Summer Update Part I

Hey guys,

I know that some of you are subscribed, but maybe not all? Spread the word if need be. The last call for registration for the ATC went out, so in a day or so we should find out how many cards we need to make. I’d be happy to meet with anyone who wants to share ideas or ask for help in figuring out how to do anything sometime early in the summer. If you wanted to do something like that, those who wanted the help should all meet at once…at Starbucks or something. I’d bring those cards from previous years I never got to show you and we could discuss what you are doing, and what could make it easier.

Remember that participation in this show is the only thing I am expecting from you this summer, but your IWB should reflect your process, and this gives you an opportunity to also attend and be involved in an art project that connects our community. Lots of great stuff to be reflected and recorded here.

One way or the other, we’ll see you at the event. Enjoy your summer!

and don’t forget your EE over the summer, I know your rough draft is to be in by September 19 (ick)

Art Analysis of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks

Edward Hopper's Nighthawks

The painting above is one of my favorite paintings of all time. Even if you haven’t seen the original, you’ve likely seen it referenced in many different media. The world is full of versions of this painting in Lego, featuring old film stars, with additional quotes added for entertainment. All of these homages are done because of the way this painting has resonated with the people who have seen it.

So now it’s time for you to look at it, really look at it, and see what you see.

I have an example of an art analysis prepared for you on another painting. If you want a head-start on this analysis you may see me before tomorrow’s class to get a copy of it, otherwise I’ll pass them along tomorrow. And from today you have a week to analyze this piece in your IWB and here on the blog. One of the responses may be a summary of the other. Once you guys have completed your analysis, I’ll provide you with my own and allow you the opportunity to reflect and revise your first analysis, which I will evaluate formally.

Just a little taste of those homages I mentioned.

Piecing together a painting

First day of the new semester and we’re off to work on a new painting. This month we are going to hone our acrylic skills and to do that we have several different things to do.

David Hockney – Place Furstenberg

Today we had to decide what we want to paint for our next full piece. You are allowed to paint whatever you like, but the elements within your piece will have to have some visual sources that you can refer to. What I mean by this, and we talked about this at length in class, is that if I choose to paint a forest, I cannot simply paint trees the way I think they look, but I must find images of different trees that I may include.

Todays work in class involved figuring out what to paint, and by next friday, when we begin the actual painting of this piece, you must have collected a bank of images that you may use for reference for the piece, and you should have done some planning, and peracticing in your IWB in how you wish to put the piece together. 

 

It was even suggested in class that you could make a few copies of your source images and create a rough copy collage in your IWB, if done in B&W images it could even be then colored so that youi could make choices about color and lighting in the piece.

 

We do of course have one class between today and that friday, and on that day we will be doing an exercise that requires no further preparation. Just make sure you are prepared for next friday’s class.

 

Also, you need to remember that I will be posting art issues on the blog for discussion again. The first of these will be up by monday, and I will expect an online response within a week, and a visual response when I next look at your IWBs.

Brainstorm

Ok, first day back.

What we are going to do for the whole month of january is work on a single piece of art. This will entail the following;

1. Deciding what art is to us through the use of a brainstorm. Once we know what art is to us, we’ll reflect on those thoughts and decide what a an artist we would like to say or do over the next month. (this is what we did today)
2. Having chosen a direction (one which we will allow to evolve and change as we develop) we will start to generate ideas in our sketchbooks of what sorts of things we might do to travel in the direction we have chosen. (we did this today too, and we’d like to be done of that part by thursday’s class)
3. Then we will begin to execute the art, in whatever media we see fit.
4. As we go we will also do some research on our direction, looking for other artists who have done similar things, and seeing where their approach differs from our own.
   
5. And some other stuff I’m sure we’ll come up with along the way.
   

December projects for fun and profit

Sea of Love - Esther Barend

As promised folks I’m going to provide you with a few exercises and suggestions for your workbook this month. The down side of me doing this is that i will expect to see these particular things covered in your sketchbooks though. If you do come up with a new or creative approach to any of them, that’s great. Nothing has to be done in any particular way.

The art to the left here has nothing to do with your projects, or at least it didn’t when I sat down to prepare this post. I wanted to find something new to me, that interested me and brought color to the page, and in looking I discovered this article;  Esther Barend: Spontaneous Art which then led me to the website of the artist; http://www.estherbarend.eu/  . Having done this of course I decided that I’d want you guys to go through a similar process to me, that’ll be project 1, explained below.

A reminder to eveeryone that these things are due in on the first day back after X-mas. It’s not my intention for you to ruin your holidays, there’s nothing to stop you getting onto these projects right away. Here’s the list of work;

1. Decide on a type of art that might interest you, not specifically a school of art, more of an idea or theme. Hit the internet (if you are reading this I know you have access) and find an example of such a piece of work that you like. Follow that art back to it’s home and learn a little about the artist and the piece. Present this search, and the fruits of your labours in a page or two of your book (remember to always cite your sources) and then, follow that up with a piece of your own art on that theme. My own search began with the term “Spontaneous Art” and it lead me to the artist above. This should in total occupy at least two pages, but could be easily three to five (or more if you really like)
2. Draw hands. Really. Like a lot of hands, fill a page with drawings of your own hands, or the hands of someone else. Don’t draw them too big to fill the page faster, big hands means more detail. Be sure to look at real hands while you do this, I want drawing of hands the way you see them, not the way you think they look. Don’t erase any, don’t scratch any out, no matter how poorly you think they may be turning out. Practice makes perfect. This is only one page, though as always, you could do more.
   
3. Inspired by Skye, inspired by Skye’s mother it seems, in a two page spread in your book I want you to examine what you see as your comfort zone in art. Examine what you draw the most, and what you avoid. Try to figure out what you hide behind and what challenges you might need to confront to grow as an artist. Imagine at least one project that you can do in your book to tackle something outside your comfort zone, and then do it! An example of my comfort zone are the high contrast portraits of people that I sometimes paint. I am most comfortable eliminating the range of values that we see in real life to present the “essence” of the person in an approach that breaks the person into shapes and negative spaces. This also stops me from having to labour over tonal shifts, and measuring the value in a subject with normal lighting. To combat this I created the self-portrait done entirely in a range of value, without creating shapes that hangs in the classroom today.
4. I will stop here this month. Next month we’ll decide if this is too much direction, or not enough. Feel free to comment and ask for more if you want more. Or comment to ask questions, or look for clarification.
   

September requirements for Investigative Workbook

'Valentina' - Val's Fashion Blog

Ok, the time has come to pass in your IWs for the first time. Here are the overall requirements that should have been fulfilled this month;

1. Notes on the Elements of Art (including visuals)
2. Notes on the Principles of Art (including visuals)
3. More extensive breakdown on the Principle of Art that you presented to your peers.
4. An analysis of a piece of fine art of your choice, with an emphasis on the elements of art present.
5. Two art issue layouts (from the in class presentations)
6. Rough Copy/Brainstorming for the Elements of Art demonstration piece
7. Hatching/Cross-Hatching/Stipling/Contour Hatching/Scumbling examples
8. In IW responses to Septembers 4 online questions
9. Overall a minimum of 20 pages of our IW should have been filled at this point. (doing only 15 for this first month will be acceptable)

Also, for the record, I was traipsing around the internet when I found “Val’s Fashion Blog” with a good example of IW pages in the same topics we’ve been in lately. That where I got the example above. Check the link to view the artist’s full site.

Wednseday Itinerary

Here’s the itinerary for Wednesday guys;
Departure: Colonel Gray at 7:15 am. So we are aiming to all be there at 7am, to make sure no one is running late.

We’ll arrive at RNS at 11:00 am to view their art show.

We’ll eat with the folks at Rothsay that day, as they have generously offered to host us.

We then expect to leave there in time to arrive at the SJ Art Centre at 1:30

We depart to return to PEI 2:45  in hopes that we arrive back at Colonel Gray no later than 6:45.

Be sure to bring your IW, we’ll expect to see your impressions and reactions recorded in there. A snack or two would not be a bad idea as well, and use the bathroom before we leave, it’s a long bus ride.

We’ll be spending a lot of time on the bus with our peers from Colonel Gray, and meeting a lot of people in IB in other schools so let’s put our best foot forward, and remember, if we see a bear, we agreed not to get in any fights unless we had a shark with a  laser backing us up, especially if the bear has an axe.

There we have it!

The old made new again.

Banksy - The Dunce

Remember when we looked at a Banksy piece or two before? Well, I thought it was time to pull up one of his pices as an example for what we are going to do next. The piece to the left is an homage to Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker, or perhaps a send-up, we won’t worry about that part now. What I like to think, is that Banksy took a piece that was weighty in meaning (originally named, The Poet, The Thinker is often used to represent Philosophy) and reimagined it with a more contemporary look, as well as a more contemporary meaning. 

Rodin - The Thinker

In essence, this is what I would like us to do next. To take a style (Rodin is considered the founder of “Modern Sculpture” for example (even thought the work is over 100 years old)) or even a period in the history of art. To study it, and then to reinterpret it into a contemporary context. This will require you to select one the periods or styles that I identify below. Research it, record the results of your research (in an aesthetically pleasing way of course) in your Investigation Workbook. Then you will, using your research as a guide reinterpret some meaningful piece of the past, in a way that resonates with your own life or views as an artist.

Here are the periods or styles you have to choose from, remember it’s first come first serve, no more than one artist to a style;

BCE and CE are academic versions of  BC and AD

1. The Paleolithic Period. Also called the Old Stone Age, 35,000 BCE to 8000 BCE. 
2.  Amarna Phase of Egypt’s New Kingdom. This is one small “deviant” period in Egyptian Art that lasted only 20 years, from 1370 BCE to 1350 BCE.
3. Greek Art’s Classical Period. The “Golden Age” of Greek Art, 480 BCE to 323 BCE
4. Byzantine Art. A style that expressed the “mysterious and mystical” nature of Eastern Christianity. 330 CE to 1453 CE
5. Proto-Renaissance in Italy. 1250 CE to 1350 CE
6. High Renaissance of the Sixteenth Century.
7. Dadaism. Begun in Zurich in 1915 CE. WARNING: The more abstract the school, the harder the research and reinterpretation will be, not easier.
8. Pop Art. as exemplified by the british in the ’50s and America in the ’60s.