Julie's Art Blog

My story in 5 relates to our family day out cycling along the Union Canal from Linlithgow to the Falkirk Wheel then on to the Kelpies. The photos dont really reflect the cold and the howling winds which made the whole experience a bit challenging (but invigorating!). We were lucky to catch the Kelpies in the sun as it made the metal shine, in the grey light the Falkirk Wheel looked less impressive. The tunnel was fantastic with all the lights reflecting off the water however my photos of it are not completely in focus. I was just using my phone which is fine if you dont zoom in, but starts breaking up if you do. I took a couple of photos of my family cycling past me on the canal, but the one I used was the one where they were further past me as, closer to me the last person was blurred. However it did indicate movement and speed. That photo would have worked better if they were not all wearing a similar colour of blue. It needs some red or orange. Possibly my f...

Andy Warhol (1928-87) was an American artist and a leading figure in the pop art movement. His works explored the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture and advertising and it was these dynamics which caused controversy within the art world throughout his life. He completed the Campbell soup cans in 1962. He claimed to eat the soup most lunchtimes! (He produced other tins of soups at other times in his life). This was an artwork featuring the 32 varieties of Campbell's soup on separate canvasses of 20x16". These paintings were produced by a printmaking method - a semi-mechanised screen printing process using a non painterly style. Warhol's screenprints are characterised by areas of flat colour against a contrasting black and white photographic imagery. He also will present multiples of the image in different colour schemes. This work was exhibited in 1962 and the combination of the semi-mechanised process, the non-painterly style and the blatant...

Another high definition B&W photo as the areas of contrast are very strong in this composition, the kitchen was dark and the candles provided the only light. I like the way there are small sharp lights on the bowls to add interest to what might have been just a dark space. I felt fairly unimaginative with this still life photo task. I tend to photograph landscapes and people. However I began to play about with photoshop and could see some of the options which might make it more interesting. 

 I dont know if this constitutes still life however I was looking round the house for things that interested me and this did. I like the colours contrasting with the grey shadows. Although I needed the light on for the shadows the bright light caused me some problems and I dont think the focus is completely sharp anywhere on the light shade.  I like the contrast of the dark and light metallic colours of my "dragon's eggs" in my fireplace. It is lit only by the morning light from the window hence the light spots aren't too glarey and you can see the detail. It had to stay in colour as that is the main area of interest for me.  I snapped this photo in the college canteen at morning break. It shows still life photography can be impulsive and not always planned. Although the colours are yellow, blue and green it was in fact the form that was the key interest for me and the form came out better in high definition black and white. This is a literal rendition of ...

I love the disapproving stare of the boy as I was taking a sly wee photo! What initially attracted me to this family group was the girl's bunches and the strong primary colours the children were wearing. However I felt the colours detracted from the "look" which I decided was the main feature of this photo.

I took this with my zoom but still felt it a bit cheeky of me. Again the lights and darks are quite obvious in this picture so it lent itself well to B&W. The reflections of the opposite side of the road help soften and break up the dark area to the top of the picture.

This is the only photo I felt worked best in colour and that was partly because when in B&W the sunlit areas of his face were washed out. I feel this is fairly well balanced, my eye freely roves around this picture. This man was happily watching the world going by and I found it quite funny that he had the Jed Chippy sign pointing towards him.

I liked the contrast between the plain woodwork versus the fussy plants. You get a sense of things receding into the distance. I am not sure the balance is right with more than half of it being plain. Strangely I preferred this in B&W, I would have normally liked the colours of the flowers.

The darks and the lights work well in this photo and I felt it lent itself well to black nd white. It makes me smile as someone is clearly going in to get some chocolate.

Generally I found the whole experience very uncomfortable and the three photos I have publically put onto Instagram are people at a distance or the backs of people. I dont feel that I have the right to invade people's privacy and upload their image onto a public forum. I used my camera phone on the Friday however had a second attempt on the Saturday when the weather was brighter and there were more people about. I took my Nikon SLR with its zoom on the Saturday to try to get close ups, in a subtle respectful way! This photo is very reflective of Jedburgh as a whole, largely as there are lots of flowers and Jedburgh excells in its flower boxes and hanging baskets. I do find it a bit bitty however love the geometric pattern of the pavement.

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) was instrumental in the transition from Impressionism to Cubism and he is categorised as a post impressionist. He liked working in isolation and he spent much time in southern France where he painted a series of paintings of Mont Sainte-Victoire.  Cezanne was very interested in structure and although later in his career he did develop a light and airy painting style as seen here, his paintings are solid and architectural. He ordered his subject into simple forms and colour planes, and he simplified naturally occurring forms to geometric forms e.g. the tree trunk to a cylinder. In this painting the shape of the branches echo the outline of the mountains. Cezanne used small brushstrokes to build up his picture. He used blocks of colour and he would prominently outline forms such as the tree trunk and the fields in a dark blue. Cezanne's simplification of the landscape, his structured parallel brushstrokes as well as the bold colours paved the way t...

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) painted this picture of a rustic wooden chair in 1888 when he was living in Arles. He had dreams of creating a painters' collective and he painted a number of paintings to decorate his accommodation at the time in anticipation of a visit from Paul Gaughin. This chair was one of these paintings. Van Gogh had significant mental health issues and he had no success during his life. He lived in Arles from 1888-9 and he was inspired by the local landscape and light. His paintings are rich in yellow, ultramarine and mauve. It was believed he was making a collection that not only reflected his personal view but could have been comercially viable. Van Gogh painted seriously for just over a decade and he was very prolific - over this period he produced c.2100 artworks. From these figures it could be imagined that he worked fairly quickly. At this stage in his artistic career he was using bold colours (previously his paintings were a bit drab which were not p...

This is  an oil painting by Degas. He opposed the idea of painting outdoors and his subjects were often of indoor scenes. Although this painting is set in an establishment where many of the impressionist artists met, the New Athens in Paris, it was thought to have been mostly painted in his studio. Degas did not call himself an impressionist and preferred the term realist. However he did, through his painting, represent the world around him in that moment in time. While this painting has an off centre composition which was a feature of the Impressionists, he didn't use, in my opinion, the bright colours of the Impressionists. He has reflected the light by strong contrasting tones i.e. almost black beside very light colours. This painting is very bold as it shows a couple looking the worse for wear due to alcohol. Although the model was a successful actress, she does not look glamorous at all. The painting does not have a joyful feel. I find it strange that Degas would paint s...

This is a painting Claude Monet painted while living at Argenteuil which is a village on the River Seine near Paris. He was a believer in painting in the fresh air and shortly after this painting, he did get a floating platform so he could actually paint while on the river. He painted what he saw in front of him. He painted the same or similar subject many times as he wanted to capture changing light and seasons. The colours and the title of the above painting would suggest he painted it in summer. He didn't copy from other painters like his predecessors may have done, although he would sometimes paint alongside friends and as a result, their paintings may look similar. This painting is of sailing boats. The perpetual movement of sailing boats attracted Monet. He showed the sails being reflected in the water with big strokes of his brush and he, in general, made marks by dabbing and dashing. His palatte is fairly limited in this painting, with the orange serving as a strong ...

Today we went to see this in Hawick. Onyeka is a PhD student who had created three short films from archive material of the 1929 women's uprising in Nigeria which was a response to colonials asking women to pay taxes. The uprising was apparently very violent however that was not reflected in the films. She did say she didn't manage to find much material of the actual uprising however I feel that she could have demonstrated the violence more effectively e.g. by more aggressive music. In fact, from watching the films I couldn't work out the story she was trying to tell and I needed the question and answer session to get it clearer in my head. She also did not answer the questions I wanted answering e.g. what happened as a result of the uprising? I was interested in the history and I felt she was lacking in her presentation of this. However that is with my social history head on and is was an art outing! What I saw held my attention, archive footage has always interested me...

First lot of homework, my characteristics as identified by weird and wonderful questions asked during the class icebreaker exercise. I am a positive person who is confident enough to chat to anyone and to cope with making mistakes. I feel people should be respected as individuals and have the right to make choices about their own lives. Being a strong woman I have never really got the male supremacy idea! After years in a successful career I am doing what Julie Walters in "Mamma Mia, here we go again" advised, do what your soul tells you to do. My soul is creative and looks at nature and says Wow, I want to paint that wave, waterfall, tree, cloud. An aim of being on this course is so that I can learn to draw and design these things better than I am doing now. I love the Scottish landscape and hope in the future to get a campervan and drive around the west coast with my painting gear. I have other hobbies and interests including sewing and singing. 31/8/18