Fine Art Foundation Degree

 The Portrait Today In the modern world, images can be taken and shared globally within seconds, but the desire for a one-of-a-kind commissioned portrait still remains. Artists have responded by depicting the human face and body in more imaginative ways, resulting in a whole new kind of portraiture than the 'typical' portraits we are used to seeing. Amy Sherald: Michelle Obama This painting features Obama against a pastel blue sky-like background, with the triangular shape of her dress turning her into a strong, stand alone mountain. The almost gram-scale effect on her skin was intentional, to hint at the 'quieter hints and wants of the black common men and women who have emerged on the linen en grisaille'. Grisaille is a painting technique where an image is made entirely in shades of grey, and then worked into to create the illusion of a sculpture.  This is not only an example of modern portraiture, but it is historically significant. It portrays Michelle Obama, the fi

 Identity Identity is the way we perceive and express ourselves and it includes factors and conditions that we a born with. Our identity however can change and evolve throughout our lives, through our experiences and decisions, or, our experiences and decisions can be directly affected by our identities, such as how we chose our friends, clothing styles and even political beliefs. Many artists will use their work to express, explore and question our ideas about our identity.  Eve 3.6, Jabbar Muhammed This painting is part of a much larger series by Muhammed in which he 'explores issues beyond the body alone and could be considered existential'. Eve 3.6 depicts a woman showing two faces, one calm, the other anxious. Along with the bright colours and minimal shading, I think it conveys the internal turmoil that we face daily. The constant battle between what we feel on the inside vs what we show to the world.  Girls Head, Cathy Lu Lu explores concepts of identity such as culture

 Consumerism Consumerism in art is based on the idea that the ownership of goods as a reflection of status and self-identity. Tim Noble and Sue Webster: Dirty White Trash To make this piece, the artists saved six months worth of their rubbish to highlight the problems with the 'out of sight, out of mind' approach to waste management. At first glance, it looks just like a pile of discarded rubbish with seagulls scavenging through it, but only when the light is turned on, you can see the image it creates.  The image created through the silhouette is a self portrait of the artists, the reason and accumulators of all this rubbish. It urges the viewer to be mindful of their own waste production and management, whilst saying a little light-hearted with the images created through them.  Vanessa Beecroft: VB67 Beecroft's performance pieces, which have been ongoing for over 25 years, 'highlight the tensions between nakedness and clothing, constraint and freedom, the collective a

 The Object and Still Life A still life is a work of art that depicts mostly inanimate and commonplace subject matter. It originated in the Middle Ages and Ancient Greco-Roman periods, but became its own distant genre and professional specialisation in Western painting by the late 16th century.  In more modern times however, artists have started to use 'readymades'. The term was originally used by Duchamp to describe his own work, but it has since been used more generally to describe artworks made from manufactured objects. Jan Brueghel the Elder: Flowers in a Wooden Vessel, 1603 Brueghel uses a lot of different and vibrant colours in this piece, but rather than clashing, they work well and constantly move the viewers attention from one flower to another. He also utilises the whole canvas rather than just one section, allowing the viewer to see flowers from any direction.  The use of all space I think could have been done slightly different however, as the bouquet seems to be s

 The Landscape Landscape paintings refers to an artwork with a primary focus on natural scenery, such as mountains, forests, cliffs, etc. Although the 'objects' are natural, the scene itself can be imagined, with the artist composing their own landscape.  Caspar David Friedrich: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog In this painting, Friedrich uses a vertical orientation, instead of the usual horizontal which is most commonly used as it allows the painter to show a much larger area. In my opinion this works well with the man standing in the foreground, as it focuses your eye into the centre much better than a horizontal orientation would.  Including people into landscapes is not so common, and if they are present, they are usually not so detailed. I would still count this as a landscape however, because Friedrich is manipulating and focusing the mountains towards the centre. Combined with the fact that the man is facing out and not towards the viewer, makes him part of the landscape an

 Religion and Art Religious art is artistic imagery using religious inspiration and motifs which is often made to 'uplift the mind to the spiritual'. It was most commonly used (especially in Christianity) to portray the stories in the bible or other religious texts, before the masses could read, so they could still partake in the religion.  Judith Beheading Holofernes by Caravaggio 1598 In this painting, Caravaggio depicts the young widow Judith beheading Holofernes, an Assyrian General who was sent to destroy Judith's home, the city of Bethulia. The painting uses a mixture of stark light and shadows to emphasise the dramatic situation and to highlight the facial expressions and muscle tones of the subjects. Although the bottom half is very busy, the top portion of the painting is filled with a draping piece of fabric. Although this is not a necessary addition, the contrast of the black and the flowing red highlights the brutality in which this murder takes place.  This pai

 Lizzie Flint Suspended Bees Final Write up: Background Research of Erewash Museum Artist Research Honeycomb Chicken Wire Chicken Wire Bees Bees Evaluation

  Background Research on Erewash Museum For this project, our brief was to make something that tied into the idea of 'structure' but to also relate it to the museum in which it will be placed, the Erewash Museum. I started on researching all about the museum and its surrounding areas in hopes to find something I could use.  Erewash Museum is situated in Ilkeston, Derby in a late Georgian house called Dalby House. It was previously a family home and school accommodation before turning into a museum in the 1980s.  The museum is community led social history museum, focusing on the geographical area of Erewash Borough and its history and exhibitions for local societies. It features exhibitions on the Second World War, archaeology and the Stanton Ironworks. Ilkeston and the World Wars The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army for just under 90 years between 1881 and 1970. Many local men (including those from ilk

 Artist Research Jeff Koons Koons was born in 1955 in York, Pennsylvania to parents Henry and Gloria Koons. He grew up around art and later studied painting at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Whilst here he met the artist Ed Paschke who became a major influence to Koons, who worked as a studio assistant for him in the late 1970s.  Puppy 1995-1996 'Puppy' was based on a much smaller wooden sculpture of a terrier that Koons and produced in 1991. Koons chose the terrier because he believed that no matter the scale, it wouldn't be threatening, but instead inviting and charming. At 12.4 metres tall, it dwarfs the tiny 52 cm tall wooden sculpture he had originally made. It supports 55,000kgs of soil and 60,000 flowering plants which change every season.  Due to the living plants, the piece is and will always be evolving, growing and changing. I love this idea because it represents the fluidity of life and death pr

 Evaluation                                  Light Once installed into the museum, I realised that once pictured, the bees could not be seen very clearly due to the light from the window behind. However, in person, this light affected the bees differently. The light would move around the bees, making them go in and out of view whenever you moved your head. This gave them a sense of visual fragility, one moment they were clearly visible, the other they would disappear into the light as quickly as they appeared.  I loved this result so much as it represented perfectly the nature of bees, they fly around so randomly, you can easily lose them within the flowers, or you can concentrate on following them as they go. Just like how a small movement with my bees and some would disappear out of view, but if you concentrate on them and stay still, they stay in view.  Site Specificity After thinking about how the light effected the bees I realised how the finished product was very site specific. A

 Chicken Wire Bees Process First, I cut a strip of wire into a rough rectangle, making sure I cut each end so they 'matched up'. I then joined the ends together to form a cylinder. I did this by twisting the ends together, up the entire length. The darker lines in the right hand picture are where the two sides meet and overlap.               I then had to join the ends of the cylinder up using the same method as before, pulling the two sides together and twisting them together. I had to cut off some extra material at the 'corners' so it would be rounded, instead of tapering to a sharp triangular point. I then pinched in the centre off the shape, about 2/3 of the length, to create a separate head and body. I made sure that the join from earlier was positioned at the bottom as it wouldn't bend as easily, to add conformity to all the bees.  To make the wings, I flattened two pieces of chicken wire and cut them into the rough shape of wings. I made sure to leave some ex