I was very excited to go to my second art exhibition of the summer – The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 by David Hockney at the Royal Academy, London. I’ve been a fan of Hockney’s work for quite a long time after seeing another exhibition several years ago and was inspired by two of his pieces in particular when I began to create my own artwork; Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica (1990), and The Road to Thwing (2006). I really liked his use of mark making to give the impression of these landscapes and the way the paintings can be appreciated from both far away and close up.
This exhibition was a collection of 116 works created between 11th February to 4th July 2020 with the express purpose of exploring the changing of the Normandy landscape as it moves from winter into spring and even summer. Hockney began using an iPad to create artwork back in 2010 and produced all the paintings included in this collection using an app that had been developed and adapted for his specific requirements. The exhibition itself felt quite small, covering only three rooms of the gallery, but the paintings were hung close together and not always in chronological order. Some had been placed in groups all showing the same view allowing a direct comparison between the stages of spring.
No. 316, 30th April 2020
For me the enjoyment of each painting was two-fold, firstly enjoying it from a distance and appreciating the scene as a whole and then getting closer to each one to really see what kind of marks had been used to form each element of the piece. I particularly liked all the different ways Hockney depicted the grass whether it be long, short or freshly mown.
No. 323, 13th May 2020
Another technique I really liked was the paintings in which it was raining. The straight lines Hockney uses across the top of the painting to represent the rainfall seem so basic and almost child-like, but are actually really effective and the paintings showing the rain falling into the pond made me smile.
No. 346, 22nd May 2020
I think the ones of the pond were my favourites because I found it very impressive the way he managed to capture the reflections in the water. They really brought the painting to life for me and gave the impression of depth and perspective. The other thing that Hockney managed to capture well in all the paintings were the skies. No matter if they were clear blue, heavy cloud or somewhere in between it gave you a strong sense of how that day or night felt and you could tell if it was a crisp early morning or a blazing hot afternoon.
No. 340, 21st May 2020
The exhibition is on until 26th September, so if you are in London I would highly recommend it. The Royal Academy is on Piccadilly so is very close to other things to see and do and as it was such a small exhibition it only took us around 45 minutes to look round. We’ve got tickets booked for the Summer Exhibition in September and I already can’t wait!
In September I’m going to be starting a foundation diploma in Textiles, which I am very excited about. In preparation for the course we were given some homework to do over the summer. One of the tasks to complete was to visit a gallery or museum that exhibits Art or Design, so last week I visited the Sophie Taeuber-Arp exhibition at the Tate Modern.
I had never heard of Taeuber-Arp before and only came across this exhibition because I was specifically looking for one to attend. I’m so glad that I found out about her though as she sounds like my kind of lady! She was a crafts professional (a title which I think I may have to adopt!) and specialised in many different aspects of the arts, crafts and design including wood-turning, sculpture, jewellery making, and performance art as well as editing and producing work for several arts and crafts publications of the time. The majority of her work was produced across the time period spanning both the world wars during which she lived and worked in Switzerland (her home country), Germany, and France.
Wood-turned marionettes commissioned for an adaptation of Gozzi’s play King Stag
The majority of her early work was exploring abstraction within the grid structures of textiles and featured spaces created within horizontal and vertical lines. She then translated these images into textile pieces such as cushion covers, rugs and wall hangings, as well as beaded bags and jewellery.
It was really interesting to see the progression of Taeuber-Arp’s work throughout her lifetime as you progressed through the exhibition. Towards the end of her career (and life) her work began to include more free-flowing organic forms, although strong linear structures were still very much in evidence. It was clear to see how she had developed her style and artistic expression over the years.
I’m so pleased that I went to this exhibition and if you are in London in the next couple of months I would highly recommend it. Taeuber-Arp was a fascinating lady who knew her own mind and what she wanted to achieve.
I recently subscribed to another crafty box (I know, I know, it’s a problem!) called Artful (https://artful.co.uk/). This is a quarterly box focusing on art materials and encouraging people to experiment and play with them to expand their skill set or just to get more creative. I unwittingly signed up for the first ever box without realising that they were such a new company. I saw an advert on Facebook, who obviously have me all figured out because I was very interested and decided to check out their website. Each box will be created in collaboration with an artist who will have an input into the materials that are included and offer projects to get you started. You can either sign up for the quarterly subscription at £35 a month or the annual subscription at £120 a year. The only difference is that you save £5 per box with the annual option.
Included in the box is:
A5 sketchbook
Posca pens x4 (green, turquoise, pink, orange)
3H pencil
Tombow dual brush pen x2 (grey, black)
Tombow hard brush pen
Tombow Mono twin marker
Eraser
Artful magazine
As part of the subscription you also get three free months of premier membership with Skillshare (usually £13 a month or £84 a year). This is good because the first project is a video based tutorial which you can find on Skillshare at the link provided in the magazine. Just something to note; when signing up you have to input your card details and you will be billed in three months time unless you remember to cancel your subscription. I’m happy to sign up because I was planning on having a look at Skillshare (https://www.skillshare.com/) anyway so I will just let mine continue, although I will probably forget and be confused why £84 has been taken out of my account at the end of July!
The magazine is full of inspiration. It starts by outlining the materials included and an interview with the featured artist. This issue it is author and illustrator Mike Lowery. The interview covers his career and inspirations and then continues focusing on the first project. After this there are two more projects to complete using the materials in the box. The rest of the magazine is dedicated features on a wide range of various artists from ceramicists to chefs and everything in between.
Before starting any of the projects I decided to have a go with each of the materials in my new sketchbook so I could see how they felt to draw with. I started off by writing the name of each pen and then drawing some lines so I could get a feel for how each one flowed. On the following page I tested out the Posca pens, drawing lines and a square of each colour. I was surprised by how fluid they were and I accidentally lifted the page too soon causing two of the colours to run together because they hadn’t dried completely. On the next page I decided to try mixing the materials together. I started by drawing some basic shapes with the Posca pens and then used a variety of the finer pens to draw details over the top. Each one had a different effect over the top of the colour, some of which I liked and some of which I didn’t.
Project one was map making. The video of Mike Lowery featured on Skillshare shows how to create an illustrated map. It’s actually broken down into eight short videos taking you on a step by step guide for how to create your map from researching your chosen location, sketching and colouring your map and finally to adding the details with the Tombow brush pen. I really liked that the video was broken down into short tutorials. It meant that you could watch one and then complete the step before moving on to the next one without having to pause or rewind if you missed something. The longest video is just under seven minutes, so it’s the perfect project to complete in stages if you are a bit short on time. I chose to draw a map of the first time my husband and I went on a cruise. It was a cruise around the Mediterranean/Aegean, although I have called it our Mediterranean Adventure! We had such an amazing time and really enjoyed being able to see the highlights of each place we visited and now we have been once we know there are a few places we would like to return to and explore more thoroughly. Mike suggests that you don’t have to do a map of somewhere you have already been, you could gather information about a place you have been dreaming of visiting and create your own sightseeing wish list in the form of a map. I really like this idea and might have to give it a go next time we are planning a trip…soon I hope! I like the stylised feel of the map because it takes away the pressure of it having to be perfect. The only thing I added to mine was the blue roofs of the Santorini buildings. I used a sharpie for the colour as it just didn’t seem right to have them any other colour.
Project two and three were both focused on the Posca pens, which lets face it, are the most fun things in the box! Project two was decorating terracotta flower pots. Although they suggest in the magazine that you can pick these up cheaply I didn’t want to go out to get some and I also didn’t want to buy them online as I thought they would take forever to come at the moment, so I phoned my parents and got them to rummage around in their shed to see if they could find any! They did have a few knocking around so they said I could have them and very kindly dropped them off on my doorstep. Don’t worry, we observed all the social distancing rules! The terracotta pots were very easy to draw on and the colours looked so vibrant. Some of the lighter colours needed a couple of coats to get a nice even covering.
Project three was drawing on glass. In the magazine they had mason jars and they got three creatives to make their own designs for inspiration. I didn’t have any mason jars but I did have some old Nutella jars which I was saving because I’m a hoarder and in the words of my wise dad “You never know when you might need it!”. Anyway, I decided to decorate them and now they are done I think they would make great tea light holders. I actually copied one of the the designs from the magazine, the stylised rainbows, because I really like it and I’ve seen loads of things done in this style recently so I wanted to have a go at it myself.
I had a lot of fun with this box. It was something really different to my usual crafting and gave me the opportunity to try out some new things, some of which I’ve been looking at for a while but was too scared to invest the money in them in case I was rubbish at using them! I’m really intrigued to see what the next box holds. Artful also features a daily drawing challenge on their Instagram (@artfulbox) if you are looking for some prompts to practice your drawing.
I’ve been away on holiday for the last couple of weeks, but I couldn’t resist doing something a bit creative whilst we were away! My husband and I spent the last week of our holiday in LA visiting our friends who live out there. We decided to head up to the Getty Center (https://www.getty.edu/), a cultural organisation dedicated to the visual arts.
We drove up to the car park and then took the shuttle train up to the museum itself. It’s located in the hills with amazing views overlooking LA. The building itself is very impressive, made mainly of white stone it towers over the main courtyard, softened by sweeping curves.
We didn’t go with the idea of visiting any specific exhibition so we just had a wander round and checked out anything that interested us. We started off by looking around an exhibition on the history of photography showing the progression of cameras from their inception up to the first digital camera made by Apple, storing up to 32 photos! This lead us on to an exhibition called ‘The Flavio Story’ showing photographs by Gordon Parks, who went to Brazil for Life magazine to document poverty in Latin America. We also had a quick look around another photographic exhibition called ‘Once and Again’ showing pictures by photographers who had visited the same subjects repeatedly, showing changes over time.
After this we decided to have a look around the gallery with paintings by famous artists including Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Cezanne and Turner. I really enjoyed seeing these paintings in real life and we spent quite a while browsing around the ‘Paintings from Europe’ section.
My favourite part of the visit was the gardens. The Central Garden designed by Robert Irwin is a circular design with a winding path criss-crossing over a stream down to a large pond featuring a hedge maze. Even though there were quite a few people there the whole place felt really relaxing and it was lovely to wander along the paths surrounded by a massive variety of flowers. We also went down to the South Promontory which has a desert theme and features a sea of cacti.
If you are ever in LA and looking for something to do that inspires your creative side and takes you away from the hustle and bustle of the city I would definitely recommend a visit to the Getty Center, plus it’s free entry!
I recently visited the Tate Britain to see the ‘Van Gogh and Britain’ exhibition currently taking place. The exhibition explores Vincent van Gogh’s relationship with Britain and the time he lived here in London.
The first half of the exhibition looks at the artists and images that influenced him when he lived in London from 1873-1876. This was before he was an artist and he worked for an art dealer, Goupil, which was how he was exposed to a lot of the pieces that he found inspiring. I didn’t realise but Van Gogh didn’t actually become an artist until after his return to the Netherlands. He first tried teaching and preaching but eventually turned to painting in 1880 and continued this for the last ten years of his life.
Whilst he was in London he immersed himself in culture, visiting as many galleries and museums as he could. Throughout the exhibition you can see examples of work by various artists that influenced his work from subject matter through to form and style next to Van Gogh’s own work that he produced later on in both the Netherlands and France.
The second half of the exhibition goes on to demonstrate the impact Van Gogh’s work has had on both his contemporaries and more recent artists. It also looks at the exhibitions of his work in Britain, most notably ‘Manet and the Post-Impressionists’ in 1910 and the showing of his work and publication of two biographies and his letters in the 1920’s. Many people linked Van Gogh’s mental health with the genius of his work and this led to a lot of interest in his paintings.
A selection of postcards showing some of Van Gogh’s well known paintings.
I thought the exhibition was well laid out and clearly showed the progression of Van Gogh’s life and work. The descriptions next to the work were very informative and I felt like I learnt a lot whilst I was there. They had several of his famous pieces such as Starry Night over the Rhône (1888), Sunflowers (1888) and some of his well-known self-portraits. It is a very popular exhibition as Van Gogh is a well-known artist and the rooms were extremely busy, with queues forming in some places to see certain works of art. I was also surprised that Tate Britain were allowing people to take photographs of the work. I found it quite distracting as it meant people were spending a lot of time lining up their perfect shot or getting really close to the paintings to photograph details. It seemed like many of the people there were just interested in photographing it all and were not really appreciating the art in real life. I saw several people going round photographing the painting and the description next to it, presumably to read later. For me this seems to defeat the point of attending an exhibition. They might have been better reading up about Vincent Van Gogh on the internet!
My favourite painting: Pollarded Willows, Arles (1888)
Tate Britain is a five minute walk from Pimlico tube station or a 20 minute walk from Victoria station. For a non-member the ticket cost £22. It took about an hour and a half to go round the exhibition and afterwards we sat down for a drink in the Djangoly Café inside the Tate. The exhibition finishes on 11 August 2019 and I would say it’s well worth a visit.
This weekend I spent a fantastic day on a walking tour of London street art followed by a workshop where we got to try out spray painting for ourselves. The tour was run by Alternative London (https://www.alternativeldn.co.uk/). The tour on its own costs £12 and is offered in English and French. The tour plus the workshop is £40. You can also book private tours.
We met at the white goat statue by Old Spitalfields Market. There was a large group for the French tour, but the rest of the people booked for the English group didn’t show up so I ended up having my own personal tour guide, which was amazing! Emilie was my guide and she was excellent. She was very familiar with the area and all the artwork, including who had done each one. I couldn’t keep up with her as there were so many names and styles.
We started off the tour discussing the history of the East End and how the immigration of several large groups had influenced the area. As we walked around Emilie showed me all the various forms of street art that appear in the city, some of them commissioned and some illegal. We not only looked at spray painted art from tags to full murals, but also stickers, wheatpasting (posters), casts and sculptures. And of course she took me to see a Banksy!
Some of my favourite pieces were bronze castings mounted on top of signposts by an artist called Jonesy. The theme of most of them is global warming and the environment. They are very subtle and unless you were on the look out for them they could very easily go unnoticed. Some of the more obvious street art is found at eye-level where it’s easy to access. There is a lot of politics and rivalry in the street art world and as a lot of it is about marking territory, to cross out or tag over someone else’s work makes a big statement.
One of the things I liked most about it was the organic nature of the work. It is a constantly evolving piece of art, which changes on an almost daily basis, whether that be someone else painting over part of it or the addition of stickers or posters. Once you are aware of it, it makes the whole city seem like a giant canvas covered in layers of art, just waiting for the next change.
We headed over to the Alternative London studio after grabbing some lunch, ready for the workshop. Some other people joined us for this section of the day. The first half of the workshop was dedicated to creating stencils. We had a look at existing stencils and explored the idea of negative space and bridging to keep the sections of the stencil together. Once we had drawn out our design we cut it out using a craft knife. I decided to do my bee logo so I had to create three separate stencils, one for each colour.
Once we had all finished cutting our stencils we took them outside where there was an area especially for graffitiing. First Emilie showed us how to attach the cap to the can and then the different ways to apply the paint to the wall to achieve various effects such as thin lines or filling in larger areas. We were then allowed to have a go creating our own tags. Tags are quick to do, usually just a couple of lines in one colour. I created one using my initials, CLD. We then had a go at ‘throw ups’, which are bubble writing usually consisting of one colour for the outline and another to fill it in. After this we moved on to our stencils. We tried them out both on the wall and on paper so we could take our artwork home. I used white for the wings, black for the outline, head and body and a mixture of yellow and orange for the stripes.
I was so pleased with my final piece! It was so much fun to create and it was such a great way to spend the day. I felt like I learnt a lot on the tour and I’d love to have another go at spray painting.
The Inquisitive Bee 