As I've mentioned before, I try to carry around small notebook at all times. I use it to scribble down ideas, doodle compositions and character designs, and record helpful information I come across in the day to day. Rcently I filled up my first, which lasted me about half a year, and so I've started a new one. I've been drawn to illustration more recently - when life's busy, it's easier to pick up a pen and paper and do some scribbling, unlike painting which takes more preparation. I also find that illustration can be a starting point for a more thorough and detailed piece of artwork. And so, partly inspired by Austin Kleon, who shows a lot of insight into his everyday working process on his blog, I've collected a few of my favourites from my new little book. (above and below) Fantasy/horror character designs themed on old fashioned submarines (above) Exploring circulr composition
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Now, my further delving into Dada would never be smooth. That would take the fun out of things. My aim, when researching new artists, not to regurgitate what I've seen, but to pick out what I like, question what I don't, and ultimately to react while inevitably rejecting something. This first question came from the heart of what Dada is, to be honest. Dada aimed to use nonsense to challenge the status quo, to do things without meaning. For example, the quite alarming 'abstract poetry' , like Hugo Ball performed, where he used phonetics and 'nonsense' language to create his poetry. This idea of nonsense and obscure meaning was slightly unappealing at first for my own art. I love filling my work with imagery, metaphor, symbols and stories in many different forms. But as I continued reading into Dada, I began to understand more about the aims and purpose of this nonsense. Hans Richter, a Dadaist summed it up as: "We were looking for a way to make art a meaningful instrument of life." So although Dada aimed to have no meaning, unlike previous art movements, in doing that it took on other meanings. The meaning is not lost, or nonexistent. The anger and angst and chaos and rebellion and confusion is there despite not being communicatedin the way that previous artists had done. The way it was hidden or at least not immediately apparent gives even more meaning and depth, at last in my eyes. And the meaning was also personal for the artists, even if others didn't fully appreciate it or receive the full meassage. But does this matter? I often find myself thinking about how others will see my art. It can be both an encouragement and a boundary. What matters more to me, the internal or the external meaning? My personal meanings, or the reactions of others? But thinking about it, there is very little external reaction that an artist can control. Maybe it is sad that the meaning poured into my art could be lost, but maybe other reactions could give dozens of personal meanings and interpretations , each unique for the viewer. And that's even more important, in a way. Kurt Schwitters, another Dada artist, had a column which was his 'beloved 'Schwitters-Saeule''. This was a literally a column, an untransportable sculpture in his house, constantly being added to. It was filled with layers and holes, each of which was for a particular person in his life, to which he added hair, pencils, shoelaces.... all sorts of things. Sadly this was destroyed by WW2 bombs, but even if we were able to witness its magnificence, noone would be able to full understand the meaning and depth of it. But it can still be reacted to. I've had ideas from it that are personal to me, and others will do the same, each reaction being unique. Yes, noone will fully appreciate Schwitters' full meaning behind it, but even more will come from 'inaccurate' intepreatation. So specifically in reaction to Dada and meaning, I don't want to take the idea of no meaning. I want to take the freedom of not worrying about reactions, and instead fill my art with meaning, some completely hidden to all but me, some subtle, some as open as possible. No-one will react to your art in the way you do and that you want maybe, but that's important, and more will come from it as a result. (source: "Dada art and anti-art" by Hans Richter) First of all, Happy New Year to you all!
New year, new you, and all that. While I'd much rather keep on at my slowly but surely pace, I have been looking into a new art area and art movement - Dada. It began with artists' block on the last week of college, when my art teacher swooped (ok, maybe not quite) to my rescue, suggesting that I look into 'cut-up' technique. This is basically where you take something existing, often text, and cut it up, then blindly pull out the pieces and let chance determine the order. It has been used by David Bowie to construct some of his songs I believe, and also by the writer and artist William Burroughs. Looking into its origins, led me to the art movement 'Dada'. And that's basically what I've spent my half term reading about. Dadaism is hard to sum up in a sentence or two, since it's such a large and varied movement. It emerged in the early 20th century, aiming to challenge normality, in society and in the world of art, by dramatically shunning rules. Sometimes, but not always, it took a political stance, especially in Berlin. Dada artists often used nonsense in their work, to both challenge and shock observers as well as to pull away from artistic and social convention. You may have heard of artist Marcel Duchamp submitting a urinal to an art gallery with the aim of questioning the idea of what art is. This is just one example of what Dada artists got up to. The movement has been incredibly influential, and some say it was the beginning of postmodernism. Many of the early surrealists emerged from Dadaism. I hope to share my research and reaction into Dada over the next few weeks. The cut-up technique has already given me some ideas, and saved me once from a pool of stagnation. I've been experimenting with different amounts of control over the process, sometimes letting chance fully dictate the outcome, other times being more selective. It is a strange and new experience, since usually I've worked to improve and further my art by increasing control of my tools and understanding and application, whereas this is the opposite. Although it is strange, it's quite freeing, letting something be reinvented through chance as I push slips of paper into a random order. I'm considering applying this to some otherwise quite personal pieces of art. Like many people, there are things I would want to say, maybe even shout, but there are barriers such as privacy and sensitivity and confidence that prevent us. I've already experimented with writing down 'things I want to say' and combining them with related lyrics for example. It feels like a more comfortable ground between not expressing anything and possibly oversharing. And it also is quite comforting to have meanings known only by me in my art, that others can think about, and react to in more ways than if the meaning was obvious. It also ends up sounding rather poetic, in a fragmented dreamy kinda way: North my direction, walk burns me burn bright ...cloudy stars, It is heart, heart my weary.' I'll share a bit more about my thoughts on Dada, meaning and emotion in my next few posts.... C-M First of all, an early Merry Christmas to everyone! I know I said before about snow being inspiring, and as it nears Christmas, the festive atmosphere does start sparks of inspiration. It's often the music that begins it, especially with all the choral singing going on. And I guess the chilly weather means I'm more likely to cosy up with a pencil and paper indoors....
As the end of the term finishes, I'm finishing off parts of our college disguise project - quite a lot of experimentation and exploration. In my class, we're encouraged to photocopy our work so we can work into it, and experiment freely. So I've been exploring 'disguising' my work with paint dragging, and also writing/text. It's so interesting to see the huge variety of interpretations in class, none of them the same. Speaking of finishing things, I've posted an explanation of my Catch-22 project today, describing my development and thoughts behind my work. I'm thinking of taking a similar approach of character exploration with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, who is fascinating. Shelley's entire concept and characters have been something that've captivated me for a long time. There's so much that her work explores and brings up, and it's something I want to give a go to exploring. My Notebook is full of other ideas, so hopefully the Christmas break will give me more time to develop some of them..... Until the New Year: Merry Christmas! It's been snowing here this week, which I find very exciting - winter is my favourite season mainly because of snow.
I find snow so atmospheric and beautiful, and as a result I have a couple of ideas on the go. There's nothing better than staring up into the darkness to see swirling specks that stretch into oblivion..... Little things often inspire me in the day to day. I keep a notebook on me at all times, so I can jot down random ideas that come to me throughout the day. It can be strange things, like someone's hairstyle, or a streetlamp or even a normal train window. My mind starts experimenting and extrapolating, and spins a story and a scene, and down it goes in the notebook. Often songs can awaken my muse, and then I try to capture that inspired feeling in some frantic scribbles! Many of my ideas don't get used, but I do often look back through my notebook to work on some of my older thoughts, which does sometimes take a while - my handwriting can be hard to decipher! Just seeing the common themes can help if I'm feeling directionless, because it reminds me of the things I enjoy painting, like steampunk and space and portraits. I also have online folders of photos that give me that inspiration spark, which can also be a helpful starting point. I've come to the end of one of my projects this week - my Catch-22 covers. I've posted my more experimental/expressive version today, and I'll post the final one in the next couple of days. Look out for my explanation and analysis of them over the next week or so in my 'About my Work' tab, I'll let you know when it's up. I'd love to here thoughts on your favourite version too, so DM me on Instagram or drop me an email..... I've noticed how I've been leaning towards steampunk again recently - and definitely science fiction. I love the ability to create characters and worlds in futuristic settings, And steampunk lets you explore how the world literally operates, which I find so interesting.
These last couple of weeks I've tried out an idea based on the book Catch-22. I really recommend it, it's got an excellent mix of humour and satire that highlights the irony of war. I chose to sketch Yossarian (the main character) in ink using crosshatching to get a sense of roughness, and tried to get a combination of anger and determination combined with hopelessness and sadness in his expression, because I felt these were very important elements to his character. I've posted my initial sketch, and I'm currently working on two more variations, both painted - one more expressive and the other realistic. The amount of reference photos I used was probably the most I've ever used before for a single piece - I wanted to get historical accuracy where I needed it as much as possible, and then used several different face references to create Yossarian's. I've got some interesting more subtle ideas for context for my realistic version - I'll explain them when I get it finished and posted! C-M
As promised, we've been taught oils in class this week. Above is the piece I did, based off a piece by Jenny Saville. I really enjoyed trying out oils, because I had to really concentrate on layering, and the paint stayed wet so that you could mix the layers in. The colours are so rich too. It did leave the classroom smelling rather strongly of white spirits though, and the paint is really messy too...
Another exciting thing I did this week was going to see the Open Studios event in Sheffield. Six floors of artist studios were open to the public. This was really interesting, because you could have a look at the working environments of artists, and get to see their workspace and talk to them. There was a wide variety of different specialisms, too, from sculptors to mosaic artists to oil painters and more. The really exciting thing for me came unexpectedly - I got to meet Andrew Hunt, a Sheffield-based artist who has inspired my painting technique for a while now. He uses oils to paint very life-like portraits that hold a lot of character. I was inspired by him when I was only just starting to paint again, after seeing his work in Sheffield's Now Then magazine. It was amazing to be able to see him working in his studio, and to say to him that I really admired his work. I've started posting my work in progress on Instagram this week, so if you'd like to see more of my process, please follow me and maybe send me a message to say hi! https://www.instagram.com/handsofawatch/ I just want to say wow!, first of all, to everyone who has visited my site. I launched on Facebook this week, and received over 100 views in 24 hours! Incredible! Obviously that's not a daily occurrence, but I don't mind, I make my website for my art, not my art for my website.
Being back at college this week has left less time to do painting and the like, but we have started an interesting project surrounding 'Disguise' in art class. We've been covering art theory surrounding artists challenging us to think about stereotype and assumption. This lead me to think about the purpose of my art. Personally, I don't want my pictures just to show what is already there. I want to communicate with others through artwork. My art is part of my voice. So what do I want my art to say? I want to speak about things that are important to me. I've started listing what I want to say through my art. If you're interested, this is what is important for me to say so far.
These are particularly important to me, and I'm going to work giving my art more direction through exploring these areas, as well as others which are harder to group into just a statement. So far this week, I've worked on a piece exploring attitude to Free Will, and also a reaction to Remembrance Day. Learning oils in college next week, which is something entirely new.... |
Claire-M BathI'm a mostly self-taught artist, currently studying A-Level art at college. Archives
March 2018
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