Research point: domestic interiors

Elizabeth Barnett

Elizabeth Barnett depicts intimate domestic scenes and still lifes with a wide range of plants, colour, personal objects, and furnishings. Her work revolves around motherhood, living off the land and her connection to nature.

Nature Table is a still life that connects nature and her domestic world. This is done by her depiction of everyday objects along side an array of plants . This artwork exists to connect humanity and nature.

Herbal Medicine is a series inspired by natural remedies, joining motherhood and Barnett’s connection to nature. Here she works on a larger scale larger scale, making compositions looser and more welcoming. The size of the canvas gives the feeling that one could walk into the artwork.

Folk Medicine
Rest and Relaxation
Three Kinds of Mint

date I visited sites: 19/08/2019

https://elizabethbarnett.com/2019-Nature-Table

https://elizabethbarnett.com/2017-Herbal-Medicine-TDF-Collect

TDF Collect · ‘Herbal Medicine’ by Elizabeth Barnett

Matthias Weischer

Matthias Weischer’s paintings incorporate both reality and imagination. He is interested in the historical medium, perspective and representation while making it his own by adding collage-like elements. He builds the artwork up by using many payers of paint, adding to the three -dimensionality of his work. His work strives to find the balance between chaos and harmony.

Matthias Weischer

Date I visited sites: 19/08/2019

https://grimmgallery.com/artists/matthies-weischer/

https://www.artsy.net/artist/matthies-weischer

Jonas Wood

Jona Wood is well known for his depictions of everyday scenes and objects. He was inspired by the disconnected angles and planes of cubism and so uses odd views for his artwork. He starts off with photographic bases and then goes on to layer different perspectives into the artwork giving an almost abstract atmosphere to his work.

black still life
shio butterfly still life
studio hallway
the speller

Date I visited site: 19/08/2019

https://www.sothebys.com/en/artists/jonas-wood

Phillip Geiger

Phillip Geiger depicts scenes of everyday life with his family. His use of loose brushwork and colour give a calm and peaceful effect on the viewer. His work tells us focus on and appreciate the calm and mundane moments and events in life. His work is simplistic yet says a lot about peoples misplaced priorities. The simple and seamingly unimportant moments in life are the ones we look back on when remembering loved ones and so must be treasured. Geiger immortalizes these moments in his artwork

Exercise 2: Composition- an interior

I decided to change from ink to pencil so that I can erase mistakes and spend more time on the drawing. At first I used coal but felt that I could not get the tonal range I wanted, This could be in part that I am not very experienced with the medium.

For my second drawing I just redrew the scene and shaded with pencil. I found this gave better mark making and tone.

I went and drew all my favorite scenes in the house until I came to one that I liked enough to use for Exercise 3. In hindsight I think I should ave chosen the scene bellow because it is busier and more interesting, it is also a more personal and intimate space. I am still happy with the scene I ended up choosing though.

I chose this scene because I like the light and dark contrasts. There is also nice colour contrast with the warm brow of steps and the cool gray of the beams and railing. I also like the the straight and uniform lines broken only by the balls on the railing and the jacket hanging from the rails. This scene has a strong vertical plane. There is also a good sense of depth with the stairs and the hallway.

This is the rough colorization of the chosen scene.

Exercise 3: Material Differences

I decided to combine these two exercises into one post, I feel it’s easier that way.

I was glad that I could add a lot of detail working on this size paper but it is not fit to be used for watercolour. As you can see the paper warped dramatically. However, I still enjoyed doing it.

All other comentry on the scene was done on my prep drawings and I don’t feel the need to repeat it since it it has been done all in one post.

;:;

Exercise 1: Quick sketches around the house

This exercise was difficult for me since I’m not used to drawing household scenes.

I decided to use a fine nib for my dip pen so I could get clean lines. I felt that using a pencil could make things too messy.

One issue with ink is that I couldn’t erase, although that did force me to quick sketches as the exercise said so that wasn’t too much of a problem. Another issue was that I found it difficult to shade which made my drawings less detailed perhaps.

Towards the end I started to get the hang of drawing inside scenes.

Exercise 4: Monochrome

I decided on using blue because it is a calm colour and it is my favorite colour. The medium I used was watercolour because it is the one I am most familiar with. I wanted to try making different underlying colours in my different objects. But as you can see in my first prep drawing (i), I made those tones too strong. I was happy with the outcome of my second prep drawing and so immediately went on to my final.

The skins of the fruit are shiny but not reflective. The bowl and the table are both reflective, the table more so, and so they reflect off of each other. I chose to use a table that is very reflective so as to make the artwork a but busier.

The fruit were lit up from behind and so they have a halo of light surrounding them which just separates them from the background. The bowl of fruit has the widest range of tones, giving them more detail and helping them to stand out as the main focus of the composition. In some areas of the apples I did not leave space for the lighter tones and so had to go back over with white paint, this shows a lack of planning.

The back ground has both light and dark tones but they are more muted and there is not a large variety.

I feel that the watercolour also worked tell because the smoothness and simplicity of the paint works well to portray the subjects which do not have very rough surface texture.

I did not do a very good job at keeping clean lines however and this is most evident in the background.

I preferred the texture of the apples in my first and second prep drawings. I was able to get a bit of the same texture in my final piece and I think it still came out good but it would have been better if i got the texture correct. The texture I preferred was that where the different tones did not blend together 100%. The apples in the front have a smoother gradient because started with them first and only got the hang of it when I got to the fruit in the back. This texture was about my preferred style of watercolour painting than about portraying the surface texture if the apples.

At the end of the day I am happy with what I made but perhaps I should have made a prep drawing in the same size paper that I would be working on in my final piece and should have then made more notes details how to get my desired style.

Exercise 3: Experiment with mixed media

With all the media I used I struggled to get the soft pink tone of the cup.

I decided to start off with a medium that I was used to and so chose watercolour. The paper I used with the watercolour was also not watercolour paper so the colour became distorted as the paper got wet so I just had to wait for my layers to dry before carrying on. Making the shadows was also a bit difficult because I felt I would either change the colour completely or it would end up becoming rather muddy.

The oil pastel was fun to work with and I liked the rich colours it made. It is the complete oposite of working with watercolour. Working in the tight spaces of the flowers was a bit difficult but I managed. It was also difficult to get a soft tone for the background since the oil pastels have such strong colours and I couldn’t find a close enough shade.

The first non traditional media I used was markers. I’d scribble woth my desired colours and then I went over with alcohol and that’s how I got the washed out effects. I layered the markers alcohol until I was happy with the result. For the cup I used a pink highlighter but it had no reaction to the alcohol. I then tried water to see if it would maybe react to that but I had to suck luck.

I liked how the borders of the objects seeped into one another, although it was not initially my intention. once everything was dry I decided to go over with a black pen and make rough outlines of the objects just to make them a bit more distinguishable. Creating shadows was also a bit difficult because it would just blend in to much. I also outlined he shadows but I now thing I perhaps should have not done so.

The last media I used was wax crayons. At first I didn’t really want to because I thought it would be a bit too similar to the oil pastels but then had the wonderful idea of melting the crayons. After colouring in an area I held it under my hairdryer but that didn’t really do much. I then started smudging it about with my fingers and liked the smooth texture it made so I carried on with that. I burned my finger but really enjoyed the outcome. I’m also happy with the veriety of colours i could make because I had very limited pallet.

Exercise 2: Still life using tone and colour

This exercise was especially challenging since I’m not used to colouring. Since I was using dry media I found it difficult to find the right tones of colour because I could not mix the colours like paint. I was tempted to go over with water so i could mix and control the colours more but I felt it went against the point of the exercise which was to layer colour and work fast.

It was difficult for me to portray the transparency the blue and red lanterns and I felt that my colours were too bright and had difficulty dulling them down.

I also faced difficulty when it came to the edges of my objects. it was hard to get sharp edges and this may be from me using my fingers to blend the colours. In fear of blending my objects and colours together I ended up leaving an undesirable white ring around all my objects. In hindsight I may have been able to avoid these difficulties if I used a sharp edged blending tool instead of my fingers.

In my second drawing, I decided to do away with the two lanterns because I preferred the composition with just the three other objects. The pencils I used were watercolour and once more I felt like working over it with water but decided against it because it went against the point of the exercise. This one ended up looking rather washed out but it may be from my lack of colouring skill of maybe it’s just the natural effect of the pencil, although the pencils I used were good quality so I’m leaning more toward it being my fault.

Colour blending here was more difficult than in the last drawing because here I had no way of blending without water. I do however rather enjoy the random patches of colour especially with bottle in the back.

Exercise 1: Still life using line

The objects I collected for my still life have the common theme of the desert/Africa. I gave my still life two light sources,one being natural light coming from the window and the other from the lights in my room. I then took pictures from different angles.

Next I made sketches using the pictures as references until I found an angle that I liked.

i
ii
iii

I decided that the best line work would be done with my dip pen and used my smallest nib in order to catch more detail. I went over the sketches with my dip pen to see how it would look and it it would work the way i wanted it to. In in sketch iii I tried going over the ink with a wet brush to try make larger dark areas but I was not happy with the result and the ink went through the page as seen in sketch ii.

(side note: the sponge I use in my ink pot fell onto my page and that’s why sketch ii has a black patch)

i
ii
iii

I chose an angle looking from the bottom of the still life because it shows more depth and perspective. Unfortunately I also chose an angle that has an empty white wall as a background aside from the back edge of the table. The smooth background however does contrast with messy lines of the object. I also used objects that contrast in surface texture although I may have not portrayed at as well as if I used a wet brush with the ink but I am still very happy with the result. MY smoother surfaces such as the glass and the wood have been done with straight lines and the rougher textures such as the rocks were done with more scribbled lines.

final piece

While doing this exercise I noticed that my style of drawing is developing. My drawing skills, control medium and mark making is also getting more confident. When sketching out these drawing I found I did not have rework the shapes I drew. My line work is certainly improving and I thoroughly enjoyed the exercise.

Exercise 1: Detail and Tone

I started off by doing life size sketch of my rock then made a larger scaled one and tested out possible colouring.

life size sketch

One main focus was to find a way to portray the colour and texture of the rock. I was also a bit nervous about adding colour since the exercise never exactly said we could use colour. In the end I felt that the tone in the small crystals would be portrayed better if done in colour and so I decided to continue with that while keeping the rock in fairly muted tones of black and white with small hits of its natural brown colour.

Sketch 1: here I made a larger scaled sketch of the life sized sketch. At the time I had thought of making the sketches by measuring dimensions from life and converting it according to scale but this turned out to be too much of a mission and so decided to free hand the rest. I coloured the rock with a mixture of oil pastels and wax crayons. I did the crystals with wax crayons because they had soft tones but in the end the lack hues and rough texture was what made me decide not to use them.

I then went and made sketches of one small area of the rock at a time instead of doing the entire thing.

Sketch 2: Here for the crystal areas I decided to use soft pastels. I also tested out using colours or shades of grey but preferred the effect of the colour and so stuck with that. For the rock I decided to try the oil pastels again but try to use colour instead. I did not like the outcome of using colour colour and so decided to rather stick to Black and while. However I was still not quite happy with the texture of the rock and so decided to carry on with the sketches.

Sketch 3: here I added a cooler brown to the crystals which I feel gave it more translucent depth. I tried shading the rock with a ball point pen although I still felt it did not portray the texture correctly. I then tried shading over it with a pencil but that made no improvement.

I felt that ink would be my pest bet still so I did one last ink test but this time with my dip pen. In the test however it still wasn’t the correct texture but i knew that my dip pen and ink would give me the best results so I carried on with it in my final peace anyway.

sketch 1
ink test
sketch 2(top), sketch 3(bottom)

After finding an angle I liked, I took a photo reference and then picked one area of the rock to focus on and zoomed into that area of the picture.

I am very happy with the outcome of the rock texture in my final piece. I went in with my finest dip pen nib and so could make very delicate lines. I struggled on fulling the darkest shadows though so I went in the a cool dark brown powder pastel and then tent over with a wet brush. I also lightened areas by going over with the wet brush and then dabbing tissue paper. I then went over the rest of the are with the wet brush to create my more mid ones and left clean white patches for highlight.

In my final piece the crystals are a lot lighter than those in the sketches but I felt the lighter crystals looked closer to the actual reference object I had although they appear darker in the reference pictures. I felt it to be challenging to define the corners of the crystals but I think I did a good job at it. Blending the stone into the crystals was also difficult. Overall I’m happy with the results.

In my practice sketches I neglected to take in account of the shadow and so it was very poorly done, with powder pastel, in my final piece.

Unfortunately part of my paper was eaten by my rabbit and instead of redoing the entire drawing I decided to try and incorporate it into the drawing and added another piece of paper behind it so i could full in the shadow.

Research point, Positive and Negative space

Gary Hume’s work is influenced by many different art movements and his work can be described as Post-modern. His simplistic subject matter and large flat planes of colour are influence from Minimalism and Pop Art. Other influences come from OP-Art and Neo-Geo

Hume states, “I used to think of the areas of color as tectonic plates meeting, so in the paintings it’s like there are these molten plates that would hit each other and dry. I wanted one of those plates to be higher than the other, and I wanted the hit to be more abrupt.” This can especially be seen in the images bellow. He uses cool colours for the faces and warm colours for the background. This use of colour makes it appear that the background is coming forward while the subject moves back. The use of complimentary colours also cause the flat planes to clash and stand out even more.

In “love loves unlovable” the subjects are black silhouettes framed by flowers. It is as though the light it coming off of the colourful flowers. The subjects are made from negative space yet it is clear that they are the main focal points of the artwork.

The silhouettes mirror themselves yet it is unclear which is the reflection. This artwork symbolizes a period in Hume’s life of self-evaluation and growth as to the type of artist he wished to be.

Bellow are photographs taken by artist Amil Jadhav. the purpose of these pictures was to inspire people to adopt animals from shelters. Jadhav’s amazing use of positive and negative space creates impressive optical illusions. When I first saw the pictures I immediately saw the white silhouettes of the animals and assumed that as the positive space. Upon a closer look I realized that the darker areas consisted of people and what I had mistaken as negative space was really the positive space. Although I’d say that the positive and negative spaces are interchangeable.

Sources

http://www.artnet.com/artists/gary-hume/

read: 22/06/2019

https://www.theartstory.org/artist-hume-gary.htm

read: 22/06/2019

https://www.thedodo.com/optical-illusions-pet-adoption-2365410802.html?media=https%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fassets3.thrillist.com%2Fv1%2Fimage%2F2445638%2Fsize%2Ftmg-facebook_share.jpg&description=%22There%27s%20always%20room%20for%20more.%20Adopt.%22

by: Stephen Messenger. posted: 17/04/2017

Image sources

za.pinterest.com/pin/466544842644678746/?lp=true

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hume-cerith-p78688

http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/gary_hume_10.htm

http://www.thedodo.com/optical-illusions-pet-adoption-2365410802.html

Research Point; Still Life

sixteenth- and seventeenth- century Dutch painters

The still life genre boomed in Flanders, Holland and Germany during the sixteenth century due to the Prodistant revolt against the Church of Rome. This lead to the near end of religious artwork and allowed artists to explore new subject matter and mediums.

This new genre challenged artists to create realistic and true-to-life artwork. This level of mastery was reached in the seventeenth century and is known as “Dutch Realism”.

The earliest still lifes AD were done in 1502 and 1504. Later, in 1520s-30s paintings containing moral messages and symbols was introduced by the German artist Hans Holbein the Younger. These messages were portrayed by using symbolic objects. The purpose of this symbolism was to remind the viewer of their/our short and sad lives on the earthly plane of existence.

Nineteenth- century artists’ interpretation

Still life has survived through many different art movements. These artworks would usually consist of everyday objects. Each art movement inspired a new approach to still life and painting as a whole. It was most popular during Post-Impressionism and was adopted by both Van Gogh and Cezanne. Cezanne also incorporated skulls into his work, influenced by the vanitas genre.

Van Gogh
Van Gogh
Cezanne
Cezanna

The Cubist approach to still life involved breaking down objects into flat basic shapes. they would paint the subjects as viewed from multiple angles at once.

Bottle and Fishes c.1910-2 Georges Braque

Fauvists went about incorporating unnatural colours into their still life paintings. They focused more on portraying their emotions and feelings towards the objects instead of the objects themselves.

Contemporary artists

Themes such as death, time and consumption are common in contemporary art today. Photography is often used and many artists will try and compete with the quality of today’s technology by creating hyper realistic artwork.

Ori Gersht recreates scenes from 19th century still life art with vases of flowers and photographs them mid explosion as part of his series “History Repeating”. He does this to depict history repeating itself and the fragility of life.

Laura Letinsky is an artist who depicts things after their purpose has been fulfilled; she says she wants to explore “the more meager path, an inclination to be happy with what you have. It all made me want to look at the still life in the moment after things are consumed—thinking about this ‘post’ moment, about hunger, about desire and want and need.”

In her “The Dog and The Wolf” series, she photographs still lifes with orange peels, half eaten foods such as cake, deflated balloons and other such objects that show that people have been there in left their discarded materials behind.

She invites us to enjoy life but at the same time shows the passing of time and that all things end.