IMT - Best of 2007

From Inspire Me Thursday this week: The Best of 2007
"This week let us look back upon the past twelve months and reflect upon the best of 2007… perhaps a moment you were at your best. Choose something that stood out, something you will remember 2007 for."

I'd been having a rough time earlier in the year so I took a break to Stirling in Scotland. It was the best thing I did. Just to get away from everything and spend time in Scotland. I cannot imagine finding a more beautiful place on the planet.

There was one amazing life-affirming moment, which for me fits perfectly for the theme this week. Here is a photograph I took at that time and place. Everything just seemed okay and it was one of those glad to be alive moments. It is taken at the top of the Old Town Jail in Stirling. Its something I'll never forget and its also the moment I fell in love with Scotland. I keep this photograph in a frame in my bedroom to remind me of how I felt. It cheers me up to remember it if I'm feeling down. I've been back since and am hoping to travel there again in 2008.

For the artwork, I'm sharing 4 postcards I got when I was there. I know they are for children to colour in (!) but I really liked them and I've just finished painting the last one tonight so I can post them for this. They are the Scottish heroes William Wallace, Mary Queen of Scots, Robert The Bruce and Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2008 brings more of these moments to us all.

Forgery or Tribute?

I've been thinking about the fine line between forgery and tribute. Attempting to master the style of another artist and absorb yourself in their work or a shameless rip off?

At school we always used to copy famous art works or the work of an artist we were studying. I read in "I was Vermeer" that Michelangelo used to borrow classic works of art in order to copy them, but he returned the copies, keeping the originals for himself.

So here are a few I faked earlier, while I was at school. The first is from Lisa Yuskavage's "Kathy on a Pedestal" and the second is my attempt at "Siamese Smile" by Chatchai Puipia.
I remember trying to decide what to paint for an exam piece and not being satisfied with any idea I came up with because it had been done before. Another artist had painted about those themes, or in that style, or about the same subject. When I explained my frustration to my art teacher I always remember him saying to me that its impossible to ever produce anything new in that sense. Everything has been done before.



So how do you produce an original artwork? I suppose it is by bringing yourself into the work. Putting a part of you - of your life - into the canvas. Anyway this is what I've been musing on this weekend and I painted this picture about it. I got the idea form one of those vintage type French posters. I have one on my bedroom wall which I bought ages ago from a second hand shop.

I Was Vermeer - Art & Forgery

I've just finished the book "I Was Vermeer" by Frank Wynne. It is a true story about artist Han van Meegeren, one of the most famous forgers of the twentieth century. His fake Vermeer "Supper at Emmaus" was a Dutch national treasure and the most visited painting in the Netherlands. In fact, when Han was arrested and confessed many still refused to believe this was a forgery as it was simply so good. In order to prove he had the skill to produce such a genuine-looking Vermeer, the courts had him paint "a new Vermeer" watched by guards.

It was interesting to read about the fascinating subject of art forgery. Firstly I hadn't realised how widespread forgery of the masters is. Over the years many paintings have been "improved upon" or doctored as fashions change. Bits are cut out (often Joseph from the Holy family to create a more saleable Madonna & child), or bits repainted.

Michelangelo's fresco on the Sistine Chapel alter "The Last Judgement", shown right, was painted with the figures naked. Pope Paul III's advisor was shocked by the "shameless display of flesh" and an artist was commissioned after Michelangelo's death to add bits of cloth to cover up the figures.

Secondly it takes an awful lot of skill and talent to forge Vermeer-type works of art. Firstly the forger must be intimately familiar and competent with the style of the artist they are attempting to copy. Many forgers are themselves failed or unrecognised artists. Van Meerger was himself a very skillful painter in the style of the old Dutch masters like Rembrandt. Unfortunately for him he was born about 300 years too late. He was painting just as modern art - Dali, Picasso, Mondrian - were transforming the art world. Nobody was interested in Han's old fashioned style.

In addition to artistic skill the forger must have an excellent practical knowledge of the canvas and paints which would have been used. Han bought genuine old canvases which he painted over. He couldn't use the new paints which were now available in tubes but had to mix them from the raw materials like lead or lapis lazuli, as Vermeer would have done. There is also the problem of giving the aged appearance. The craquelure is almost impossible to artificially produce. Simply baking a painting would produce cracks too uniform and would distort the paints and canvas. Han experimented with this for years and eventually built his own oven, using a complicated system of varnishing and baking the paintings.

More Sketches

Just another page of quick sketches, done without lifting the pencil, of my surroundings today. I coloured and paitned it in tonight.

Photography Fan Two

Here is a photograph by Monica Ford which I love. I think she is an extremely talented lady and when I came across her work on the Internet at a random hour in the morning a few days ago I was just dumbstruck by the visual impact her images posses. You can read an interview with Monica Here.

At the moment I'm becoming more and more keen to, without wanting to sound pretentious (!), experiment with and explore what it means to be a woman. I'm starting to develop a real sense of inner strength and pride from being a woman and this is something I want to try and develop in my own paintings. The thing I like about Monica is that she creates these characters herself, and uses them, it seems to me, to delve into what is it to be a woman and the many roles we have. Whether we contrive and exploit them ourselves or if we are put in that position by others. Its an interesting area.

Aside from all that stuff I am just struck by the genius way Monica captures the beauty of women. The way she photographs the female body. Truly there is nothing like the female body for artistic perfection. Or is that just me? Maybe! I do tend to go through random phases of becoming obsessed with painting "the female nude" much to the embarrassment of my parents and art teacher who censored my end of year show! Maybe I'll paint a new one now just for you Mr Jones :)

Photography Fan One

I met photographer Andrew Helm at a craft fair in Saltaire this year. I loved his work and as I become more interested in and appreciative of photography myself I wanted to share it with you here.

I especially liked this photograph "Petals and Leaves # 1" because I find the random shapes and colours make such a natural and beautiful composition. Andrew does not stage the photographs but just captures things as they are, this one from the forest floor. I think because these are dying petals people wouldn't usually stop to notice the beauty in them but photographed in this way I find it mesmerising. I think Andrew has a great eye for spotting this understated and hidden beauty and that's why I'm a fan.

Sketching

I'm trying to start doing more simple, quick sketching. Just sitting down with my sketch book and a pencil with no big plans in mind and sketching objects around me or whatever comes to mind. I've been using the book "Art Escapes" by Dory Kanter as inspiration.

Here are a few examples I've been doing over Christmas. This first page was sketching without lifting the pencil of the page. From starting off drawing a teddy bear I filled the whole page and then added some colour with watercolour, adding more definition with a black ink pen. From nothing I like the way this gathered its own momentum and made a nice random page in my sketchbook.

This is a great exercise in "Art Escapes" when the prospect of just sitting down and starting sketching (anything!?) is a bit daunting. Draw lots of little two inch square boxes and fill them with quick two minute observations of your surroundings. Then you can go on to add colour, or develop some off the boxes into paintings or whatever.