Part 3 Project 2 Research Point 1

In this piece of work I'm going to take a look at artists who use landscape as their main subject.  They range from Durer who was one of the first artists to paint landscapes as we understand them through to those who create art today.

Albrecht Durer 1471 - 1528

Albrecht Durer - self portrait (1)

Durer was a German painter, print maker and theorist and has been regarded as the best Renaissance artist in Northern Europe.  He made his reputation in his twenties and his work covered the whole range of subject matter.  For this work I will look at his landscapes.

Landscape with a Woodland Pool - Albrecht Durer, 1496
Water colour and gouache (2)

This was painted in 1496 when Durer was just 25 and is thought to be amongst his most sensitive work. Durer was one of the first artist to recognise the potential of water colour and he was responsible for bringing it to a much more prominent position.(3)

The same year Durer painted House by a Pond, again using watercolour.

House by a Pond - Albrecht Durer, 1496
Watercolour on paper (4)

Both of these paintings have a very subdued feel, there isn't that much detail and yet there's lots of information.  For instance in House by a Pond in the foreground there is the remains of what might be a jetty giving an air of neglect and in Landscape with a Woodland Pool we are left wondering why the trees on the left are dead, when all we are given are a few grey lines.

Durer has used blended colours in all of the main panels.  The water appears still in the reflections it is full of rippling movement nearer the shore where the blends are muddier. 

Although Durer used oil paint in other work I can only find landscapes in watercolour.

Claude Lorrain - 1604? - 1682

Claude Lorraine (6)

Constable said of Lorrain "he is the most perfect landscape painter the world ever saw".(5)  Lorrain's speciality was the rendering of idyllic, pastoral scenes very much as Constable painted much later. Lorrain's work however often included reference to mythical themes .....

Landscape with Aeneas at Delos - Claude Lorrain, 1672

or sometimes Biblical ones....

Landscape with Hagar and the Angel - Claude Lorrain,  1646

Born in Lorrain, the artist travelled to Italy and Germany sketching and learning as he went.  He made drawings from which he selected the images he wanted to paint.  Sounds familiar. His work seems mainly to be in oils and it looks so much "heavier" than the water colour of Durer.

Years later Turner admired Lorrain and felt some rivalry. He was constantly trying to surpass him in terms of composition and in the Turner bequest he decreed that two of his works should be hung with two of Lorrain's. (6)

L S Lowry - 1887 - 1976

L S Lowry - self portrait (7)

Laurence Stephen Lowry became famous for depicting scenes of the local industrial landscape in oils. Until he retired from his work as a rent collector when he was 65 he painted in his leisure time and he was prolific.(12) 

When his family first moved from suburban Manchester to the industrial town of Pendlebury  Lowry hated it but later confessed to becoming obsessed by it. Although he painted portraits we recognise his industrial landscapes with matchstick figures as definitively Lowry.

Another trademark is the way Lowry painted with flat slabs of colour and little by way of shadows. There is a grimness about his work that is nothing to do with the subject matter.

Street Brawl - L S Lowry

Street Brawl is a painting that has no shadows but there is a sense of distance as the figures diminish in size and the buildings become less distinct.

Industrial Landscape - L S Lowry, 1955

Lowry used a sketchbook and often amalgamated drawn images in his paintings.  He also introduced imaginary elements into his work and Industrial Landscape is one of these.  Even so his landscapes are recognisable as real places and nowadays fetch vast sums of money.

George Shaw - b 1966

George Shaw (8)

I am unfamiliar with Shaw's work.  His paintings have a semi photographic quality and they are gritty and uncompromising.

Ash Wednesday - George Shaw
Humbrol enamels

The unusual choice of media (Humbrol enamel) is new to me as well and I wonder what Shaw paints on.  Ash Wednesday has a yellow sky, yellow road markings and yellow shadows through the railings. Even the building silhouettes are yellow.  It is a very limited palette

Landscape with Dog Shit Bin - George Shaw, 2010

In Landscape with Dog Shit Bin there are wider range of colours and the tiny spot of red for the bin needs no seeking out.

Sarah Woodfine - b 1968

Sarah Woodfine (9)

Woodfine won the Jerwood Drawing prize in 2004 with her work Wyoming but is another artist who is new to me. I am surprised at the way she has pushed drawing.

Wyoming - Sarah Woodfine, 2003
Pencil on paper (15)

Wyoming is based on imaginary journeys in USA and 

intends to have the sense of a dwelling being circumnavigated, enticing the viewer to tease their imagination around the sides of the building.  Ultimately the impossibility of reaching the other side allows the mystery to remain unresolved. (15)

I love the sense of intrigue about this image - the sense of so much we don't know about.

The artist has a background in sculpture and this is probably where her drawing ideas were born. Newfoundland is a 3D piece made (I think) with paper on which she has drawn.

Newfoundland - Sarah Woodfine, 2004 (14)Acquired by V&A (14)

The V&A have a commitment to artists who push the boundaries and say of Newfoundland:

This is an important acquisition for the V&A, which aims to collect artists that represent technical and conceptual innovation, and works which extend the conventional definitions of drawing. Newfoundland does this with elegance, wit and originality. (14)

This is truly an eye opener for me who simply would never have imagined this sort of development of drawing.

Oliver Lovely

Oliver Lovely (10)

I can't find much information about Oliver Lovely but I have met him and he is a fairly young man. He is a local artist whose work I have bought because I like it so much.  He works in watercolour and paints landscapes mainly of the area he lives in.

The Lace Market from Canal Street - Oliver Lovely, 2012
Water color on paper (10)

Lovely says of this painting:

This is a watercolour painting I produced last year working from photographs, notes and sketches I'd done to develop the design.  It was drawn initially using a pencil and ruler with colour being added in pieces like a jigsaw, allowing each one to dry before continuing.(10)

I live near to the Trentside power stations and this one caught my eye although it isn't a view I'm familiar with:

Power Station 01 - Oliver Lovely, 2008
Water color on paper (11)

As ever it is easier to find information about artists who are long gone and information about Oliver Lovely is very sparse.

Drawing as an independent discipline and not just a stepping stone to a painting seems to be a fairly recent development.  Drawing now seems to encompass work that previously I would have thought to be painting.  The V&A acknowledges that drawing is difficult to define

It has been understood in different ways at different times and is difficult to define. During the Renaissance the term "disegno" implied drawing both as a technique to be distinguished from colouring and also as the creative idea made visible in the preliminary sketch. (15)

I enjoy having unfamiliar artists introduced by way of the Research Points.

(1) http://www.albrecht-durer.org/

(2) http://www.theguardian.com/arts/pictures/image/0,8543,-10704549991,00.html

(3) http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pd/a/albrecht_d%C3%BCrer,_landscape-1.aspx

(4) http://www.wikiart.org/en/albrecht-durer/house-by-a-pond

(5) http://www.claudelorrain.org/biography.html

(6) http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/claude

(7) http://www.thelowry.com/ls-lowry/his-life-and-work/

(8) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-13349611

(9) http://www.prattcontemporaryart.co.uk/sarah-woodfine/

(10) http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/title/art-works--oliver-lovley/id/5821

(11)  http://www.oliverlovley.com/30.htm

(12) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._S._Lowry

(13)  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/8569028/Painted-memoir-record-of-a-Coventry-childhood.html

(14)  http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/n/newfoundland-by-sarah-woodfine/

(15)  http://195.194.24.18/jerwood/archive/2004/winners/woodfine.htm

(16)  http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/w/what-is-drawing/