P2 Contrasting Style Research - Two artists who work in contrasting ways

I m trying as much as possibel to include in research artists whose work I am able to see & study  for real. For this exercise my two artists are going to be Piet Mondrian (tight and rigorous) and Ludwig Kirchner (sketchy and expressive). At the Tate Modern I saw Kirchner's Bathers @ Moritzburg and Modrian's Sun Church in Zeeland. Unfortunetly neither of these pieces of work are in Bridgemaneducations's online library so I have included other examples of their works instead.

Piet Mondrian


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Piet Mondrian (Pieter Cornelis Mondiraan 1872 - 1944) was a Dutch artist born in Amersfoort. He was associated with Ven Doesburg in founding the De Stijl movement in architecture and painting. He began by painting landscape in a traditional sombre Dutch manner but after moving to Paris in 1909 he became under the influence of Matisse and cubism. He then began painting still lifes which are analysed in terms of the relationship between outlines and the planes. In the hands of Mondrian these became increasingly abstract so that eventually the patterns became more important than the subject itself. During World war I he discarded the subject altogether and concentrated on constructing grids of simple black lines filled in with primary colours. These rectilinear compositions depend on their beauty on the simple relationships between the coloured areas. He was a great theoretician and in 1920 published a pamphlet called Neo-Plasticism which inspired the Dutch philosopher Schoenmaekers. He went to London in 1938 and from 1940 lived in New York. Mondrian's work has been a major influence on all purely abstract painters.

Ludwig Kirchner




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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880 - 1938) was a German artist born in Aschaffenburg. He studied architecture at Dresden but became the leading spirit in the formation of Dresden, with Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, of 'Die Brucke' (The Bridge) (1905 - 13, the first group of German Expressionists, whose work was much influenced by primitive German woodcuts. His work was characterised by vibrant colours and angular outlines. He moved to Switzerland in 1914. Many of his works were confiscated as degenerate by the Nazis in 1937 and he committed suicide in 1938.

P2 Stipples and Dots exercise

Had 3 attempts at this to try out different drawing pens / fibre pens. The first drawing was of some leaves of a spotted laurel , the second a bowl of strawberries and the third, a few strawberries just on a table.

Stipples and Dots - Spotted Laurel

Stipples and dots - bowl of strawberries

Stipples and dots - strawberries on a table

Richmond Printmakers at 20 Exhibition

As I learnt yesterday, you don't have to go too far to see a good exhibition. This one was the Richmond Printmakers at 20 Exhibition (http://www.richmondprintmakers.co.uk/)  hosted by The Stables Gallery at Orleans House, Twickenham (http://www.richmond.gov.uk/home/leisure_and_culture/arts/the_stables_gallery.htm).

It was an anniversary exhibition to celebrate 20 years of creative activity. Past and present Richmond Printmakers displayed their work and workshops demonstrating the many different methods of printmaking were also on offer.

My favourite a print called The Heron by Tessa Charles (http://www.tessacharles.co.uk/). I loved the subject, the colours, the design. The whole print was a delight to see and I was sorry that all copies of it had been spoken for.

The Heron by Tessa Charles, printmaker

Tate Visit Collage

Picking up on  point my tutor made in my Assignment 1 feedback that it would help me to look at art asking the question 'how did the artist do that' rather than observe art as a connoisseur, yesterday I made my first visit to the Tate Modern (London). Whilst I have seen the outside of this magnificent building many a time as I've trotted up and down the Thames on many a river cruise with the grand-children, I've never seen the inside. I was lucky enough to go with a friend who is an artist and she guided me through.

First of all we saw the Ai Weiwei Sunflower seeds installation- all 100 million of them! The installation itself did nothing for me until I saw the accompanying film which put the whole thing into context and explained how each seed had been individually sculpted and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. Quite something.

Sunflower Seeds in the Tate Modern

I had prepared for the visit by making a list of artists that had been mentioned so far in the course literature and noting which ones had works being exhibited in the Tate. I was able to see quite a lot of works from Picasso to Matisse from Max Ernst to Juan Gris and it was a huge revelation to view art as my tutor had suggested. Seeing for example the Frottage pieces of Max Ernst (The Entire City - oil on paper laid on canvas and Dadaville - Painted plaster and cork laid on canvas) was extremely enlightening and I learnt the difference between seeing art for real and as an online display.

Sadly there were only a few drawings on display but there was one by Picasso (Faun Revealing a Sleeping Woman - Etching and aquatint on paper). Although I appreciated the techniques that had gone into creating this masterpiece, I'm afraid it did nothing for me - probably because I just didn't like the subject - a faun.

But we did get to see Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust painting which was sold at Christie's in New York last May for a world record price of $106.5 million (£65.5 million) and is only on temporary loan to the Tate by its private owner. It of course makes you realise that when great masterpieces, particularly ones in private collections are on show, you need to grab the chance to see them.

All in all, I had a great day out. It was a great learning experience and has whetted my appetite to see more. below is a collage of photos I took of artwork that caught my eye.

P2 Getting Tone and depth in detail exercise

I am having a lot of trouble with tone. So I have done 3 different drawings and I think a tangible improvement can be seen with each one.

Getting tone and depth in detail V1

Getting tone and depth in detail V2

Getting tone and depth in detail V3

P2 Line drawing detail exercises

I've had 2 goes at this exercise - the cabbage definitely took me a lot longer to do but I think the benefit is that you can really see the detail. I am quite happy with my cabbage

Line drawing detail V1

Line drawing detail V2

P2 Simplified Still Life Forms Research - Ben Nicolson

Ben Nicholson


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Ben Nicholson (1894 - 1982) was an English artist, born in Denham, London and the son of Sir William Newzam Prior Nicholson, who was also an artist. He exhibited with the Paris Abstraction-Creation group in 1933-34 and at the Venice Biennale in 1954, designed a mural panel for the Festival of Britain (1951) and in 1952 executed another for the Time-Life building in London. As one of the leading abstract artists, he gained an international reputation and won the first Guggenheim award in 1957. Although he produced a number of purely geometrical paintings and reliefs, in general he used conventional still-life objects as a starting point for his finely drawn and subtly balanced and coloured variations. He married 3 times and his second wife was Barbara Hepworth.