Final Blog for the Summer, - Back to Academic Study

Yesterday was my first day back at the University of Huddersfield and I'm delighted to say that the first engagement project for the new semester is based on Drawing Transformations.  I have read so much during the vacation about artistic practice, how the great masters developed their own practice, and how important the core skill of drawing is, in preparing a foundation for all art.  Imagine my further delight in finding out that our new course leader (Mr James Pyman, - see http://www.maureenpaley.com/artists/james-pyman/  is himself, principally concerned with Drawing as his own practice.  So, it seems that I've been doing the right thing over the holidays by trying to extend and improve this vital skill.

So, now that the new semester has started again, I shall start a new blog to encompass the academic training, which conveniently can be found here....

The National Gallery & Tate Britain visits

During my Summer vacation, I've been thinking deeply about my current  practice and where my Journey might take me in an artistic sense.  I feel that there is so much more to develop, yet there is some pressure on me to specialise in some chosen area for my degree studies.  This conflicts a little with my notion of wanting to explore a much as possible during my journey too.  In an attempt to help me crystalise some of the styles and broad thinking I have recently taken much time to analyse the journeys of other artists, - particularly the great masters.

An opportunity to visit the National Gallery this weekend was not to be missed.  The inspiration I gained, and the reasurrance I needed - that the journey is never over, was nicely re-inforced to me through many works, some of my favourites being JWM Turner.  An allegorical image that I think is just right for my mind at the moment is The Fighting Téméraire.....

In this painting, which Turner completed perhaps at his peak of popularity, the old wooden warship, the Temeraire, is represented in an almost ghostly translucent state.  Its' final voyage to the breakers yard, but still capable of holding immense presence and power over the modern steam tug that is representing a symbol of newness, societal change and modernisation.  The old warship still holds it's importance and links to the romantic past, and this is alluded to by the ship in the far distance behind, in full sail towards the centre of the painting.   As Turner was in the grips of painting this, a new dawn in the culture around him was also emerging.  Turner seems to suggest this through the wonderful sky scene to the right of the painting.  The composition is virtually able to be split vertically down the middle and both halves are story in themselves.  However, both make the whole, - the gestalt, which overall combine to form a huge historical record of factuality, but also a record of progress, new beginnings, and a relentless cycle of rebirth.    I love this painting because of it's almost timeless qualities.   There are so many questions that this painting seems to raise too. There is dispute as to why a warship would be getting tugged at the end of the day, as the sun is setting, and technically, the view would be towards the east, from whence the ship has come from -  English Channel.  I would like to suggest though, that it may be getting pulled back down the Thames, after it has been shown to the fond public for the last time nearer central London.  I might also suggest, if you examine the right hand side of the painting in more detail, the ssilhouetteof the houses of parliament and Big Ben can be seen (as a river side view from the south)... This would make the placing of the warship more feasible.  Nnevertheless this is pure hypothesis, as in reality, i seems likely that Turner created the composition virtually from his imagination!...

Turner's earlier studies also captured more mundane, nonetheless I think, truly real moments of life during the 1800s, and a classical example is shown below, in his works "A country Blacksmith disputingg the price of iron"...  You can almost hear the same conversation today when you go to a car tyre changing facility, or to a mechanics garage to get your tyres changed !

Just about finished Betty Edward's book- Hooray!

I know I have been plugging this book through-out my blog this summer, but as the holidays are soon to be over, I gave a final push to complete the drawing practice in Drawing on The Right Side of The Brain (by Betty Edwards).  I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who wants to have hands on drawing practice and a structured way of re-defining the drawing / learning tutelage process.

So here they are!  my final exercises!

so guess who this is, - with and without the glasses, and with a hair cut in between! (No, really, - I did have my hair cut after I'd done the line drawing, but before the blocked in drawing on toned paper.....)

Liverpool Tate Gallery - Mondrian in his studios

Spent a brilliant day at the Liverpool Tate Gallery, on Albert Dock.  The highlight event was a curated exhibition of the works of Piet Mondrian.

I found the whole experience extremely rewarding as my dear wife agreed to come for the day too, so I was able to share my perhaps somewhat limited understanding of Mondrian to someone also keen to learn, at the same time as my own viewing.

I'm really glad that the Tate chose to start the exhibition with a painting that highlighted the roots of where Mondriaan had started his artistic journey, that being originally of a portrait artist, from Holland.  He was quite successful as a 'traditional' artist in his home country of Holland, having painted for some time, scenes around Amsterdam (An example may be Houses on the Gein, 1900, when he was about 28 years old).
Note; This painting was not in the Tate Liverpool exhibition, it is just included here as a reference for grounding Mondriaan's journey.

   The Tate used one of his own portraits to visually articulate the process of abstraction, and so this single piece made it especially easier for me to explain how Mondrian's abstraction process, together with plenty of reference to the context of his thinking at the time; how he was influenced by the Impressionists, Cezanne, Van-Goch, and later,  Picasso and Braque and the "new" advent of Cubism, and all the other artists of the turn of the new century, together with where art was generally going in the culture at that time in history; world events that influenced cultural outlooks of the 1910 to 1920s period; the establishment of the Bauhaus and so on.  It was only after Mondriaan went to live in Paris that he dropped the second "a" in his surname to the familiar version we see today.  The Tate's choice made the explanation of how Mondrian wanted to create something completely new and fresh, yet still relationally connected to everything that was going on around him (both in terms of culture and artistic context AND the physical imagery of his environment, - man made and from nature).  It's so important, in my opinion, to think of why Mondrian was thinking the way he did at the time he started his experiments.  The context, that is, what was happening at the time, is key.

As an aide to explaining what abstraction means to me, I was counting on the exhibition to show one of Mondrian's "Tree" series, a set of works that I had come across some time ago, which would help in the explanation of what abstraction meant to Mondrian at the time, and how it can be used to help general interpretation.  I was not disappointed as we found it in the next room...  Mondrian's awareness of nature and it's continuing influence on man, (particularly at a time of extreme change in the world of his time, - futurism / modernism, communist revolution, the fascist movements, the new American culture and so on), is still entirely relevant today, - especially as the pace of change at this present time continues to be quite relentless.






A work that was also brilliantly exhibited was Mondrian's "Ocean"...
The fact that the Tate had placed this next to a window overlooking the Mersey was in my opinion, no mistake, but very carefully orchestrated.  To the casual observer, they would find it very difficult to understand this painting. However, when I pleaded to my wife to gently squint her eyes, look at the painting with the minimum gap between her eyelids, then the image jumps out at you.  The combination of the abstract, and the merest hint of white paint in between the intermittent horizontal and vertical truncation lines is enough to provide the wonderful illusion of glare bouncing off the ocean waves.  It's almost impossible for most people to see this effect unless they squint their eyes.  The act of doing so reveals a new dimension in a painting which if casually inspected looks lifeless and flat..

Wehey!! - Got my Arc Welder working today!

It's been a long time coming, and today I finished the extra special high duty cable wiring into my workshop so that I can power up a 160 amp arc welding rig.  I've had the welding machine for over 18 months now, and it's been languishing in my special tools cupboard.  But today, I was able to dig it out and rig it up to the new high current commander style socket I've installed.  (Welding machines need BIG current, and so standard domestic UK plug and sockets are not capable of handling the extra power / current).

I haven't wielded an arc welder for over 30 years!...  I can still hear the immortal words from my welding instructor during my time as an apprentice, learning just about every fabrication method... I'll never forget him saying in a very broad "Manc" (Manchester for readers further afield) accent, whilst peering over my shoulder - "Hadfield lad - you wan£$r, that welding looks like bird Sh#t !!!".
He was a good old boy, I wonder whatever happened to these old legends... Never minced his words but we all thought he was brilliant and would have follwed him into battle anywhere.   Anyway, I followed the newer and more exciting electronics and computing route that was opening up, and the need for mechanical technicians with welding skills at the time was drying up.

So I just about got the hang of welding when my year of mechanical engineering training was nearly over.  I've never needed to do it since, but I always had a hankering to give it another go.  So here's my first attempt after some 33 or so years...


It's not total bird sh£t either, just a bit around the edges perhaps,  (ha ha ha) - and it was my first attempt in such a long time...



My second attempt was a bit better, but like all things, I will need to practice....

Third time better still....

A few more reflections from sketches from Peebles / Selkirk & Northumberland...

Well, I've been back doing the usual admin today and generally tidying up both mine and my late brothers financial affairs.  It's  easy to come back to the real world again from a holiday, however I think we can all benefit from practising some creative art form, as any nice memories are so much more cemented and crystallized if one tries to capture these magical moments through drawing or painting.

I looked at a few of the simple line sketches I made whilst on our little sojourn in the northern latitudes, - there's no doubt in my mind that a drawing or a painting is far more rewarding than a hard disk or DVD of instant photographs, which from my own experience, often contains images that are snapped and then forgotten. I thoroughly recommend to anyone who is considering taking up creative arts to start drawing!  Well, that's the broadcast over, here are some more reflections from the last couple of weeks.

A couple of weeks in retreat, drawing in Scotland and Northumberland

A nice summer "chilled out holiday" for the last two weeks has been just enough to recharge my batteries.  I've done some good sketching practice too, mainly focussed on portrait sketches of my lovely wife, and also some architectural sketches as well, with a couple of more illustrative style line drawings with mixed media paints to compliment the work over the fortnight.

I think I am making slow improvement. My drawing is becoming a bit more confident, as I seem to be equipped now to at least attempt to tackle most subjects, however I know that it is, without doubt, essential to practice my sketching every day.    "Never a day without a line" still resonates in my mind as a regular reminder to make time for this most (in my opinion), essential of skills in any art practice.  I do find it hard though to make time some days, what with so many distractions, which quite often, are of my own making.  I wish I could drop out of all the hustle and bustle of our everyday on-line existence (like e-mails, social interactions, surface mail, banking duties, Facebook, twitter etcetera), and just live to paint and draw!...

Well, here are some examples of the sketches over the last fortnight, in no particular order...
;

 Continuing the exercises from Betty Edwards Book, "drawing on the Right side of the Brain", I sketched a small abstract from one of the great Masters of 20th century art, that being

  "Self-portrait", by Edward Steichen. Published in Camera Work No 2, 1903

The next exercise I gave myself was to do a toned paper (3B Graphite stick) three quarter sketch of Julie.  Now, I also bent the rules a little bit here to experiment, and it seemed to work!! - I tried to draw Julie with much thinner features and younger look, - amazingly, I seem to have pulled this off and I (and of course Julie too) was very pleased with the result.

  So onto some further 3/4 portraits, but this time, from different facial expressions and an angle looking down  on a seated model.  These too, came out pretty well.

But it wasn't all portraiture, and later in the first week of our stay in Scotland, I spent an hour or so doing a simple water colour sketch in my travelling notebook, of the cottage at the head of the glenn, = Yes, it really did look like a top of a chocolate / biscuit tin scene!  The colours were magnificent, the purple heather was in full bloom, and the wee bothy had just recently been re-whitewashed....

The watercolour inspired me to take some more photos of the area and use them as reference materials...

 For example, Traquire house has so much history I just have to paint this properly!

 

And Abbotsford, near Melrose, which was the home built by the 19th Century novelist, Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, FRSE (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet.  his house architecture seduced me into a good hours worth of sketching, which only ended when I had to take shelter from the rain!

Continuing my drawing practice

I've been continuing my sketching and drawing practice whenever I could this week, butt there is lots to do in conjunction with the clearing up of my brother's estate.

I'm continuing to work through Betty Edwards book, and I've also started to read through Juliette Aristedes' Classical Drawing Atelier, which I will start to work through once I've got to the end of the exercises in the former.

So, where I'm up to is a couple of warm-up drawings prior to completing a 3/4 sketch of my gorgeous wife!...
  

First, a pencil outline copy drawing by John Singer Sargent of "Madam X" - Madame Pierre Gautreou 

The Site Gallery, Sheffield - Lecture, 'Art & Rave' - 3rd August

I chose to spend a Sunday afternoon  (August 3rd) at the Sheffield Site Gallery as I had been advised of a lecture taking place there concerning the links between contemporary art of the early 1990s and the popular cult movement of the time or Rave music, together with it's associated paraphernalia....

One of the most famous pieces to come from this era was the smiley face, often superimposed by a laser onto rave party walls.  This was lateer adopted into an ex-police riot shield, and then appropriated recently for this exhibition into what is Jeremy Deller's simple yet in some ways, intimidating, - smiley face entitled "Did he change your life"...   I managed to take a photo-shot of the exhibition piece with Jeremy almost standing in front of his work...



  This by the way, is meant to be said in a cockney accent,  thus; "Did 'e change your life"... hence the connotations with the Rave and drug scene of the late 1980s and the amphetamine known as "E".  Needless to say, I have a cunning plan....

Watch this space for more appropriation, from Jeremy Deller this time!... ( My project is under wraps... )

Further into the exhibition there were many more abstract works by internationally recognised contemporary artists, some of whom I've photographed here

Edinburgh - Scottish National Gallery

Here's my final tribute to the galleries on Princes Street / The Mound Edinburgh.

I was surprised at how the Contemporary and National Galleries are linked,  they are made up of three interconnected buildings, right in the heart of Edinburgh. The Gallery is home to a major part of Scotland’s sensational national collection of fine art; the Academy is one of Europe’s premier venues for international exhibitions; and the Gardens Entrance, which lies beneath the two buildings, provides an entry way directly in to both the galleries and museums and also various lecture halls and learning areas.  Up on the surface though, all you see from Princes street are two Baroque style Victorian buildings based on the Athenian them and Pantheon.  Underneath them though, lies the treasures and public areas such as cafes and shops.  A wonderful juxtaposition of post-modern and old Victorian architecture has been combined into a brilliantly developed public space.  It's well worth a visit, just to see the architecture!


The following paintings by Steven Campbell, 1953-2007 were of particular interest to me as we progressed from the contemporary to the classical / National Gallery sections.  His work, being a turning point in Scottish art which combines the painterly classical style with more contemporary re-presentation using audio;

His themes and reflections of life events seemed to be from a rather disturbed individual at first glance.  He was clearly sensitive to a number of these events which have transformed int the dream like paintings he rendered.  However, on closer examination, there also seems to be a sense of both humour and fascination of design that the artist chose for his subjects.  This fascination for design is comes through from the time that the artist spent initially as an engineer, and the sense of humour is manifested by a sound recorder that is constantly re-playing a 1980s classic french pop song, within the exhibition.

 

Further into the rest of the National Gallery I made some initial notes of the classical paintings to be found there too;

   

 The similarities between Bellotto and Canaletto are easy to see from the above two examples.  The painting below too has the classical perspective landscapes, - only just discovered.

And then Van-Gough.  People often criticise Van-Gogh for "not being able to paint" or some other derogatory remarks.  Well, I can assure them that he could!...  The example below is one of his more famous pieces which came from a series made of observing peasant farmers, - the most famous of his paintings of that period probably is "The Potato Eaters", which he painted in April 1885,  in Nuenen, Netherlands.  I think it is also important to remember that Van Gough was still very much in his learning phase, well before his transformation into the style which so many people criticise unjustly and unfairly.  The original Potato Eaters is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

And then on to another modern artist who again sometimes unfairly gets criticism, one Eduard Degas.  He was fascinated by rythm and dancers. Degas frequently observed the dancers of the Paris Opéra, and was captivated by their grace and discipline. In this sculpture, Degas shows a dancer practising the ‘arabesque penchée’, a position that requires tremendous control. The dancer must stay steady on one foot while raising the other leg as high and as straight as possible. Degas made the original wax model of this figure between 1882 and 1895. Following Degas’s death, Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard made bronze casts of the figure, and designated each one a letter of the alphabet between A and T. This cast is inscribed ‘G’, and the number sixteen is incised above the letter. This number refers to the subject matter; all the casts Hébrard made of Degas’s models of dancers were numbered 1 to 37.

 

I don't think any study of paintings of the late 19th century is complete without one example from the great master of the time, Paul Cezanne (1839 to 1906)).   In this penultimate painting, "The Big Trees" which was painted late in Cezzane's life around 1900 to 1902, he was experimenting through painting rocks, trees, foliage and vegetation.  In this painting, he seems to have left white spaces of the canvas actually showing through, and at the upper third of the picture the branches seem to twist in a bizarrely flat yet angular fashion, - some say that this is an example which lead on to the formation of cubism, which dominated the next few years of Pablo Piccasso and Georges Braque, who very much took their lead and influence from Cezzane in the next development of Art's journey.

Georges Seurat's Alfalfa Fields near St Denis, is my final chosen piece in the Scottish National Gallery.  I chose this simply because of the amazing detail that the painting conjures up of a spring meadow in full bloom.  The other interesting point to note is how Seurat recorded the beginnings of a more industrial landscape in the far background of the painting.  Georges Seurat was particularly interested in the combinations of placing colours next to each other to produce a third colour.  His technique, known as Pointillism, can be seen very clearly in this painting of the Alfalfa fields near St Denis.  He is remembered as a Post-Impressionist rather than an Impressionist, even though he was painting at the same time as Monet, Renoir and the other impressionists.