Tina Zellmer

Gustav Klimt

Stanley Donwood

Robert Rauschenberg

Marion Deuchar

Michelle Thompson

I love Michelle Thompson's work. She's a British illustrator who combines materials and techniques to produce beautiful unique pieces of work. I love her command of composition. I love the inexhaustable and suprising array of textures and papers and materials in  her  arrangements. .I love how the artist  makes each piece just 'work', the control and apparently effortless ability to embed otherwise unrelated emphemera with meaning and beauty. 

"Editorial work tends to be digital for speed but I still work by hand when the circumstances allow. More often it's a combination of techniques. I have a huge archive of elements collected over the past 15 years. Everything from postcards, books and magazines, to wood block type, typewriters and printing sets. I use paint and ink, pens and pencils, as well as my own photography."

Wales Millennium Centre

Nick and I recently visited the Wales Millenium Centre, at Cardiff Bay. Despite it's local reputation as the 'armadillo', it remains  a truly iconic and impressive piece of architecture to behold. The centre, that was  designed by architect Jonathan Adams, was completed in 2004. Okay, it may not rival the Sydney Opera House, but it certainly adds an elegant  air to the otherwise predicatble design of the newly developed Cardiff Bay waterfront. I love the combination of materials icluding slate, metal, wood and glass, and the awesome scale and glowing lettering .... It's, in my opinion an amazing building that has created its own unique sense of  seaside beauty.

'The Dream'

 I am from Stockport, and my husband Nick is from Liverpool. When travelling on the motorway between the two places that we grew up we pass by 'Dream'. A 20m high concrete sculpture, rising from the hills at St Helens. We always look out for it, and depending on weather and trees, we usually see it. It's a landmark. One that 100,000 cars a day pass by, maybe they look at it too, and maybe they don't. Although it's been designed to rival the Angel of the North. I'm not sure it has captivated audiences in quite the same way, not least because they struggle to notice it.

The artist who designed it, Jaume Plensa  stated   "When I first came to the site I immediately thought something coming out of the earth was needed. I decided to do a head of a nine-year-old girl which is representing this idea of the future. It's unique."[

It's unique but even at 20m it's too small! It lacks real impact for me. It doesn't pack a punch! It could have been so much more imposing and relevant but I find it rather too 'dreamy' .

There is strong support for it from the mining community though. Former miners had wanted something poignant to be erected in the place of the former coal mine. "In 20 years' time people wouldn't have remembered what this place was. Now they are going to come and ask questions about it." As some kind of memorial to the miners  work and lifestyles I suppose the sculpture is a success. It marks the place, in the same way a tom-cat sprays its territory. 

Typography Portraits

Stumbled upon the exciting world of typography recently and am finding, in the words of Depeche Mode, that  I 'just can't get enough'. My adventures into creating my own experimental versions have so far  resulted in a lego ABC, a garden photography collection and a cute little alphabet built from deconstructed miniature pegs. However, these are all rather fumbly and fun  but not particularly considered. I'm just getting my teeth into it though so watch this space for improvements!

Check this article out- it's a thorough description of the considerations the designer has worked through in creating a unique yet usable typeface called 'Tundra'. It's such a complex art- form and one I somehow haven't paid much attention to before.  

http://ilovetypography.com/2011/10/05/the-making-of-ff-tundra/#more-11046 

Also catching my eye are typography portraits- there's too many favorites to post here so  I've chosen just a few to get the tastebuds tingling.

Artists and systems of measurement

A 'think-about' artists who famously used systems of measurement in their work.

Albrecht Durer: (1471-1528)

This German painter, theorist and printmaker is noted for his theories involving principles of mathematics, perspective and proportions. Invented the 'Durer grid'.

Euan Euglow: (Late 20th Century)
Famed for his figurative paintings incorporating distinctive measuring marks, Euglow is the best known student of William  Coldstream.

Chuck Close:
Often uses visual gridden formats in his large scale photoreal portraits. His pieces are labour intensive incorporating processes of painting, woodblock, reduction block, scribble and etching.

Sol le Witt:
'Conceptualist' - Famed for his wall drawings- and deceptively simple geometric sculptures and drawings. Plans for drawings submitted that cannot always be carried out!

Still Life drawing using a grid, and then a concertina book!

Using a 'Durer' grid I drew a still life arrangement of plants, a jug and rope. I made an initial line drawing onto a measured grid of a ratio 5 x 7 . I then added tonal values to the picture. Using the durer grid is beneficial as it provides a managable guide to proportions and foreshortening, and there's potential to easily transform scale,  perspective or proportions by altering it's dimensions.

 The drawing was then photocopied and reversed negative/positive to create a black and white printed image of the picture. This was then cut and folded to create a concertina book , which I then arranged on the surface of the table to create a new still life object .

From this new  still life object I made a line drawing with pencil and light shding before then filling in the marks made in the photocopied mage of my original drawing with black watercolour, charcoal and pencil.

Fragmented evidence of overlooked ephemera

Candy Jernigan:

Obsessively documented her existance! Manifested  the idea of 'proof of life,'  documenting evidence of her journey through life. Collected memorabilia including detritus of  food she consumed, coke tabs, bugs, empty cigarette packs, scraps of doodles and drawings- and other odd things. She presented them in notebooks and journals that recontextualize the every-day.

 

 Mark Dion:

Collecting , organising and exhibiting objects in curiosity cabinets. "Examines the way dominent ideologies and public institutions shape our understanding of history, knowledge and the natural world."

 

Susan Hiller:

Installations/ Video / Photography / Performance / Writing

Cornelia Parker:

Installation artist and sculptor. 'Cold Dark matter' was an exploded shed, blown up by the army and suspended the fragments as if 'suspending the process in time'. In the centre was a light which cast shadows around the walls of the room. 

Peter Blake:

The English 'pop' artist who is best known for designing the famous sleeve for the Beatles album 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. Works across media- collage, scultpure, engraving, printmaking and graphics. He was of the british pop artist generation including David Hockney, Richard Hamilton and Patric Caulfield.

Eva Hesse:
Pioneering work in materials such as latex, fiberglass and plastics. A natural feel for materials and command of composition. 'Where does painting end and drawing begin?'

Manipulating surfaces and new ways with mark - making

Lucio Fontana:

Interested in spacialism, abstractism and using new technologies, Fontana questioned traditionsof art on a flat surface and realises the time had come for fine artists to be producing images of a 3D and 4D format.

 "Matter should be transformed into energy  in order to invade space in a dynamic form"

He asaulted the surfaces of his canvas', slashing and making holes in itor sticking random shapes onto the surface.

Implied Line: a line in a work that is subtlety perceived by the viewer but has no physical form.

Sian Bowen: 

Primary medium is drawing using papers that are embedded with a history of their own - wallpaper from a lighthouse, letters, documents and oiling or smokimng these papers to embue them with depth. 

Caroline Broadhead:

Makes textiles and sculptural installations.

'Dress with Holes'

Plays with the object, uses the dress as a metaphor , and looks into people, their belongings and their shadows- and making the shadow an artistic element in itself.

Machiko Agano :
Japanese master weaving artist, makes elaborate woven structures to be installed in specific places.
'Translucent coloured materials to portray delicate natural emotions allows characteristica of the surrounding space to penetrate and reflect the work.'

Masa Kobayashi:
Creates installations using natural and manmade materials.

Andy Goldsworthy:
Enviromental sculptor, uses natural surroundings, seasons and weather, leaves, grasses, stones, wood, sand , clay, ice and snow. Uses photographs to document his work.

Walter de Maria:
Contemporary Art/ Minimalism/ Earth Art
Occupied with Earth's relationship with the universe. Creates situations where landscape and nature, light and weather become intense experiences.