While I was developing my dissertation proposal back at last year, I decide to focus and study on two art genres that they have always interested me, and doing this make my dissertation a bit easily for me to write up about. On my dissertation, I have explored and discuss the influences of religion and elements of fantasy behind the imaginative artworks by three different artists, and I have chosen their landscape scaled paintings; inspired by my previous works at university. The religion theme came after I have discovered it in their works that the artists I have chosen (John Martin, Salvador Dali and Glenn Brown) have used/focused in their paintings.
- Frank Frazetta’s Savage World (1981)
Fantasy Art
This art genre has always appeal me for a long time, and I began taking my fantasy art interests seriously, when I was studying at College. I began looking into this through my dad, as he has grown up reading the Conan the Barbarian magazines and he had art books on the sub genre of sword and sorcery, as he was into that art as well. What appeals me about Fantasy Art, is the imagination and the creativity that has, and gives you the freedom, to come up and make up anything you wish to create; it’s the enjoyment that you get out of doing that! There have been many artists in the fantasy art movement that I have studied and admired, but the one artist that has inspired me the most, and remain my all-time favourite artist; the American fantasy artist, Frank Frazetta.
The Study of Frank Frazetta
Frazetta (1928 – 2010) was an extraordinary artist, his range of fantastic paintings and sketches have full of powerful imagination, and he has influenced many artists within the genres of fantasy and science fiction. He has influenced me as an artist, to continuing with my interest in Fantasy Art and he has inspired me to use my imagination and creativity in my art, and seeing his work is truly magnificent. While studying Frazetta and his work, I have brought two books that are about him and his paintings and drawings.
- (An example to show my inspiration, by recreating one of Frazetta’s work (Atlantis, 1972) as he inspired me with my use of imaginative and not to give up with my art.)
One was “ICON”, which shown and studies mainly on his fantasy paintings (as he was a comic artist, before finding fame in the sword and sorcery genre of fantasy art), and going through this book takes my breath away, in term of how extraordinary he catches his imagination and transferred them into paintings. The other is “Rough Work”, which is a collection of his drawings and sketches, and it’s like going through one of his sketchbooks, and seeing them is also inspiring and influential.
- Vincent van Gogh’s Daubigny’s Garden (1890)
Landscape Art
I begin to study and became interesting in landscape art, after studying it for my fine art course at university in my first year. I have chosen to study it, because of my photography interest, as I have enjoyed capturing parks, seascapes and holiday trips; to capture beautiful scenes and for memories. I have continue to study landscape art for my final year, because I wanted to create art, from something I have enjoyed doing and to show my strongest interest to be displayed in my upcoming degree show. For my inspirations, I was heavily inspired by the art movement of Post-Impressionism and the artists I admired the most are Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cezanne.
- (An example to show my studies and influences, by recreating Cezanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire (1887), and it’s the style and the colours that I’m most influenced by about this movement).
Van Gogh, Cezanne and French Impressionism
What is Post-Impressionism? It’s mainly a French art movement that has been around in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and it focuses on artists that studies and expressed emotions rather than simply optical impressions, concentrating on themes of deeper symbolism. This has inspired me even more, after my trip to Paris (August, 2013), and went to visit the Musee d’Orsay, as its home to many collection of French impressionism paintings. I have bought a book from there called “A Fuller Understanding of the Paintings at the Orsay Museum”, to bring back home, and it has helped me to discover and admire many other artists and paintings. For Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890) and Paul Cezanne (1839 – 1906), my two biggest influences in the Impressionism era, they have created emotional, but brilliant landscape paintings, and their work has influence my work, because of their use of simplified colours and definitive forms, as they have strongly used in their beautiful paintings, and their subject matters has also been inspiring towards my primary sources.
Illustrations:
Frank Frazetta – Savage World (1981)
http://frankfrazetta.net/Savage_World.html
Frank Frazetta – Atlantis (1972)
http://frankfrazetta.net/Atlantis.html
Vincent van Gogh – Daubigny’s Garden (1890)
http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Painting/96/Daubigny%27s%20Garden.html
Paul Cezanne – Mont Sainte-Victoire (1887)
http://tribulations.fr/couleur/#.WNqs84WcFMs
Bibliography:
Bayle, F. (2010) ‘A Fuller Understanding of the Paintings at the Orsay Museum’. Paris: Musee d’Orsay
Fenner, A. (ed.) and Fenner, C. (ed.) (1998) ‘ICON: A Retrospective by the Grand Master of Fantastic Art, Frank Frazetta’. Nevada City: Underwood Books Inc.
Fenner, A. (ed.) and Fenner, C. (ed.) (2007) ‘Frank Frazetta: Rough Work (Spectrum Presents)’. Nevada City: Underwood Books Inc.
