PORTRAITS: Experimenting with acrylic, collage and reflective pigment 

I took these photographs at the National Gallery. The portrait paintings of the Countess of Somerset and the Countess of Pembroke (Lady Anne Clifford) by William Larkin were interesting as the surface of the paintings were extremely glossy and reflective - having similarities to the test canvasses and glossy pigments I am working with.

 The ornate pattern and intricate lacework ruffs have also been used in my previous painted research (see below). The women portrayed are impassive yet positively daring - staring directly at their audience.  

Absolutely loved the painting of Elizabeth 1st (unknown artist). This painting dwarfs the other portraits. The impressive and enormous ebony frame with shiny gold curlicues, surrounds a dark devilish background with the flat white faced Queen staring out from its depths like a beacon. She appears immensely powerful, regal and sexy.

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp07212/william-larkin 

Accessibility and Familiarity of the Renaissance Female

There are some things that are famous for being famous but these things are not lasting, whereas I feel the recognisable quality of these Renaissance works appear infinite. The faces I select from familiar female portraits are meant not only as an homage to the original but also, when combined with my digital patterns and blatant nude forms, to reinforce a sense of the contemporary ‘Madonna’, with an affirmation to the famous and recognisable imagery of the past. It is a way for me to make my own female portrait, which is accessible to the modern eye.

Examples of my silkscreen and digital print images above the original Renaissance paintings

One gets a sense of something beyond pigment, beyond likeness and beyond the human face in the original oil paintings. In my opinion, the women in these portraits appear physically as modern women; some stare at you directly, look ahead with defiance or passivity, gaze submissively from under hooded eyelids – each different facial evocation promoting the ambiguity of this visual tease which Renaissance artists appeared to cultivate. For me, the apparent vulnerability and acquiescence of these women belies their strength. The totally uncanny living female presences evoked within the paintings are reasons why I admire and choose to depict fragments of them as subjects for my own work. 

There is more going on than meets the eye. I think the question of what makes a human being live and breathe and what governs the forces that make us human are questions the Renaissance artists (in particular) may be attempting to answer.  However, the ironic ambiguity within the representation of these familiar female forms is that they were all painted by men.

DIGITAL & SILKSCREENPRINTS

Leda

Sequential images form a series of experimental prints inspired by the amalgamation of 'Leda and the Swan' by Raphael and 'A Lady's Maid Soaping Linen' by H. R. Morland. You can see the addition of my own drawn nudes as exploded patterns in the background layers combined with the addition of photographic depictions of hands and eyes. I wanted to create a feeling of female power with the implicit sexual overtones depicted by writhing swans combining with the direct gaze and controlling grip of the 'Maid'. I have used a gradual layering of images to creating the collection of final designs, some of which will be overprinted with iridescent gold, bronze and space blue - using MERCK pigments.

Weyden Women

Terracotta Weyden Woman with Iriodin Bronze

These sequential images form another series of experimental prints inspired by 'A Portrait of a Lady' by Rogier van der Weyden. With these images I wanted to evoke a theme of religious devotion. The face of the woman is impassive, could appear subservient as she is looking down but hides strength of will . The demeanour of the subject combined with the solid layered patterns (again using a mixture of nude linear forms and repeat patterns of 'Isabel de la Porcel' portrait by Goya) depict a statuesque 'Madonna'.This sequence have been digitally printed and some pieces has been overlaid with gold, bronze and silver MERCK pigments (see previous blog entry MERCK Effect Pigments).

Holburne Museum 

INTERVIEW DECEMBER 2016

School's Project Artist: 

Theme of project 'MOVING ON'

The Analysis of an Historic Oil Painting where the subject is a teenage boy leaving University

Applied, Interviewed, Not Selected....

Artist Brief

• Six chosen artists will each be allocated a sixth form in a local school (state or independent) 
• The artists will make one visit to the school where they will use the painting to initiate discussion with the pupils on their feelings about leaving school
• Each artist will be lent a canvas reproduction of the painting, audio recording equipment and a camera for their school visit
• The artist will create a piece of artwork (see conditions of entry) in response to the pupils

For me, the idea of ‘moving on’ particularly at a seminal stage in one’s life is an exciting concept to interpret creatively.

I think that by analysing an historic oil portrait which depicts a young person of a similar age may be a way in which today’s young adults could begin to express and explore their own interpretation of ‘self’ at a pivotal time in their lives using contemporary processes. Their idea of ‘self’ could be contrasted with the character in the painting, stimulating themes which resonate with a group of contemporary teenagers. For example, self confidence, self expression, ethnicity and physical presence.

The world of a teenager is almost wholly concerned with their own ‘visual portrait’ or appearance and is communicated entirely using digital media, a media which allows anonymity or infamy. Therefore, the digital style in which I depict historical portraits could be used to assist in representing the portraits or collective demeanour of a group of children at an influential time in their lives.

In my opinion, this project could be interpreted principally using current digital technologies - whether that takes the form of images or ideas captured via creative computer software, photographic scanned imagery or taken with personal portable devices and manually printed and collaged.

RWA Strange Worlds

The Vision of Angela Carter

 A major exhibition that celebrates the life, work and influences of Angela Carter twenty five years after her death.  In bringing together art and literature, Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter explores the enormous impact of author and journalist Angela Carter - one of the most distinctive literary voices of the last 100 years.  
Delving into the latent meanings of childhood fairytales and the twisted imagery of gothic mysticism, this exhibition pays homage to the dark and compelling drama of Carter’s visual imagination – brutal, surrealist and savage.

Strange Worlds: The Vision of Angela Carter is curated by Dr Marie Mulvey-Roberts of UWE, and the artist and writer Fiona Robinson RWA.

Here are a collection of inspirational images with explanations taken from the current RWA exhibition “Strange Worlds” inspired by the novels of Angela Carter. I selected the following pieces as I found them both beautiful and resonant within my own print work (See Leda and the Swan). I captured sections of oil portraits and exquisite pattern. Examples include: William Holman Hunt’s ‘Shadow of Death’, Heather Nevey’s evocative, haunting female portraits taken from ‘the Lesson’, the projection of ‘Ophelia’ by Davy and Kristin McGuire and the sinister, tortuous installation ‘the Banquet’ by Ana Maria Pacheco. I have re-used descriptive captions taken directly from the gallery to inform the reader.

I read Angela Carter’s novel 'Night at the Circus' which illustrated the ill-fated, sleazy underbelly of carnival life where true love can conquer all when I was teenager and warmed to the glitzy character 'Fevvers'.  Sophie 'Fevvers' the Cockney virgin acrobat with her own set of wings made glamorous the tawdry life of an orphaned child, supposedly hatched from an egg and abandoned on the doorstep of a brothel. Darkness, tigers, alcoholism and death issued from this modern day fairytale with no prince but the love of a journalist, Jack Walser, to save her in the end.

Not Walt Disney I grant you, but all children dream of being rescued from their own 'reality' sometime, and who wouldn't want to fly on their own pair of super wings? Ambiguous, uncomfortable and at times alien, but a reality which echoes within most childhood memories.

Heather Nevey taken from 'the Lesson' and 'The Bed' (Oil on Canvas)

Ana Maria Pacheco - The Banquet (Polychromed Wood)

Some Exercise of power, Ana Maria Pacheco’s three part sculptural installation, including here, The Banquet, was made between 1980 and 1985. Felled by Pacheco’s deep concern for her fellow human beings, it addresses, through metaphor the universal theme of man’s inhumanity to man, offering a bleak vision of the uncertainty of the human condition. The figures in the banquet are larger than life, heads sunk into shoulders, taut skin stretched to its limit, prosthetic human teeth adding to the sense of threat The naked figure is utterly vulnerable powerless in the face of forces beyond his control. Is this performance or are we witnessing torture?

Karl Weschke - Leda and the Swan (Oil on Canvas) 1985-86

In this portrayal of the legend of Leda and the Swan, Weschke reverses the traditional casting of Leda as the victim. Instead she is portrayed as a powerful sexual figure. Here, Leda dominates the landscape, towering above the delicate swan (a demi-god). The same legend is evoked in Carter’s novel, ' The Magic Toyshop', where the heroine is coerced by her sadistic uncle – a toymaker - to re-enact the rape of Leda with a swan puppet whilst he pulls the strings.

William Holman Hunt - The Shadow of Death (Oil and Varnish on canvas) 1869-73

This work features a young Jesus in a carpenter’s workshop. Portrayed with arms aloft, his shadow falls in the shape of the crucifix on the wooden tool rack behind. The arch of the window in the background creates the illusion of a halo and the ring of yarn by his feet is suggestive of a bloodied crown of thorns. It was painted during a visit to the Holy Land and is often compared with John Everett Millais’ Christ in the House of his Parents, which is also set in ta carpenter’s workshop. The work appeared in Carter’s film, The Holy Family Album, depicting key stages in Christ’s life.

Ophelia - Davy and Kristin McGuire (Holographic projection)

This installation creates a haunting reminder of John Everett Millais’ iconic Pre-Raphaelite painting of Ophelia (1851-52). Carter was an admirer of this work, which haunts her novel Love. Here, instead of a canvas, the surface of a bottle is used, upon which the artist’s portrait of Shakespeare’s’ doomed heroine is submerged. The McGuire’ work, which includes the realm of fairies and the gothic, resonates with Carter’s engagement with Magic Realism, fantasy and the surreal.

MILLFIELD MADNESS

Maybe it's Millfield....maybe it's just Making Frames

Millfield exhibition:

Thank you to all of you who submitted images for the selection panel. Paul, Ian, Matthew Partington (MA Curating course leader) and myself selected from the digital submissions today.

Congratulations to Clare Wyatt, Jemma Gunning, Kar Mern Tan, Leonie Bradley and Wendy Picken whose work has been selected for the Postgraduate exhibition at Millfield, and who will be representing UWE as postgraduate students.

Hello Clare, Jemma, Kar Mern, Leonie and Wendy

I contacted Millfield today to ask if they had decided on their final selection for the show. They said they have had tons of applications so won’t be able to let us know until the New Year.

I had assumed if they had asked us to put things forward they would automatically be selected but it seems there is another selection process from them.

As soon as I know I will let you know........

1. Mad-Donna,2.  Dona, 3. armad-HER, 4. arnolfini the feminine

Originally four of my digital prints were selected to represent UWE for a forthcoming post graduate exhibition at Millfield. I am informed that I have one print on the 'reserved' list. 

Whether my work is to be exhibited or not, all chosen pieces needed framing. With a Renaissance theme still the thread colouring my current work I decided to attempt making my own frames for cost purposes, but also look at sourcing reclamation frames in a more ornate style in keeping with National Gallery paintings. These reclamation frames could be a display possibility for my end of year show or future exhibitions.

The digital pieces I submitted are all 42 cm x 59 cm and will be mounted and framed at A1 size. Jemma organised a framing workshop where Justin (nice man, nice beard, no sandals or halo but revered in the wood department) instructed us in the art of frame making. I had no idea making ones own frame could be straightforward but conversely so complex, with a confusing array of ear bleedingly noisy power tools, a myriad of wood samples, mathematical measuring accuracy, precision cutting and knot tying skills.

  

Over the course of two days (with Justin's assistance), I created four A1 frames - 59.4 cm x 84.1 cm (adding an extra 20 mm to each dimension). I used sections of knotted pine which were accurately measured and then cut into four pieces using an angled guillotine (satisfyingly crunchy noises ensued when the handle was pulled). Each side of the frame was glued at each corner and then bound with string (tied with a 'reef' knot) to hold the pieces in position until the glue dried. Once dry a sturdy back board was added and stapled into position. 

The next stage will be sanding and painting before glazing and the insertion of artwork and mount.  Realistically, reclamation frames would provide more intricate and authentic presentation for my work. (I am in the process of resourcing suitable candidates for this. I have been researching a variety of reclamation yards in Bristol and Bath - these huge warehouse spaces are cold, cavernous and cathedral-like, packed full of wooden treasures waiting to be restored). 

My own wooden treasures (frames) are now waiting patiently in my studio to be completed. They have yet to be glazed and filled with the window mount and finished print. The simple pine wood lengths used for the basic frame structure will eventually be sanded by hand, distressed with gold paint and finally varnished ready for future display - wherever that may be!