Guide to the blog

To see all posts please click on 2007 on blog archive.
To view the Greenaway films please click on one of the stills on the left and it will load above.
Thanks,
Ellie Richens

Finished Soutine Piece

Here are two of the pieces for the soutine finished piece. The one above was a blown up version of the side of the cow.



The one above is the piece I am submitting as my assessed piece.

Finished Sculpture Painting

Here are the completed sculpture paintings. I am really pleased with this one as I found it challenging both in terms of the unprimed canvas and because of it's scale (I am used to working small scale). However, it has definately made me appreciate large scale works more, as well as inspiring me to do them in the future. I feel quite a sense of pride in the finished piece, and retrospectively, quite enjoyed it :)

Finished Shapes Painting

Here is my completed shapes painting. I am very pleased with and feel it was so much more succesful than the one I started originally. I am glad, for once, that I did not resolve it as I find this piece much more inspiring.

Caravaggio

In his 1986 film, Caravaggio, Derek Jarman portrays Caravaggio as a victim of his own desires. In truth, Caravaggio spent years on the run as a murderer, which is the basis for the film. However, Jarman, extends sympathy towards Caravaggio, who is merely caught in a visious love triangle with his beautiful female model and a young homosexual apprentice who is obsessed with his master.

Derek Jarman shows how art and life cannot be seperated and that such high passions for things such as art can run deep in people's lives. It would be impossible to disjoin the two ideas, as they are centrally running themes in this film, and all of the main characters are connected, and indeed attracted, to Caravaggio because of his artistic influences.

If I understood this film to define both painting and the role of the artist, I think then that Jarman is suggesting that some of the most incredible painters, and the more succesful ones, were devoted to the point of obsession not just with their art but with everything they cared about. I think this is true of many of the 'masters' of painting, although whether or not it actually improves your work (or your state of mind) is quite enough matter altogether.




The film itself is very dark both in tone and appearance and this reflects the style of Caravaggios' pieces (as shown above). I think it is very similar to that of Caravaggio's paitings but obviously his paitings are more like a snap shot in time that you cannot create with a film.

Peter Greenaway film

Another Peter Greenway film, 52 Seconds long.

Georgia O'Keefe

Georgia O'Keefe has long been a favourite of mine and also of my GCSE art teacher, who had endless books on her work. The quality and depth of the paitings amaze me more than the subjects for me, which for obvious reasons, are not everyone's cup of tea. It is useful to study her work when using colour as she does it do well, particularly with oils - which I have used frequently throughout the colour project.

Picasso

I have deliberately chosen three completely different pieces for this example. I love picasso's work I have both the picture above and the painting on the bottom on my bedroom walls. However, most people seem only aware of Picasso's style as the middle picture which surprises me. This style is the one I like least of picasso, although a bright use of colour, I find it too busy and distracting and in some ways unsettling, whereas the one above I like the simplicity of.



As I have already said, I do not like this style. Although I am a big fan of colour and use alot of it in my own work, this is just too much colour for me, and it seems there is too much happening all at once on the page.




I love this piece, the texture and colour as well as the choice of subject really appeal to me. It inspired one of my AS projects, and I can never get enough of looking at it. I would love to see the original and analyse how the texture was created.

Peter Greenaway and Jean-Luc Godard

For this project we were required to watch 2 art films by Peter Greenaway and Jean-Luc Godard. I much preferred the Peter Greenaway film, "A walk through H" in which the narrator goes on a journey following drawings and maps given to him by Tulse Luper.

" Like all the best surrealist art, it combines the pedantically methodical with the devoutly inconsequential..." Nigel Andrews, Sight and Sound.

Interestingly, the film was not obvious, yet not obscure, in many ways like painting. I took us on a journey as a painting tends to do, and with no clear end. It is probably the best way to make a film about painting and certainly the best way to make an impression.

I think if I was to create a film of painting it would be best done in this style. Like painting it self, the ambiguity leaves room for interpretation and will mean people view it in different ways. In regards to who I would choose to do my own film about, I would have to say Joan Miro, whose work for me is bizarre enough to be made into a moving picture without to much added surrealism.

Digital Version

This is digital version of what it may look like. I played around using paint to get an idea of how the colours mix. The final colour I used as my background will probably be a slightly different shade of blue.

Lilac Background

This a VERY rough version of what it will look like with a lilac background.

Nearly Finished!

I have nearly finished the coloured piece that I restarted. I have honestly spent a great deal of time and effort on it. As you can see I have the basic first layer down. I am scared to do the bacground now! I wish it could be white as I really do feel this would be effective but since we are not allowed to use white paint, I'm going to do a really light wash. I have tested what the colours may look like by using paint a roughly colouring in back grounds, so far I think a bluey-lilac would work well, I think I have a tube similar to this that I could dilute with linseed oil. I also thought black would have been good, but, alas, we are not allowed to use that either!

The Inner Life of Painting, Matthew Collins

I think Collins is aware, as I am, that he is one of the few art critics who is accessible to nearly everyone. Like, ‘This is Modern Art’, I found Collins very readable and without airs.

The significance of the medium of paint has decreased in the past century, since the industrial revolution, the world wars and improved education amongst other things. This, in my view, has lead to many artists being able and feeling forced to find new, original ways to express themselves.

This does not mean that painting has been forgotten, but more that the approach to painting has changed. During the last part of the 20th Century, a whole new era of art developed and you could argue painting was dragged with it (arguably kicking and screaming).

What Collins is trying to state in his essay, I believe, is not that the paintings are bad quality, but the medium as a whole has lost the integrity that once it held. He describes in his essay how the art we have had for fifteen years is a “new kind of art” and this type of art is now “fashionable”.

One of the main points Collins makes is that today’s paintings try to ‘keep up’ with other mediums, such as instillation art and new media. It is for that reason, Collins says, that painting is now following the tradition of these mediums and not following the tradition of it’s own. Following this statement Collins suggests that they are not “connected to the past in any real way”.

Because it defines itself by “this new tradition” much of today’s art is “visually boring”. I understand what Collin’s is saying here. Surely a medium which has carried itself for centuries cannot reinvent itself based on art that is “non-visual”? It is competing with types of art that are, at a basic level at least, not as concerned with aesthetics as they are with ‘trying to say something’.

Personally, I couldn’t describe what attracts me to a painting in the first place, which is surely the point of art in the first place. When we write down in laments terms what makes a painting mean something to us, surely we take the magic from it?

I like simplistic bright colours, one of the reasons I am so enjoying this project, yet I rarely paint this way. Why? I couldn’t really say. All the years of restrictive art education, as well as restrictive exam syllabuses had lead me to stay stuck in my comfort zone. A talent in painting that stuck to a ‘technically good’ piece would get a more successful mark than a piece with meaning, thus I was always encouraged by teachers to do so. I produced some lovely pieces which I felt very little for and I became quite disillusioned with it.

Since beginning my degree my passion for art has expanded as my knowledge has increased. Painting is a craft, but not one that is exclusive; anyone can paint. It has, and continues to have, such a vast history that it remains impossible to define in any concise way. Collins seems disappointed with paintings new era but it’s always changing.

Old and New

This is a picture of the old piece I did for paint. I know Laura says we should work and rework our pieces as often as possible, I trapped myself into a corner with this one. What I had in my head just did not and would not appear on canvas, so I completely changed what I had oringinally developed. I'm very glad I did this as I really enjoy the one I am working on now. It is very time consuming however, and probably has about ten hours worth of work so far!

James Elkins: A Short Course in Forgetting Chemistry

I liked this essay by James Elkins and his ongoing example of Monet. He makes a point in the essay that art is different to every person who paints, and therefore cannot be said to be a certain way. This must make art very difficult to teach.

I remember early on in school, when I was about 13 or 14, being set a task to copy Monet's waterlilies for an art project on impressionism. No matter how accurate the marks were it did not hold the vivality or movement Monet's did, which is exactly what Elkins is talking about in his essay. What it did do however, was make me aware of just how the paintings were built up, and made me really study a paiting in detail for the first time.

Because that artist created that picture from his head, it was his passion. Therefore no matter how passionate you are about Monet's own piece of work it will always be like a bad copy. The skills involved in creating that picture was that of building the picture up itself. Us copying it is simply that, and we are not intuitively placing marks as we know where they should be. This will always make a picture stale, even possibly unwittingly.

3rd piece

I have restarted the last piece for our paint module as even after trying to resolve I became frustrated and uninspired. The piece I started I am really enjoying and feel much more positive about.

I have always been enthusiastic about this part of art and one of my GCSE piece's was squares based on Piet Mondrian and Frank Stella's work. I have done quite a bit of artist research for this unit and will upload it shortly.

Rembrandt's flayed Ox

Soutine was apparently inspired by Rembrandt's "Flayed Ox". I was not familiar with the painting so I looked it up. It is very typical of Rembrant's style. The tone of the paint is similar and the palette also. However, I have never greatly loved Rembrandt, probably because of my fixation with colour. I can see the similarities between the two, yet I prefer Soutine's because of his is use of colour. Though, I find them both quite depressing to look at!

Soutine Original

This is the original Soutine piece, which I am publishing so the comparisons between the two are obvious.

As I didn’t really enjoy the Soutine piece, I tried to find other pieces by him. After doing that I researched his life to try and understand more about him. He was a depressive who’s lack of confidence in his work caused him to destroy his own pieces and he lived and died in extreme poverty. It is these kinds of tragic tales that really give meaning to paintings. Though, the sympathy I feel will not simply make me like the piece. I can’t because you cannot force the feelings, however, behind that painting is passion. For his paintings of meat, Soutine visited abattoirs and even brought carcasses into his studio. The rotting smell of meat caused a neighbour to involve the Police who Soutine angrily told, “art is more important than Sanitation”.

Certain qualities, besides sheer devotion, stand out for me in Soutine’s work. His layers of colour are quite amazing and since the copies we did, I feel a new respect and sense of understanding as to how he achieved them.

Soutine

Although I did not like the soutine piece for reasons I have already stated, I did enjoy the process of making the paitings. This is a copy of the black and white piece before I added the coloured/textured layers.

Soutine sketches

Some very fast biro sketches to get to grip with the shapes of the piece











This is an uncompleted version of the cows head I was working on - it didn't work very well as I couldn't fit it all on! Nevertheless it was useful to practise the head and get really confident with the detail.








Charcoal version of the cow, I used these to reference from the black and white photocopies as I thought it would be useful to build the tone up. I quite like the finished charcoal piece anyway and am intrigued by a possible pastel version.

Soutine

This is a picture of one of the pieces after I added the colour layer. I am quite pleased with it, but I hope to do some more interesting aspects of the piece, such a larger version of the cows head.

Chaim Soutine

I have been working on the tonal pieces for the Chaim Soutine piece. I have also researched other examples of his work.
I really like the piece above, it inspires me much more than the piece we have been working on. I also like some of his portraits such as "farm girl" and "woman in pink".

Joan Miro

I discovered Joan Miro in the book, Artist's and Prints a while ago. Since then I have fallen in love with many of his works. Recently I went to the town in Majorca where Miro's Studio was. It happened to be the worst day of weather I have encountered in my life and was soaked through so never got to go inside the studio - much to my dissappointment.

The last visit I took to London's tate gallery held quite a number of Miro's pieces which was very exciting for me. When I am lacking inspiration I often revert back to Miro's pieces, and have a couple of framed postcards by him.

Kandinsky

Kandinsky is another popular artist that I like. Just today I found a book on psychology that used his painting as the cover piece. The piece above (colour study) shows Kandinsky beautiful techniques, and brilliant washes.




The piece above shows how effective the use of colour can be. It also uses shapes in a very interesting way, thus I felt it was particularly relevant to this unit. The amount of bright colour and background wash is perfect and sets the foreground of well, and it avoids looking to busy unlike the Picasso one.




Another very famous piece even found in Pizza Hut toilets! It summarises colour and simplicity to me and shows just how effective colour and shape can be.

Shape Work

I really like this piece too, it really reflects how effective shapes can be on a darker background, one of the reasons I wanted to use a black hue for the background.

I've made a start on the tonal paintings we have to do for Laura's class. I do not like the piece too much. After Wendy pointed out the hanging meat in it, my vegetarian side surfaced! As a picture anyway it leaves me quite cold. It's just not my style of painting, but I can see the usefulness of the exercise, and perhaps my detachment with the piece will be a good thing as I will see all elements of the picture rather than those that appeal to me.

Critique of Sculpture Painting

At first I was quite apprehensive about tackling an object this large. However, I was made more confident by the fact I enjoy objective work and especially painting.

When I have tackled objective pieces in the past, I have always made lots of sketch references and often detailed drawings of the subject before beginning the painting. However I was conscious of the time limitations with this so I began by doing a rough charcoal sketch onto the unprimed canvas and then using it as a guideline for the painting. I also took a photograph to work from at a later date.

In many ways the experience of painting large scale was similar to any style of painting. As you work on a smaller section however, you have to be aware of the painting as a whole. It is much more pleasing when you stand back from your work to see the pieces collaboratively. I also feel you get a fresher eye and much more freedom with larger pieces, because you are forced to move back and survey your work much more regularly.

The surface was extremely hard to work on but on reflection I think it may have made us work more fastidiously. Indeed, the frustration itself, made us more likely to step back and view the work as a whole.

The sheer amount of white oil paint I have gone through- two tubes and counting – and all diluted with one bottle of linseed oil, really is incredible but then I suppose, so are the works in progress.

I can see that making us not just put paint to the usual surface made us “think outside the box” as it were. It definitely opened my eyes to the various ways of making a painting.

At one point Laura told us that she didn’t feel any of the paintings were complete. An interesting point and one that refers back to the Berger essay: “once in a Painting”. In the essay Berger states that a picture is finished “not when it finally corresponds to something already existing – like the second shoe of a pair – but when the foreseen ideal moment of it’s being looked at is filled, as the painter feels of calculates it ought to be”.

Although I think probably everyone felt that their paintings were not finished themselves, it does make a worthwhile point; Do the artist and viewer always have the same view of when the picture is complete. Obviously here Laura had an advantage that she knew what we were aiming for, what our starting point was, as well as her own mental preconceptions of what the pieces should look like, but I just wonder if I’d have seen, say, Edvard Munch’s “Scream” all the way through it’s development, if I’d have preferred it at a different stage.

Scupture Painting

I have rarely had the oppurtunity to work large scale before and so found this a refreshing, though challenging change! It was very difficult to try to get the paint onto the surface of the canvas, and worked out being rather expensive, but the effect I have acheived with it so far have been promising. I managed to stain my uni carpet and my sink with the paint aswell which will seriously add the the cost!

Which reminds me if anyone has any idea how to get oil paint stains off white ceramic I would love to hear it. I have tried various bleaches, white spirit, turps and linseed oil so far as well as a metal scourer to no avail, I'm going home tonight to try vinegar...

Introduction To Blog for Painting and New Media

I will be answering many of the questions we were asked within a system of small essays I have written on various aspects such a the essays, my own projects and how my ideas have developed.

Thanks

NEW BLOG

This will now become the new blog for the painting and print section .

Photos

I will be putting all my pictures from both the life drawing classes up as soon as I have borrowed my partners camera long enough to have them photographed and uploaded. Hopefully the difference will be apparent.

Life Drawing

I really enjoyed the life drawing experience today. Although I was feeling quite poorly
due to recovering from glandular fever. In a way, the lack of being able to be controlled really forced me to be dynamic with the lines. Although one of the feet on the last piece was dodgy :p

I compared this lecture with last lecture and the improvement between the two is vast. I have definately become more willing to be free with my lines in this project. When I first arrived I was a very tentative and detailed worker, I have learnt that I can do much more with a painting if I stop being afraid of it.

When I paint for pleasure, which I do very often, I still do many controlled pieces, but I am now not afraid to try new things and not worry if they are awful. I learn alot from my mistakes now, and my work has improved a great deal in my mind. I feel like the freedom has inspired me to be much more creative and I find myself constantly thinking of new things to do and looking at every object in a new light!

The work that i would not have been sure about before because of it's "technical" ability I am proud to like now, often more than a very acurate piece. It has made me want to discover new techniques and really discover my own style.

Thanks

Special Thanks to Mr Thomas Jenkins for help with Camera work and acting and just general helpfulness with all things technical!

My finished film

Well here it is my finished film. :)

Video posting problems

I have had a few problems uploading my film onto my website aswell as on the V tape website, which welcomes students to upload their films. Hopefully it will be done by tonight though.

Other presentations

I really enjoyed the presentation day on Friday. I thought it was very interesting to see how other people had approached the task and it was insightful into their lives and art work.

I thought it was very interesting to see how many different people had come up with such completely different ideas.

I particularly liked Trine and Queeny's piece, especially the instillation. I felt they clearly put alot of work into their pieces. Cat's was also a very successful and interesting piece and, I thought, very original.

Overview

The main problem I had with this project was finding a video artist that appealed to me. In the end I think what I did was mainly based my final piece on artists who were not video artists, but who I could relate to and this was the best possible way I feel I could've reacted to this project.

In all honestly, the actual media doesn't have a large impace on me, and although I did enjoy making my film and felt it was successful, I couldn't find many other forms of the same art that interested me. I think this is probably due to the fact that there actually aren't many video artists, and they are much more difficult to research.

When I come to paint or print for example, I often already have an idea of the artist I want and have one in mind already, as they have sometimes inspired the work. Although I did take inspiration from many artists I have already mentioned and did like a number of the pieces, I still chose to do something completely different rather than build on others ideas as I would've done in paint.

This is not to say that what I have done was completely original. I am aware the idea itself quite common but I felt I wanted to make something relevant to myself and my life.

David Hall

I studied David Hall for this project, as he was one of the few really prominent British Video Artists. His website davidhallart.com has various galleries of his art including the famous tv interruption for Scottish television from the 1970s. I like his instillation art piece "101 TV Sets" and it's early importance to mass media. I also liked his tv interruptions, that were unannounced, as they brought thought and art to the outside masses.

V tape site

Recently I found the V tape site when i was researching the Canadian artist Lisa Stelle and her work with the other artist Kim Tomczak. It's a Canadian site, and I have found it a very useful recourse for art history and just the use of video art in general. It has been especially useful as a video art search engine and to refer back to. I have saved it on my delicious site.

Library scenes

I tried to create the same effect that was in the you tube video but was unhappy with the result. I could not find a suitable surface to place the camera that would ensure all the shots were in exactly the same position so was forced to hold the camera. Although it still worked, the speed at which the clips needed to be played to show the change meant the sequence was bumpy. It also didn't really fit with my film as it was a different speed and the music didn't fit with the speed changes which is what I have tried to do all the way through.

Projection

My projection will consist of a single painted white box. I have chosen this not just for it's surface qualities when projecting onto it, but also because it represents confinement, entrapment and eventually freedom which is the underlying theme of my film. I also was keen not to have installation that was too over enthusiastic as I felt this would detract attention from the film and I feel the film is the art and should, if presented in the right way stand up as a piece successfully on its own.

When first deciding on ideas for projection I thought a box used for carrying chickens or other poultry would have been an interesting idea but have been unable to come by one of these.

Hopefully i will be able to find a large box, but if not I have a small flatish one that would also work, I may include other details such as key words that describe the box as well as added parts to the installation such as feathers, an egg box or other natural materials. I may also use chains and books to show the confinements of the library, the theme for my film.

book

Last night I read an interesting introduction to new media. I will post tommorow when I have researched it online and am feeling better.

Blog Entry

Ill today so hoping I didn't miss too much work. I'm trying to teach myself the you tube stuff but feel I'm reasonably up to date on it now, so not too worried about that.
I am really looking forward to finishing this project and seeing it in all it's glory. I am also looking forward to presenting it in front of my peers and getting feedback as well as seeing others work.

Library

This is very similar to my project and my use of the library. I may do some similar filming to this in St Martin's College library at come point.

Birds

Birds are an important part of my film as the pose an interesting antithesis with the boy in the confines of the library and later as he escapes to the real world.

Nude Descending Stairs

"Nude Descending a staircase" by Marcel Duchamp caused a scandal in 1913 at the Amory show New York. 62 years later, Shigeko Kubota, produced a new media version of the same name using a physical representation of the title. To me this shows how the instillation is useful for projecting the film.

However I am finding it very difficult to decide on what instillation to project onto. For me, the film is the art itself, and it is important that the backgroud is not so busy as to take away from the film itself. I have based the work on the natural and manmade so I would like to encorporate this somehow into the projection. I have thought of books from the library, feathers from birds, trees, windows and mirrors, yet all of these are not a good projection surface. I think feathers and wood would be workable around the surface and intend to discuss this with my other class mates.

Video of natural manmade sounds

So far for this project I have researched many artists using the internet as my main resource along with several books. I have also used artists who are not necessarily new media artists but who have inspired me through their use of art and installtions. Janet Orselli is a favourite of mine and I have looked at her work for this project as inspiration for mine. My film however was based on the idea of natural and manmade, but has also evolved as my knowledge of how film can be used, has grown.

For example I looked at the way two completely different pieces of footage could be edited to give an impression of something to the viewer, that woulod make the viewer realise something without my needing to spell it out. This is a very important part of the film making process and subtlety can work well but can also be largely lost.

I know exactly what I want the film to do and what I want in it. Actually creating the desired effect is proving tricky, especially when you throw all the technical difficulties in with it!!

Tate in Space

Tate in Space is a collaboration between Susan Collins and the Tate Gallery. They are web pages that are the place of a genuine art gallery orbiting the earth, in the place of the Tate satellite. It has the added benefit of art historians, space historians, and scientists to improve the quality and truthfulness. It was nominated for the 2003 BAFTA interactive awards in the interactive category.

Personally, I find this idea very interesting. The web has become so much more than just a useful resource, it is a massive part of everyone's lives and allows creativity in more accessible. Therefore it was inevitable that a new generation of artists and art would evolve without the confines of a gallery and with the means of expressing themselves and putting their work out there. Digital media became popular before the use of the internet, yet YouTube and other popular media sites mean that anyone and everyone can view or produce work that has meaning to them.

Susan Alexis Collins

Susan Collins is the head of Electronic Media at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL. Recent works include Tate in Space, and a Bafta nominated Tate commision.

The picture depicts a current piece of work by the artist entitled "Glenandia", the image is "transmitted live at the rate of a 60 pixels every minute via the internet".

Problems with this Project

I've had various problems with this project. Although I have enjoyed computers all my life, I will be so relieved to get a trusty pen back in my hand!!

Among the complications has been:

1) I ordered a digital camera which the university rejected and had sent back to the depo. I then had to cancel it and am still awaiting a refund which does not include postage!!! :(

2) I have changed video files from Avi, Mpeg4 and others and they refused to work, I finally got it to accept Mpeg4s!

3) I lost countless pieces of footage between the five computers I have been working on at seperate times!

4) Both my blogger and delicious sites have been acting up on occasion

Not all technical, but obviously all irritating in their small way!

Luckily now I feel I am getting back on top, and by the end it all should work. :)

Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik is often credited for inventing video art, so therefore, a useful place to begin researching this project. According to Wikipedia, he was a South Korean-Born America who was born in Seoul. He graduated from Tokyo university and later moved to Germany where he began participating in the neo-Dada movement, known as fluxus.

Expositon of Music-Electronice Television.

It was here that he made his debut before later working with the cellist, Charlotte Moorman, so as to combine music, video and performance art, collaboratively.

Moorman was arrested for going topless in one of Paik performances, entitled "Opera Sextronique".

Along with many other artists including Salvador Dali, in 1984, he aired "Good Morning, Mr Orwell" to show that the impending future put forward in Orwell's book of 1948 had not materialised. This struck a chord with me as I watched the university production of "1984" just this month. Whether or not I would base my work on Nam June Paik, I cannot argue it is vital to study his work in this project as it is arguably a major starting point to this genre.

Library

I have chosen a library for this film to represent being lost and confined. The main idea for this piece came to me in the library at Lancaster when I was researching media artists. Over the course of making it, it developed quite a bit but I kept the idea of the library as it was relevant and was the basis for the original idea which I felt meant the basis for the film itself.