Julie's Art Blog

Jim Dine (born 1935) is an American Pop artist who is sometimes considered to be part of the Neo-Dad movement. I have selected three of his etchings as I was looking for another "head" etcher other than Rembrandt to help me plan my printing project - I plan to do an etching of my son's head. The skull demonstrates other ways of making the marks, Rembrandt is quite hatchy and squiggly (which I like but I was wanting to see what other options there were). The next two are supposed to be self portraits however they don't look like the same person. I prefer the second one as there is real darkness around the eyes and my son has quiet hooded eyes. I also like the random scores over the face. With etching you can achieve real moodiness with the darks which is exciting. Also with the second portrait your brain tells you that there are more colours than just black and white, the head scarf looks a grey/brown colour.

Katsushika Hokusai 1760-1849 was a Japanese painter and printmaker. He was best known for his woodblock print series - Thirty Six views of Mount Fuji. This series includes the internationally iconic print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" which is the top picture.  The second image is "Choshi in Shimosa" from "One Thousand Images of the Sea". And the third image  is "Kirifuri Waterfall at Kurokami Mountain in Shimotsuke" (from a "Tour of Japanese Waterfalls"). I selected these prints as one of my goals is learning to draw/paint/represent water and I have observed waves and waterfalls with the aim of trying to replicate their movement. I find it very hard however looking at the prints of the waves it shows there can be more ways to show them (rather than the more literal), here they are very stylised however the second one in particular still manages to convey the movement and power of the water. The waterfall print is interesting ...

Felicity originally trained to be an architect and later became a visual artist and designer who makes site specific installations. Making and sculpting is very important to her and the recording and thinking of how things go together. She tends to find the journey more important than the end result. She has more recently become interested in chromatography - which is the separation of manufactured or natural pigments and the above photograph is an example of this work. She has worked on artist's books which she describes as containers (for housing a volume of work). She tries to tell a narrative with her book making and the making of the book is major in this - how she stitches it, how she binds it, what materials she uses, the ink not being permanent so it is constantly changing. I did learn some important messages from her visit: - it is important to try something to get to the next stage, so the things that don't work are important too. - take a step back rather th...

 Homework this week was about exploring composition in a still life. I thought this had the potential to be a bit dull so I abandoned all thoughts of bottles and vases and found more exciting objects in the toy box. The above photo was the symmetrical effort which was so dull (I know that was the point) that I increased its vibrancy and tint. But I do get it, symmetry can be boring!  My chosen objects allowed for a bit of story telling which might be cheating as I felt it made it easier to make the composition more interesting. It also allowed me to really play with pop colour for the first time. This is another fairly symmetrical photo but it works so much better than the last one as there is so much more to look at. I am not sure about the thirds rule however my eye is drawn up to the dinosaur as both Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader are looking there.  I was playing with perspective a bit here with Luke and his gang in the foreground and Vader protecting the Tard...

Giorgio Morandi 1890-1964 was an Italian painter and printmaker known for his simple, contemplative still lives of bottles, jars and boxes. The first print is called Still Life with five objects and was made in 1954. This etching has the full range of tones from black to white and is very effective. I like the very white reflections and the fact that the lines are a bit wonky which gives it more character in my view. The second is called Natura morta con la statuina which I am guessing means still life with the statue/figurine. This is far more two tone so not so much to my liking. The reduced tones means the objects aren't defined so well.

Chris Rose is a local wildlife/bird artist. Although he works in a very realistic style he describes his paintings as about colour, light and pattern and he uses abstract shapes. He will play with horizontals and verticals to make things more interesting. He started off in illustration as he needed to earn a living. He was one of the artists illustrating Handbook of Birds of the World where he had to research exactly how a bird looks and replicate that exactly on paper. He worked very closely with the publisher who had commissioned him and he did what was wanted. He made the picture a quarter bigger than required so they could be reduced which sharpened the pictures. Illustrating a book like this also meant he had to be able to paint the vegetation correctly and to the correct size and think of interesting ways of painting water so it didn't all look the same. Now Chris paints for exhibitions and enjoyment. He doesn't have to follow anyone's rules bar his own and he ...

Waist height, originally uninspired as it didn't seem to have the potential for anything really interesting like the extremes of looking up or down. So I just took photos of subjects I liked from my waist height I liked my weird shaped shadow on the fence as I was standing up straight with my arms down (I wasn't cheating). I just increased the contrast slightly then put it into high definition b&w. I have only slightly increased the exposure of the flower photo. I think this photo composition has worked really well, better than my oil painting but it is early days. The photo of Jedburgh Abbey through the railings has had the contrasts and the highlights slightly increased then given the high definition B&W treatment. I quite liked it in faded B&W but not enough. You are just going to have to believe me when I say I took the photo of Jedburgh Castle Jail from waist height. I did. I slightly changed the hue and saturation - however the original ...

Nick Ut (born 1951) is a Vietnamese American photographer from the Associated Press who worked out of Los Angeles. I have selected these two photos as they show the horrors children can experience and the carefree joy children can experience. They emphasise the diversity of purpose of photography. I like the second one as I like seeing happy children and I love the way the children have been caught in mid air.

Robert Cappa (1913-1954) was a Hungarian war photographer and photojournalist. He is considered by some to be the greatest combat and adventure photographer in history. The top photo is of the D-day landings, Omaha Beach in Normandy and the second is of another wartime scene. I selected these two photos as they demonstrate the contrast in war - the first shows the real chaos, action and disaster of war, and the second shows the camaraderie and the quiet times of war. Normally I would consider a blurred photo a bad photo however here it conveys the atmosphere better than it would if it were in focus.

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist. His black and white images of the American west, especially Yosemite National Park, have been widely reproduced on calendars, posters, books and the internet. I selected the first photo as it is a view that I might take in Scotland but it would never get into the photo album because I would think it too dull. However I have never changed it to black and white before nor have I increased the contrast in the light and darks. If I did, it might get into my photo album. I selected the second photo due to its sky. I have used the pinhole black and white setting a few times for my photographs for college and I am really liking the highly defined look of the clouds. I have never changed my landscape photographs to black and white, as I tend to take the photo as I like the colours, however Adams' photographs make me think I will experiment more.

David Bailey (born 1938) is an English fashion and portrait photographer. The first photo is of John Lennon and the second is of Catherine Deneuve. The top photo is very black and white which is bolder which might suggest more masculine (not that I go along with that sort of stuff!) and the second is very grey and soft which might suggest more feminine. However the reason I selected these photos was because they are both funny. Most people delete the photos they take of people with their eyes closed however there is a hint of peacefulness in this photo which points to its intentionality, however if I were a fan, I would want a photo of John Lennon with his eyes open. Catherine Deneuve posing with a flamingo while wearing feathers in her hat points to how ludicrous fashion can be, and she looks a good sport for posing in this way.

The Futurism art movement started in 1909 and essentially lasted until 1916. It is a movement with left wing political implications founded by the poet Marinetti. Italy was poor and underdeveloped at the time with social inequalities after their unification in 1870 due to corrupt politicians interested in personal gain. So a movement which sought to free Italy from the oppressive weight of its past and promised to provide a brighter future was appealing to the population. The popular discontent continued beyond WW1 which paved the way for the rise of Facism and Mussolini's  rise to power. The movement glorified the modern world and machinery, speed and violence (connected to the advancements in technology) were common subjects of the movement. Futurism was against tradition, academic training, museums and art galleries featuring art of the past.  The movement heavily draws on Cubism in particular to show motion and Neo Impressionism in that it used strong and bright col...

Claire Beattie got an arts degree from Edinburgh in the 1990's and is now making a living from her art. She works in oil paint and tends to do a single motif e.g. tree, Bass rock, in an abstracted background and her style is fairly minimalistic. While she does take lots of photos and does a little sketching, her paintings are mostly about colour and they can take months to complete. She can have up to 15 paintings on the go at one time, moving around them when the oil paint is dry. She feels success as an artist is partly due to luck however you can make your own luck by establishing  a routine of observing and drawing and developing your own style and flair in order to stand out. She herself put her work forward to open exhibitions and got a couple of pieces accepted. A gallery owner saw them, liked them and approached her and a long term arrangement has been made between her and this Brighton gallery. They will show and sell her work at affordable art fairs and that galler...

Looking up or from an ant's eye view! Fireworks night seemed the obvious place to start and the camera phone managed to capture the fireworks quite well. I originally went for the high definition black and white as the contrasts were stark, however then changed it to something less severe as it looked more atmospheric. We went up to Angus for the long weekend and I took the photo of the Queensferry Crossing through the windscreen- you can see the lines of the windscreen. The original was a subtle photo with gentle blue and grey which worked well as it was however I chose to increase what little contrast there was and use the B&W pinhole mode. This mode works in that it brings strong definition to the clouds which I love however it does tend to make it a bit dark overall - I tried a bit less pinhole but het clouds didn't look so good. The third is just a straightforward photo of looking up through the trees with, I believe, a slight aqua tint. The original wa...

Dorothea Lange 1895 - 1965 was an American Documantary photographer and journalist best known for her Depression Era work. The top photo is called "Migrant mother" taken at Nipomo, California in 1936. She took a few different photos of these subjects however I have selected this version as the mother is staring out of the picture and is unconnected to the photographer. I feel this emphasises the hopelessness of her situation. She is holding her baby and her older child is leaning on her shoulder however no warmth is shown towards them further emphasising how hard life is for them. The second photo is called "Kids" and although there is no affluence evident in the photo, there is pleasure and camaraderie evident I feel the photographer has captured the fact that whenever you put a bunch of kids together there can be positive life no matter how hard the situation they are in.

Vivian Maier 1926 - 2009 was an American Street photographer who primarily took photos of the people and architecture of Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles. Her photos were unknown and unpublished during her lifetime but now her photos are exhibited around the world. The first photo is of a small boy pulling a funny face. I like it as, having sons myself, I know how hard it is to get them to pose beautifully for my photos, however the results are often funny. The second photo is called "woman in a car" although she looks more to me like a girl in a car however she is posing with a sultry and sexy pose. The two photos together demonstrate a contrast which can come from developmental stages in children and gender.

Diane Arbus 1923 - 71 was famous for her subjects of people who could be considered outsiders e.g. transvestites, strippers, carnival performers. However she was equally drawn to more "ordinary" subjects such as mothers, children, couples etc. The top photo is titled "boy with the hand grenade". I like it as it shows a poor scrawny looking child holding a grenade but surrounded by a park and lovely dappled light on the ground. The contrast is vast. The second photo is called "a young man with curlers at home on West 20th Street". The contrast I identify is the vivid darks and lights of the actual photo, however the pose is reminiscient of the stereotypical woman in curlers which contrasts with what I know of transvestites, people who make great efforts with their appearance.

I took my phone when I went for a walk round the Broom and it was early in the day and the sunlight was great. I have always loved the view of the first photo, it is just out the village. The skies are huge. I took a few photos and did initially have problems keeping both the definition in the sky and the land, my camera phone just wanted to give me one of these. I did play about with this photo however I decided to upload the actual untweaked version as it was my favourite! I liked the lines of the dreels however I did have to zoom a little (the verge was wet and muddy) which resulted in a slightly broken up picture. However I decided I quite liked the angular shapes of the earth. I changed it to high definition black and white as it emphasised the shapes and shadows best. I had to include a photo of the lovely autumn leaves and all I did was increase a little bit of the contrast and reduced the highlights a bit which had the effect of making the sky bluer - maybe...