|
|
By Heather, on September 11th, 2009
You’d think that would be a chance to relax, but it’s not. I have a project to hand in on Monday, another on Tuesday, and another on Friday. Each project has to be at least 10 pages from my sketchbook. My Coast project is due on Monday. Thankfully I have 16 pages. I haven’t finished them. There is still a bit of painting to be done, but the groundwork has been done at least. I’ll work on it tomorrow and finish it off, so I can work on the My Space project, which is due on Tuesday. That gives me a day and half to complete that one. Tonight, I’m taking it easy.
I had a half day at college today, so I took the opportunity to go to the art gallery. We are very lucky to have the Ron Mueck exhibition here in Aberdeen until the end of October. I first saw his work several months ago on Flickr, and I was blown away by it. He used to work for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, but transferred over to human sculpture. This isn’t sculpture in the traditional sense. It’s extremely realistic sculpture – cradle to the grave sculpture. What amazes me is the detail, right down to the follicles and tiny lines on human flesh that are only perceptible by very close examination. The first piece was a huge mask.
The detail was stunning right down to the stubble on the face. The next piece was probably what most people would say is the most freaky: Baby.
I loved this piece. It’s supposed to be a newborn baby with the umbilical cord still attached, and covered in afterbirth. The eye was so real, and my favourite part was the hands. They were perfect, with beautiful little fingernails. I use little relatively here. If you looked up the nose, you could actually see nose hair. This was accompanied by a time-lapse video showing the making of this sculpture. It was simply amazing seeing the whole process.
I walked into the next room, and the most beautiful image was presented to me. It was that of a couple cuddled up close together in bed, semi-naked. Absolutely everything was perfect. There was such a peacefulness to this. What was truly stunning about this was that they were about the size of a quite small newborn baby. This was without a doubt my favourite piece in the show.
There were several other pieces including a huge naked man sitting on a chair, and I mean huge. He almost touched the ceiling of the gallery room, but again, the level of detail was breathtaking.
What I truly loved about this exhibition, was that the scale of each sculpture was completely blown up or down, outwith our expectations. I think it’s designed to provoke the reaction of eeriness, as it goes completely against what we expect to see. I think this has a very disconcerting effect on many people. You could see that just from the reactions of the viewing public. Most people were completely creeped out by the baby. My friend Catherine and I were just amazed by what we saw and spent ages pouring over the tiniest details.
Ron Mueck will be giving a talk on the last day of the exhibition, and our tutor is arranging for us to go hear him. I think this will prove fascinating, just to hear his thought processes. I urge anyone to go see this exhibition the next time it is in your area, or if you are visiting an area where it will be on display. You will not be disappointed.
By Heather, on September 10th, 2009
I finally found some focus for my painting theme today. I was really unsure about what to put in my sketchbook, but after looking at the portfolios of degree applicants I got a real sense of what was required. So, I’ve been working on my sketchbook this evening. Just some rough ideas of style and content.
I mentioned that I was going to re-work other artists’ work for the project. I’ve found some images and ideas that I quite like. I was looking at the Mona Lisa painting again, and thought it would look really good done in the style of Frank Auerbach. He was completely unknown to me, but I’ve had a look at his work and it is fabulous, and very expressive, which is more my style.
I haven’t decided what other paintings to re-work but I have some styles I’d like to try. There is Picasso, based on Head of a Woman, which is gorgeous. I particularly love the monochromatic scheme of the piece, and think it would make a great colour study. I painted it this evening, and I’d really like to find an image to work around it.
I also found a piece by Andre Derain. It’s a painting of Matisse. I particularly like the bold colours, and the contrasts of light and dark, and how they form the shape of the painting. I may try to apply this to a landscape painting, but I haven’t decided yet. I have a week to decide, but at least there’s progress from yesterday!
By Heather, on September 9th, 2009
I’ve been trying to decide which theme to paint to for my project. I think I’ve decided to go with reworking famous paintings. I’ve been looking through my Picasso book to get ideas for style, and I’ve found a lot that I really love. So I thought about trying to design Old Master paintings in a Picasso style. The first piece I looked at was Rubens’ Portrait of Susanna Lunden nee Fournment. I found a drawing of Francoise Gilot by Picasso. The image is called Head of a Woman. I really liked the style of it and wondered if I could apply the same style to the Rubens’ painting, so I’ve sketched out my representation of it.
Here’s the original painting by Rubens:
Here is Picasso’s Head of a Woman:
Here’s my representation of Rubens’ painting in sketch format:
It’s just a rough sketch but it gives an idea of what it may look like. I have to carry out a colour study next. I’m thinking of going with a monochromatic study in blue. Blue is my absolute favourite colour, and one thing I love about many of Picasso’s paintings is that he explores the use of blue quite a lot.
I’m also thinking of painting the Mona Lisa in the style of another Picasso painting – Self Portrait 1972:
I haven’t decided as yet, but I would really like to attempt this. It all depends on time I guess as this is quite a complicated painting, but fascinating nonetheless.
By Heather, on September 8th, 2009
My bodyclock still hasn’t caught up with my course, so I’m still feeling very tired. I’ve been working on my project all day today, and I’ve got a few great ideas for a couple of the projects. However, I’ll hold back on them until I’ve done the pieces, and then I can tell the stories behind them. They are great stories – part of the folklore of my home that I’d completely forgotten about.
So for tonight, I will show you the first experimental piece that I worked on in day one of my course. I’d forgotten about it until my tutor mentioned it today, so I brought it home and will be adding it to my sketchbook.
By Heather, on September 7th, 2009
Today, I was working on lino prints, which was pretty cool, but sore on the forefinger! I managed to make a print of Newark Castle, which stands on the banks of the River Clyde just 2 miles from where I was brought up. I haven’t got the work to show you as it is on the wall at college.
This afternoon was life drawing…AND we had a nude model! I was told by my painting tutor that because there are people under the age of 18 years old in the class that we wouldn’t get nude drawing, but we did! I was painting my skeleton that I started last week, and I saw the model. I thought he would be clothed, but no, he stood up and removed his housecoat to reveal nakedness. I was really pleased, and I think we all were. The model was in his fifties but he had a fantastic body to draw from. So our job today was to fit the body over the skeleton we had drawn. I was really pleased with how I did, and my tutor said I’d done a great job, so that made me feel really happy, and confident! Our tutor is so encouraging to everyone in the class. That makes a huge difference. He focuses on the positive, giving gentle nudges where he thinks you could make improvements. Although, he cracks me up because he can’t say skeleton. It’s a skellington! It gives me the gigglies but he can be forgiven because he’s such a lovely little guy.
I was exhausted when I got home. Direct observation really takes it out of you, and there’s all that standing at the easel. My arm feels like it’s going to fall off, but thankfully we get a break in between poses, as the poses are generally half an hour long.
So, I had to come home and work on my ‘My Space’ project. I have to do 10 images in total by next week, and I’ve managed to get 7 done already, so I’m not doing too badly.
The first was an image of crayons that I stuck onto my page, then I marked out some swings on them in pen. I then drew on some oil pastel and added Quink ink and allowed it to dry. I finished it off by painting the swings using white acrylic.
The next piece I painted in acrylics. It’s a self portrait in a Picassoesque style. I like how it’s turned out. I sketched it this morning while sitting in the college canteen before the start of class. When I came home I blocked in the background colour using Cerulean Blue, then scumbled on Phthalo Blue. I then worked on the individual elements by blocking in each colour then blending them. My only disappointment is that acrylics dry far too quickly and I couldn’t achieve the blending result I was looking for, but you have to make do with what you’ve got.
So, tomorrow I should be working on my Painting project. I still haven’t decided on a theme but I’ll decide tomorrow. For now, it’s bedtime!
|
About Heather 
I'm a student artist, and have just started my second year at college. I work in many areas of art, specialising in abstract fine art, and I'm also studying traditional realism at an Atelier School in Aberdeen. Follow me on my journey, and share my experiences, as I progress through my studies.
|
