What is painting?

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, colour or other medium to a surface.


Abstract painting-
I like abstract art because it doesn't really have to look like anything in particular. You can easily paint the essence of the object that created the idea for the painting. It is almost like you are reducing the reality of the painting and stripping it back to the bare colours etc.





I love this piece by Diana Török (pastel, acrylic) . I love that you can see the textures (which come from a wall, as some of her pieces are her decorating offices and homes) and the use of pastel colours. Her aim in her work is to express the feminity and passion in her and the feminine colours certainly portray that. The colours merge easily and work in harmony with each other. Some of the deeper colours such as the pink towards the far right of the painting, resemble something you may see in a sci-fi film as the painting looks like space. I think this painting may have been achieve through stippling.





Tara Pasher (Acrylic, Oil Paint, Mixed Media)


I love the ability to see the brush strokes and the contrast between the blood red and the blue. The red line obviously has some meaning as it merges into the blues (top and bottom). This painting incorporates bold colors and heavy amounts of texture which is something I really like when it comes to abstract painting.





Teresa Young (Acrylic)


I love the combination of illustration and painting. The colours look very bright and this captures the ocean-like feel to the painting.

Andy Goldsworthy practical.

Andy Goldsworthy research.

Andy Goldsworthy, (born 26 July 1956) is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings.

The materials used in Andy Goldsworthy's art often include brightly coloured flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns. He has been quoted as saying, "I think it's incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals. But I have to: I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole." Goldsworthy is generally considered the founder of modern rock balancing. For his ephemeral works, Goldsworthy often uses only his bare hands, teeth, and found tools to prepare and arrange the materials; however, for his permanent sculptures like "Roof", "Stone River" and "Three Cairns", "Moonlit Path" (Petworth, West Sussex, 2002) and "Chalk Stones" in the South Downs, near West Dean, West Sussex he has also employed the use of machine tools. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Goldsworthy)

Three Cairns (http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/threecairns/interesting/)

After leaving college, Goldsworthy lived in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. In 1985, he moved to Langholm in Dumfries and Galloway, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, and a year later to Penpont. It has been said that his gradual drift northwards was "due to a way of life over which he did not have complete control", but that contributing factors were opportunities and desires to work in these areas and "reasons of economy".

In 1993, he received an honorary degree from the University of Bradford. He is currently an A.D. White Professor-At-Large at Cornell University.

Andy Goldsworthy is the subject of a 2001 documentary feature film called Rivers and Tides, directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer.

Photography plays a crucial role in his art due to its often ephemeral and transient state. According to Goldsworthy, "Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit."

Goldsworthy produced a commissioned work for the entry courtyard of San Francisco's De Young Museum called "Drawn Stone", which echoes San Francisco's frequent earthquakes and their effects. His installation included a giant crack in the pavement that broke off into smaller cracks, and broken limestone, which could be used for benches. The smaller cracks were made with a hammer adding unpredictability to the work as he created it.

(http://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/image/?id=ag_03076)

(http://visualmelt.com/Andy-Goldsworthy)

(http://visualmelt.com/Andy-Goldsworthy)

(http://visualmelt.com/Andy-Goldsworthy)

Temporary Space Artists - Robert Stadler

LIGHT INSTALLATION AT SAINT-PAUL SAINT-LOUIS CHURCH / 2OO7

Visitors enter the church through a lateral door and first see a scattered group of luminous spheres hovering in the choir. As one approaches the center of the nave, the spheres form a giant question mark. They become a punctuation mark superimposed over the religious symbols. Then as one moves through the church, the question mark decomposes. The figure becomes abstracted again in order to echo the hanging lights of the cathedral. Contrasting with the symmetry of the edifice, these luminous suspension points are like a musical notation, or holes punctuating the architectural volume. The question (or doubt) is absorbed by the space.Commissioned by Olga Milogrodzka for the Baltic See Cultural Center, the installation was presented in 2009 at St. John's church in Gdansk, Poland.

(http://www.robertstadler.net/all/exhibitions-installations/Nuit-Blanche-Paris/)

Temporary Space Artists - Andrea Mastrovito

Dior

Temporary Space Artists - Jen Lewin

Jen LewinFor the last 15 years Jen Lewin has been creating large, immersive, interactive art pieces for the public. From interactive sound and light sculptures that inspire people into play, to woven fiber video curtains that reflect movement, or giant, robotic, ethereal moths that dance based on human touch. Lewin’s ability to utilize technology as a medium is rare and unprecedented. As a trained architect, Lewin’s pieces are often the scale of buildings and rooms. She creates experiences and environments that are both part of, and integrated into, a physical space. For example, her work “The Pool” spanned almost a quarter acre and involved 120 interactive, glowing, outdoor light platforms that when stood upon, interact with each other. (http://jenlewinstudio.com/contact/about/)

Jackson Pollock - research

Jackson Pollock was an American painter well known for being part of the Abstract Expressionist movement during the 1940s. Regarded as reclusive, he had a volatile personality, and struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock)

Technique
The term used to describe Pollock's style and technique when creating his paintings is called 'action painting' due to the amount of movement that he used to spread the paint around the canvas. Pollock is believed to lie his canvas on the ground so he was able to move around the painting more freely. Action painting arguably resembles performance art, as the paint is allowed to act freely and without emotion. Pollock would never allow a paintbrush to touch the canvas, he would simply use it to drip the paint onto the surface instead. He used hardened brushes, sticks, and even basting syringes as paint applicators.

The painting Lavender Mist, unveiled by Pollock in 1950, is one of the most famous Jackson Pollock paintings. The canvas which is 10 feet wide displays paint that has been dripped and splattered over every inch. Lines of color move in every direction, and the imprint of Pollock’s hands which have been dipped in paint appear at the top right corner of the canvas. The eye frantically attempts to take in the sheer magnitude of the painting and is unable to rest. Because his paintings were created through action, the process of viewing them must also involve an active process. (http://www.jackson-pollock.com/action-painting.html)

 (http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/painting1.shtm)

Influences

• Thomas Hart Benton
• Diego Rivera
• David Alfaro Siqueiros
• Lee Krasner (wife)
• Native American sand paintings, which were created by trickling lines of colored sand on a horizontal surface.
• The work he began doing in 1947, was influenced by the Surrealist style and the idea of 'psychic automatism' which was a direct expression of the unconscious.

Quotes from Jackson Pollock

"The strangeness will wear off and I think we will discover the deeper meanings in modern art."

"My paintings do not have a center, but depend on the same amount of interest throughout."

"It doesn't make much difference how the paint is put on as long as something has been said. Technique is just a means of arriving at a statement."

"When I'm painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It's only after a get acquainted period that I see what I've been about. I've no fears about making changes for the painting has a life of its own.