Seminar group critique: notes and research prompts: Helen Sear

Helen Sear

Helen Sear’s photographic practice has developed from a Fine Art background of performance, film and installation work made in the 1980’s. Her photographs became widely known in the 1991 British Council exhibition, De-Composition: Constructed Photography in Britain, which toured Latin America and Eastern Europe. Born in England she continues to explore ideas of vision, touch, and the re-presentation of the nature of experience, combining drawing, lens based media and digital technologies.

http://www.hoopersgallery.co.uk/exhibitions/

Seminar group critique: notes and research prompts: Gerhard Richter

A Diverse Range of Styles

The 2001 Retrospective at MOMA displayed how diverse Richter's paintings are. His early work is of blurred figurative paintings, both with and without colour followed by seductive abstract paintings, with a colour palette that is either brilliant or subdued. His surprisingly diverse range of work has received prolonged discussion from critics, especially due to Richter's disregard for "traditional" stylistic progression and his use of photographs.

Gerhard's 'overpainting's' are an interesting process and ideas. His application of paint to a photograph seems to lead to many interesting outcomes.

His application almost refuses to interact with the virtual 3 dimensional space within the 2 dimensional image - creating a kind of barrier between the viewer and image background. 

http://www.gerhard-richter.com/art/

A combination of artists and artwork I like, enjoy and aspire to: Ashley wood

ASHLEY WOOD (1971) was born in Australia, and now resides in Australia and The United States. He lives with his wife, his two sons, and one stinky cat. 

Ashley has been a professional illustrator for over ten years, and has worked for most major entertainment companies including Dreamworks SKG, Warner Bros., Random House, Marvel Comics, McFarlane Entertainment, IDW, and Konami. 

His illustration technique is a combination of traditional painting techniques, coupled with digital photography and graphic software.

Ashley's website:

http://www.ashleywoodartist.com/

A combination of artists and artwork I like, enjoy and aspire to: Dion Archibald

dion archibald
artist statement 
My art is about a personal exploration of the subject and the materials used to create the work. Regardless of whether the subject is something as mundane as a toothbrush or as awe inspiring as the beauty of nature, it has to speak to me in some way. I have to feel an empathy towards the subject and desire to form a relationship with it, as inevitably I am affected by the feeling or mood of the subject. My paintings evolve organically from life's everyday glances. Rather than trying to force my will on them, I give them total control. Each layer determines and guides the next. My paintings are a dialogue between giving and taking. I don't want to sign the work until it looks like it has been lived on, until I have violated the open white space and created something that can become independent of me and fend for itself.

Dion 2002

An incite to some of Dion's practice:

books and flowers 2003 - Demonstration   First of all I like to be familiar with my subject matter. Painting still life works for me has simply been an acknowledgment of my surroundings. Everywhere we look in our homes there is a painting just waiting to happen. I can be inspired by a toothbrush, a pile of shoes, or a collection of bottles. The term "artist's block" sounds foreign to me as I love the act of painting and see new and exciting subjects to be painted everyday. This particular work is of a pile of favourite artist books and a vase of plastic flowers from my toilet.     step1 Part of the fun with still lives is arranging the subject matter. I like the items to look like they've just been thrown onto the table randomly, whilst still considering the composition as I arrange them. When I am happy with the arrangement I start sketching very loosely with a large brush and some diluted paynes grey. It is a very playful stage. Step 2 Then I start to refine the subject matter and make any compositional changes that I missed in the first stage. Still using very fluid paint (mixed with archival classic medium) I try to cover all the white areas of the board. I start thinking about lights and darks but keep the colours very basic as this is just a blocking in stage to get the form and composition right. Step3 Between each layer I leave the painting for a day or two to dry. I enjoy this process as it gives you time to see how the work is progressing. The books and flowers are now starting to become more recognisable. The finished colours are also starting to be introduced and I am starting to make them cleaner. I have kept the colours to a minimum of paynes grey, yellow oxide, and titanium white. A focused palette can help to strengthen the structure and composition of your painting as you are not seduced into relying on beautiful colours to make the finished work more pleasing.  Step 4 At this stage I just continue to refine the image. I keep working over each stage and making any changes necessary. Tones and colours are changed with each new layer, working slowly towards the finished image. Often previous stages show through and add interesting and unpredictable effects. Scratching into the paint with a nail punch can also add to the textural finish and emphasize lines. t: books & flowers d: 2003 m: oil on board s: 60x90cm Step 5 I never try to rush a painting by trying to finish it quickly. If it takes 30 sittings or more than so be it. My works tend to look very rushed and spontaneous but they are actually worked on over many sittings with much contemplation in between. In the final stage I work on strengthening the tones, making sure the contrasting areas of the image are working. Highlights are added and any areas that need lightening are changed. Knowing when the painting is finished can be quite challenging as some works never really seem finished, yet others tend to climax nicely and you just know that it is complete

Dion's Website:

http://www.dionarchibald.com/newcastle/paintings.htm

A combination of artists and artwork I like, enjoy and aspire to

http://www.dionarchibald.com/newcastle/paintings.htm

Influence & interests

Mark Hayward

Air-raid, Mark Hayward, Animation

Mark Hayward

Mark Hayward’s work explores physical motion. Whether through animation or drawing, it’s ‘actions’ that interest him and how they adapt and respond to one another to create movement and narratives.

Acts of war and aggression feature recurrently in Hayward’s work, and individual actions naturally expand into group activity; as groups mobilise, individual characters seem to find themselves not just under the control of the groups that they move in but also of the actions that they partake in, actions that Hayward subjects them to.

Hayward was born in Portsmouth in 1979. He graduated from UCA Canterbury, Kent, where he received a BA in Fine Art in 2007 and then went on to complete an MA in Fine Art Printmaking at the Royal College of Art, London, were he received the Tim and Belinda Mara Award.

In 2009 his work was selected for the Jerwood Drawing Prize, which will be opening in London September 2009 and touring the UK until April 2010. He has shown his work in a number of exhibitions including

Show One, at the Royal College of Art,

The London Original Print Fair at the Royal Academy of Arts, and New Cross Project Space, London. He currently lives in Ken

http://www.rca.ac.uk/Default.aspx?ContentID=505027&CategoryID=36646

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eofzmcrOCOE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aai-ss4UcCk