For this research point I was asked to look at the artist Vija Celmins and to consider how her approach to drawing natural elements can help me with my cloud drawings in this project. 

It was suggested that I watched the following video on Vija Celmins: 
www.vimeo.com/22299024
This is a short film of Vija Celmins explaining some of her work, her work on the night sky that she feels is all moving and all turning and all spinning, she says she has a fascination for these moving elements and tries to capture it in her work. 

She also discusses her other work on rocks that she would find on the beach and then copy their colours and pattern and texture  exactly onto other rocks so they look like replicas. She believed that by focusing on every small detail and replicating these rocks their images would be stored in her memory forever. She said that her approach to replicating these stones revolves around the idea that her work is not copying something but simply re-describing something that she sees as her own interpretation and giving it a new lease of life. She also suggests in her video that there are inaccuracies within each stone which separates it from the original. However these pieces are so detailed these inaccuracies  are not evident to the viewer only her. 

Below are some examples of images of these rocks: 

From researching her work on the Internet I discovered that she is a photorealist and often focusses on natural elements such as the sea, the sky, the inside of shells, close ups of rocks and spider webs. 

Below are some examples of her work: 

I noticed that Celmin tends to work exclusively in grey tones and her work is mostly monochromatic. She also appears to be Exploring negative space in her beautiful use of detail too with her white spaces that could be created with erasers or blank areas of the surface she works on. The other thing I notice about her work is the viewer seems to be only given a partial view of the scene? Which makes me wonder what else is happening outside of the frame? 

Her work makes me feel inspired,  I find her intricate detail phenomenal, however her work looks like it must take an exceptionally long time to complete. It makes me think that she must be almost obsessive with the accuracy of her details and the repetition in her marks? 

I discovered that most of her work was copied from photographs or images from magazines or newspapers rather than first hand from life. I wonder if she feels the same about copying images as she did with rocks? That she wasn’t actually copying or replicating but instead describing what she is looking at in order to give them a new lease of life and trying to memorise these images forever? This makes me wonder if she is actually trying to question reality because it certainly makes me question which work is the ‘real’ work? 

I hope that in my own work on clouds I can follow Vija Celmins spectacular style, by trying to follow the tiny moving detail of the clouds by using negative space and her incredible tonal range. 

Bibliography:

Wikipedia. (2019) Vija Celmins. At: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vija_Celmins (Accessed 23/08/2019).

Tate. (2019) Vija Celmins. At: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/vija-celmins-2731(Accessed 23/08/2019).

MoMa. (2019). Vija Celmins. At: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/100210 (Accessed 23/08/2019).

For this research point I was asked to research artists from different eras who use landscape as their main subject.

I started with Albrecht Durer, a German artist who lived between 1471 and 1528. He is known for being one of the first European landscape artists and his landscapes are some of the earliest recordings of the northern renaissance world. 

One of his most famous works is ‘The Willow Mill’ (1498) 

The view is said to be from the 
north bank of the River Pegnitz, on the outskirts of Nuremberg. 

This is a watercolour painting of a landscape  in what appears to be the early hours of the morning. (Due to its yellow and orange sky that appears to be breaking out from the   Stormy clouds of darkness.)

On the right hand side is a beautiful tall tree in full leaf that dominates the painting, due to its size and prominent colouring. Behind this spectacular tree is another one, much less dominant this time that almost blurs into the background. They are positioned on a grassy bank next to a river or lake. On the left hand side and behind the footbridge over the water are a number of buildings that appear to be houses or as the title suggests maybe one of them could be ‘The Willow mill’. The water is yellow in colour, reflecting the early morning sky, but it also reflects the buildings and trees behind it. 

One of the things I love about this painting is the atmosphere it manages to create, I love the dramatic colours in the sky and the way Albrecht Dürer manages to reflect everything in the water. I also love how elements of his painting are drawn in fine detail such as the buildings and the main tree and how these seem to be in high contrast to rest of the painting (such as the foreground and the sky.) Which seems to be painted using much looser brushstrokes. All this I feel just adds to the paintings dramatic and exciting atmosphere. 

The next landscape artist I looked at was a French painter of the Baroque era called Claude Lorraine (1600-1682).

Lorraine is another early artist to concentrate on landscape painting. 

Below are some examples of his work: 

Unlike Dürer, his landscapes often include figures (sometimes painted by other artists.) His landscape scenes would also often represent a a scene from the Bible or classical mythology (unlike Dürer who tended to focus on observed locations.) 
One of the things Lorraine was recognised for doing was introducing the Sun into many of his paintings, unusually this had been rare before. See ‘The Disembarkation of Cleopatra at Tarsus’ and ‘Seaport at Sunset’. 

Lorraine was also known for creating his work in pen or monochrome wash. (See Harbour Scene.)

Lorraine’s landscapes rarely contain ‘just’ the landscape, often they are next to a castle or a port or a town, maybe this was to appeal to the public at the time rather than his own passion? During his time Landscape paintings were Not fashionable and did not fit in with Renaissance art movement. 

It seems to me that Claude Lorraine’s real passion was landscapes, all of his notes and sketchbooks tend to contain just the landscapes? (As evidenced by some of his sketchbook drawings of a view from the Monte Mario, exhibited at the British Museum.)

For me, it is the landscapes in his paintings rather than the focal point of the people or port or town, in his paintings that make his work so special. To me it feels like his focal points are almost thought about after the fact? I love his use of colour and shadow and depth to his landscapes and the way he makes his land, sea and sky come alive. 

Claude Lorrain’s work has definitely inspired me and it is a style I would like to work on in my own future work. 

Contextually it has been said that Lorraine has inspired a lot of future landscape artists including Turner whose copy of Lorraine’s Seaport with the Villa Medici’ is currently displayed on the Tate gallery’s website. 

John Constable once described Claude Lorrain as “the most perfect landscape painter the world ever saw”, and declared that in Claude’s landscape “all is lovely – all amiable – all is amenity and repose; the calm sunshine of the heart”. (From Wikipedia)

Moving forward into the twentieth century, the next landscape artist I looked at was L.S Lowry (1887-1976) 

L.S. Lowry is famous for his images depicting Pendlebury and Salfords industrial life. These urban landscape paintings are famous for showing a very down to earth representation of life at that time.

These paintings started when Lowry moved with his family from 
a leafy Manchester suburb to Pendlebury, a factory town. “At first I detested it,” he wrote. “Then, after years, I got obsessed by it.”
Jackie Wullschlager wrote
(https://amp.ft.com/content/d2534a80-dd8e-11e2-a756-00144feab7de) 

His paintings seem to have a very 
distinctive style and are populated with very simplistic grey toned people, with lots of industrial chimneys in grey dark landscapes. 

Even though Lowry’s people appear quite simple, to me they are the main focus of all of his work. He seems to identify a mood and a feeling of the time and he manages to make me the viewer feel nostalgic about this way of life.

The first painting I looked at is called ‘The pond’ this is a painting of an industrial landscape containing terraced houses, smoking chimneys, the Stockport Viaduct and lots of grey people scattered around appearing to be going about their daily lives. The overall stand out colour to me is white. This whiteness evokes a feeling of coldness to me. It makes me think back to times where I have been out on cold bright days unable to escape to chill in the air. 

The next painting I looked at was ‘Coming out of school’

I found out from the Tate gallery website that this painting is not an actual depiction or observation of any particular location but instead is based on memory’s of different schools seen in Lancashire. This imagining of a location makes him vastly different from both Dürer who observed his landscapes first hand and Lorraine who although was known for inventing people and buildings, rarely invented the landscape itself. 

I wonder if Lowry’s imaginative abilities added a sense of intimacy to these paintings as he was painting a feeling as well as a physical observation? 

The next painting I looked at was ‘Industrial landscape’ 

This is another painting that contains the Stockport viaduct, smoking chimneys, factories and roads. Just like ‘coming out of school’ the main colour dominating this painting is white, which to me emphasises the bleakness & the cold in the air of the urban environment. And Just like ‘Coming out of school’ this painting is also imagined. 

The thing l love most about Lowry’s paintings are the mood and the emotion they make me feel, the bleakness and desperation of the time and area they are painted in. Even though I have never spent any time in the places he has painted or in the era he painted them they trigger a feeling of nostalgia in me. 

The next artist I looked at was George Shaw, a contemporary British artist who shows the reality of urban environments in English suburbs. 

Shaw grew up in the 1970s and 80s on Tile Hill estate on the outskirts of Coventry. This location is the focus of the majority of his paintings.

Tile Hill estate was originally supposed to be a housing estate that blended modern planning with nature. From observing George Shaw’s work the Tile Hill estate looks very different today from its original intentions. 

The first piece of work I decided to look at of George Shaws is ‘The Great Lover’ 2018
I was immediately drawn to this painting because at first glance I thought It was a photograph, and a fairly depressing photograph at that! ‘The Great Lover’ is a painting of what looks like the back of a small building, maybe a garage or part of a school or shop building? The building looks 60s style with white and burgundy cladding. Graffitied on the white cladding is what looks like a teenagers drawing of a green penis and green breasts. To me it looks like a typical piece of graffiti I may see in any run down area. It gives me the sense that someone else had spent time there and makes me try to picture the scene in which the graffiti was being sprayed? 

This painting makes me feel lonely and isolated. Knowing that Shaw tended to paint his boyhood scenes I wonder if this is how this area was when he was a boy or has this area been ruined by social change? 

The next painting I looked at was ‘Coming up for air’ 2017

This is a similar styled painting with the main focus being the back or side of a house with graffiti on it. Behind the main house is what looks like a normal English suburban road of houses and trees. I was attracted to this painting as I felt the viewpoint was so ugly! To me it feels like any other angle or viewpoint of this area would have been more aesthetically pleasing than this one. So I am left asking the question why this viewpoint? 

The big windowless house dominating the painting makes me feel almost locked out from the rest of the estate, almost like a giant wall? With the graffiti just making it feel more hostile. Could this be the way George Shaw was feeling upon returning to his childhood home? 

From research I discovered that George Shaw felt unable to recognise his childhood home and he felt like the place had moved on without him. 

I think this is especially true for this painting going on title alone, I discovered that ‘Coming up for air’ is also coincidently the title of George Orwell’s 1939 novel about a boy who returns to his childhood home that he left when he was a teenager to find that everything had changed beyond recognition. 

I really like George Shaws paintings they have really inspired me into a new way of thinking about landscape. Each painting tells a story and each story is relatable to me. I love the notion that a painting doesn’t have to be beautiful to have meaning and integrity. 

The last artist I decided to look at was Sarah Woodfine, an artist who is known for taking on an imaginative approach to drawing spaces and places.

Sarah Woodfine’s landscape work takes on a very different approach to the other artists I have looked at. Her landscapes are often made up of or presented as a 3D construction. 

Sarah Woodfine trained as a sculptor, and this is evident in her landscape work. Her drawings are often put together as 3 dimensional models. Her observations are beautifully drawn in pencil before they are turned into a 3D model. Below are some examples of her work: 

The first piece of work I looked at is ‘How to grow an apple tree’ (2014)

This piece of work consists of a white flowerpot on-top of a white stool with a rolled up piece of white paper inside the plant pot with a beautifully observed pencil drawing of a sprouting twig, with what looks like a drawing of a small snake wrapped around the base of the twig. 

I Think that because everything is white and sculptural I am drawn even more to the delicacy and sensitivity of the pencil drawing. 

The use of white and precise folds and angles also makes this work feel almost architectural? Like a ‘mock up’ plan of a building? Only it’s not a building? It’s a tree? It’s nature? I wonder if this mix of man made objects presented in an architectural way is somehow pointing towards a link or an irony to man made verses nature? 

The next piece of work I looked at was ‘When all the birds are in the sky’ (2015) 

This is a pencil drawing of what looks like a long branch on a long narrow strip of paper but maybe on a second look it could look be a snakes head at the end of the branch? I have noticed that the snake theme is carried across a wide number of her works.

This strip of paper is hanging off a long nail on the wall. It is the presentation of this piece that makes it appear sculptural and that makes this piece so exciting. Whereas presenting the drawing itself in a different way could alter the entire perception of this piece of work. 

Unlike the past artists I have looked at who all try to encompass an entire scene into their work Sarah Woodfine focuses on just one element of her landscape, yet to me she still my anages to evoke a feeling of place. 

Bibliography:

McLaren, D. (2013) The Path Out. At: http://www.scenesfromthepassion.co.uk/styled-11/index.html (Accessed 18/08/2019).

Jones, J. (2019) George Shaw review – the only artist who can unite England. At: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/feb/07/george-shaw-a-corner-of-a-foreign-field-review-england-brexit-holburne-bath (Accessed 18/08/2019).

The Electric Light Company. (2015) Favourite Paintings 2: Albrecht Dürer, The Willow Mill, 1498 or after 1506. At: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/eclecticlight.co/2015/02/10/favourite-paintings-2-albrecht-durer-the-willow-mill-1498-or-after-1506/amp/ (Accessed 18/08/2019).

Wikipedia. (2019) Claude Lorrain. At: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Lorrain (Accessed 18/08/2019).

Claude Lorrain.org. (2017) BIOGRAPHY OF CLAUDE LORRAIN (GELLEE). At: http://www.claudelorrain.org/biography.html (Accessed 18/08/2019).

Wikipedia. (2019) L.S Lowry. At: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._S._Lowry (Accessed 18/08/2019).

Volta. (2019) Sarah Woodfine. At: https://ny.voltashow.com/archive/2015/exhibitors-2015/sarah-woodfine/ (Accessed 18/08/2019).

Kren, E & Marx, D. (2019) Willow Mill. At: https://www.wga.hu/html_m/d/durer/2/16/1/15willow.html (Accessed 18/08/2019).

The British Museum. (2019) The Collection. At: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection (Accessed 18/08/2019)

Tate. (2019) L.S. Lowry The Pond, 1950. At: https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-liverpool/display/constellations/ls-lowry (Accessed 18/08/2019).

Artnet. (2019) George Shaw. At: http://www.artnet.com/artists/george-shaw-2/the-great-lover-a-RWgRwnYXrz__5cxhiCGejg2 (Accessed 18/08/2019).

Arnaud, S. (2019) Sarah Woodfine. At: http://www.daniellearnaud.com/artists/artists-woodfine.html (Accessed 18/08/2019).

Victoria and Albert Museum. (2019) ‘Newfoundland’ by Sarah Woodfine, 2005. At: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/n/newfoundland-by-sarah-woodfine/ (Accessed 18/08/2019).