Sculpture at Doddington Hall

A few miles from where I live is a beautiful Elizabethan house called Doddington Hall.  The gardens are full of interest no matter what time of year you visit and for the past few weeks have been host to a sculpture exhibition curated by David Waghorne and featuring the work of over 80 national and international sculptors. There is also a sizable indoor exhibition as well.  

The artists range from ceramicists to blacksmiths and everything in between .  Out of so many pieces of stunning art it's hard to choose favourites but here's a few that caught my eye.

Herd of deer by Simon Hempsell.  Steel.

Every park should have a herd of deer and this group of highly stylised beasts complete with stag were somehow very convincing.

Emergence by Jo Taylor.  Ceramic

I'm not sure about Emergence but I've selected it because the negative space is so important and I'm about to become heavily involved in negative space.

Leaping Hare by Penny Hardy. Mixed media.

It's unusual for me to choose animal subjects but I'm surprising myself.  This hare was so full of life he was hard to resist.

Winston Churchill by Stephen Kettle.  Slate

This is an amazing bust made of small pieces of slate and glue.

In the garden is a folly called The Temple of the Winds built as a memorial to the parents of Antony Jarvis who is the father of the Hall's present owner.  Jarvis was an architect before his retirement and has built another folly to coincide with the sculpture exhibition.  It is called The Pyramid and set a kilometre from the house beyond the ha-ha and can be viewed from the rear of the house..

The Pyramid designed by Antony Jarvis.  Re-cycled concrete.

This folly is designed to provide shelter for walkers and a home for bats and owls.


This exhibition is a real snip at just £6 but far more expensive if you want to buy.

Part 2 - Research point 1

Composition

I am going to look at the development of still life.  The term "still life" describes a particular genre of painting, generally of everyday objects or flowers laid on a table or something similar.  

Early still life

There are many still lifes preserved at Herculaneum and Pompeii. They are painted directly onto the walls and sometimes advertise goods being sold or demonstrate a profession. I saw them many years ago and although they remained colourful they seemed rather flat and lifeless and their appeal for me was in the age of the work and the fact that they survived the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79 that wiped out all signs of life.

Still Life with Peaches - AD50
www.independent.co.uk 1

The Still Life with Peaches comes from a room in Herculaneum. It wasn't a free-standing image. Like other still lives, it was set on a wall among landscapes, narratives, decoration. But it occupied a contained square-ish section. And it uses the standard Roman still-life convention, the double (sometimes triple) level: the objects are arranged on a step or a sill.1

16th century

Still life disappeared for well over a thousand years and it re-emerged in the Netherlands in the early 16th century.  The decline in religious paintings after the Reformation left the way open for the still life genre to develop and the development of oil paint made it possible to paint in an extremely realistic way. There was a new emphasis on the home, personal possessions, commerce, trade and learning - all the aspects and diversions of everyday life. 

Carravaggio  (1573-1610) an Italian  made humble objects look beautiful.

Basket of Fruit - Carravaggio. 1596
 http://www.caravaggio-foundation.org/ 5

Floral still lifes were especially prominent in the early 1600s, and in their highly refined execution and in their subjects and symbolism were addressed to a cultivated audience" 2

17th century

Emperor Rudolph II of Prague collected both plants for his garden and paintings of plants and had a small library of relevant books.  Flowers were often drawn from botanical texts and weren't accurate regarding season or even country.  This painting by Vosmaer (1574-1641) is fairly typical although during its lifetime it has had pieces sliced off both the top and the sides.

A Vase of Flowers - Jacob Vosmaer, 1618
www.metmuseum 2

There were regional fashions - flowers were popular in Antwerp but in the Hague they liked to see paintings of food. 

Still life with cheese - Floris van Dyck 1610
www.rijksmuseum.nl 3

Van Dyck's (1575-1651) painting shows the remnants of breakfast and to me it looks rather decadent.  This is exactly the way still life developed becoming a platform for showing extravagant wealth.

One very important type of still life of 16th and 17th centuries was that which had a message to convey. Symbolic Still Life usually had a religious theme with bread, wine and reference to the Bible.  A particular style was the Vanitas which had symbolic images of skulls, snuffed candles and the like to warn of the fragility of life.

Interestingly I saw a modern drawing at the Fibrefusion exhibition at Rufford Gallery recently - it was called Vanitas and showed a figure looking into a mirror and seeing herself and a skull.  Unfortunately I couldn't take a photo.

Northern Europe led the way in still life but there were similar developments in Spain, Italy and to a lesser extent France. 

18th century

Although France wasn't the leader in the still life genre Chardin (1699-1779) was probably the most important still life artist of the 18th century.

Still Life - Jean-Baptiste Chardin.1728-1730
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ 4

This has inanimate objects on a table but has a completely different atmosphere to a century earlier; it's far more casual looking even rustic and homespun.

It is interesting to note that because its status was quite lowly it was acceptable for women to paint still life.  Ann Vallayer-Coster (1774-1818)  was heavily influenced by Chardin.

Still Life with Lobster - Ann Vallayer-Coster. 1781
http://en.wikipedia.org/ 9

19th century

In the 19th century it became fashionable for paintings to be allegorical or depict historical or Biblical scenes and still life fell out of favour once again.  For this reason many of the best still lifes were painted towards the end of the century when the artists were established and didn't need to earn a living by taking commissions. Goya (1746-1828) for instance painted only a dozen or so still lifes. 10  

Still life with Golden Bream - Goya.  1808-1812

Goya departs from traditional artistic depictions of dead animals, investing his still lifes with great pathos. Parallels can be drawn between Goya's representation of animals and his treatment of human corpses in his riveting series of prints Disasters of War, one of the greatest accusations against the horrors of war. 10

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)  was always interested in still life but it was late in his life that he started to really concentrate on them.  Apples and Oranges is a series of paintings featuring everyday items - earthenware bowls, a jug and some fruit.  In this work Cezanne uses all his experience, his sense of style, colour and spatial awareness and takes the still life into a new sphere. 5

Apples and Oranges - Paul Cezanne. 1899
http://www.musee-orsay.fr/

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) was also painting at this time and he too produced still lifes using time honoured subjects.

A Vase of Flowers - Paul Gauguin.  1896

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was a self taught contemporary of  Matisse, Cezanne and Gauguin.  He studied the paintings of many artists in order to gain knowledge so he was probably influenced by the still life paintings of his peers.  Many of his paintings seem very dark but the subject matter remains the same.

Still Life with Earthenware and Bottles - van Gogh. 1885
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/ 8

20th century

Soon  after Cezanne painted Apples and Oranges, Matisse (1869-1954) produced Still Life with Vegetables.  The items are similar but the outcome is very different.  The arrangement is casual, the colours are blocks and everything is in a flat plane.

Still Life with Vegetables Henri Matisse. 1905-6. 7

By this time photography was well established and painters didn't need to paint quite so literally.  This gave them a lot of freedom and the early 20th century saw huge changes in painting styles.  

Design developments (see below) made by Cezanne were adapted by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) as the Cubist movement emerged.

Still Life with Peppermint Bottle - Cezanne.  1890-94
http://www.tate.org.uk/ 11

Bowl of fruit, Violin and Bottle - Picasso. 1914
http://www.tate.org.uk/ 11

This image looks as though the pieces are cut from paper and that is exactly what Picasso wanted.

Picasso's friend Juan Gris (1887-1927) did something similar:

Bottle of Rum and a newspaper - Gris.
 http://www.tate.org.uk/ 11

In this most radical form of the cubist idiom, nature was no longer a necessary starting point. Instead, coloured planes could provide the architecture for imagery that the artist could develop towards something representative. Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who was Gris’s close friend and dealer, wrote of the artist’s method: ‘He started with the ensemble, whose rhythm he allowed to develop freely. From this rhythm sprang, in their turn, the objects. 11

21st century

Over the past 50 years technology has given artists a whole new world to play with.  There have been many new consumables to include and computer art and digital ways to reproduce images have changed creativity beyond anything earlier artists could have imagined. In 2013 Matthew Petry wrote Nature Morte: Contemporary Artists Reinvigorate Still Life (Thames and Hudson). 12

In this book Petry groups 180 contemporary artists who have put a modern twist into the still life genre.  In fact the Independent review of the book on 13.10.13 is "Art Observations: Still Lifes that simply will not stay still".  13

A still life of a bowl of fruit? You must be joking. A new book, Nature Morte by Michael Petry, collects more than 180 contemporary artists who have given the traditional still life a makeover. Sam Taylor-Wood's video A Little Death, 2002, is a remake of the classical still life with dead hare, who now gets eaten by maggots........Gary Hume builds up the colour on a red rose in Pink Rent (2011), to give it a contemporary twist, while Marc Quinn freezes a sunflower in silicone in Eternal Spring (Sunflower) 11, (1998). 13

Pink Rent - Gary Hume. 2011
http://www.independent.co.uk 13

Eternal Spring II (Sunflowers) Marc Quinn. 1998
www.sciencemuseum.org.uk 14

I have found this an interesting and helpful piece of work.  There is no doubt that still life has followed fashion and taken advantage of new materials, techniques and more recently, technologies.  However I have been left with the strong impression that the basic construct (of focus on a group of inanimate objects) has endured but may now be about to change with work like that of Sam Taylor Wood.

1 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/great-works-still-life-with-peaches-c-ad50-anon-1823826.html

2 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nstl/hd_nstl.html

3 https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/explore-the-collection/overview/floris-claesz-van-dijck

4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/still-life-83523

5 http://www.caravaggio-foundation.org/Fruit-basket.html

6  http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/search/commentaire/commentaire_id/apples-and-oranges-7153.html

7 http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1999.363.38

8  http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/search/collection?genre=still%20life

9  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Still_life#Eighteenth_century

10 http://www.mfah.org/art/detail/still-life-golden-bream/

11  http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/picasso-bowl-of-fruit-violin-and-bottle-l01895

12 Petry M. 2013.  Nature Morte: Contemporary Artists Reinvigorate Still Life. Thames and Hudson

13  http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/arts-observations-the-stilllifes-that-simply-wont-stay-still-8886967.html

14  http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/smap/collection_index/marc_quinn_eternal_spring_sunflowers.aspx

Part 1 reflections

I tend to reflect as I go so I'll not repeat myself but there are one or two things that really stand out for me now that I'm at the end of Part 1.

• I'd read that anyone can draw given the right "vocabulary" and a few rules.  Maslen and Southern (2014) liken it to learning to write.  Having gained a few skills during the course of Part 1 I'm thinking that they are right.  I'm using what I've learnt and finding myself more comfortable.
• Like personal handwriting style I find that drawing is just as individual.  Having looked at the work of a variety of artists I'm staggered at the range of interpretations people put on "drawing". It puts the work of Alice Kettle into a different focus for me. 
•  It's surprised me that I enjoy working on large (A2) paper.

Demonstration of technical and visual skills

My base line was pretty rudimentary but over the weeks I've have worked hard to improve my technical abilities.  This extends in two directions; using the workshops of Maslen and Southern (2014) to free myself from a very cramped, linear way of working and looking at some basic rules from a sort of drawing for dummies book by Kistler (2011).  Combining the learning from these sources has taken away some of the fear and uncertainty I felt right at the start.

Some of the materials I'm using lead away from the neat, contained style I might have anticipated was mine and I'm not entirely comfortable with them yet.  At the moment I'm defaulting to pencil but trying to expand my repertoire each time I draw.

I have become much more aware of the effect of light and shade simply by looking at things more closely. Assignment 1, where I made a big observational error with the box lid, highlights how much I take for granted.

Quality of outcome

I was very hesitant at first but now that I have some fundamental information I have been able to apply it in later work.  The quality has therefore improved (although I'm probably not in the best position to judge).

I found the first still life quite daunting but worked my way round it by drawing single objects until I felt more secure.  

Demonstration of creativity

Using the Maslen and Southern (2014) workshops has been instrumental in getting me to experiment with methods that I previously would have considered bizarre; two pencils taped together for instance. The hat I drew using this technique is one of my favourite images from Part 1.

As I've said elsewhere I think my style is potentially loose (which I love) but I find myself tightening up when I need to do a finished piece of work (whatever that is).

Context reflection

I have looked at a variety of sources in an effort to get up to speed.
I reflect as I go and try to learn from each exercise so that I can carry the learning forward.
I keep my learning log (blog) up to date.  Everything goes into it, even the embarrassing because only then do I have a true record of achievement.


I have thoroughly enjoyed Part 1, even out of my comfort zone.  I love learning and I'm excited about Part 2 which I'm sure will bring its own set of challenges.



Kistler. M. 2011. You can draw in 30 days.  De Capo Press. Cambridge, MA 02142

Maslen M & Southern J. 2014.  Drawing Projects.  An exploration of the language of drawing.  Black Dog Publishing.  London.

Assignment 1

I've been aware of this assignment since the start of the course and it's led me to ponder exactly what is important to me or has significance.  I've found myself  thinking that material possessions don't fit the bill but relationships and memories are the most important things to me.  With that in mind I've selected some things that symbolise my thinking.

• A box that my father kept important documents in. It's still used for the same purpose symbolising continuity.  Inside the box is a school photo from 1962.
• My eldest son's first shoes (he's now size 11 and nearing forty) - to denote the importance of my family
• My camera - a constant aid to memory

Precious things

I think this is a bit ambitious - the complex shapes of the shoes and the depth of the box are slightly worrying.  I think I'll do a preliminary sketch before I commit myself too deeply.

I began by drawing the box but soon realised that because the box was on the right of my vision I'd started on the right side of my paper and it threw everything awry.  Because this was just a test I carried on to practise the placement of the items in relation to the box.  This is what I drew (all in pencil):

Preliminary sketch showing the inappropriate
placement of the box

On the whole I was satisfied with this (unfinished) drawing as a starting point.  The box looks solid and the shoes that were troubling me look OK and in proportion.  This work felt as though I was using some of my burgeoning skills like perspective and shading.

When I felt ready I began my drawing proper paying particular attention to the placement of the box on the paper.  I did outline sketching in 4B pencil starting by holding the pencil at the end and working at arms length.  I find this allows me a lot of freedom to make several shapes without committing myself to any.  

Precious things - pencil, conte crayon, charcoal, fine liner and stumping

I drew mainly in pencil except for the camera (pencil and conte) which then stood out too much - it felt unbalanced.  To redress this I put in some deep shadows and shading; then I used a combination of conte crayon and charcoal to define parts of the shoes and it looked better.  I have yet to master the use of materials without a point (conte and charcoal) as I'm never quite sure where my mark is going to emerge! I found myself reluctant to use materials which are hard to remove for fear of spoiling my image.

I think the composition works well and I'm pleased with how it looks "real" and proportionate.  I find I don't want to be too critical because I've come so far in such a short time I think it's nothing short of miraculous.

One thing that surprised me is when I compared the photo to the drawing the box lids were so different.  On the photo it looks huge and I didn't transfer this to my drawing.  If I had done I may have thought it looked "wrong".  When I look at my drawing now the lid looks too small.  It's a good learning point about observation.

Being able to draw like this is really exciting.

Expressive Drawing

I've really enjoyed looking at Steven Aimone's book Expressive Drawing (2009).  It is a book full of workshops designed to liberate the artist so that drawing becomes more spontaneous.  The bonus is that there are vignettes of many artists and many of them are new to me.  I've chosen one or two to include in my blog - the reasons for the selection are explained under each heading.

Elizabeth Layton 1910-1983

Elizabeth Layton
elizabethlayton.com

I've chosen Layton because although she was a successful career woman, wife and mother she suffered severe bouts of manic depression for many years.  When her youngest son died in 1976 she fell victim to debilitating despair.  Art saved her and she went on the become nationally recognised. 

Layton said of herself

 "I was deeply depressed, but that was inside me....I started drawing, and started liking myself better."

I worked with adults with severe mental health problems for over 30 years and I saw art transform the sense of self and turn lives around.

In her work Layton addressed social issues with a sense of the absurd.  Many of her images are of herself in various guises.

Buttons 1982 - Elizabeth Layton
Crayons and coloured pencils 55.9 x 76.2 cm
elizabethlayton.com

Buttons shows Layton as a social activist.  In an article in the Washington Post she was nicknamed "Grandma Moses on Tabasco sauce"

I'm into Art Therapy - Elizabeth Layton. 1987
elizabethlayton.com

I think she must have been quite a woman.

Bill Traylor 1854 - 1949

Bill Traylor was born a slave on a plantation in Alabama.  He gained freedom at the end of the Civil War but continued to live in the place he grew up.  He married and raised a family and eventually when all those close to him had died or left he moved away from the familiar surroundings to Montgomery. Traylor was illiterate but when he was 83 he took up drawing with minimal equipment and produced a body of work that most artists couldn't fulfil in a lifetime.  Whilst segregation was still a factor in American life Traylor was discovered by Charles Shannon who organised an exhibition of his work and it met with acclaim.

I love the fact that Traylor began his artistic career so late in life and that he was able to communicate so much with his symbolic figures and shapes.  There's lots of movement and action and they rather remind me of Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Walnettos Figures Construction - Bill Traynor. 1939
Poster paint on cardboard

Brown Mule - Bill Traylor. 1939 

pencil, crayon and gouache on board

petulloartcollection.org

From disadvantaged beginnings and entirely self taught Traylor is now hailed as one of America's foremost folk artists.

Will Barnet 1911 - 2012

Barnet gets just a brief mention in Expressive Drawing but it's very relevant to me because it features a representational portrait in charcoal.  Having just had my first real experience of working in that particular medium I can only be amazed at what Barnet produced.

Portrait of Carole - Will Barnet. 1982
Charcoal on paper
Aimone (2009)

This is a salutary lesson in using light and shade to define the image.  I love it.



Aimone S. (2009)  Expressive Drawing.  Lark Crafts.  New York.

Part 1 - Project 2 - Ex 4

This exercise will be a challenge.  I have to draw a still life where one item is shiny and the other slightly less so.  Interpreting shadows and reflected light is the point of the exercise.  My drawing media is to be charcoal - not something I'm familiar with.

I chose a stainless steel teapot and a china mug - two items I turn to many times a day.  The first drawing was done early in the afternoon with light coming from the left.

The items were arranged slightly differently to the photo but this is what I did.

Tea break - charcoal with some stumping

I found charcoal very unforgiving - once it's on the page that's pretty much it.  I began by lightly sketching with pencil.  The light shifted as I drew and there came a point where I had to stop fiddling. I'm pleased the perspective looks right and this is entirely due to the learning I've done recently. I noticed that when I stood well back from my image I liked it more.  Whilst I'm sure with experience I will get better. I'm pleased with this.

I decided to try the same exercise using my new conte crayons - another unknown.

More tea - conte crayon and stumping

This was later in the afternoon and the shadows were quite different.  I found the conte crayon less messy but also less dense - there was a slightly scratchy feel to them.  The teapot handle looked almost striped with light and dark and it was reflected in the teapot itself.  Again I'm quite pleased with the outcome - I wouldn't have stood a chance a month ago.

Part 1 - Project 2 - Ex 3

This exercise is about creating the relationship between light and dark that gives drawing contrasts and makes the subject substantial.  This contrast is called tone.  It is essential in all drawings but in monochromatic work it is absolutely vital to the integrity of the piece.

I have a book called Expressive Drawing by Steven Aimone (2009) and he suggests various ways of creating tone;

• varying the pressure of the drawing tool
• controlling the amount of ink or paint applied
• the density of the marks
• hatching
• crosshatching

Aimone illustrates his points by using the Study of Leon Kroll, 1915 - 16 by George Wesley Bellows.

A Study of Leon Kroll, 1915-16 by George Wesley Burrows
Crayon on wove paper  (26.7 x 22.2 cm)

The artist uses hatching and crosshatching of various intensities to create a feeling of substance and depth.

I am required to make four quick studies of a simple object using different media in the creation of tone.  I chose a bowl.

Pen and ink gave a very oriental feel

6B pencil  and stumping gives the most representational look

Edding 1340 brushpen gave lots of opportunity to use strokes

With the .1  Staedtler pigment liner I wanted to scribble

Each study is very different but I don't think one is any better than the others.  As I worked the light changed and as the bowl was shiny this made an enormous difference.

My next task was to use three or four objects and concentrate on tone.  I continued with the theme of bowls and stacked them.  My challenge was to differentiate one from the other.

Three stacked bowls - 4B, 6B, 8B pencil with stumping

There were shadows all over the place that confused me at first but I think this is quite successful.
One thing that Aimone is quite insistent on is not to be too negatively critical and I will try to run with the idea.



Aimone S. (2009)  Expressive Drawing.  Lark Crafts.  New York.