My Fine Art: Third Year

• 4th January, 2016 –  19th February, 2016
• My Visited: 17th February, 2016 (4:00 pm – 5:00 pm)

Waterfront Gallery, University Campus Suffolk, Ipswich

On the 17th February, I visit along with my friends from my course to the Collateral Drawing exhibition, to see and find inspirations for our second year of our studio practice, and my goals was to personally enjoy myself exploring the gallery, finding and picking up different prospects and new information. We saw many different paintings and drawings from many different contemporary artists, but the one art piece that has grabbed my attention, was an ink drawing called “Drawing ‘17” by Glenn Brown. It was the surreal feel and the technique behind the drawing that made me wanted to know more about it.

• The display of Glenn Brown’s “Drawing ’17”

Now in my third year, and for my dissertation, I was using Brown as one of the three artists to study about their strong imagination and their religion themes in their works, and since my “Copies for Inspirations” project is about recreating one of the three chosen artists’ work, based on my primary sources of seeing them in first person; using his drawing in this exhibition would be the perfect opportunity to recreate it, and by doing that would be a challenge, but enjoyable at the same time.

• Gathering around and listening to contemporary artist John Stark and his experiences in art.

Photos Credited to:

http://www.collateraldrawing.org/Waterfront-Gallery-UCS-Ipswich-East-Anglia

Glenn Brown – Drawing ’17 :

http://glenn-brown.co.uk/artworks/423/#selected_mediums=13

• Dates of my trip: 29th November – 2nd December, 2013

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands

On the 29th November, I visit along with my art colleagues to the Boijmans van Beuningen at Rotterdam, as part of our College Amsterdam trip for 3 days. We have visit to museums and galleries, like the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art and many more, but it’s this museum that I have chosen, because of the strong selection of Salvador Dali’s (1904 -1989) artworks. Seeing those in first person was incredible, viewing the details and the surreal styles definitely grab people’s attentions, and love the colours and the strange dream-inspired subject matters.

• Salvador Dali’s Paintings: Left – Impressions of Africa (1938). Right – The Face of War (1940)

The reason I have chosen this museum to study, is because for my dissertation, I’m studying Dali, looking through his works on imaginative and his dream inspired subject matters, and I have use his “Impressions of Africa” painting to recreate it in my own version, to help me prepared and understand more on my dissertation.

TATE Britain, London

On the 3rd June, 2016; I went to visit London, along with friends (artists in their own different ways), to spend the day visiting art galleries and other activities that interest us. We went to visit Tate Britain (in there was exhibitions of the Turner Collection and Mark Rothko’s Room 3: The Seagram Murals), Tate Modern and a few others, seeing different exhibitions from different art perceptions and art movements. For me personally, it was going in Tate Britain that was my main focus to our one day trip, as I wanted to find and discover John Martin’s (1789 – 1854) “The Last Judgement” Series, to help with my dissertation and seeing them in first person, to help me understand more of Martin’s extraordinary paintings.

• A selection of paintings in TATE Britain, including John Martin’s The Plains of Heaven (1851-3)

• A close up of The Plains of Heaven

During my visit at Tate Britain in our morning, I could only found one of them displayed, which was “The Plains of Heaven”, and finally getting to see his work in front of my very own eyes, especially comparing to other paintings that are displayed around it, really stands out as the main attraction of that section. Upon seeing this painting, I have both used it as part of my dissertation, and to recreate it in my own version, as the painting’s peaceful subject matter and the nature that catches the imagination to the artist and everyone else who sees one of Martin’s masterpieces.

How far art, if not inspired, has yet been ennobled by religion? I shall not touch upon today; for it both requires technical criticism, and would divert you too long from the main question of all, “How far religion has been helped by art?” (Ruskin, 1980, P. 59-60)

The John Ruskin quote was used to begin my challenging dissertation, to demonstrate the subject matter that I was tackling for and against.

For my dissertation, I was exploring and discussing the influences of religion and elements of fantasy behind the paintings I have chosen, and I have focused and studied three different artists from different generations, to find different answers and different meanings through their paintings and the artists themselves. The argument for this dissertation is to examine the influence that religion has in the world of fantasy; the imagination behind those artists’ art, and to find out the importance between religion and fantasy.

Bibliography

Ruskin, J. (1890) ‘Lectures on Art’. London: George Allen.

After looking through my previous works and a suggestion from one of my lecturers, I have decide to recreate famous artists’ works, as part of my influences towards my studio practice and especially for my Dissertation, which I’m looking at the fantasy and religious imagery in three different artists’ works and their background.

For my first project for my semester, I have focus on recreating existing artworks from three artists that I’m researching for my dissertation, and those artists are British painter John Martin (1789 – 1854), Spanish artist Salvador Dali (1904 – 1989) and Contemporary artist Glenn Brown (1966 – ), which all of those are known for their fantasy and imaginative elements in their artworks, with religious being thrown in the mix.

I have created my artworks, by using the similar medium and material as the original artworks that I’m recreating from, and I have decide to create my own versions of those artists’ works to start my semester, is because it would help me process and developed my dissertation, as written work, like this and essays, are my weakest session in the Fine Art course, so by recreating their works, I thought this would help me explored better and to help improve my understanding towards the direction I have taken. For example, Martin’s “The Plains of Heaven” was created using oil on canvas, but in my own take of the painting, I decide to use acrylic instead, using the medium that I know the most, adding in my own style to it.

For my inspirations behind this project, I was mainly inspired by my study behind my dissertation for this year, going through my chosen artists, and it has given me the ideas to recreate my own versions of their artworks (especially the influence of Glenn Brown’s own take of the originals). My previous paintings from my first year at university were also an influence towards this project, since I did do copies of already existed paintings.

I have got my ideas for this project from viewing the works of Glenn Brown, since he is known for recreating other artists’ works, by creating it in his own way; adding his elements and style into the works. One of my lecturers has also given me the idea to create a copy of an artist’s work, during my time at university.

I decide to do this opportunity to explore my dissertation into a studio practice, because not only this will help me understand my dissertation more and the art behind the writing, but also I want to feel, as an artist, about how those artists feel when they created their works, and for me, by recreating their works, helps me understand my chosen artists and their work more.

I have created each of my art pieces, in order of the chapter of each artist that I’m writing about. For this; my first chapter is about John Martin, and so my first artwork for this project is a copy of one of his painting that I’m writing about. This painting is a copy of Martin’s “The Plains of Heaven” (1851-3), which I have visit Tate Britain last June, to see the painting in first person. This was a challenging painting; as it was an A2 size canvas to work on, and trying to work on the colours, to have as similar as the original was a task. But aside for that, I was pleased with it, as I enjoyed working on the colours, the details, and creating my own version, using acrylic and the style that I have been working on.

Unlike my first painting, which I have based on a painting that I’m working on for my dissertation, this painting isn’t a copy of one of Salvador Dali’s paintings from my dissertation; except it was a painting that I have seen first person in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Amsterdam back at 2013. This work is a copy of Dali’s “Impressions of Africa” (1938), and always like how Dali created this art piece, because of the use of colours and surreal symbols that he has use. My take on Dali’s work was challenging, especially I (mostly) added the figures and the scenes that were in the background, and trying to work with the colours was hard working, but at the end, I was proud with it, and came out really well, thanks to my use of bright colours and the figures that I have added in my painting.

Along with my copy of Salvador Dali’s, this drawing was also a copy of one of Glenn Brown’s work that isn’t a work that I’m writing about for my dissertation, as I wanted to worked on my drawings, and I have seen Brown’s drawing at the Waterfront Gallery, in an exhibition called “Collateral Drawing”, back at February (2016); that got me inspired to create this piece in my own take. The name of the drawing that I have copied from is Brown’s “Drawing ‘17” (2015), and this ink based drawing has struck me, because of the unique style, also in a surreal feel (possibly a Salvador Dali inspired work) to it. My copy of the drawing took a while to say that I have finished with it, keep adding all the details, even the smallest details, and makes it more challenging, as I was using a biro pen, instead of ink. At the end, I was happy with it, and probably wouldn’t something like this again.

Illustrations:

Martin, John (1851-1853) The Plains of Heavens, [oil on canvas], 199 x 307cm, Tate Britain, London.

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/the-sublime/martin-myrone-john-martins-last-judgement-triptych-the-apocalyptic-sublime-in-the-age-of-r1141419

Dali, Salvador (1938) Impressions of Africa, [oil on canvas], 117.5 x 91.5cm, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rottenrdam, Netherlands.

http://www.leninimports.com/salvador_dali_impressions_africa_art_print.html

Brown, Glenn (2015) Drawing ’17, [ink on paper], 49.8 x 36.7cm, Waterfront Gallery [Collateral Drawing], UoS, Ipswich

http://www.leninimports.com/salvador_dali_impressions_africa_art_print.html