Julie's Art Blog

The New Blood Exhibition showed the work of 6 artists from the Borders who were all under 28 and who had all studied art and design at Borders College before going on to further studies. Some are still undergraduates at Scotland's art colleges, and some have already graduated. The work was very varied and promoted various amounts of discussion. I refer to four of the artists here. Gavin Wood's (above) pieces were of pencil on wood. I thought they were quite beautiful and the skill was obvious. I could never see me being able to wield a pencil with such effect! Alice Scott hung her photographs upside down and on their sides. She was hoping that the viewer would gain a mindful insight into the world around us. I actually quite liked her photos and the two above made a nice group. However I did not think there was anything startling about her photos, the quality, the composition or the subject. I felt I could hang my photos upside down to similar effect.  Charlotte...

Inge Panneels is a glass artist who lives in Lilliesleaf. She talked of having a portfolio career which is doing lots of activities which relate to your practice in order to earn a living. She also teaches glassmaking at Sunderland University. Over her 20 year career so far she has worked in three areas of glassmaking.  1) Architectural - which is working with space and in buildings. She has to respond to the site and the clients wishes and engage in lots of dialogue. An example of this is the above map of Liverpool which was commissioned for the new museum. She won a competition to get this commission. This installation is 2.1 metres high and is substantial. Inge has also done commissions for companies like BT, Heart of Hawick, NHS, banks and some councils. 2) Commercial wares - this involves smaller pieces for around the £100 or under mark which are more affordable to the general public. Inge seemed fed up of making plates and she found this way of working posed the ques...

SOURCEMOUTH:LIQUIDBODY is an audio-visual installation where the artist Hanna Tuulikki represents the flow of water from the birth of a stream to maturation by choreography, vocal composition and costume. She draws on an ancient form of Sanskrit theatre and spent a month in India learning the art.  There are three interrelated films. The first one focusses on her mouth where she makes a series of sounds which suggest the rain, wind, insects and water in motion. As the river progresses, she layers up the sounds to suggest the bigger volume of water. The second film centres on her eyes where she uses her eyes to emphasise the direction of the water - she looks up to the top of the mountains and drops her eyes down like rain falling. The third film features her dancing, first on her own, then she layers herself up and has as many as 6 of her selves dancing. Her dance movement and costume represents the tumbling of water and when all six of her is on the screen, you can see the ra...

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker. He volunteered for army service in WW1 but soon suffered a breakdown and was discharged. In 1933 his work was branded degenerate by the Nazis and in 1937 over 600 of his works were sold or destroyed. He committed suicide in 1938. I have selected two of his woodcuts of portraits just so I could consider how portraits could be done in linocuts instead of etching. Clearly they have a lot fewer lines and, in my mind, they look less realistic. The second one looks a bit like Frankenstein! The black and white is striking however I think an etching has a bigger potential to be more atmospheric. The woodcuts don't capture the subtleties of the face so well and you would need to hope the face had a few stand out features which could help the viewer identify it as the sitter. I prefer the first print as it is less black and white as the lines and shapes are smaller, the second one is too "chunky...

Jan Hladik (1927-2018) studied at the State School of Graphic Art in Prague, Czechoslovakia from 1942-44 in the studio of painting and textile design. While he seems to have exhibitions that focussed on textile art, I have selected a couple of his etchings. The first one is a portrait of Alberto Giacometti who was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker.This was done in 2002. The second is a portrait of Egon Shiele, artist, done in 1986. I found these prints while researching my printmaking project. The first one dramatically shows the shadows on the face by thorough cross hatching. The second face is of a younger man and his cheek is smooth and the tone of the cheek is shown by a striped contour line which gives it a bit of curve. I prefer the first one as there is more depth and atmosphere to it. However I am going to do an etching of a 14 year old boy who has smooth skin however I can get the vivid darks in his eyes which are hooded.