Author: Emma

In this article, Houdini with a Brush, David Salle discusses the works of artist Charline Von Heyl. In the article he addresses what makes Von Heyl’s artworks stick out and appear as ‘resolved.’ One notable aspect is her use of pattern as Salle writes, “high­key color harmonies, like pale lemon, mauve, taupe, and mint green; or finely calibrated intervals between light and dark colors; repetitions of patterns or the alternation of two or more patterns side by side or overlapping.” I have been using a fairly large variety of patterns in my pieces and I have found it to be something really interesting to experiment with. I think adding different patterns amongst the fluidity of loose paint strokes and washed colours, creates a complimentary balance and visual harmony to my artwork.

Von Heyl is also unafraid to use black in her works as written by Salle, “Von Heyl is a ferocious shape­maker and a pirate of the color black: black stripes, black smears, hard­edged black shapes, black charcoal lines and marks, black cutouts, negative shapes dropped out of black, black stars, arrows, and darts; black shapes like long plumed dresses or the trains of dresses; shapes like tree branches or felled trees, or pooled waters.” In my next blog post I will discuss how I incorporated the colour black into my own works which made artworks I previously felt were incomplete, now appear resolved like Salle describes Von Heyl’s works. Salle also wrote, “Black in painting is like a knife in a rumble: don’t bring it if you’re not prepared to use it.” I have never been afraid of going dark in my works previously, but as I started to move towards more of an abstract style, I found I was beginning to go lighter and brighter with my colours. This article reminded me to be unafraid of using black in my pieces. Once again, I agree with Salle and think that adding black to a piece can really complete and compliment it.

About von Heyl’s Absences Répétées, Salle wrote that the black triangles, “make all of the other elements in the painting—washes, scrapings, spray­paint lines, two vertical columns of letters in red paint that spell out the painting’s title—cohere, and they give the painting its attitude of fearlessness.” This got me thinking about how black solid shapes can be used as a way of enhancing other aspects of my own work which involves a variety of patterns and shapes. Von Heyl was unafraid to use the colour black and harsh lines which is what I think makes her work stand out so much.

David Salle. “Houdini with a Brush.” The New York Review of Books, April 19, 2019. http://www.davidsallestudio.net/’19%20The%20New%20York%20Review%20of%20Books_von%20Heyl_May.pdf

This week I was just playing around with colours and textures.

For this piece I used a combination of oil pastels and sharpie pen. One thing I really like about this piece is the contrast between the simple, bold chair and wooden floor and the messy, colourful pastels. The contrast is striking and interesting to look at. It is definitely something I want to explore more. For this piece I also tried a scraping technique by drawing in negatives. You can see two faint figures in the background where I used a pen to take away the top layer of oil pastel. Although I like the outcome of this technique, I think it would be more successful on a monochrome colour as I had done previously. This would help the figures stand out more.

For figure 2 I was attempting to get out of art block by getting down bold colours on paper without a direction in mind. I used a variety of techniques I have previously used but played around with the linearity of my marks. I think this piece is definitely missing something but could make for a good background.

Overall, I think the work I have produced during lockdown, although minimal, has been successful. I’ve been experimenting with texture, medium and colour to create my pieces.

I think by adding the figurative chair to this piece, figure 1, helps guide the eye on where to look. It gives the eye a break from the business of colours and textures and gives the piece a sense of three dimensional space. I did this in one of my previous pieces too. Hidden in the colours, you can also spot a leg and foot. Once again, I think this just adds interest and a sense of space to occupy.

For figure 2, I cut out rectangular cardboard pieces and pasted them onto my paper. I then used paper towel, coated in PVA glue to create this interesting texture on top, which was really exciting to work with. I ended up achieving this really unique surface to paint on. I think it adds a lot to a would be 2D image.

For this piece, figure 3, I use the same background technique I discovered earlier on. This time I added a figure in the centre, which I personally think was unsuccessful. I don’t particularly like the way this piece turned out, but it was a fun experiment.

I think this piece (above) is my most successful piece from the third week of the brief. I started with the mod podge and paint mix that I discovered in the first week as a base for the piece. I then began to layer on top of it using various mediums such as acrylic paint, pastels and coloured pencils. As well as this, I varied the way I used these mediums such as scratching away the pastel to make interesting squiggles, layering the different mediums on top of each other and leaving negative space in order for the background surface to show through. Stripes is another aspect that I am enjoying incorporating into my works. To make the imagery, I took aspects from the pieces I made in week two such as the chair and the archway, and combined them into this multidimensional scene. I was very inspired by the works of Christina Quarles and Rita Ackermann and the techniques they used that I explained in my previous blog post. This way of image making is something I want to continue to explore over the duration of this brief.

Personally, I think this above piece was my least successful piece from last week. I used a very large piece of calico (approx. A2 in size), acrylic paint and some pastels and crayons. Although I have enjoyed making images without a plan for how they will turn out, I found it very difficult to achieve this on such a large scale. I think if I want to work with this scale again, I would find it easier to make a smaller version first to base off of. As well as this, but it was very hard using acrylic paint on such a large, absorbent surface. Once again if I were to go this large again, I would do a piece that allowed for much more watered down, therefore transparent paint.

This was a piece (figure 1) I recreated from week two, but this time on calico. I was interested to see the different between working on calico and paper and being able to compare the two. Figure 1 is the piece on calico, figure 2 is the piece on paper. I really like how the piece on calico turned out. You can clearly see the dryness of the brushstrokes which makes a really interesting texture in the work. As well as this but the pastel marks become clearer as well surprisingly. I also really like the fraying edges. It adds an interesting textural framing to the piece. However, on paper it is easier to see the marks made by the marker pens and how they are layered. I think I will continue using both surfaces as I move forward.

Rita Ackermann

“Almost all my paintings are about movement—forms or figures moving in and out of dimensions of depth within a rectangle. They are like a wild dancer. Lines can become the traces of movements.” Rita Ackermann for an interview with BOMB Magazine.

Something I really like about Rita Ackermann’s work is her use of layering different mediums and her strong gestural marks. Often when I’m painting, I will start with a simple grey background and work up from there. However, for this brief I have started my paintings on colourful, textural backgrounds using the techniques I discovered in week one of Process into Image. This has given me much more interesting surfaces to work with and interpret. I am having to make decisions about where I want this background to show through much like in Ackermann’s piece Kline Nurses. You can see the bright pink and orange strokes peaking through the thick black marks painted on top. I also really like her use of pastel line work over the top of her work which is something I have been enjoying doing in my own work to add detail and depth to my images.

Christina Quarles

I really like Christina Quarles work and the way she uses different paint techniques to represent various fabrics, textures and surfaces in her work. The gingham effect made with watered down red lines, the squiggles and dry brushes are just a few of the many she utilises. I love how she uses the textures to divide up her pieces contrasting them with the fleshy forms in her work.

ITSLIQUID describes her work as, “Quarles’s trompe l’oeil environment spans wall-to-wall and features common patterns such as checkers and stripes, but with her own artistic logic where brushstrokes are imprecise, figures are fragmented and cast artificial shadows, and planes of varying materials overlap. Quarles’s unique approach to the trompe l’oeil technique playfully exposes the perceived boundaries between reality and illusion, drawing the viewer in beyond surface level.”

Trompe l’oeil is something I have started to subtly incorporate in my own work through objects such as furniture and archways. I’ve tried combine this with a variety of mark making techniques to create interesting visual landscapes.

Mamma Andersson

In an interview with Elephant Art, artist Mamma Andersson said, “I rarely take my own photographs. I mostly get them from other sources, and recycle or sample them in combination with one another. The ones I choose don’t guide me, they just direct me into myself. They are almost never in colour, the more obscure and difficult to interpret the better. Painting for me is about material and technique. It is the very essence of creation, the passion of wanting to be an artist.” This quote immediately stood out to me. Like we are doing in this part of the brief, she takes images from exterior sources and interprets them in many ways as a way of producing paintings.

Although her paintings are figurative, I was really interested in her depiction of foreground and background through her dark, blurry paint marks around the edges of her paintings. She also uses a variety of mark making techniques to create texture. For example in her piece Travelling in the Family, you can see the rough, dry paint marks in the table and chairs creating a wood like effect. By using a variety of both wet and heavy as well dry and soft paint application techniques, she creates visually striking interior landscapes.

Seraphine Pick

Currently on show at the Michael Lett art gallery is New Zealand artist, Seraphine Pick’s exhibition.

These two paintings of Seraphine Pick’s really stood out to me because I found a lot of similarities with my own work. The line work is really free and expressive. Because she has painted on linen you can really see the dryness of the paint through her strokes. I have been working with a lot of lines in my last few paintings so it is interesting to see the variety of shapes, angles, colours and linearity of her lines and how they work together to create environments.

Séraphine Pick

In an interview with Mossman gallery she talks about how she doesn’t think about the figures she is painting but rather about the marks she was making and what the paint revealed to her.

This week we were asked to respond to a range of imagery in multiple ways. I struggled to avoid taking the representational approach to this part of the brief as I am a realist painter that is used to painting exactly what I see in my reference images.

This was my wall before critiquing my work. As shown, a lot of my work is representational and the objects and subject matter of the images keep their original forms.

However, a few started to stick out as more visually interesting in the way they respond to their images.

Image with People

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All of these pieces were in response to this image of my friends. What initially struck out to me when choosing the picture, was the variety of textures, patterns and colours. So when responding to the image visually, I was drawn to these components which I think is noticeable in my art.

I think the vertical stripes of varying sizes are very effective and an aspect that carries across into my other pieces as well. The orange pillow, turned into an orange geometric shape, is an interesting way of seperating the stripes and adding some solidity to the image. It also compliments the green of the sofa. Its diamond upholstery also adds some additional geometry to the images.

Film Screengrab

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This image comes from my favourite film, ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ by Wes Anderson. Anderson is notorious for his visually striking cinematography so I immediately thought of his films when we were asked to bring in a screen grab. This shot particularly sticks out to me because I love the chaos of it. There are so many different colours, shapes and textures to respond to. I was especially interesting in the vanity lights around the mirror and how their repetitive circular forms frame the image. Above are my most successful responses to the image.

Painting made before 1900

In response to Toulouse Lautrec’s painting Marcelle Lender Dancing In The Bolero, my most successful piece was when I decided to only draw the green tones I saw in the image. I found this technique to be very effective and an exciting way to respond to the painting. I was left with these interesting shapes, that without the rest of the image to accompany them, become unrecognisable. Once again, the stripes of the floorboard created some interesting lines across the image which complimented the curved shapes.

A piece of Fabric

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I was struggling with this piece to respond to the fabric on its own, so I ran it through the photocopier and as it scanned I moved the fabric to morph it. Once again the line work struck out at me. For the piece on the top right above, I decided to redraw the photocopied version using a variety of pens, pencils and pastels. Instead of copying it as I saw it, I only looked at the image a few times and drew the rest from memory. I found after photocopying the fabric, the scanner separated some of the colours to create a cool rainbow like effect which I tried to mimic in my responses by layering colours.

Overall I really enjoyed this week of the brief. I found myself breaking away from my habitual way of responding to images representationally resulting in me making pieces I never thought I would have been able to make.

This week was a week of experimentation and letting loose with paint and creating a painting vocabulary. I approached the brief with the aim of playing with the viscosity of the paint as well as using vaseline to repel and isolate paint.

Vaseline- Repelling

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For these pieces I applied vaseline to the paper first. Figure 2 I covered scrunched up paper towel in vaseline and scratched it over the surface. For figure 1 I applied the vaseline using a sponge then applied paint over the top. I found it interesting as I did not completely mix the paint colours, streaks and layers of different colours are exposed with each stroke. For Figure 2 I soaked a sponge in a watered down paint solution and then gently wiped it over the paper letting the solution soak evenly into the page. I found the use of vaseline to repel paint very effective in creating interesting imagery. For figure 3 I did the same technique, except this time after applying the paint I used a large piece of card to scrape off the excess which created interesting vertical lines. For Figure 4, instead of applying the paint with a ‘tool’, I splashed it over the page using cups filled with acrylic paint, water and mod podge solutions of varying colours. I really liked how the droplets gathered and dried on the vaseline areas creating a speckled effect. For all pieces, because the vaseline is clear on the paper, I couldn’t see where exactly I had applied it so, when applying the paint I was given an unexpected result.

Viscosity

As I explained before, I wanted to experiment with not only the thickness of the paint but also how it moved and slid across the page.

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For these pieces I mixed Mod Podge into the acrylic paint before applying it to the page. Then using a sponge, in different ways, I applied the paint. Some squiggly, some more long and swift, some circular. I really liked the way the paint dried, keeping the form of the thickness and brush strokes. As well as this but actually applying the paint was very enjoyable. It slipped across the page really easily and allowed me create long continuous strokes that I would not have been able to achieve using unmixed acrylic paint. I was able to be really expressive with the paint application, using my whole arms to make marks across the pages.

Scrunching

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For Figure 5, I applied acrylic paint mixed with Mod Podge as I had done previously. But, this time after applying it I scrunched up the paper as much as I could. This meant some of the gluey paint gathered together in the crevasses creating an intricate textural effect. For Figure 6, I scrunched up the paper, applied vaseline on the exposed parts, unravelled it and then applied a layer of watery paint using a sponge. Like I discovered before, the paint repelled off of these areas. Something unexpected was the way the paint seeped into the creases creating darker lines. I did this process again to add another layer of paint and dimension to the piece.

Robert Howsare was another artist I looked at when researching art machines. I was immediately interested by his Drawing Apparatus, a machine able to create prints as records spin, moving two wooden arms with an attached pen.

On his website the Drawing Apparatus is described as “Printmaking’s ability to create multiples of an image is also referenced in its ability to replicate the designs it creates.  Drawing Apparatus situates itself across disciplines and asks us to reconsider our own notions of performance, drawing and printmaking.” The idea of replicating designs related to our pieces, especially the slinky and catapult pieces that provided very similar visual imagery due to their predictability in the way they work. However, our machines had a lot less control and accuracy which added an element of surprise.

With his Drawing Apparatus, he is able to make these very mechanical, intricate prints that would be extremely difficult for a person to create by hand.

Because his work uses the spinning of records, it got me thinking about music and its relation to art which carries across to our other pieces which focus a lot on rhythm.

http://roberthowsare.com/rational-aesthetics/drawing-apparatus/ Accessed 22 July 2021.

Overall I found this brief very challenging. Being a ‘traditional’ painter, I prefer to be fully in control of my mark making so I disliked putting all of that control into machines. I also usually make artworks knowing the outcome I want, however with this brief, each result was unpredictable which I actually found interesting and surprisingly enjoyable. I was getting results that I wouldn’t be able to recreate with my hands or personal abilities. It really encouraged me to look beyond my own art making abilities and discover new ways of mark making.

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We chose to display the catapult and slinky with their respective art works. This way the audience can put the art machine and art work together and imagine how they worked visually by seeing their results.