a while I was trying to figure out whether each banner was written about the same person. This became obvious when the statements began to contradict themselves. Basically he has taken some lines from the New York Times obituaries, and leaving out the names of the deceased person he has created a line on the banner that sums up each deceased person as they have appeared in the Obituary. I found this quite funny and sad at the same time and it bought to mind how insignificant life can be ,however well known you are your life can still be summed up in five or six little words......

LINTELS 2001

I wasn't sure what to make of this one really. First impressions was one of repulsion actually. Basically he has collected all the fluff and hair from tumble dryers in New York and refelted them all together to form a lint . He has then hung them all on line s which are strung across the gallery, to look like washing lines.

On a deeper level, once I had got over the psychological itching that this piece had managed to provoke. The fluff and hair is all taken from unknown people who may or may not be alive now. It could be considered to be a reminder of the impermenance of everything, but nothing ever completely disappears, there is always something that remains to be changed into something else.

LA DS 1993

This quirky little cart at first glance, just looks a little odd. For some reason it reminded me of a character car from a cartoon or something similar. Closer inspection revealed that it was in fact an old Citroen DS that has had the middle taken out of it and welded back together again. The car no longer has an engine, which generates the paradox of a completely static object, that is aerodynamically built for speed .

SAMURAI TREE INVARIANT PAINTINGS 2006-7

These paintings are really interesting and eyecatching. There are no visible brushstrokes and the colours consist of red, blue ,white and gold. They do give the impression of diagrams and there is an underlying pattern that relates to all three of the paintings where the backgrounds and colours of circles have all been reversed. This is not a a painting as such it is a diagram that seem to represent the branching out of possibilities and responses that are involved in playing any game.

Overall this was an interesting exhibition, I was impressed with the diversity of materials that he had used from painting and photography to the use of found objects and rubbish that have been remoulded and refashioned . This calls into question of how much something which is essentially a piece of rubbish could be considered an item of worth.

Sometimes conceptual art does leave me cold, if it doesn't immediately have a strong visual impact and I have to question too hard to understand it, there is a piece of me that kind of think that it has failed as a visual artwork. I am not going to say that the whole exhibition worked for me there were elements of it that I didn't find particularly engaging, but I would say the majority of it was both interesting to look at visually and it did make me question the underlying concept....

I was interested in investigating the colour interactions between the comlementary contrasts, orange and blue. When two complementary colours are juxtaposed, the two colours are enhanced which makes each colour seem more vibrant.

In places I have attempted to juxtapose two complementary colours of equal brightness. This is to give the impression of the squares floating or jittering around the surrounding colours.

I felt that as the colour combination was very intense and in order for the eyes to be given the chance to rest I have painted some rectangles in white.

However if the strong colours have been stared at for a long time, this gives the optical effect of seeing the image on the space. Itten explored this theory in his colour studies and it is known as " Successive Contrast". It is basically the cones on the retina that pick outs that particular colour tiring out, and the remaining cones in the eye therefore provide the after image, the complementary colour.

This has been an interesting exercise and has enabled me not only to explore the effects that complementary colours have on each other, but also the importance of finding a purity in colour.

The size and placement of the rectangle has just as much an impact as the colour. In some places I found that a smaller dark blue square gives the effect of pushing forward instead of receding which would normally be expected. But in saying that some of the blues are cool blues and some of the blues are warm blues, also the same applies to the orange colours, depending on what they have been mixed with. The Cadmium Red and Yellow are warm whereas the Lemon Yellow has a tendency towards Blue therefore it has a cooler tendency. Ultramarine Blue has a reddish undertone and could therefore be considered a warm Blue. This would account for the effect of pushing forward, particularly if sourrounded by cooler Blues.

This exercise has made me revisit and further question the effect that colours have on each other and optical effects that colour can produce in a painting.

Moving away from my love of colour I wanted to try and portray an abstract seascape using grey s . I can remember mixing these greys in my previous courses. The complementary colours neutralize each other and form neutral greys and browns, when white is added the greys that are created are brighter and more vibrant , and depending on what colour contrasts are used the creation of warm and cool greys can be achieved. This can be used to create a feeling of depth in the painting . With warm colours pushing forward and the cooler colours receding.

There is something I like about these small sketch book studies they have a certain tranquility to them and are loose enough to be considered as abstract.

grid paintings preliminary colour sketches from sketchbook

These are three grid sketches from my sketchbook where I have just used pens or paints to experiment with the effects of colour and size to each other. I am interested in investigating the colour contrasts such as red/green, or blue /orange ,yellow purple.

Mondrian

The gradual move away from representational work to the grid paintings that Mondrian is probably better known for, reveal a highly theoretical experiment with the relationships and interactions of colour and non colour.

Both Mondrian and Kandinsky were interested in the use of colour with an underlying spirituality associated with the individual colours. But both artists interpretations were completely different, with Mondrian approaching his works in a more objective fashion seeking to convey a pure abstract art free from human expression.

His grid paintings, where he used only the primary colours plus black, white and grey were a continuous quest to find harmony and balance using minimalist line and colour. The lines and the colours are balanced creating both positive and negative space, both mutually exclusive but are completely harmonious when viewed as a whole.

one of the finished abstract seascapes

Second attempt.

colour studies of two paintings by Barbara Rae .

1. Study of Fallmore 2010.

2. Tornapress 2010.

This is the finished abstract seascape, I have been inspired by the paintings of Barbara Rae and have tried to incorporate some of her techniques into the painting. I have incorporated monoprint to create some interest in the foreground. I used a print roller in places to spread and take away paint which reveals colour underneath . These techniques I feel have been successful and really helps to add interest to the painting.

However there are some things that I feel have not quite worked, the main question being is this really abstract enough? On one hand it is abstract in that it is not completely representational , but it is still immediately obvious what it is, so that begs the question how abstract do I go? If I was to take this further I could choose just a single flat plane of colour to represent the sea, the sky and the land this would be more in keeping with the works of De Stael. Perhaps to just work with the curve of the coastline would produce a more minimalist image . I am going to have another go as this first painting has caused me to question further ways of working with this idea. Colour has always been my main interest, so I am going to attempt to move away from that and try and present the seascapes in warm and cool greys.

My tutors comments on this painting have made me go back and do some more research . The comments that my original images were much livelier and the final painting was rather overworked . I can see this . I have reinvestigated Barbara Rae and have done a couple of small copies of two of her paintings in my sketchbook and in doing so am discovering that the brushwork is instinctive and this plays a major part in the immediacy and freshness of the image.

Also she has built up the depth of colour in al ot of her works by using thin washes of colour.

I am going to redo the painting again with a different palette and larger brushes...

My second attempt I have tried a completely differnt colour scheme. I particularly liked the colours that Da Stael used for his painting, Seaside Railway Line in the Setting Sun, and with this in mind I wanted to try a different pallete, using blues and oranges. I have built up the colours in place with thin washes similar to Barbara Rae and I have tried to keep the work fresh and instinctive, using a large brush and sweeping brushwork has I feel made the second image more successful less fussy. I feel happier with it as it has achieved a more simpler image that is more in keeping with the project aims.

Albers, J Homage to the Square "White Core" 1964

Mondrian, P Broadway Boogie Woogie. 1943

The artists Kandinsky and Klee, both from the Bauhaus, began to use colours to express feelings and movement rather than representation . Klee's paintings in particular are luminescent . His gentle watercolour paintings are both vibrant and exciting his use of colour was masterful, which is interesting as in the beginning of his career he considered colour to be no more than decoration and felt no need for its use in his work.

Kandinsky used colour as the subject of his paintings, often inspired by music. Probably his most famous colour study is, Concentric Circles, which is now such a famous image it appears on so many items its not unlike like the Mona Lisa in that respect.

If parts of a painting are equiluminant their positions become ambiguous, often appearing to shimmer or float. Many artists have experimented with this interaction with surprising results.

In Mondrian's painting, Broadway Boogie Woogie the yellow and grey squares have been painted with the same luminance(brightness) . The eye distinguishes adjacent objects if they have diferent levels of brightness, but because the yellow and grey are equiluminant the brain cannot position them accurately which results in the jittery motion in the painting.

Albers spent the majority of his painting career painting squares of colour inside of each other in order to explore how we percieve light and hues. He considered that the shape of a square was the most viable shape to study as its flatness and regularity was as far removed from nature as it could possibly be

The main intention of his Homage to the Square series was to create unusual and unpredictable effects. the subtly differentiated tones create distortions in size and his work has gone on to inspire many OP artists . He did not mix his colours he used them straight from the tube.

he quoted,

" I see colour as motion, to put two colour s together side by side really excites me . They breathe together.Its like a pulse beat .... I like to take a very weak colour and make it rich and beautiful or work on its neighbours . I can kill the most brilliant red by putting it with violet. I can make the dullest grey in the world dance by setting it against black...." Josef Albers 1973

colour theories

Bauhaus colour wheel

Chevreul colour wheel.

Colour and the interaction of colour can make or break a painting. Colour theories are important to the artist, but also at the same time can be quite complicated. I have been looking at some of the main colour theorists and have attempted to simplify the main points of there theories.

Goethe (1749-1832) expanded upon Newtons original colour theory, claiming that there was a pychological effect to colours. He argued that plus colours such as yellow conveyed light,action,force or warmth. Therefore the minus colours such as blue equate with shadow, weakness, coldness and melancholy.

He developed a colour circle where the circle colours are categorised into two sides positive and negative.

Colours from the positive side such as yellow, reddish yellow , yellowish red he argued that they are considered quick, lively and aspiring.

Colours from the negative side such as blue,reddish blue, blueish red he considered that when colours are selected from the negative side it creates soft feelings such as anxiety and restlessness.

When colours are selected from both sides the "splendid" effect is produced. To conclude Goethe theory was not so much about about creating a specific emotional effect but aimed at a balanced state.

Chevreul (1839) colour theories impacted upon the Impressionists and Post Impressionists.

He believed that complementary hue pairs create greatest harmony. When two colours are disharmonius they should be separated by black or white. White being used if the two colours are dark and black to be used if the two colours are light. Chevreuls theories have been regarded as the most important colour harmony principles.

He argued the two most important concepts known as optical mixing and simultaneous contrast.

Simultaneous contrast occurs when optical illusions are created by two bold colours placed in close proximity of each other interact with each other which then enhances the colours. For example a red and green placed next to each other will make each colour appear much brighter and more vibrant.

Optical Mixing

occurs when two primary colours are overlayed upon one another which appears to create the secondary colour. ( Seurat used this effect in his pointillist paintings)

Johannes Itten

Itten created a twelve hue colour wheel that forms contrasting elements.. He departed from Goethes original colour theories which generalised on the psychological effects of colour on people . He considered it to be a more personal and subjective reaction.

He explored "Successive Contrast" which is when the brain creates after images of colour. For example if the viewer stared at red then the brain produces an after image of green; reds complementary colour.

Itten taught at the Bauhaus and his theories were influential on artists such as Klee, Albers and Kandinsky.