Experiments

This piece I felt was successful because I have used a wide range of mediums and it has a creative use of composition. I have also added both aspects of my artists own work as well as my own in this piece. It relates to Debbie Smyth by the use of thread and Guy Denning by the use of rough and rushed lines. It could be improved by thinking more creatively on how I have used the thread in this piece and adding darker tones of brown into it. To do this, I will perhaps look into rusting or use watercolour for different tones. I may also look into the artist Debbie Smyth differently by choosing a different technique of hers to look at, for example her contrast. I feel this has helped me in my final piece because I think I may use a dripping effect and coffee in my own work as an idea. I am proud of this experiment and it has given me new ideas which I will look into.

This piece I feel was less successful than the first because the mediums I have used together do not work as well as I had hoped as they smudged each other. I tried to add a new technique of masking tape into the work to see if it added any effects but it seems very subtle and not very noticeable in this. I have not used any techniques of Debbie Smyth but I have focused on using Guy Denning's use of lines into it to see how it turned out. I feel I could improve this by being more accurate with the lines and not using pastel and coffee together. This has helped me for ideas of a final piece because it has gave me ideas of what to use and what not to use in terms of mediums in this. I am unhappy with this piece, but it has helped me learn from my mistakes and create better pieces in my future experiments.

This piece I feel is somewhat successful because I have created a blended, smooth texture with pastels that contrast with the black, rough texture of a thread at the bottom. I have created a broken effect using graphite which I feel is effective and meaningful in my theme. I used Debbie Smyth's technique of thread in this piece which I think is a good choice because it creates rough, inaccurate lines which are effective in this piece. This could be improved by making the clock more circular and making the pastel section more in relation to the piece. This has helped me think of ideas of what sort of lines I want to create in my final piece, for example, the broken graphite effect. I think I am happy with this experiment due to it giving me ideas of what I can potentially use in my work.

This piece I find is more successful than the last. This is because I added the masking tape effect again but with a black pastel background. This for me created a bigger contrast that I found more effective. However I could improve it by making the masking tape effect smaller so more of the picture is seen. I could do this by folding the tape and increasing the scale. I can relate this work to my theme of time, where there is a clock in the background and the masking tape represents lost memories that have been wiped. I intend to stick with this theme. This has made me want to study more into fragmentation, and perhaps look for an artist who does so. I want to keep the technique of fragmentation into my work for my final piece. I am particularly proud of this piece, because it has given me ideas for my final piece.

In this experiment I used mixed media, as well as coffee, thread and ink. I feel like this was successful but it could be easily improved by using less black so you can see the image. I feel it is successful because it has use of different mediums and contrast from the different textures with the mixed media. I can relate my work to Guy Denning with the use of rushed lines and Debbie Smyth with the use of thread. However it is different by me using mixed media and different abstract shapes to complete it. I may use mixed media in some parts of my final piece due to this experiment. However I feel I will not use it all over the piece because I am not happy with how it has turned out.

Artist analysis - Guy Denning

Guy Denning is an artist who frequently uses powerful brushstrokes with oils and the scratching of paint to create effective figurative paintings. He was self-taught and always interested by art, despite being refused entry for several art colleges. The refusal he got from art college is one of the reasons he is who he is today in terms of art style, as he had to teach himself rather than learn from others and maybe get told how to do certain things. He was inspired by Franz Kline and his powerful brushstrokes in his abstract drawings as well as Kathe Kollwitz, but now paints figurative portraiture to convey power emotions and meaning which he says changes throughout the process of creating his work, but is mainly focused on politics, society and war. War became a huge meaning to his work when he went to France with his family and they took him to the war cemetery in Verdun. War is affiliated with loss, which is the meaning I wish to convey in my works.

One of his works, titled ‘El Dopa’ is a close-up portrait of a woman, which he had used oil paint on canvas to make this piece. The portrait itself is very heavily coloured in black around the nose, eyes and face, which takes away a few details in most of the face, for example the nostrils, the pupils and the majority of her lips. He also uses Shades of brown and white, as if he had tea-stained the canvas beforehand. There are few white highlights, to perhaps give less contrast so we focus on the whole piece instead of one area. The background looks like a map, with lines protruding anywhere to give a ‘broken’ vibe to the woman’s face, as they resemble cracks on her face. The woman herself looks emotionless, but with the dark colours and lack of contrast it is assumed the woman’s emotions and thoughts from the inside has been shown from the colour scheme, resembling unhappy feelings, with the ‘cracks’ being a metaphor for her mind, as her mind and emotions are broken, which really puts a deeper meaning into the artwork.  With the colour scheme, it bears the thought that the artwork has a much more serious meaning. The word ‘dopa’ in the title is a compound that is used to treat Parkinson’s disease, which could be related to the serious nature of this painting, where the woman is broken due to someone she lost. The colour black also has a negative connotation, like fear and death, which also links into the theme of loss in this piece. The brown could be a contrast to the meaning of the piece as it symbolises family and health.

Guy Denning frequently uses canvas from sizes as small as 30cm to as big as 100cm, usually creating a 3D effect by scratching the paint on the canvas itself, creating different layers. Guy Denning’s use of line is very controlled in his works, often not being precise, but in fact very free and chaotic. His mark-making are also usually very sharp and jagged, as it is like they have been scratched. They also look like they have been drawn very quick. His tone is also quite simple but varied, making most of his works heavily contrast with the black areas compared to the lack of white highlights, it creates a more realistic and 3D effect with the tone. His colours are primarily the primary colour of black and white and different variations of the tertiary colour brown to create a dark and meaningful piece, avoiding bright colours to convey a more serious meaning, however he has occasionally used bright primary colours such as red as a form of contrast. Because most of his work is based around war, it is fitting that he uses colours that symbolises negative feelings rather than bright colours which are usually affiliated with happy feelings. However, the red could be seen as negative in terms of war, as it could symbolise blood. He uses a rough texture in his work which is accomplished by his scratching of the oil paint. Oil paint itself is a very smooth texture, which contrasts with the scratched areas and the canvas, which are both quite rough textures to work with.

Guy Denning usually works into his piece by first creating a background of simply brown shades, then proceeds to draw whatever he wants. His work is very spontaneous, where the meaning often changes in his work and he has no clear plan on what the finished product will be. Most of his works usually end up with a meaning of seriousness in terms of violence, war, loss and politics, which he finds important to him due to him visiting the war cemetery back when he was child. This is usually conveyed using plain colours with most negative connotations, as well as the portraits being controlled and their subjects being emotionless.

 I find Guy Denning very inspiring by the way he uses colours and lines to convey the meaning he does, as a meaning of loss is one of the deeper interpretations I want to get out of my work. His use of lines is what inspires me the most, as the lines giving the impression of ‘broken’ is another meaning I find inspiring as it is very loose and free. He relates to my work due to the meanings he portrays and the use of lines I wish to incorporate into my drawings due to them being effective.

Artist Analysis - Debbie Smyth

Debbie Smyth is a contemporary textile artist specialising in nail and thread drawings. She creates her works by accurately plotting nails into walls and stretching various amounts of threads between them to create an image that range from towns to people. Most of her work is installed directly onto walls, installations, exhibitions and public areas giving her work a 3D effect. The effect she gives at first looks like a mass of thread everywhere yet it is actually directed and controlled, which is what I would like to accomplish in my own piece of work.

She had been interested in thread since she had learned to sew at a very early age.  She had studied in the West Wales School of the Arts and Colaiste Stiofain Naofa, Cork, doing both textiles and art, craft and design, which influenced her style of working with threads and nails to create what she does today. She was also influenced by the work of Michael Raedecker, Thomas Raschke, Anne Wilson, and Laura Thomas and found them inspiring by their work of textiles. Debbie Smyth tries to convey a meaning of great feeling and energy and spontaneity, as well as occasionally humour.  

The work titled ‘It’s a small world’ installed as part of The Map is not the Territory exhibition at 44AD Bath, is a thread and nail drawing of our world. At a first glance, it looks like lines connected to each side of the wall in the corner with the shape of the part of the world on either side, seemingly being connected by the lines. She only uses black thread against a pure white wall, emphasising contrast in this 3D structure. There are also white blocks on the black floor, further fitting with the black and white colour scheme as well as contrasting with the floor. The blocks in the piece do not touch the white wall to keep with the contrast. The blocks could be seen as buildings, particularly from a city, and a close up of the back thread artwork of our world behind the blocks. The lines connecting the worlds are with very thin thread, so the worlds that have been layered repeatedly with thread stand out even behind the thread lines. The lines can be seen as connections, meaning that all of the world is somehow connected one way or the other, maybe by technology, politics or even similarities. Therefore, despite the long distance there is from one another, there are still ways of connecting every one of us together. The meaning is quite a serious one, because it makes you think deeper into the piece and how technological advances have actually helped communication in our time now than how it was in the past.

Debbie Smyth is usually a very flexible artist when it comes to scale, frequently using walls from a museum or even interior walls from homes as a form of surface which are all different shapes and sizes. All of her work has a 3D element as she uses nails and thread so it sticks out the wall. The extent of how much she uses the thread is quite large, as she has pure black areas which would use a huge amount of thread in her work. The thread makes it so the lines are usually straight, but with a large amount of thread in the corner. This is so not all the lines are the same thickness because she sometimes uses a different amount of thread in certain areas to emphasise the lines and detail in the piece. Debbie Smyth doesn’t include much variety of mark making, but it is very loose but controlled in the way she handles the thread to create the accurate representations of objects and people. She does not include any tone, as the only medium she uses is black thread. However, the shade from the thread onto the wall can be counted as tone as it is 3D. Because she doesn’t use any primary colours (only uses black thread on white walls) her colours are very limited also, as her work is very monochrome and does not include any form of shading. The lack of a variety of colours gives the viewer the chance to be more focused on the actual image, rather than the colours. This may have been what the artist had intended, as it allows the viewer to understand he deeper meaning quicker than if they were just focused on the colour. She has a 3D texture, because she uses primarily black thread in the piece of work that sticks out from the smooth texture of the wall it is used on.

She works into her piece by first using a completely white wall as her background. She then proceeds to nail into the wall the basic shape of what she intends to make with her thread. Finally, she arranges the thread around the nails, creating an image made of thread. The meaning behind her works are very varied, some have a serious meaning relating to the world or society while others are quite comedic. The meanings are usually inferred by the subjects themselves, due to only using black and white in her artworks.

Debbie Smyth is a very unique artist and I find her inspiring due to the way she uses thread to create that 3D effect. I do not find her meanings behind her work as inspiring as her technique, which I would like to be able to use in my theme of ‘time’ and ‘broken’, because her thread works can be interpreted into a more dark and meaningful meaning when used in a certain way.

 

 

Conceptual art

Conceptual Art

Conceptual artwork is the movement that prefers ideas over the finished products. Conceptual arts uses mostly words in an expressive way to create imagery, as well as objects and everyday objects as a canvas. E.g Mary Kelly uses dirty nappies from her new-born child as a canvas for one of her works.

Conceptual art requires the viewer to think and analyse the works to figure out the deeper meaning to them. It also confuses the reason when given a name that is usually irrelevant to the object used. Because of this, the idea much be original and not familiar from any other piece, with a meaning to the piece when the viewer digs deeper. 

Conceptual art began in the early 20th century by Marcel Duchamp. He began using different types of objects in his work. For example, a wheel, a stool and even a urinal which he titled ‘fountain’ and became one of his most known works in 1917. Piero Manzoni was another popular artist at the time, blowing up a balloon and attaching it to a string and titling the work ‘artist’s breath’.

There’s different types of conceptual art. One of these types are called performance art. For example, Marina Abramovic was a performance artist whose most recognizable artworks were ‘Rhythm 0’, where she stood with 42 objects (including a bullet and gun) and allowed the audience to do whatever they liked to her. Others have used words to create an impact on those around them. For example, Robert Montgomery, who used the quote ‘the people you love become ghosts inside of you and like this you keep them alive.’

Some just use regular objects or minimalist pieces of work that creates a meaning with the odd and meaningful titles. Finally, there are people who use themselves as a piece of art and take photographs. For example, Bruce McLean used himself as a self-portrait in some of his notable work like plinth.

Monoprinting technique

Yesterday I used a new technique called monoprinting. I used old mark making pieces of work and developed them into a monoprint piece of work.

First I recreated a shell pattern I made with pencil and created different textures by using different sides of the pencil. Then I flipped it and remade the work with a different colour. I used a yellow piece of paper as my surface.

Next I used cartridge paper and created soft textures with black and red ink and blocked some ink using a piece of paper in between the ink and surface. I used again my shell piece.

This time I used harsh lines to create a block like ink pattern and blocked ink using a square piece of paper. I used a map as a surface.

Finally I referenced another mark making piece I created and drew this with a stick, making it impossible for me to see what I had already done and created this. Then I used a little bid of red ink around. I used yellow paper for this.

I like this technique because it is something different and you can come up with very interesting results. However I feel I may not use this technique much in my future work.

Extended arm technique

I experimented with the extended arm technique last week and created more free hand effects with it on a large piece of paper.

My subject matter was an old piece of dried corn. I chose this because it has a bumpy texture and it has an interesting shape for me to experiment and draw with.

First I experimented with a piece of newspaper and black and white acrylic. I chose a section of the corns shape and used different techniques with the brush to make different textures. For example I dabbed the brush and used the end of the brush to create tone.

Next I used a much bigger piece of brown paper with an emulsion layer to create another final piece. Here I experimented in a much more free-handed way and did much quicker strokes of the brush. I also did different sizes of lines to have bold and thin lines. I also used less smooth shading and more textured shading like dabbing and using the end of the brush to smudge existing wet paint.

I feel like I could make this better by making it look less like the corn and layering more different techniques and textures onto the piece.

Final Piece (Visual Language)

I created an abstract final piece based on an emotion I chose to convey.

First I used a collage of brown paper onto an A3 piece of cartridge. Then I used a sponge to create a texture and tone with black white and grey. I used this to show sadness as these colours give a sad and serious emotion. Then I used scribbles with pen at the side to represent stress and then I used ink to drip down at the top and sides to resemble a cage. The cage then represents being trapped.

Next I added a few more pieces of brown paper to overlap some of the previous work I did in order to create more of a texture to layer onto.

Next I ripped up the A3 piece of paper and stick them together in a different order. This was to create a jumbled effect and represent feeling broken. I added oil pastel lines and blended it in to represent cracks to show more of the broken emotion.

Next I added more cracks and made them more bold and added a flat line in the middle. This line spikes up at the left, to represent a pulse.

Finally, I added ink drops to represent tears and darkness seeping down.

The piece as a whole has a lot going on to represent a jumbled, stressed emotion of the brain that a person has while going through these various emotions. I feel I did well with the composition, however there could be more tone in the artwork