Pastel Painting, Bensham, Gateshead: October 2012

Friday 26 October 2012

Depth of Field Project - an introduction

Our next project starts on 15 November and is called Depth of Field (DOF). This is a term used to describe a photographic phenomenon. The image below sums up the effect of DOF which essentially is that part of an image is in sharp focus, whilst the rest is not in focus. Click on the image below to go to a website that has a simple guide to the concept and how to set your camera to use this technical aspect of photography in case you want to create your own images to paint from (it doesn't have to be a flower!).

In the resources page opposite "DOF images" are photos that I have taken and that you can choose for your project image if you cannot get images from elsewhere or cannot take them yourself. Our project is to see how we can use this image "language" to create interesting pastel paintings. I would prefer that you do not start your DOF project painting before we get back on 15 November as I want to show you the techniques in pastels first. But do choose the image(s) you are attracted to and bring in prints of those to the class.

Thursday 25 October 2012

Portraits, black projects, dynamic pictures!

This week we had a mix of projects going on with portraits and black project paintings at various, exciting stages. Here are the full paintings each with a supporting detail. There is no class for two weeks, next class being 15 November. Watch this blog for resources to keep everyone going over the break and some images for our next major project - depth of field.

Anne

Bob

Christine

Elvan

George

Harry

Janice

Ken

Leonard

Lynn

Moira

Peter

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Message from Anne re Picasso

Dear Colleagues,

I went to the Picasso Exhibition in Edinburgh on Friday 19 October and have to say it was amazing. Covering almost two floors, not only did it feature a large number of his paintings but included work by Wyndham Lewis, Henry Moore, Duncan Grant, Ben Nicholson, David Hockney and others and was brilliant at showing how Picasso had influenced them. Unfortunately the exhibition finishes on 4th November so it is unlikely many of our class would get the opportunity to visit, but what is good is the fact that there is loads of really good and concise information on the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art's website about the exhibition (click on the picture above to go to the web page). Once there you just need to click on to 'the show' then 'highlights' where there are quite a few of the pictures featured in the show but just as importantly descriptions about the paintings themselves as well as showing the influence of Picasso, all of which really does give the flavour of the exhibition.
Anne

Saturday 20 October 2012

Black Project - info & picture resources

In the RESOURCES PAGES opposite you will find a page with all the sample images in case you have difficulty finding a suitable image of your own. Go to the page entitled: Black Project - Possible Images.

When doing your black painting remember:
1. Cover the whole of the image area with black pastel first, even those areas which in the original photo are very light in colour. Draw your design in a light coloured pastel using only lines, no shading.
2. When adding the colours onto the black pastel ground, do not do any soft blending at all i.e. do not rub with your fingers, do not use a torchon or a brush, as this will "deaden" your palette. Regularly tap the excess powder off the surface.
3. Rotate the pastel stick continuously between your thumb, index and second fingers to leave maximum pigment on the black. Vary the pressure to alter the amount of pigment left on the black.
4. Keep tapping the paper/board to remove excess pastel powder throughout the process.
5. Fix lightly at regular intervals during the painting process.

Any questions, email me.

Thursday 18 October 2012

Women in Art

Following on from looking at BLUE and its symbolism of wealth and status, we looked today at the position of women in art, in art history. One thought provoking moment was when we named the artists we knew. From a long and very varied list there were no women on our "top of the head" list. We talked about why this might be the case. Here are some links for those who wanted to find out a bit more on this subject and about some of those women artists we did name in class:

Images from some of the women artists we identified in class (go to the link below "Information on Women..." to get direct links to all these and more women artists):

Berthe Morisot

Tamara de Lempicka

Frida Khalo

Georgia O'Keefe

Mary Cassatt

Barbara Hepworth

Paula Rego

Information on the subject of women in art - click on the image below to go to the website page then scroll down that page to see a selection of women artists over the centuries plus links for further information on many of them, including those we named in class today:

Colour: BLUE

In class we take 10 minutes out of practical work to consider different topics. A couple of sessions ago we looked at colour and how certain colours become a symbol for wealth and status, usually of patrons and sometimes of the artist using the colour. We looked in particular at the story behind BLUE. Here are a few links for those who wanted to know more (click on the pictures):

Blue, Yves Klein Blue, general history:

Vermeer's Blue Palette:

Lapis Blue (2 minute video):

Portraits and Black Projects

This week the group was divided between those wanting to further develop their portraits and those who wanted to start the new project "BLACK". Below we can see the images from all of the paintings done in class. We also took some time out to consider the position of women in art and had an interesting brief talk about how some issues around equality still need addressing even in the current arts arena. The portrait paintings shown below include full images plus a detail.
The BLACK project started today with exercises to learn how black and colours behave when mixed in a certain way. This is to get everyone ready for tackling a subject in BLACK. Here are some of the exercise sheets, apologies if some names are attached to the wrong image!