Max Ernst : Frottage

Max Ernst (1891-1976) was a German painter, print maker and sculptor.

Ernst is reputed to have discovered frottage in 1925. It is hard to believe that not a single person had ever thought of doing this before but certainly Ernst is credited with introducing it. He was attracted to the grains of wood in floorboards and traced the patterns by placing paper over them and rubbing them with graphite. He then interpreted the shapes and textures in the image produced and drew into it.

He published a collection of frottage works called 'Histoire Naturelle' in 1926 which included images of forests, animals and other subjects(1). For example - "The Fugitive" click here which looks like a bizarre large-eyed fish. A further image here looks appears to be a large wooden horse.

What was the background to Ernst's approach? 
Ernst became part of the Dada movement largely as a result of negative experiences while serving in the German army during the first world war(2). Stephen Little says of the Dadaists." They proclaimed that all received moral,political and aesthetic beliefs had been destroyed by the war. They advocated a destructive, irreverent and liberating approach to art."(3). They favoured activities involving change - for example, Arp produced collages by gluing fragments wherever they happened to fall on a page. The Dadaists were interested in the role of the unconscious in the creation of art. This led on to the development of surrealism, a movement of which Ernst became a part.

The Surrealists were concerned with unlocking the unconscious to release untapped creativity. Andre' Breton advocated automatism in the first surrealist manifesto in 1924. This was the practice of drawing or writing without any preconceived idea of what you are trying to achieve requiring the following:
"Put yourself in the most passive or receptive state you can. Detach yourself from your genius, your talent and everyone else's talent or genius"(4)

Ernst believed that frottage was a type of automatism. Other techniques in a similar vein which he employed for similar reasons were 'grattage' in which textures and patterns were made by rubbing and scraping off layers of paint, and 'Decalcomania' in which impressions were taken from liquid paint and then figurative elements by over painting. This was used for the textures of vegetation and rock. (4). An example of decalcomania can be seen here in "Europe After the Rain".  Examples of grattage can be seen in " The Whole Town" which is included in the Drawing 1 course notes and in numerous forest paintings Example 1 Grattage Example 2 Grattage Forest and Bird.

Although the frottage and related techniques involved a certain amount of chance and subconscious activity, the images were in many cases developed further by selective drawing and over painting to create something figurative. Later on in his career, Ernst experimented with a painting technique using pain dripped from a swinging can of paint. This is similar to the work of the action painters - abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock took automatism a step further as no conscious effort was made to find a figurative image by over painting. (1)

Reference Material:
(1)Surrealist Art. Sarane Alexandrian: World of Art Book Series. Thames and Hudson.
(2)Ernst, Max: Biography. Friedeike Mehlau-Wiebking: Oxford Art Online
(3)Dadaism In '...isms: Understanding Art'. Stephen Little. Herbert Press. London
(4)Automatism. Ian Chilvers. The Oxford Companion to Western Art via Oxford Art Online.


Other surrealist artists including Federico Castellon also used Frottage in their work.
I was interested to see that one of the works shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize last year involved the use of frottage (see the link Below) which received a special commendation from the panel of Judges. The piece is a drawing of an architectural model and is part of the artist's exploration of the relationship between the real and the artificial.

Jane Dixon: Platform - Jerwood Drawing Prize Shortlist 2012

Experimenting with Frottage

Page 54-60: Sketchbook 1

I loved this. I didn't know it was called frottage. (having been advised to watch out for Les frotteurs on the Metro in Paris when travelling alone as a young woman - I was only familiar with a less respectable meaning- the two obviously coming from the fact that the processes involve rubbing)

It reminded me of doing brass rubbings as a child in the '70s.  When I started to look around me there were so many textured surfaces that I got carried away. I produced a large pile of textures and had to be quite selective about putting examples in the sketchbook.

One thing that I found amusing was that my frottage of a plastic suitcase looked more like the skin of a citrus fruit than my frottage of an actual grapefruit !- I might use this when I do my homage to Ernst. 

Experimenting With Texture

Pages 54-60: Sketchbook 1

Completed 6th January 2013

I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise. I collected lots of different items and tried to represent their textures in various way. I found the instruction to use pencil and pen a bit too restrictive. I also used soft pastel. Coloured pencil. Collage (kitchen roll) . and coloured inks/watercolour.

Exercises: Observing negative space and perspective

Pages 65-67: Sketchbook 1

This exercise involved following first the upper silhouettes of a group of objects and then the lower parts of the objects using the edge of  a table as a baseline from which to start. The negative spaces were, therefore the first to appear on the paper and the 'object spaces' were only filled in subsequently.

I found this exercise extremely difficult. It really brought home to me how inaccurate my drawing really is. On the first two attempts I noticed that I thought I had returned to base/table level much too far up the page. I had drawn whet I thought I was seeing the table to would have had a big step in it behind the objects. Obviously I was not observing properly. I tried drawing more slowly. The negative effect of this, however was that my lines became even more wobbly than usual.

Below is my best attempt from the first time I tried it on A2 paper with graphite stick.

I made another attempt at this on 13th January in my sketchbook. I still found it very difficult and some of the objects are still out of proportion but this time I found it a bit easier to identify the important negative shapes. I've taken a small step forwards but still need much more practice.

The baby oil bottle was a complex shape and I just couldn't master it

Here the body of the large marmite pot is out of proportion to the lid and the square chutney jar is off centre.

Check and Log : Still Life

Do you think it is easier to suggest three dimensions on man-made or natural objects?

I think it is easier to suggest three dimensions with certain types of man made forms than it is with natural forms. For example a box or a bottle has a definite recognisable shape and therefore it is easier to get the eye to read it as three dimensional using linear perspective and ellipses respectively. This doesn't apply to all man made forms - for example folds in fabric soft squashy man-made items like bread can have the same problems in this respect as organic forms.

Natural forms have more organic and variable shapes this means that it can be difficult to get the viewer to interpret such aspects as foreshortening. I encountered this problem with my veg piled and propped up an a plate. Organic objects, however are 'easier' to draw that is to say  there is more scope for errors in accuracy being undetected than there is for example with a PlayStation box.

How did you create a sense of solidity in your composition?

I tried to create solidity in the composition by attention to the tonal values placing highlights ad areas of shadow where appropriate and getting the shading to follow the contours of the forms. In some cases I have overlapped forms to try to give depth to the composition.

Do you think changing the arrangement of your composition makes a difference to your approach and the way you create a sense of form?

Changing the arrangement of the composition makes a great deal of difference. For example in the composition of natural objects when I looked down on objects from above and they were also lit from above the vegetables appeared flat and it would have been difficult to create the sense of the solidity and roundness of the objects. When the vegetables were lit from the side, were viewed from a different angle, and were overlapping each other it was easier to see different tonal values which helped when trying to represent the forms.

How did you decide how to position yourself in relation to the objects?

I did this by a process of trial and error. Luckily I have a reasonable amount of space to work in. I tried placing objects on the floor. I tried a low picnic table with me standing or sitting. I also placed objects on a high table and sat on a low stool so the objects were at just about eye level. I walked around the objects and looked at them from different angles. 

When rearranging the objects I needed a viewfinder to assess the arrangements. Despite having been warned that a digital camera was not the best tool for this I was tempted to try it for convenience as I had my phone handy and could easily take quick snaps from different angles. It was only after doing this for myself that I understood why it wasn't the best way forward. The digital shots all looked very flat. They lost the depth of the original arrangements. Ultimately I went back to a good old-fashioned cut out cardboard viewfinder. The other advantage of this was that I could make it in different formats such as square or elongated.

Composition of Natural Forms

Pages 47-50: Sketchbook 1

Exercise: Composition of Natural Objects

I completed this between 13th and 14th December 2012

The instructions were to make a selection of natural objects and explore different viewpoints and arrangements. and to make quick sketches before moving the objects again.

I chose the ingredients for a pasta sauce which we always have in our kitchen. I started by piling the vegetables randomly on a table and sketching them in pencil. I soon found that pencil sketching was taking too long for these rapid thumbnail sketches so i switched to pen and wash. I had not used this much in the past but found it quite satisfying as I was able to give a suggestion of form and colour very rapidly.

Next I tried a square format with the vegetables arranged on a square plate on the floor. I was looking down on them from above. The objects were also lit from above. This made the arrangement quite flat and there was little overlapping of the forms. It looked more like a design project than a still life with depth. However, I do quite like the strong diagonal of the aubergine and courgette here.

I continued with the square format and tried piling the veg up on top of each other. The idea here was to create more depth by having more overlapping forms. It doesn't work as a composition. It is too cluttered and doesn't have an obvious focal point. Also because it is viewed from above and theses are organic objects which can vary in shape, I couldn't convey the fact that the aubergine and the top courgette are coming upwards away from the plate. Despite trying to capture the foreshortening they still look like they are flat on the plate.

I abandoned the square format and tried changing both the viewpoint and the format. Placing the subjects almost at eye level and overlapping the subjects made it easier to give a sense of depth. I tried an elongated horizontal format which I have never used before.

I liked this arrangement and the marks that I'd made with the pen and the watercolours. These techniques worked well for a quick sketch. However the lack of colour intensity especially on the lustrous surfaces such as the aubergine and pepper don't really reflect the surfaces of the actual subject. 
The format and subject matter make it more difficult to know where to put a focal point. The veg themselves don't provide such an obvious focal point as the Teds' eyes did in the previous exercise. Despite seeming to break all the rules by having the garlic in the centre of the page it doesn't immediately strike me as looking 'wrong'.Maybe that is because there is an odd number of items and there is more weight towards the left side of the page Although I really like the colour and texture of the aubergine and wanted it as more of a central part of my composition, I think being such a large, dark shape it would tend to dominate too much and it actually works better in the background.


Next I tried working into a pen and wash sketch with my new pencil crayons. There were so many colours that I made myself a little reference page to try them out. The pencil crayon allowed me to build up more intense colour but seemed to kill the spontaneity and vitality of the original pen and wash sketch. I tried to remedy this by instead experimenting with cross hatching with marker pens but this didn't give the glossy texture I was aiming for.

I decided to go back to the elongated horizontal arrangement but the garlic was moved slightly to the left. I sketched it in pen and wash on Bockingford watercolour paper. I experimented with using masking fluid to leave some white highlights on the pepper and aubergine. This was a mistake as removing it lifted off the top layer of paper leaving a rough surface. 
Despite my previous discouraging results with the coloured pencils I tried again on this different surface. I was more selective about where I put the colour and built it up judiciously in layers. I was careful not to completely obliterate all the areas of wash. I did not work into the garlic with crayon  but chose to use india ink and dip pen which worked quite well for the hairy root area here and on the onions.
I had forgotten to mask out the stalks of the tomatoes so ended up scraping away colour with a scalpel blade to be able to work back in here.

Although I gave myself some major problems here and this is certainly not at the standard of a finished piece of work with all the rough bits of scraped and torn surface of paper. I actually find this quite pleasing to look at from a distance.

Still life sketches: Made Forms

Pages 42-46: Sketchbook 1

Exercise: Still Life Sketches of Made objects

I completed this on 12th December 2012

The instructions for this exercise were to make a small themed collection of objects and to draw a  few thumbnail sketches from different viewpoints and of different arrangements. 

I chose the option of using objects which describe someone I love. Namely my son Luca.He is going through an awkward transition between childhood and adolescence at 12 years old. He was bullied at school last year so to toughen himself up he took up Judo and Rugby. I included rugby boots, a rugby ball and a Judo Kimono in the arrangement. He, in common with most boys his age is obsessed with computer games hence the inclusion of the PlayStation. I also included a tube of spot cream! Despite all the outward signs of growing up he still sometimes sleeps with the teddies he's had since birth- hanging on to his childhood for a little while longer.

The first arrangement was of objects strewn about as this is how I usually find his things, generally on the floor of his bedroom. There is too much clutter in the first set-up and the boots tend to lead the eye out of the picture. The smaller square which I have picked out seems to work better.

Underneath the first arrangement I tried to remedy the eye being encouraged to leave the picture by making a circular arrangement. The scene feels like the objects are toppling over. It's like they are in a vortex. This might be entirely appropriate for the nauseatingly unpleasant experience of being an adolescent but it isn't aesthetically pleasing.
I wanted the Teds to be the focal point of the composition- they draw the eye naturally much like a human figure. I therefore tried a vertical arrangement with other objects pointing towards the Teds perched on a platform. It doesn't work because the Teds become too small and the composition is dominated by the rugby boots. The boot with the studs facing towards us slants in such a way as to form a barrier in front of the Teds and leads the eye out of the picture to the right.
I decided I needed to simplify things radically so I just included the PlayStation controller and the Teds. This was better but there seemed to be no logical reason why these objects should link together.

I finally settled on including the whole PlayStation with the Teds perched on top of it and the Judo Kimono as base and background. I thought there would be a good contrast of colour and texture between the fabric of the Kimono, the plastic of the PlayStation and the plush of the Teddies. 

I still found it difficult to decide where to place the composition on the page. I read some articles on composition on the Internet and in the book 'Drawing for Dummies'. I also looked at 'Experimental Drawing' by Robert Kaupelis which confused me even further. 

I tried the 'rule of thirds' -placing the Teds' eyes in the upper third of the paper so they wouldn't be too central.  I also found a technique which involved drawing triangles and diamonds on the page and placing objects at the intersections of lines. I must have misunderstood this technique because when I applied it the composition was even worse with a big gap down the left hand side of the page. From this I have learnt that trying to follow academic 'rules' will not necessarily result in a better composition. Better to relax and draw lots of thumbnail sketches bearing the known 'rules' in mind but not employing them slavishly.

I decided to do a final sketch in colour.
What went well:
I like the colours and the contrast in texture of the Teds and the shiny plastic PlayStation controller.
I think the placement of the objects is not too bad and I have tried to lead the eye from the lower left corner towards my intended focus using the lapels of the Kimono.
I think that I have captured the reputed personalities of these two Teds quite well. Roger the Reindeer is known to be an irascible and rather bossy toy. He is dominating Yellow Ted by being slightly forward in the frame and placing his arm over Yellow Ted's leg. Yellow Ted, despite being bigger is rather timid and retiring. He looks suitably nervous whereas Roger looks suitably miserable.

What needs work:
The most problematic area is the PlayStation box itself. Not only does it not appear to be truly rectangular but it also is not well bedded down on the kimono. The  box appears like a flying carpet on which the Teds are flying over a mountainous terrain! More work on form and relationships between objects is needed.
I also wanted to capture the waffle texture of the Kimono and I don't feel I successfully achieved this.

Drawing in the Style of Patrick Caulfield

page 36-39: Sketchbook 1

Exercise: Drawing in the Style of Patrick Caulfield

I completed this on 16th November 2012

I looked at two reference images from the 'white ware ' series for this exercise. They are very simplified images. In the first image the black negative shape is dominant. I initially read the black dots on the edge of the white shape as the edge of a spiral-bound notebook. It is actually the decorative edge of a lampshade and the white shape is the light from the bulb which illuminates the positive shape of the vase. In the second example, the negative shapes of the background and the shadows by their presence indicate the shape and position of the Jug. In this screen print the positive and negative shapes assume equal importance.

I went on to make some preliminary sketches. I had limited objects to choose from as I was away from home staying in a small and simply equipped locum flat. I settled on an anglepoise-type desk lamp illuminating various objects. Ultimately I decided that the simplest image was the most appropriate.

I traced the two simple sketches onto tracing paper and used marker pen to block in the negative shapes and add detail in one other colour. I liked the simpler image of the illuminated apple best. However, one of the main features of Caulfield's work in general is the flatness of his colours. I did not have access to screen-printing materials and decided that I could not achieve a flat enough tone with the marker pens or other drawing materials I has available. I  therefore decided to re-create the image as a collage of cut out black and red cardboard.

I am reasonably happy with the final image. I think it does have impact and does have an obvious reference to the style of the Artist. However, I am not sure whether collage can be defined as drawing. I had a search on the Internet. I found this definition on the V&A website:


"The term drawing is applied to works that vary greatly in technique. It has been understood in different ways at different times and is difficult to define. During the Renaissance the term 'disegno' implied drawing both as a technique to be distinguished from colouring and also as the creative idea made visible in the preliminary sketch.

The current 'Shorter Oxford Dictionary' defines drawing as:

'the formation of a line by drawing some tracing instrument from point to point of a surface; representation by lines; delineation as distinguished from painting...the arrangement of lines which determine form.'

Despite this insistence on the formation of line and the implied lack of colour, few would deny that a work formed by dots or shading or wholly in line but in a range of colours is a drawing."

This seems to rather a restrictive definition. Looking at the Jerwood Drawing prize and at some of the recommended reading for the course such as 'Drawing Now: eight Propositions'; Laura Hoptman and 'Vitamin D: New Perspectives in Drawing' it seems that Drawing encompasses a lot more than that definition would suggest. I certainly think that Collage and Frottage would be included under a broad definition of Drawing. I'm interested to explore this further.

Final Drawing: Collage in the Style of Patrick Caulfield.

Research Point: Giorgio Morandi

Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964)

The suggestion to look at the work of Giorgio Morandi was a very useful one for me as I have been struggling with composition in my still lives and Giorgio Morandi was a master of the still life who worked obsessively on his compositions.

I found many examples of his work on the Bridgeman education website (not included here for reasons of copyright). 

A selection of his works are also available to view here on the Wikipaintings website. Scrolling through these works the dominant features are still lives painted in muted colours such that there is harmony in the paintings. Nothing jars or stands out as overly dominant. The image they conjure up is of the painter in calm and contemplative work. The same objects appear over and over again in Morandi's work but the compositions change subtly and each work is interesting. I particularly like the paintings where he has made very static compositions with all the objects grouped together in a rectangle and all of similar height. I also like his subtle approach to the fluted texture of some of his vases - this appears many times as a repeated motif.

As well as the painted still lives there are also etched still lives. In these the solidity of the objects is built up from a multitude of fine hatching lines giving tone and form at the same time. It looks as though the artist has built the forms entirely from hatching without first using any line drawing to outline the basic structure. I had a go in my sketchbook at drawing a simple coke can using hatching alone without any pre-drawing. It is incredibly difficult even with a graphite pencil. Achieving this on an etching plate must have required pinpoint accuracy and infinite patience. The images are quite startling in their mastery. The etchings also have stronger tonal contrasts than the paintings. 

Morandi did not only paint still lives-  there are landscapes and also a metaphysical still life included in  this selection. However the still lives were his main preoccupation.

Giorgio Morandi lived almost his whole life in Bologna. He studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti of Bologna from the age of 17. (He later also taught etching at the same academy)

His early influences were the impressionist painters. In particular the influence of Cezanne can be seen in his early landscapes. He also had brief periods in which he was influenced by the Italian Futurists and subsequently Metaphysical painting (influenced by de Chirico and Corra').

Although he was not an outgoing artist he was not a recluse. He did travel (although mainly within Italy) and kept up with developments on the art and political scene by reading books, magazines and socialising with other artists. He travelled to Florence and picked up influences from the likes of Giotto, Ucello and Caravaggio. He was, however selective and preferred to reserve as much of his time and energy as possible for his work. Throughout his life he lived and worked in his childhood home in Bologna in a small and dusty studio. He had a small collection of objects and obsessively repeated the same motifs over and over again as if trying to capture some elusive quality of this small group of objects. He didn't like to be flashy or grandiose and it is said by some that he cultivated the patina of dust that formed on his still life subjects.

'Casa Morandi' is open to the public as part of the Morandi museum in Bologna. Scrolling through the photo gallery of his home and studio I am struck by how ordinary the objects he painted look in a photograph compared to how beautifully they were rendered on the paintings. You can also see his avoidance of 'bling' extended as far as whitewashing or roughly painting over the surface of bottles to make them matte and obliterate reflective surfaces.

Take a look at the Photo Gallery of Casa Morandi

Reference Material:
Morandi, Giorgio: Biography. Piero Pacini . Grove Art Online via Oxford Art Online
Giorgio Morandi: All That Life Contains; Contained. Holland Cotter. New York Times Art Review, Sept 18 2008
http://www.mambo-bologna.org/museomorandi/biografia/

Notes on Copyright:
I have been asked by the OCA to remove all images sourced from Bridgeman Education from my Blog. I want to keep the blog public as I appreciate looking at other students' blogs so don't want to make mine password protected thereby preventing others from using it. This means that my research points don't look so pretty on first inspection. Please be patient and follow the links as there are plenty of images to look at.

Research Point: Patrick Caulfield

Page 36-39: Sketchbook 1

Patrick Caulfield (1936-2005)

Looking at the images found on an Internet search of Patrick Caulfield, the main impression is of flat colour and bold outlines. Objects are reduced to simple shapes and often have very thick black outlines for example Coloured Still Life 1967. There is no blended shading or visible brush strokes. In some of the screen prints, this simplification is taken further with only one colour used in addition to black and white. Objects which are illuminated are represented by flat white shapes surrounded by black negative shapes.

Many of Caulfield's works can be viewed Here : on the Tate website. We were asked to look at Caulfied's use of positive and negative shapes particularly in his 'white ware' screenprints. Scrolling through the images by date several of these images appear dated 1990 for example Large White Jug 1990.  These are the very simplified images described above. The positive shapes represented by flat white shapes surrounded by large negative shapes in black often with one other colour. The negative shapes are as integral to the overall design as the positive shapes. the positive shapes do not dominate as they too are very simplified.

Patrick Caulfield was an English painter and print maker. He started his formal artistic training at Chelsea School of art in 1956. He then went on to the Royal College of Art in London from 1960-63. There he was in the year below the artists recognised as the initiators of the pop art movement in the UK (namely David Hockney, Allen Jones and R B Kitaj). (1). He exhibited alongside these artists in the 1964 'New Generation' exhibition and is therefore often included as a pop artist. He, however, preferred to call himself a 'formal artist'. (2)

In fact, the subjects he chose were different to those used by American pop artists. He didn't paint items of popular culture such as advertisements, packaging or celebrities. Instead he painted everyday subjects such as still lives and interiors- the opposite of the glamorous content of pop art. However, there is a similarity in the way he treats his subjects with pop art. Caulfield created ambiguity by treating these subjects of traditional fine art in a highly unrealistic and stylised way. One of pop art's aims was to create ambiguity . To do this it made use of the unreality of images generated for advertising. The pop artists had a preoccupation with surface and style as opposed to authentic experience and this can also be seen in Cauldfield's approach. (3)

Cauldfield was inspired by Delacroix and particularly admired the cubist painter Juan Gris. He also liked the formal style of Magritte. Another influence was the artwork on Herve's 'Tintin' comics.(4)

In the early 1960s his work was characterised by objects painted with flat paint application and bold outlines. Later he shifted his attention to architectural elements such as interiors and flock wallpaper. 1950's interior designs was an influence.

In the 1970's his work began to include very detailed sections painted in a highly realistic (photorealistic) way. Two examples of this are After Lunch and Autumn Fashion (click on name to access image). This approach served to create further ambiguity by placing these highly realistic objects (such as the two realistic -looking oysters in autumn fashion) in a highly stylised and artificial appearing environment. This was a comment about the lack of distinction between artificial and authentic experience in the modern world. (5)

Caulfield also liked to blur the distinction between 'high art' and decorative painting. He was of the opinion that the most celebrated art always has a decorative purpose (5). He was particularly impressed by the murals at the Knossos in Crete in this context. He did not believe that decorative art should be of a lower status than painting as a high art from. To challenge this he used cheap materials such as hardboard and enamel paints in the production of his work instead of canvas and oil paints.

References:
(1) Caulfield, Patrick - Biography. Marco Livingstone. Grove Art Online via Oxford Art Online
(2) William Feaver: Patrick Caulfield - Obituary. Guardian (Oct 2005)
(3) British Art since 1900. Frances Spalding. World of Art Books (1987)
(4) 50 British Artists You Should Know. Lucinda Hawksley (2011) Prestel
(5) Walker Gallery Website. (www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month/displaypicture.asp?venue=2&id=10)

Check and Log: Reflected Light

What are the difficulties in separating cast shadow from reflected light and shade?

The cast shadow should be much darker than the reflected shade, I realise looking back at my images that I have frequently not made this distinction. The milk jug is probably the example where this has worked best. 

The first difficulty is identifying where the cast shadow is and where the areas of reflected light and shade are. The next problem is to actually distinguish between them in the drawing. I need to be able to produce a wide range of tonal values in order to distinguish the variation between these.

The other problem I had was working with charcoal - I like this medium but do find it problematic maintaining areas of white highlight. It is important to remember to look for that fine rim of reflected light at the edge of an object before putting the cast shadow in because it is difficult to lift it back out once a thick area of shading has been applied.

The reflected shadow and light follows the contours of the objects. How have you shown this in your drawings?

I've done this without really thinking about it. The drawing tool such as the side of the charcoal stick automatically follows the contour of the object when shading.

Exercise: Shadows and Reflected Light and Shade

Annotated photograph, page 32: Sketchbook 1 (larger drawing not submitted)

 

I completed this exercise on 11th November. I went for simpler shapes this time but have still struggled. In particular with the handles on the saucepan which are not symmetrical. I also found the ladle very difficult to draw. The handle always looked rotated. Using charcoal on white paper made it even more difficult to keep the highlights from direct illumination bright enough. I tried to keep the major highlights as the white of the paper and represent the reflected highlights by lifting out charcoal with the putty rubber. This helped distinguish between them to a certain extent. Unfortunately the smudginess of the medium meant that maintaining pristine white highlights was challenging. I wanted to stop before it got overworked and smudged into oblivion. I think I may have stopped too soon though as there were many more reflections than are represented here.

I revisited reflective surfaces on 6th December in my sketch book. Drawing a reflective tea pot and that reflective milk jug again once in pen and wash and then again in compressed charcoal. This time I was so absorbed with the myriad of reflections that I didn't notice until I'd finished that both the objects were leaning across the page at a jaunty angle. This brought home to me the importance of stepping back and assessing the initial drawing for accuracy before proceeding with a lot of detail. (images not included here through embarrassment).

Project: Reflected Light

Annotated Photograph Page 32: Sketchbook 1 (larger drawing not submitted)

Exercise: Study of light reflected from one object to another

Completed this exercise on 4th November. I tackled it using conte' crayon on A3 ingres pastel paper as I thought the coloured paper could serve as a useful mid-tone.  There are still some major issues with form here. The ellipse leading to the spout on the stainless-steel milk jug is  not symmetrical and looks somehow tilted towards the viewer. I also made life very difficult for myself by choosing the two coffee pots. I imagined these would help me with identifying light and shade because they are divided into planes. I failed to take into account the fact that these are complex shapes to draw and therefore beyond my current level of skill. 

I found it difficult  to maintain a difference between the very bright highlights produced by direct illumination and the more muted tones of reflected light. These objects were under bright illumination and the drawing does not show the degree of  contrast that there actually was. I think perhaps this may be because my cast shadows are not dark enough.

The milk jug had a much more reflective surface than the coffee pots. The reflections in this surface are rendered more subtly than the direct illumination in an attempt to denote the difference.

Research Point: Odilon Redon

Odilon Redon : 1840-1916

I was asked to find out about the work of Odilon Redon. I had seen some of his paintings on a trip to the Musee' D'Orsay in Paris about 15 years ago. The work I remembered in particular was Bouquet de Fleurs des Champs Click Here for Image on Wiki Paintings Website. I had liked this pastel drawing as its bright colours were highly decorative. I was particularly drawn to the strong blue of the tallest flower and the blue reflections in the base of the vase.  The vase is positioned centrally on the page. It is difficult to decipher  where the light is coming from, the subject may be illuminated from the front as there is not an obvious cast shadow just a darker area of background colour adjacent to the vase. The lack of a distinct cast shadow and the fact that there is no description of any background detail makes the subject appear disconnected from the surroundings and it has a slightly unfinished look which I like.

I looked for further examples of this artist's work on the Bridgeman Education site and found works in markedly contrasting styles lots of monochrome drawings and etchings some of which have disconcerting and grotesque images. There are also very brightly coloured paintings. A very large number of paintings of flowers and other colourful depictions apparently of mythological characters.

Image2: The Smiling Spider

Image3: The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity



These images make no attempt at realism they are drawn from imagination. The spider is a hairy ball and appears to have ten legs a smiling human/simian face. The second image shows a giant eyeball looking upwards and floating in the sky with something attached beneath it like a giant hot air balloon. These works were created much earlier in the artist's career than the  vase of flowers in figure 1. I was interested in finding out what had influenced the development of these widely divergent styles. What was happening around Odilon Redon at the time of his learning and progression as an artist? The schematic below is a very simplified attempt to put this artist in context.

Fig 4 Placing Odilon Redon in Context.

Bertrand-Jean was the artist's real name. The name Odilon was taken from his mother's name Odile. He was born in Bordeaux in 1840. He was interested and talented at drawing from an early age but was steered towards architecture by his father. He failed the entrance exams to study that profession at 'L'Ecole des Beaux Arts' in Paris(1). He did study painting there briefly but found the it difficult to fit in with the values of the art establishment. He therefore returned to Bordeaux (where he was originally schooled) and studied etching with Rodolphe Bresdin.
His career was interrupted when he fought in the Franco-Prussian War (2),(1).

After his period in the military, Redon moved back to Paris. Here he produced many of the works he called 'Noirs' which were made in black chalk or charcoal or produced as lithographs.

Several influences can be seen in these works. Redon admired the works of Goya Redon's 'Noirs' seem to be a natural successor to Goya's 'Black paintings' which contain some distrubing images and a very dark palette. (see figures 5 and 6)

Image5: Two Old Men Eating ; Goya

Image6: Saturn Devouring one of His Sons; Goya


The period in which Odilon Redon produced the majority of his works was the 1880s to the early 1900s. This would classify him amongst the post impressionists. However, 'post impressionist' is quite a broad term encompassing a veriety of artists and styles. There are, however features of Redon's work which are common to many of the artists working in that period. The impressionists were concerned with capturing the effects of light in nature. The post impressionists reacted against this. as well as reacting against the materialist and realist movements. Stepen Little says ' Characteristic of this broad, anti-borgeois movement is a focus on design and structure and a refusal to imitate nature or to moralise through narrative subjects. This emphasis on form recovered the significance of art's symbolic, spiritual and emotional meaning' (3)

Having talked about a refusal to imitate nature, it is interesting to note that Redon had an interest in  evolution and nartural history. He read Darwin's "Origin of Species", visited the natural history museum and attended lectures at the medical school in Paris. (4). Many of the 'Noirs' contain images which are reminiscent of the natural world but the artist's imagination has produced something more monstrous such as the Polyp (the cyclops in figure 7) or a man's face with cactus spines protruding from it. (4)

Redon himself said, " My most fertile system, the one most necessary for my expansion has been, I have often said it, to directly copy the real while attentively reproducing objects from the external nature, in that which it contains of the most minute , the most particular and accidental. After the endeavour of minutely copying a pebble, a blade of grass. a hand, a profile or an entirely different thing from living or inorganic life , I feel a mental ebullience coming. then I have the need to create, to let myself go to the representation of the imaginary. Nature, thus measured and infused, becomes my source, my yeast, my ferment."(5)

Image7: The Misshapen polyp (plus Audio from MoMa)

Literature had a profound influence on Redon. He produced works based on the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, of which 'The teeth' is s striking example. Displayed here on the Moma website. illustrates a set of disembodied teeth shining from a dark bookshelf and is based on a story in which the storyteller is haunted by his dead fiance's teeth. Other works were based on Flaubert's 'La tentation de Saint Antoine' and Baudelaire's 'Les Fleurs du Mal' (2)

Symbolism developed from aestheticism (led by Oscal Wilde and Karl John Huysmans). The symbolist manifesto was published in the 1880s. It started as a literary movement. Redon knew, admired and was admired by many of the prominent figures in this movement. Huysmans featured a description of Redon's Noirs in one of his novels. Redon was also a close friend of the writer Stepane Mallarme'. 

Symbolist paintings are not simply representative. Dreams or other altered mental states were important subject matter. One important work of this kind  is Redon's 'The Green Death' of 1905. Link to image on the Moma website. The green figure rising from the snake recalls the colour of absinthe. Stephen Little in his book '.....isms. Understanding art' suggests that the death may refer to the death of reason under the influence of intoxication, something the symbolists would have welcomed to increase creativity. 

Colour featured much more in Redon's work after 1890 (Fig's 8 and 9) and after 1900 the noirs were no longer a feature. He experimented with the use of colour

Image8: The Chariot of Apollo

Image9: Closed Eyes

He also became preoccupied with producing images of flowers. Typing his name into a google images search produces a vast array of paintings of flowers in vases (see Fig 1). at fisrt glance these seem to have an impressionist quality. However, Redon was not a fan of the impressionists. His works are deliberately decorative rather than trying to capture reflective light effects. This falls in line with the prevailing trend in decoration and architecture at the time, namely Art Nouveau. 

These later works and his use of colour provided inspiration for other painters such as the Nabis (Vuillard/Bonnard) and his work was exhibited with these artists in 1899.

Matisse also admired his late works so Redon was also an influence on the developmant of Fauvism. The Salon d'Automne exhibition in 1904 which is seen as the beginning of Fauvism as a movement included many works by Redon.

The legacy of the symbolists can also bee seen in the development of surrealism and expressionism subsequently.

References:
(1) Odilon Redon, Biography: www.odilon-redon.org/biography.html
(2) Redon, Odilon: Biography by Richard Hobbs- from Grove Art Online - accessed via the Oxford art Online website.
(3)...isms. Understanding Art: Stephen Little  Herbert Press. London
(4) MoMa.org/Interactives/Exhibitions/2005/Redon
(5) Odilon Redon 'To Myself" 1867-1915: notes on Life, Art and Artists translated by Mira Jacob and Jeanne L Wasserman (New York: George Braziller. 1986) sourced via MoMa.org/Interactives/Exhibitions/2005/Redon

New Year's Resolutions

The festive season is over and the Giamei family is back from the mountains. Luca is back at school and there are no more excuses.

I'm horrified by how long it's been since I last put an entry in my blog. My blogging is lagging woefully behind my practical work. I've been writing everything down on paper but I really need to catch up.

During my holiday I fell while skiing and got a hard blow to the head. Which luckily only resulted in a mild concussion. However, my life did flash before my eyes! I realised that LIFE IS SHORT - time is wasting and I need to get more done.

I've been procrastinating because I'm suffering from lack of confidence. Looking back over the last couple of months, when approaching any of the projects I've been spending far too much time in front of a computer screen trawling through other students' work and tutor comments to see what's expected. I've also been looking at examples of other artists works in books, on the internet and in documentaries on sky Arte. However much of this activity has been rather unfocused and really is more like displacement activity because I'm afraid to commit myself and post my own work on the web.

Of course this fear is ridiculous because I'm on the course to learn so I need feedback to help me. 

Another obstacle is the fact that when I go to the UK to work I do a week of very long night shifts (14-16 hours for 7 nights) and all artistic activity ceases during that week. The habit of drawing each day is lost and it is difficult to get the momentum back again each time. I justify ceasing all drawing when working by saying I'm too tired to concentrate to the level required. I think this has been a mistake. 

My resolutions are:

1. Get my blog up to date within the next three days

2. Fill at least one page of my sketchbook every day regardless of work status (even doodles and reflections if I'm too tired to focus my eyes!)

3. Record in my blog all time spent looking at other artists along with what I hoped to learn from this activity and what I actually did gain (an attempt to limit exhaustive trawling and focus my research)

4. Remember this is a leisure activity which I have chosen to do. Stop agonising, start experimenting and enjoy it.