Seminar Presentation

Evalutation

Peer Evaluation

Strengths –

• ·         Really informative and engaging
• ·         Good depth of information on other relevant artists
• ·         Formal/professional layout
• ·         Sparked an interesting debate
• ·         Good use of quotes
• ·         Clearly structured
• ·         Powerful topic

Weaknesses –

•     Can be too fast when speaking  
•    Can be too quiet at times when speaking    
•       Maybe other points of view

Personal Evaluation

I think I picked an interesting variety of photographers for my presentation; the group seemed to enjoy the topic and found it interesting. I feel that I could have included other opinions/points of view and maybe a few more similar photographers to compare to Jenn Ackermann. I think I need to work on my confidence when talking in front of a group to make my presentations easier to follow. However I think the appearance and presentation of it was simple and easy for an audience to follow. 

David Cambria is one of my most favourite artists I’ve found while researching for my self-directed project, I love all of his work in this series of portraits. I like how he creates a detailed face from smaller marks, of different colours, and the uses bigger strokes for the outline and on the background. I also like how the background isn’t textured as this makes the painting stand out more, and this will be something I try within my own work. In this particular painting I like the darkness he uses to create shadows and the red and blue hints in the face. I like how the majority of the portrait is built up using skin colour. I also think the strokes are expressive and interesting to view. His work is definitely something which inspires me, his paintings are my favourite that I’ve come across.

Within my own work, I want to push myself using this sort of style to create portraits, and going larger than I have done before,  I think this kind of style will be interesting to experiment with and quite fun to do too. 

Andrew Salgado is one of my favourite artists I’ve come across since starting my research for my self-directed project, the way he builds up a face or a figure using colour and strokes is really good, and something which inspires me. I want to be able to create paintings to a similar standard of these one day and they are definitely something to look up to. In this painting in particular I like how the colours start of warm and then fade down into a variety of blue tones. I like how even though it is an expressive style the detail hasn’t been lost in the face, especially in the eyes. 

Self Directed Statement (so far...)

I have decided to develop my previous project but look at using different painting styles such as oil paints. The topic of my project is blank expression, within this I will look at using light in my work to create depth and seriousness. The main media I want to work in is oil paints. I want to capture people of guard and then turn these photographs into paintings. Creating sketches and experimenting with different materials I hope that these will inspire my paintings. I want to experiment different back grounds using oils, such as dripping like some of my previous water colour work. I previously looked at Sally Manns ‘face’s series, which inspired me to photograph people off guard. Some artists I have also looked at are Andrew Salgado and Dan O’connor. To develop my work from here I want to experiment more with oils, working on a larger scale and loosening  up more with my technique. 

Drawing Statement (so far…)

Continuing on from the ‘journey’ project, I wanted to look at making things appear different to the viewer. I started looking at disjointed art work, and it inspired me to cut up my own drawings and then use them to create other paintings. I started looking at artists such as Eric Olsen, who did a series on paintings on a block coloured background and then painted the faces in separate thick strokes. Sometimes you couldn’t make out the face, but by the shape you could tell it’s a portrait. I want to be able to create something similar with my own work. Another artist I also looked at is Andy Denzler, he’s paintings are almost like distorted photographs, he uses different textures and blurs to do this. To progress I want to take more photographs to draw from and paint/draw from the experiments I have created so far. 

Drawing Presentation

Nick Rain

My drawing presentation is not on an artist that draws, I struggled to find an artist/drawings which linked well with what my journey project already consisted of, also not being able to go on the London trip or visit galleries I started searching the internet. I came across a photographer, who may not be a drawing artist, but his images were really thought provoking and had a real meaning, not something that could be made up. Each photograph had a disturbing story behind it, and you could see this from the expressions on the girls faces, the pain that they were hiding. They made me instantly want to look further into the images and find out more about the subject. Many of the images were from over 10 years ago, but it doesn’t stop the emotion from the portraits.

Nick Rain did a series of images from different parts of the world; they were an assignment and part of a project to Combat Trafficking in children and women. The photographs are all in black and white, and are portraits of young girls/women who are trafficked by ‘pimps’ for prostitution, some of the girls look younger than 10 years of age. Not all of the photos are about the prostitution; some are about children who are trafficked for other reasons, such as begging. Some of the photographs are also just about poverty in men and women, the jobs they have to do to get buy, the places they have to live in and the things they have to see and live with for the rest of their lives.

The fact that these images are in black and white makes them even more effective, they make you focus on the person and nothing else around them, and it makes the photographs look darker and more depressing. The images draw you into the girls eyes, and makes you question about their life, and it’s even quite hard to believe. The photos show a scary real life.

After finding these images I researched into the photographer more, he has been on many journeys, and travels, including some of the places that I have included in my work. Although as a photographer of his travels, I didn’t find the rest of his work anywhere near as interesting as the project he was involved with. Art is supposed to draw in an audience, make them think and question, his series of images for the project definitely do this even if they were for something completely un-related to art.

Masri Hayssam - Dolcia – Oil, Acrylic, Gesso 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8in

Dolcia by Masri Hayssam is a very expressive painting in terms of strokes and gestures created by the paint. The features on the face are very prominent and stand out from the rest of the face which almost creates a background as it’s painted so loosely.  The colours are mainly blue tones giving it a cold tone and also makes the painting seem like there is a deep emotion behind the eyes. The thick lines and strokes are quite messy and rough but are placed in certain ways to make up some of the outlines. I really like how Hayssam paints his faces, they look quite quick, almost like a sketch, and I think that is really effective. I think this sort of quick style would be something to experiment with. 

Andy Denzler

To continue my journey project I want to look at the break up of an image/painting/drawing. I came across Andy Denzler and his work inspired me to go down this kind of wrote. I found the textures, the blurs and movements  in his paintings interesting to look at, and thought this is something I could experiment with in drawing.  

                                                    Jaeyeol Han- Passerby, Comma 13.4 x 8.3 x 1.2 in

I really like this style and how the artist has created the face using a few large strokes, the minimal use of different colours is really effective too and could link into how I am currently looking at how colour effects an images in terms of emotion and mood. The yellow Han has used to create highlights is interesting and it’s different, however, the features in portrait are not as clear as some other paintings I have looked at. I do like how the background is not touched and it is literally just the outline of the face.

Brandi Hofer -  The case of  M.Valadamer 20 x 18 x 0.8 in

This painting by Brandi Hofer, caught my eye as I had been taking photographs, for self-directed, using lighting to create a different effect and mood in the photographs. A few photographs I have taken have used red lights, and some of them I want to use to create paintings from. This has given me inspiration as to how I could include the colour into my paintings, like I have with my photographs. I also like how the artist has used very little colour in the face, with only hints of red and yellow to create highlights and how the background has been bought into the face. The strokes from the background make it all flow.

                                      Jeong Ah Lim - An Ordinary Person 9. 20.9 x 17.9 x 0.8in

I like how the artist has used the background to create the face, by only painting the features and some strokes to make the outlines. The different coloured backgrounds in her work is similar to the photographs I have been taking for self- directed as the colours could mean different things and also can give the painting/photograph a different emotion/mood.  

                                               Thomas Donaldson – 9-14-13 Head. Acrylic, 

                                                         Oil paint, Spray paint, wax 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.8in

Although I am not keen on the colours used in this painting or the face itself, I like the build up of textures and the fact Donaldson has used lots of different mediums to create the painting is very interesting. I also like how the right hand side is not of the background is not as textured as the rest of the painting. I think looking into how he’s worked spray paint and wax into the painting could be something which would be interesting to experiment with for my Self-directed project.