Green Thoughts Exhibition. Burton Gallery Bideford

Figure 1. Howard Hodgkin For  Alan 1 – V11 (2014)

Went to this exhibition on the way to Cornwall to see my son and daughter-in-law. I found it fascinating. I have no idea about the techniques Hodgkin employs. Must look up “carbonarum”.

I loved the impressions in the paper from the printing and the layers of paint which allowed colours to show through. The is a sensitivity and delicacy about the use of paint, even when the strokes are big and free. The colours are beauitful.

I also bought a copy of the 2014 Jerwood Drawing Prize catalogue and will try to get to the exhibition in June. Sara Dudman’s drawing Megolith 11 is very powerful. I want to see it in its original form and hopefully talk to her about it at some point.

Image

Figure 1. Hodgkin, H. (2014) For Alan 1 – V11 Available at:http://www.artsandcollections.com/article/hodgkins-green-thoughts [Accessed 17/02/2016]

 

 

South West Academician’s Exhibition 2016

 

Figure 1.

This exhibition was on display at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Honiton in January. I visited with a question in mind: “How do these works represent movement, or stillness, to me?”

I looked at each work with this question in mind. This was prompted by my research into the artist Paul Nash, Eric Ravilious, J M W Turner, Jessica Cooper, Arthur Melville, which is documented in other posts in this Part 3 of Drawing 1.

There were single works of 38 artists, hanging in the white-walled rooms of the ground floor. Of these I will discuss some, in relation to my question.

All the images shown are taken from an online source of the exhibition catalogue.

I have read and am beginning to recognise that movement depends upon the quickness with which the mark is made, whether it be a mark with paint or a brush. All these works are oil paintings, with only 2 watercolours. The other mechainsim for depicting movement appears to be the direction and manner of application of the mark. I hope that these principles will be illustrated in the following examples.

Figure 2.

The movement in the lower image, a painting by James Lester is created with sweeps of the brush and use of white highlights.

 

In the painting above by Jed Falby,  although the figure is supposed to be moving, from her posture, it feels as if she has been captured in a split second of stillness. I think this is because the lines are vertical and horizontal, the colours are mostly blocked and the brush strokes are in the main, linear.

 

The absolute stillness in the painting by Jonothon X Coudrille is acheived by the smoothness in the application of the paint, so that there are no visible brush marks. In fact I wonder if a brush was used at all.

Peter Mallinson paints figutatively. In the work Acrobatic, I felt that although the subject was of a movement or pose which was dynamic, the painting itself is static. I think this might be because there are lines around all the edges of the figure and drapery which hold it in the space of the picture plane.

 

In contrast, the work by Wendy McBride After the Rain  has great movement in the use of the pastel application, which is varied in direction of strokes, with scratching out abd scraping.

It was useful for me to approach the exhibition in this way, with a question in mind, particularly as the exhibition was not “themed” but a show case of some the SWA artists.

Images

South West Academy of Fine and Applied Art. Academicians’ Exhibition 2016 Catalogue Available at: https://www.facebook.com/264162473598526/photos/a.344098545604918.107712.264162473598526/1226450280703069/?type=3&theater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gallery Visit: Kurt Jackson “Place” Victoria Art Gallery, Bath

I visited this exhibition “Place: Kurt Jackson.” (Victoria Art  Gallery, 2015) on December 30th 2015, just before it closed. The weather was awful, dark, grey and raining hard. Even the Bath stone was grey.

The works were hung in two rooms, the second larger than the first, which was a sort of anteroom and gave an immediate impression of the style, scale and colour of what was to come.

The first room was devoted to a series of paintings of Glastonbury Festival. For the most part the canvases are large and the media mixed, with oil, acrylic and what looked like ink. There are splashes of colour all over the lower four fifths of the works, although some were browner, because the artist used Glastonbury mud as a base colour. The open sky and almost flat horizons helped to emphasise the feeling of a huge spralling space. There were many disorganised coloured triangles – tents. The overall effect is of vibrancy, movement and abandon. The marks made by the brushes, and pens (if that’s what they were) are loose, rapidly made, daubings of colours, squiggles of lines, scartchings.

Figure 1. Glastonbury tents to the tor 2015, mixed media on wood panel 60 x 60cm

Each of the works in the main room arises from the writing of one of the 32 people Jackson approached for a piece about a place of personal importance. The people vary in profession, and their writing varies from scientific, to nostalgic, to descriptive. The scale of the pieces varies from postcard size to large canvases, and there are a small number of sculpted objects.

The first thing to hit me was colour. Bright, zinging yellows and greens, and again, a liberal and undisciplined use of the materials, busy patterns, splashes, a lot of spray paint, splatters, scraffito. Paint is allowed to dribble and drip. Black paint is used against the vivid greens and spring yellows to convey the light and dark in a spring wood.

Figure 2. Wytham birdsong and spring greens. 2013, oil on canvas 92 x 92cm

 

Figure 3 Bathampton wood tree sqeak and weak sunlight. July 2015, mixed media on paper, 56 x 61cm

A painting of a group of houses and a winding lane interested me because of its more muted palette and softer feel. The subject created a sense of safety, familiarity. The gestures of the paint were more controlled and contained.

Figure 4. Smell of peat smoke, cold wind blowing offshore. Gearrannan black houses. March 2013, mixed media on paper 57x62cm.

The largest canvases were of open landscapes. Imposing places, no people, perhaps a lone bird.

Figure 5. Across to England from Penarth Head. Copper and ochre seas. 2014, mixed media on canvas 183 x 183cm

In the foreground there is gravel taken from the area, and a rubbing of the words of warning taken from an information posting.

Figure 6. A peregrine screams from the cliff tops behind me

The foreground of this work was enhanced by the sticking of periwinkle shells to the canvas. Again, the use of found material, taken from the place.

Many of the paintings have the artist’s words written in graphite, as a sort of reminder, or contextual trigger. The simple ‘collage’ titled Erme, dusk, a collection of objects found in the place and assembled on a piece of driftwood, is, for me, touching and elegant in its simplicity and directness.

Figure 7. Erme, dusk. 2013, mixed media and collage on driftwood 22 x 35cm.

Images

Images 1 – 7 from online catalogue

http://www.victoriagal.org.uk/galleries/kurt-jackson-online-catalogue

Accessed 02/01/2016

Exhibition

Victoria Art Gallery. (2015). Place: Kurt Jackson. [Exhibition]. Bath. [Visited 30/12/15]

 

 

Jerwood Exhibition at Burton Gallery, Bideford.

This was a fascinating exhibition. 50 drawings selected from 3234 drawings. A big range of approaches and ideas.

I liked Heap 2013 by Hugh Gillan for its atmospheric representation of a foggy partially demolished building. He used layers of charcoal on gesso, and sandpapered and erased the charcoal and built it up again.

Figure 1. Hugh Gillan. Heap. 2013

I found some of the work obscure and reacted negatively to some of the captions in the catalogue which employed strings of abstract nouns and conveyed little meaning.

Another exhibit that caught me was Quest 2014 by Uta Feinstein. Again, charcoal, with pastel and chalk.

Figure 2. Uta Feinstein. Quest

It’s helpful for me at this early stage in my foray into drawing, to see what media has been used to create an effect. I find quite consistently, that I like charcoal and pastel rather than detailed painstaking carbon/pencil.

I really like Moment 2014 by Tricia Gillman. This is marks made on an old cardboard box with charcoal, and oil pastel.

Figure 3. Tricia Gillman. Moment 2014

It was exciting to see Megolith, by Sara Dudman, as I know her and have been to several workshops she runs to teach painting in acrylics.

Figure 4. Dudman, S. (2014) Megolith

As I progress through the course I expect to refer to my responses to the works in this exhibition.

Images

Figure 1. Gillan, H. (2013) Heap [Charcoal on gesso] Available at: http://jerwoodvisualarts.org/3084/Artist-Directory?page=5&lastname=G%&doSearch [Accessed 23 February 2016]

Figure 2. Feinstein, U. (2014) Quest [Charcoal] Avaiable at: http://jerwoodvisualarts.org/3084/Artist-Directory?page=5&lastname=G%&doSearch [Accessed 23 February 2016]

Figure 3. Gillman, T. (2014) Moment Avaiable at: http://jerwoodvisualarts.org/3084/Artist-Directory?page=5&lastname=G%&doSearch [Accessed 23 February 2016]

Figure 4. Dudman, S. (2014) Megolith Avaiable at: http://jerwoodvisualarts.org/3084/Artist-Directory?page=5&lastname=G%&doSearch [Accessed 23 February 2016]