Glenn Arthur research

I found this really interesting artist showed to me by a college friend called "Glenn Arthur" who is a self taught visual artist from orange county who uses huge varieties of different media but mostly paintings and drawings with coloured pencils and sometimes oils. He uses imagery that was influential in his life from his past present and significant stories that he's shared which I think is a beautiful way to portray personal feelings and emotions through your art and makes you even more passionate which is clearly what he does. His work is currently being sold in numerous different exhibitions around America and the internet and is displayed in museums and galleries. His work also revolves around major themes that are complimented by mostly conflicting imagery, the major themes are death, duality, love and conflict which are all subjects that an artist can get really passionate about. I also think this artist is brilliant to mention in my work because it fits into my art perfectly almost like it's from the same genre even though his women aren't so modern because he's a neo-victorian enthusiast that brings modern themes of imagery into them that mainly consist of tattoo and body art which is similar to the imagery used in mine and his work is a great inspiration to me. Here are some examples of his work:

 Here is the first example, cthis is part of his fairytale series of artwork in which he's re-create several different characters from fairytales in this way, incorporating tattoo artwork with this vintage style of drawing women looks stunning and is definitely a huge inspiration for my work. My favourite part though is the face- here eyes are beautiful and stand out with the way they shine along with the other facial features as everything is very feminine which is strange to see from a male artist. Over all his work is very much in the same style as mine which is probably why I like him so much.

Images taken of people in Blackburn Town for research purposes (Yet to annotate)

Statement Of Intent

Statement Of Intent

Seeming as my specialism is fine art specifically painting and drawing I definitely intend to persue these pathways and further develop them as I did in my last project. My initial ideas is mostly a mixture of topics all coming into one over all idea, I want to involve visionary art into my art but as more of a background involvement such as using that sort of art as imagery that connects with the main image or over all topic. I intend to develop this idea but I don't know what into, I'm planning on mainly improvising with my work because it always turns out better because with improvisation you can be more creative with what you are doing and allows you to go further into your ideas. I don't know what I'll end up with at the end of this topic but I know that I have a lot of ideas and that it could go anywhere.
The artists that have inspired me are definitely Martina Hoffman and Pablo Amaringo with their beautiful and complicated looking visionary art that oozes with creativity and also, Wendy Ortiz who draws beautiful images of women and involves nature or natural imagery within her work in a visonary way which is something I want to investigate.
I am also planning on collecting primary research, I'm going to go into the town centre of Blackburn where I see different people every day and take pictures of people's faces in different ways and these people will have to be unique looking for example, have tattooes, piercings, wacky hair or different ethnicity so basically I'll be taking pictures of the strange and beautiful. Then my plan is to redraw/paint/alter these images whilst adding imagery on them possibly around the image, as a background or even in the place of a tattoo. I definitely want to investigate collage again because I don't think I did it justice in my last project whilst creating these portraits of people. But this time I want to create larger more complicated pieces with more layers and experimenting with more materials and maybe on different surfaces than I'm used to. Over a long period of time I've been collecting scraps of different materials and pieces of paper, card, fabrics etc in preparation for something like this. I also want to involve nature into my project and so more primary research will be involved such as gathering photo's of local wildlife, plants and flowers and even collecting leaves and plants and using them in my work which I think will look really good but I'm not too sure yet.
Hopefully my final outcome will be a large mixture of techniques on a canvas or large piece of paper with a thick book of experimentation to back it all up, I don't know exactly what I want to end up with yet and to be honest I don't want to know because I don't want to have everything planned before I even start. I want to improvise and experiment as much as possible with a lot of things and even have a go at drawing men which I am really bad at. Alls I know is that I've got a lot of ideas and my project could go a number of ways which I personally think is a good thing.
During my project I think I'll be using a number of employability skills such as a lot of organisation skills such as collecting lots of research, planning out what I want to end up with, approaching people and involving others in my work (team work) and definitely being creative & turning a topic into my own and also a lot of independant work, making time for such work and definitely a lot of effort and time being put into it.

Artist research for Vision project

Wendy Arnold
Wendy Arnold has traveled all over the globe for long periods of her life and art career and is evident throughout her work; you can clearly see a variety of different cultural influences throughout it all. She was born in New Zealand, studied in Australia for many years and explored the globe, working for the fashion industry becoming familiar with materials she then became highly recognised for her work. She is also a very skilled painter and has sold out many galleries in her time.
I absolutely love her work because I can easily gather inspiration off it, it's exactly what I'm after with my current project, collage, feminine beauty and essence and beautiful colourful pieces that don't need to be explained but rather admired.
To see more examples of her work click on this link http://catherinelarose.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/wendy-arnold.html 
Here are some examples of some of my favourite pieces of Wendy's:

 This is one of my favourites of Wendy's work. Even though I am not fond of the fact that the women themselves (The faces/ features etc) are not detailed or correctly proportionate I absolutely love her work. This is the sort of image I would be happy to end up with in my own artwork, I love the use of materials, collage and contrast in colours used. They have a really happy and creative atmosphere about them that I love and are always very feminine and appreciate the female form. This image in particular would be very easy to recreate because it's just simple images, no real 3d texture to it or anything and I believe it could be easily re-done and I want to create something that looks complicated and layered.

 This piece is clearly oriental-inspired and is absolutely beautiful just showing that you can involve culture into artwork that involves collage and women, visonary art and many various themes and it will still come out professional looking and over all stunning. I love the small harsh touch of red at the bottom of the page against the pale mystical blue and the tea stains in the top corner. Everything about this image is elegant especially the female figure which is something I tried to to in my last project but failed. It's a very innocent image and is hauntingly beautiful I absolutely love it and has given me huge amounts of inspiration when it comes to my own work such as using simple shapes such as the figure on this image and mixing it in with the complicated features and patterns such as the china effect background and flowers that looks like paint spatter.

 This image is something else I would call a goal in my aspirations of my project, using collage as body art, beautiful visionary patterns on the body which looks perfect. I'm looking at involving natural imagery in my work and the branches, flowers and leaves in this image aren't overwhelming but are forever present everywhere you look in this piece of art which I think is very hard to do. My favourite thing about this piece is the faint images used in the background and on the body, barely visible yet they make the whole image, it's a perfect technique and a good skill that I'm definitely willing to try.

 Again this fits into the theme of tattooes/body art and collage and also refers to the cultural inspirations she had used previously that I'm very fond of. The only thing I would do though if it was my work is put more detail/tone into the actual woman and make her look more realistic...

 The colours in this piece are absolutely fabulous! I really love the harshness of the red against the pale pink and defined black writing along the side of it. I also love the involvement of using materials such as lace in the work and I don't think people realise the size of her work... these pieces are all nearly the size of Wendy herself which is amazing to imagine and I would love the opportunity to see it in person I think they would be overwhelming to see this amount of detail all in one piece.

This is also one of my favourites because the figure of the woman in it is clearly more detailed and life-like than the others, it's a very feminine piece and the colours in the background are beautiful and you can clearly see she is very skilled with watercolours. Aso, again, there is materials used in it, like a mesh white fabric which looks brilliant against the quality of the 2d painting behind it. As you can see she has used complimentary colours blues against pink and used white to highlight tone on the skin, to shape the breasts and highlight certain areas of the body and over all is a stunning piece of art...











Here are some more images by artists that I like that fit into this theme:

 Wendy Ortiz
I absolutely love this artist, she's feminine, uses a running theme of nature in her work that can almost compare to visionary art and is wonderfully skilled with oil paints whilst working on a number of different surfaces.
If this piece was covered in natural imagery like Pablo Amaringo or Martina Hoffman's work this would be the sort of thing I am after, and I'm not good with oil so I would be working with acrylic paints... Her work is beautifully done with realistic tones and physical accuracy but involves so much imagery that could be involved with visionary art such as the keyhole and the eye in the centre of a flower and many more things which is perfect inspiration for my project. Also, I love how feminine everything is with her work and even though there may be naked women involved it's not a sexual thing, it's all very spiritual and natural which is one of my aims but also to involve art on the body maby mixed with collage.

 Andre Castellanos
I don't know that much about this artist other than he works with digital and fine art, but I came across this image and absolutely loved it and it's raw nature. It's simple. Just an image of a woman in the sand with this beautiful body art all down her back, the dark grey tone creates a moody atmosphere that I absolutely love and the detail is incredible and is the kind of detail I'm after especially when the visionary imagery comes into it...I want to create detailed visionary art instead of all this amateur rubbish I keep coming across.

Serena Rose
I couldn't find out much about this artist either other than it's all mostly watercolour that she works with, I just like this one image though and it's simple, innocent nature. I love the mixture of colour with the red in the water against her fair skin and dark blues and greens in and around the water.

Visit to Yorkshire sculpture park (In depth notes, observational drawings)

Yorkshire sculpture park notes from the day in more depth & observational drawings.

During our trip to YSP I had the chance to see some brilliant and unique sculptures including that of the artists I had previously researched before the trip and compare the image from the internet to the real thing which was a really good experience and gathering some brilliant primary research at the same time that will benefit my project. Here are the images I took whilst we were there, my notes and gathered information as well as some observational drawings.

John Edgar

The first sculptures we came across were inside the first gallery and were by Jon Edgar, a British sculptor who works mainly with improvisation. This series of sculptures were made as lively portrait sketches out of terracotta and most are to scale.
Notes from the day: I particularly liked this piece, the texture of the face and especially the beard area is wonderful to look at and the texture is so smooth in certain places and then rough in another which I really like. The lighting creates tone on the different areas which I really love and is good seeming as there are no other colours involved other than terracotta, it makes it look more lifelike. I love the detail he's put into it and my favorite part is the facial hair- I think it looks great.







This is a close up image of one of the smoother sculptures in the series, from the images it looks as though it would be rough to touch but actually when you do touch it it's rather smooth which was unexpected. I like how even though the shape of the face changes into wrinkles or cheekbones he has still kept up with the same overall texture highlighting the main features of the face which I think is really skillful. Also, I think the glasses made of wire is a good addition because of the use of terracotta on the rest of the sculptures, I think bringing in a new element of material is always interesting even though it's only a small amount and it looks really effective, more effective than if they were made of terracotta.








This is also another one of my favourites mainly because of the nose and lip area and how detailed and smoothed out it is, I really like the over all shape and how it looks as though she's about to say something like he's captured her in the moment. The hair is really curly and textural and really stands out on this piece and I love how lifelike he has gotten them to look. Many of his pieces are male so it was really good to see the female sculptures and how he's got them to look feminine as well which sometimes is a hard thing to do when the person you're sculpting has got very short hair.








Over all I really enjoyed looking through the Jon Edgar series room, there were many heads in there and were a lot to look at, observe and take in. The lighting in the room was perfect for the sculptures as it added tone, definition and highlighted how 3D and life like they were and all the textures of the terracotta which was brilliant to look at. The only thing that I didn't like was the smell of the room, the terracotta smelt awful and filled the room with a harsh scent that over powered the room which I think took some of the focus off the sculptures.


Henri Moore

Henry Moore was an English sculpture who was most famously known for his semi abstract bronze sculptures that can be found all over the UK as public pieces of art. The sculptures located at YSP were created between 1955 and 1985 and were of course made of bronze.
This is the first statue we came across and the only one I really particularly liked, it is called "Draped seated woman" and is located close by to the main gallery. I saw it from quite a while away but didn't realize how large it was until we got closer and realized just how big it was, I love the size because it adds a grand essence to it and really highlights the detail put into the clothing and shape of the body and is a lot easier to take in. The surroundings really complimented the sculpture because of the wide open spaces and shrubbery behind it, really lets you focus on it and makes it look like an abstract painting with all the beautiful scenery that surrounds it which I loved to look at as well and was cleverly placed to attract all the attention to the sculpture. It is made of bronze so therefore when I touched it it was freezing cold, damp, rough in some places but over all smooth. I really enjoyed looking at his work but particularly this piece because of it's abstract nature.

Hans Josephson
Josephson was a Swiss sculptor who both lived and worked in Zurich, mainly focusing on the human form a huge collection of his work is in YSP in both galleries and outside in natural surroundings that compliment their organic shapes, colours and textures.

 This is one of my favorite pieces out of the series of naked women that he did, mainly because it was the only one that actually resembled a woman. I'm not a huge fan of this style of abstract sculpting but I quite like this piece because of the position of the figure and the way it's led down very relaxed and carries the atmosphere of the beautiful surroundings which really compliment the sculpture and it's organic shape. It almost looks as though it's been naturally formed which is a really good skill to be able to possess and I can imagine very difficult to achieve. The sculpture had so many textures and shapes to it, when I touched it it was cold, rough and felt like stone which again refers to the natural theme running in his work. The size of the sculpture was larger than a typical human and more distorted obviously but still manages to achieve an almost luxurious style which I really like and none of the others had this particular quality due to the abstractness of them.

On the other hand, this sculpture seemed to have no sculptural quality at all and looks simply like a lump of clay. I really dislike this piece and wonder why anyone would visually like it at all due to the fact that it looks like no effort has gone into it. I appreciate that effort probably has gone into it but I just don't get the point in the sculpture and the reasons behind it, what it means or stands for and I think a sculpture should have some sort of leeway when it comes to interpretation and there isn't any here and was very annoyed when I saw this series of statues because they were very disappointing to look at. His figures were made of plaster and some were later cast in bronze to achieve this rough shapely texture.

 I absolutely love this picture it shows Barbara Hepworth's sculptures in all their artistic glory scattered out in this lovely natural environment of low hanging trees and wide open spaces giving you space to really appreciate them individually and having enough focus on one of them whilst being surrounded by the rest.

I've taken  a picture with a class friend to show the size of one of the sculptures, clearly you can see how grand they are, often inspired by organic shapes and they are even more impressive in person due to their size, width and different textures. This is my favorite sculpture because of all the different shapes and especially the one with the hole in the middle because of the reflective coating has been scratched into in a circular pattern creating a reflective texture and almost looks like the barrel of a gun, each individual block on this sculpture and all it's different sides have different textural properties and is really good to touch and run your hands across and is overwhelming anyway due to the size of these sculptures. They really go with the surroundings as well which I really like, the colors look so natural surrounded by all the natural imagery around them such as trees, grass, rocks etc.

 Here is another example of her sculptures as you can see it's more rigid than the others with straight lines and very structured. The colour is a lot darker and stands out a lot more because of the difference in shape and colour. I don't like this one as much.

Here is a close up on one of the sides of her sculptures to show the amount of texture typically found on them, as you can see the material used is different and more reflective than the surrounding material and particularly like this piece of material because it feels great, it looks smooth but feels rough and I like the tone you can see as the light hits it.






Anna Collette Hunt
The person I've chosen to further investigate and research is Anna Collette Hunt mainly because I find her "Infestation" exhibition at YSP absolutely fascinating and the vast amount of detail is simply beautiful from far away and close up & I cannot believe the amount of work that has gone into each individual piece and they are all different and unique in various ways.  Here are some pictures I took when observing her exhibition at YSP:

Here is a picture only showing a small portion of the different pieces on one wall, it would be impossible to see them all all at once because they are littered all around the room on every wall and all down the stairs in beautiful patterns creating a moving motion of flying insects that aren't moving at all and it's overwhelming when you realize how many pieces there are. I really like this angle as well it's from the side of the wall to show all the different textures and sizes she's created.

 Here is a close up of a couple of the pieces, as you can see there are many different sizes, colours, textures and reflective surfaces and paints. I particularly like this blue, beetle-like insect with the gold wings, the colours are very complimentary and even though they aren't very accurately detailed they all have individual styles which I absolutely love. I'm a huge fan of her work, it's very feminine, because of the colours used and almost looks shabby chic...
For more information on "The Infestation" go to this link and it will tell you the story behind the swarm as it is so often referred to as:  http://www.annacollettehunt.com/#!installations/vstc10=about

You can also look at her sketchbook work, galleries and images of the infestation in a place called "Wollaton Hall" where there is a permanent exhibition that extends all around the house up the grand staircases and the wallpapers, and is said to be hauntingly beautiful. There is a lot of information about her and her artwork and motivations on this website.

Here are some more images of interesting sculptures I saw whilst I was there:

 Niki de Saint Phalle's colourful sculpture: 'Buddha 2000'

Materials used: Clearly as you can see there are so many materials used, stone, bronze, different coloured marble, and other various materials but I can't seem to find out what. I can imagine how nice all of these would feel to touch but unfortunately we weren't allowed past the barrier to touch it.
Size: I couldn't find out how tall it was but as you can see by the image of the children behind it how big it is.

 Lynn Chadwick: 'Little girl'
Statue made of bronze, around 6 foot tall and as you can see there are some interesting shapes used. An abstract piece again, but I like it, it's simple but looks so effective and very smooth.

 Elisabeth Frink: 'Riace III'
1986-89
As you can see I've taken a picture of one of this series of statues next to a class mate to show the size of them... they are even more over whelming in person, the texture of them is amazing especially close up and in the face because the light hits the texture in the material and creates shadows which looks great.

A close up picture of the Elisabeth Frink series statues to show the amazing difference in texture, the shape of the face and how haunting it looks close up in person... This is my view of the statue from my height.