During Thursday and Friday we painted, using a large brush and then a palette knife, having totally rebuilt the found objects into two separate subjects. The pigments used were simply primaries mixed to produce a black which was then tinted with white to give mid and light greys. It was then necessary to do a number of thumbnails of various points of view (POVs) until one was satisfied with what one wished to paint -ideally including as many simple shapes - spheres, cones, cubes - as possible.
I would have to admit that it took me a while to get a handle on the idea of putting the farthest away tones in first, so later my first piece required some over painting to get close to where it should have been:
When I left on Thursday evening, I wasn't very happy with my work, but on seeing again on Friday I felt it had improved overnight! The last instruction from Sylvia to contrast the diagonal page more made a big difference.
The next stage with the palette knife proved very interesting but I will leave that till tomorrow as I haven't got the pictures yet.
I should not forget to mention the fascinating introduction to paint that we received from Dr David Brancaleone through a deep analysis of the art and perhaps wilfully misrepresented life of Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)
The Two Fridas - 1939 - 173.5 x 173 cm
But what really surprised me were the number of overtly political pictures showing me that I really didn't know all that much about Frida Kahlo's life or indeed her work.
Self-portrait on the borderline between Mexico and the United States - 1932 - 12.5 x 13.5 ins.
One of the reasons I hadn't posted had been that I was seriously updating my contextual notebook but even having mentioned them there, I feel a number of these artist should be shown here so I will give a selection of the ones that have most attracted me, in no particular order.
Brain Alfred (b.1973 - US )
City Sunrise - 2004 - 94 x 132 in.
Shelter - 2004 - 23.5 x 30.5 cm
So now, so wow.
Monroe Hodder ( b. 1953 - UK )
paris Velvet - 2010 - 163 x 183 x 8
Landscape ?
Bernard Frize ( b. 1954 France )
Does he really do this?
Avalon - 1999 - 160 x 130 cm
Mona Marzouk (b.1968 -Egypt )
Untitled - 92 x 63cm
Much of her work is influenced by where she originates.
Wilhelm Sasnal (b. 1972 Poland)
I could find no titles for these but they were in an exhibition in Zurich in Dec 2009. I really am attracted to this artist's work not least because of his attachment to monochrome which we are doing at present but which appals to me anyway.
Back to the real world -on Friday I went for a walk through Limerick and on my way to Ormiston House I spotted a shop-front doing art:
Not sure about what the setup is but we have to look after our own, n'est-ce pas?
Anyway, on to Ormston House where the Winter Members Exhibition was called
'Thick, turgid and lacking in soothing oil'
Vanessa Donoso Lopez - Mama, threads are not just for sewing II (2012) paper, paint, threads,brackets, 170 x 170 x 150 cm
I would have loved to show Chris Leach's drawings but my pictures were poor as I could not focus well-enough on them.
It is worth going to this just to read the statement which is refreshingly un- artspeak.
Just around the corner Limerick Printmakers have just hung a new show -on Friday! - and have not yet got their list out, but I advise anyone remotely interested in print to go and see this. Here is one:
Title next week and more pictures
This will show that great prints can be quite small.
I wanted to draw this afternoon, but why is it that what always seems to appear is a face(!??):
Who is he?
And even though its the weekend I have a special collected on my way home:
Public Print
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