Category Archives: Project 4: At home

Research Point 4: Viewpoints

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Research point

For this research point I was asked to look at paintings that focus on domestic interiors. 

The first work I looked at was Anthony Greens ‘study for Mrs Madeline Jocelyn with her son’ 1987.  

In this image the viewer looks down on the scene and is able to look at the room from many angles. It looks almost like a box has been unfolded and opened to reveal an exciting interior of a living room. Since I began drawing interiors of my house I have realised that in order to include everything in the room it would take me a lot of drawings as drawing just the four corners of my rooms excluded the majority of the room. I feel that this drawing is an exciting and intimate exploration into somebody’s entire room. 

I then looked at Van Gogh’s ‘The Bedroom’ -1888, 1889 and 1889, these are paintings of Van Goghs bedroom. They each contain his bed, a windows, a small table, two chairs and a selection of pictures on the wall. It really allows me, the viewer a sense of intimacy into Van Goghs world. I think there is something very personal about somebody’s bedroom, and these images allow me to feel a very personal connection with Van Gogh. 

The most fascinating thing about these paintings however are the fact that these three separate paintings of his bedroom in Arles France are actually different. 
At first glance I thought they were the same painting, however upon further inspection I noticed extremely subtle differences such as different paintings on the wall and different items of clothing on the hooks behind the bed. This reminded me of my own work, especially my kitchen studies where I encountered differences such as my baskets or tins at different angles or food items added or missing. For my work this indicated the passing of time, if only by a few hours or days, but for Van Goghs work that passing of time was across a year and the fact his wall paintings were different shows real decisions of choice, taste and ideals changing over such a short period. 

The next artist I decided to look at was David Hockney. 

The work I chose to look at is ‘Montcalm Interior with 2 Dogs’ 1988

This is a piece of work that was painted after the artist moved from the north of England to California. 

I love Hockneys use of bright and vibrant colour in this painting. I am led to wonder if his move to sunny California from the north of England was inspiration for the glorious brightness of this work? 

I also love how his bold use of pattern forces the eye to travel all around this piece. I find that the orange stripes on the floor are almost like arrows directing my eye. 

I am also fascinated by its compositional structure- the way he has managed to show his very high ceiling and his angular beams along with his triangular high window makes the entire composition very exciting. 

I then found out that Hockney actually featured this Californian home in a number of his works. 

The other piece that I am going to look at is entitled ‘large interior, Los Angeles’ (1988). It is considered the ‘sister’ painting of ‘Montcalm Interior with 2 Dogs’ 1988. 

This painting also depicts Hockney’s high-ceilinged living room. However this painting shows his living room from a slightly different viewpoint or angle. It looks at the room from above, from the vaulted ceiling. However it appears that some of the furniture has been moved around (again showing the passage of time just like Van Gogh’s bedroom work.) 

Another link I can see with David Hockneys living room and with Van Gogh’s bedroom work is the expressive brushwork and use of bright colour. 

Like Anthony Greens study for ‘Mrs Madeline Jocelyn with her son’ 1987.  What I find fascinating about Hockneys paintings is how he manages to fit such a large percentage of the room in just one two dimensional painting.

The next piece of work I am looking at is Philip Pearlsteins, ‘male model with kimono, female model with mirror’ 1985. 

This painting is of male and female nudes sitting in chairs across from each other, the males head is not in the picture and the female has her head tilted so we are unable to see her face. Opposite the female lies a mirror. (For me this is the most exciting part of the painting as it allows me, the viewer to see parts of the image I feel I am not entitled to see. It makes me feel like I am almost inside the room).The mirror also takes the painting away from just being about a portrait of the nudes to being a painting of the interior of the room, through this mirror the viewer not only gets to see the woman from a different angle but also gets to explore the rest of the room or living space. 

I love the almost diagonal viewpoint of this painting. Having the nudes positioned on their chairs opposite one another really allows this diagonal viewpoint to be so effective. The mirror also adds a more distanced frontal view of the woman, which just adds to the depth of this painting. 

This painting links to both Hockneys work and Pearlstein and Greens work in that it offers more of the room to the viewer than you might originally expect. 

From this research I would really like to experiment with different viewpoints further in my work and try to be more exciting and experimental in my approach to viewpoints. 

Bibliography: 

Tuchman, P. (2016) Domestic Dreams: ‘Van Gogh’s Bedrooms’ at the Art Institute of Chicago Offers a Rich Look at Three Masterworks. At: http://www.artnews.com/2016/03/14/domestic-dreams-van-goghs-bedrooms-at-the-art-institute-of-chicago-offers-a-rich-look-at-three-masterworks/ ( Accessed11/06/2019).

Tate. (2019) David Hockney Pembroke Studio Interior 1984. At: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/hockney-pembroke-studio-interior-p20106 ( Accessed11/06/2019).

Sothebys. (2019) A Peek Into David Hockney’s Vibrant Private World. At: https://www.sothebys.com/en/videos/david-hockney-vibrant-private-world ( Accessed11/06/2019).

Exercise 3: Material Differences

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Following on from exercise two I now have a clear idea of the basic elements of the drawing I intend to create in this exercise. 

I decided to focus in on the corner of my kitchen where my microwave is, as I find this corner interesting because it is so busy. I decided to sit on the floor and look up for my drawing as I really liked the angles it created. 

I decided to work a2 size and I drew out my composition using black biro as I like the thin, strong line biro can create. However biro does come with its own difficulties as mistakes can not be erased. In order to map out my composition I started by using light marks from my biro so mistakes could easily be covered.

I tried to use all of the paper space, however I again found working on such a large scale quite a challenge. Below is an image of my line drawing.

My next stage was to start to add tone and texture. I continued to use my black biro and I didn’t find this too difficult as there is a big variety of texture in this corner of my kitchen. Below is an image of my work so far. 

I then added more texture with my blue biro, I felt this added a bit more depth to my drawing.

I decided to use charcoal to show light and shadow. I tried to look carefully at how the light fell across my kitchen corner. I half closed my eyes to help me see the broad tonal areas and map them onto my drawing.  However I am not pleased with the result. I think I captured the light in the correct places however using charcoal didn’t seem to be effective.

I tried to work into this further to improve my shadow work by using biro and Indian ink. I think I improved it marginally however I also think I would have been better off just sticking to biro for the entire drawing.

Exercise 2: Composition- An Interior.

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For this exercise I decided that my chosen interior would be my kitchen. Aside from being very small my kitchen is over 400 years old and was historically used as the horses stables. My kitchen is full and very busy and thus I felt it would be my most exciting room to draw. 

For this exercise I was to make some quick sketches of my kitchen in order to prepare me for a finished drawings. 

I looked carefully at the angles and areas of my kitchen noting where objects are placed. I decided to focus on the corner of my kitchen above my dishwasher where my microwave is placed. This area is busy with lots of objects and is in my opinion visually very interesting. 

Even though I decided to focus on this area to draw, I decided to shift my viewpoint slightly until I found different compositions that pleased me. I looked for strong tonal contrasts, textures, linear qualities and strong positive and negative shapes. 

I worked A4 size, again using collaged brown paper in the background and I used a mixture of ink with a sharp stick and biro. I also experimented working portrait and landscape. Sometimes I couldn’t fit in all of my subjects, but I found that this actually added dynamism and interest to my compositions.

The drawings I was most pleased with were the drawings where I was sat on the floor and was looking up. I found the angle on this work really exciting. 

Above is my final composition sketch for my final drawing. I used less brown paper this time so as not to take away too much from the actual compositions and I worked in biro as I could be more accurate and less scratchy. I love the angle it is at and the busyness of the piece. 

Exercise 1: Quick sketches around the house.

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For this exercise I was asked to make quick sketches in each room in my house. I live in a very small 400 year old thatched cottage that has lots of wonky low beams, it is a very higgledy piggeldy cottage where no door frames or windows or even walls are straight. I love my cottage and feel like it is a real piece of art in itself so I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise. 

For my first two drawings I drew my sitting room. I worked a3 size and I used charcoal. However I found using charcoal very messy and I kept leaning on my work and smudging it.

I decided for my next drawings I would work in ink using a sharp stick. I also decided to collage some scraps of brown paper down on the paper before hand to try to take away from the bright white backgrounds. After my first drawing using ink I decided to add water using a paintbrush to my work, just to try to add more tone and texture to my work. On most of my drawings this worked well however on a couple of my drawings I added too much water and my ink smudged too much. On these drawings I worked on top of my smudged areas with biro, to try to replace the texture I lost. I felt this worked as it gave another dimension to my drawings. 

I think the main problems I had with my drawings was getting all the angles right. Because I tended to focus on the corners of the rooms the furniture tended to be positioned in opposing angles. As I was drawing quickly I noticed at the end of my drawings where I had gone wrong with angles. I think really in future the best way to ensure my angles and proportions are correct is to work slower and to take more care figuring out exact placements and proportions. 

That being said I really enjoyed the quick speed in which I worked, I enjoyed the looseness of my work and their expressive nature.