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.

Artist research- Yorkshire sculpture park artists

Considering our class will be visiting yorkhire sculpture park in a matter of weeks I've decided to research some artists that currently are displaying their art in the in door and outdoor exhibitions there and exploring what's good, bad, interesting, inspirational etc about them and analysing their sculptures and surroundings. The highlight this year though are a collaboration of two artists who go by the name of "The Orta's".

Lucy & Jorge Orta
The main reason I like the ortas is because of the inner meaning behind the work, instead of mindlessly creating random but beautiful structures they explore some of the worlds most pressing issues such as recycling, poverty and historical and natural disasters. These artists are inspired by their round the world trips to various destinations across the globe exploring for new material for their art.

I really like this sculpture and feel as though it would be even more impressive when I see it for real due to the over all size of it (180x80x80cm on arch plinth 130m high) which is a considerably large piece. This particular piece is from a very contemporary series of figurative sculptures and are inspired by stories of mythical spirits of a river that runs from the Provence mountains to the ancient sea ports of Marseille in France where they stayed to research the spiritual culture of these places. 5 of them are permanantly sited in various areas around the port/river. Obviously this sculpture will be more interesting when we physicaly see it and I'll have more to write about but from the images I've seen I like the different reflective surfaces and the attention to detail in the form of the human body. I like the shape of the body it almost seems like it's moving because of the over all motion and the relaxing pose as though she's frozen in time in the middle of performing some sort of spiritual dance which I think is lovely and really portrays the emotion and relaxing spirit and nature of the Huveaune valley that the Orta's have clearly inspirationally tried to capture.

Although this sculpture is not in England right now and is in fact permanantly based in France mainly in Marseille I had to put this in my research because I think it is simply beautiful. I love the location and I believe it plays a huge part in the effect the sculpture has on us emotionally because of the surrounding imagery and is a huge part of the sculpture itself because different surroundings cause different effects and atmospheres upon the observer. I love the innocence of the girl in the image, the pose and the way the light reflects off the surface of the dress compared to the dull matt colour of the skin and hair. The creases in the dress and shape causes a realistic visualisation of the movement that would occur if she wasn't inanimate which is a very difficult thing to achieve when sculpture is concerned. I really appreciate the effort and time that has gone into it and I think this is a great example of contemporary figurative sculpture.
Further information on this piece: Dimensions 160x50x50cm, Materials used: aluminium and epoxy paint.
Exhibition history: La Martelliere, Saint-Zacharie, Marseille, France.

These are considerably different from the previous sculptures and Lucy Orta claimed in an interview she was going for a more "organic" structure. The research behind it was based on a village surrounded by poverty and inspiration came from people who had built their houses upon mountains of plastic bottles and other rubbish. They both then collected bottles and began adding to the two chairs which were originally meant for another sculpture. This series of sculptures are based on the movements of water but they both refer to these organic shapes as "clouds" which I think fit the structures better. I like how the clouds seem to have a mind of their own and almost seem to be climbing and enveloping the different objects (chairs, ladders, life rafts) which I think looks brilliant. Overall I like these different organic sculptures and their bright vibrant colours (blue, red, silver etc) and I admire the inspiration behind them and believe that The Orta's have touched a vital economical issue when concerning the recycling village and all the poverty they've witnessed. I personally can't wait until I see these in person and see what sort of effect they have on me.

James Turrell

Although James Turrell is renowned as a sculptor of light and creating art instillations that enhance light visually and change the perception of light and space which is a great talent. But this piece is more of a place of tranquility and revelation and he hasn't changed the surrounding area which is stunning and very natural and preserved. It is called "The Deer Shelter" and is basically an inside space with a space in the roof that has the ability to enhance the Yorkshire sky and highlights the changes flowing across the space giving the observer a heightened vision of the sky. I think this concept is simple yet genius and definitely beautiful and can imagine that inside it is very peaceful just by looking at the images. I'm not a big fan of many of Turrell's pieces but I can't wait to go and see this for myself, I think it's a very creative.

Vision Artist Research (Printed)

Vision
There are many ways that the topic of "Vision" can be interpreted and many forms of artwork that can fall underneath this subject. During my research I came across many variations that involve the topic of vision and here are a few of them:
Visionary art: I have chosen to research a few topics of vision but visionary art to me is the most important because rather than creating art from mainly what you see physically, visionary art is creating art from what you see in your mind or feel in your emotions and typically doesn't make sense in the physical world sometimes.This art movement originated in the 60's & 70's and is still popular today and usually involves themes of a spiritual, mystical, dream like state in which the physical world isn't present and portrays a wider vision of awareness and explores almost hallucinogenic images that only the inner mind can concuct with your own imagination or spiritual expression.( The examples I am about to show are more contemporary than anything else and even tough there are many brilliant historical pieces I liked these artists the most out of the research I carried out)

Pablo Amaringo
This Peruvian artist has a strange method before creating his imaginative masterpieces... he drinks a highly hallucinogenic brew called "Ayahuasca" made with special vines called "banisteriopsis caapi" and people who consume this are said to have spiritual visions involving the universe, nature and deep inner thoughts on how to be a better person and connect emotionally with nature which personally, I think is fascinating because with further training, higher dosages have revealed higher beings similar to that of gods depicted in hindu artwork who are experts in inner and physical healing, extra dimensions and other worldly creatures and visions. It is under the influence of this concoction that Pablo created his artwork. Here are some examples of his work...

I absolutely love this piece of artwork mainly because when I look at it my eyes are drawn to the face in the centre of the page that has been pulled in together with natural imagery such as plants, trees and is all congregated to result in the face and almost seems like an illusion type. I love the different shades of blue used especially the bright, misty blue around the center of this piece, it really compliments the greens and shows just how aware Pablo is when it comes to complimentary colours especially when you take it all in as a whole. The range of colours he has used is inspirational simply because he's pretty much covered the spectrum without over using, clashing or grouping any colours without making it look tacky. I like the amount of detail in this image but I feel as though when it comes to the people around the edges it becomes too clear that they are not his usual focus of his artwork because they aren't as expertly drawn as some of the other objects such as the plants, birds or animals you can see around the image. Although this isn't my usual target of inspiration he has made me aware that using more colour isn't always a bad thing.

This image is quite different from the last as you can clearly see there isn't as much detail and objects crammed into it and are quite a few repetitive patterns. I'm a huge fan of colour fading into black and white I think it looks brilliant especially when there is dark shading involved like this painting, I haven't seen this image in person but  imagine the texture between the two halves looks and feels amazing and is something I have always appreciated. I think the colours and the blending of the colours in this piece of art is beautiful, it almost seems as though there's glowing lights coming through the leaves. I don't really like the people at the bottom of the page, I feel as though they conflict against the detail because they don't have any detail themselves and don't really fit in with the rest of the painting. However, I almost feel like I can see and feel how Pablo did when he created it under the influence of the Ayahuasca brew and he's showing me how vast and beautiful everything seems and how dark it can get & it's almost dream-like and a very honest and imaginitive piece of visionary art with a running theme of nature.
Martina Hoffman
Martina Hoffman spent most of her childhood in Germany and West Africa and surrounded by German, African and French culture speaking various languages and learning the ways of the different societies she was surrounded by and you can clearly see the African influence in her work. She also moved to Spain and trained with Robert Venosa and Ernst Fuchs inspired by both visionary artists. Her work is unique, feminine and spiritual. Riddled with imagery inspired by meditation, inner peace and natural imagery and an over all feeling of life. Here are some examples of her work...

I'm a huge fan of Martina's art mainly because I love feminine art such as this painting here. It oozes with femininity and not in a sexual way but more of a spiritual and natural way. She has cleverly portrayed this female character as a form of goddess by using symbols such as the rams horns encased in gold and positions of the body as she is in a state of meditation and over all seems peaceful. The use of Golds and oranges make's the over all image appear warm and welcoming as well as luxurious at the same time which is something I really like especially when the colours blend as well as this. In my opinion this is a brilliant example of visionary art because everything seems very dream like and unrealistic but at the same time it all makes sense and comes together to create an inspirational piece of art that appeals to me personally.

As you can see stright away this is a very imaginative piece littered with natural imagery such as flowers, plants and animals. It looks as though I've pulled it right from a dream because the collage of images are so random and confusing as to what is happening and definitely promotes a mystical and spiritual theme. Also, the theme of femininity has yet again appeared which I always like but this time not in the peaceful, beautiful goddess-like way as in her other paintings and instead seems to have a darker agenda perhaps. Yet again I think the colours used in this painting are wonderful and the bright shining blue looks like some sort of electrical energy encasing the images in the center and compliment the colours used as well. I like that there are no hard shapes or lines and everything seems smooth and flowing together.
Robert Venosa
This is the artist I mentioned in the "Martina Hoffman" section: Robert Venosa. Venosa was Hoffmans inspiration for visionary art when she moved to spain and although their work is completely different in many ways it's easy to see why his work was inspirational to her....

Straight away you can see the brilliant use of light and dark and the exaggeration of light to produce a glowing energy of colour which is present in some of Hoffman's paintings, I really like this effect because it appears very mystical and dream-like which is what visionary art is all about for me. If you pay attention to the background you can see a lot of small detail which really appeals to me because I'm a huge fan of detail, the imagery used is very alien/mystical and isn't necessarily anything physically real- just random shapes and textures which is something I would definitely like to try and re-create with oil paints or pastils. The near bottom of the "being" there's a lot of gold and jewels- luxurious items and imagery is something else Hoffman used mainly to highlight the status of a goddess or femininity and I really like the look of it all.

I absolutely love this piece, although not very colourful, the detail in it is beautiful and makes the details in it look very lifelike which I really like as well as the imagination put into it. It reminds me of an ice sculpture and the blue tones are mystical.






















Ideas
Other than visionary art there are also some other pieces of art that go along with the theme of vision that I think are interesting and are possibly the start of some ideas for the project ahead. Here are a few ideas/inspirational images..........

Nightmares
Nightmares in my opinion have always inspired and been the reason for or inspiration for some brilliant art. This subject can easily be linked to "vision" clearly because they are images seen by the mind in the state of sleep and can be portrayed in any way because the images are personal to the individual that created them.
Here are some images that I've found on various internet sites, I haven't found out much about these images such as size, dates of creation on most of them but they're interesting all the less.

This is an image I found on "Tumblr", there was no information and the only caption was "Nightmare" so I don't know who created it but I absolutely love it because of it's abstract quality and sinister images. The main colour used is an eery white that creates an almost translucent floating effect that creates a scary, negative atmosphere which is clearly the aim of this painting and is an exceptionally good example of a representation for nightmares.

Peter Smeeth "The artists fate"
Surprisingly I have found out quite a lot more about this artist after doing some research and shockingly discovered that this is not a historical piece of art and was created only a few years ago taking over 150 hours to create this masterpiece. Although this painting is more about how the artist feels about his work being judged and being put down the imagery used in this painting are that of nightmares and over all has a dark inner meaning and negative atmosphere which I like for some reason because I don't typically take a shine to these sort of paintings. The detail is more prominent in certain areas such as the artists face and the grim reaper figure and less so in most other places which I don't like but I appreciate that this is the look he has gone for and has put a tremendous amount of effort into it. Also, the thought of putting personal emotions into his artwork is something I really admire because it's straight forward, no inner meaning or thousands of possible interpretations it's simple showing people how having his work slated makes him feel which is something a lot of artists can relate to.

Illusions
Illusions are something I'm not really willing to pursue in my project but after doing some research I've realised there are some heavily detailed illusions that have an added artistical intelligence and make good pieces of art and even though I'm not a huge fan and they would be hard to re-create they tie into my theme of vision and were interesting to research.... Here is an example of an illusion that I found that I really like by an artist called Octavio Campo...

Although I don't like the minimal amount of detail and I feel like it could have been done better I really like this painting, it's feminine, simple and an easy idea that can be further developed.