Exercise 2 – Still Life with Flowers

The first sketch was done vertically from the second farthest distance and slightly to the left. I did this standing up and tried to keep in mind the angle of the table. The second sketch was done slightly more close up and again I was standing up to sketch. I have drawn in a square frame and this time I was drawing in front of the objects.
My third drawing is done horizontally and I was sitting down in front of the flowers. I thought that perhaps all of these drawings incorporated too much of the background and table which were not particularly interesting, so for the fourth drawing I have drawn the flowers from a close up viewpoint. I decided to use this drawing for my painting and have tested out a few of the colour mixes I would need. The flowers were mixes of Magenta, Violet and White, the desk was mixes of White, Yellow Ochre, Brown and dark Blue added for the shaded parts. For the wall I used mixes of White, Dark Blue, Brown and Dark Green and the for the curtains I used White with mixes of Dark Blue and Brown.

I then moved on to the A3 mixed media paper using acrylics and working on a portrait format. The light source was coming from a window to the left of the flowers so I have tried to highlight this with lighter tones of the colour mixes I have made. The flowers were placed in quite a dark corner of a room slightly behind the curtain and so I have kept the flowers towards the back a more Violet mix. The curtains had folds and so for this I have mixed a shade of grey using White, Dark Blue and a small amount of Dark Brown. The glass vase was quite hard to do as I wasn’t entirely sure how I could paint the murky water and translucent glass vase. In the end I mixed Green with White and Brown for the water and then went over this with white to show the highlighted corners of the vase. Overall I am happy with most of the mixes of colours and the composition but perhaps I need to study the leaves and flowers more closely to get more detail?
Still life with flowers image 1.jpg

Exercise 1 – Drawing in Paint

I began this exercise by trying to choose items that looked interesting and came across some kitchen jars that were 3 different shapes. They were placed on a busy worktop so I ended up moving them for a more calm background and even surface. I tried to incorporate the linear qualities of the tiles and the work surface which I hope has helped to create perspective to the items. I began with the charcoal drawing and used a view that was slightly on top of the items, this proved to be slightly hard as I had to consider foreshortening the jars. I then went on to the blue biro drawing and the viewpoint from the left, and although I quite liked that drawing I decided to use the viewpoint from the right, using acrylics on mixed media A3 paper.

I used an analogous colour scheme mixed with some white to create the highlights and reflections, but I also applied further layers of paint to create the shaded areas. I tried to keep in mind that the jars were translucent so I needed to incorporate what the objects had behind them and where they were placed. The light from the window came from the right hand-side so I have used white paint to add these light reflections. I have painted the lines of the tiles and the work surface so they meet in a vanishing point to the left. I’m reasonably happy with the outcome but I think I need to use a smaller round brush next time as the third jars lid was quite hard to do with the flat brush I was using?

drawing in paint image 4

Research – Still Life Artists

Still Life – Dutch word ‘Still-leven’ meaning motionless natural object or objects

The Dutch Golden Age of painting began around the 17th century, with artists like Jan Brueghel the Elder and Pieter Claesz painting detailed and intricate Still Life’s. The painting by Pieter Claesz below (left) is super realistic and has this cast of light emphasizing the skull, which symbolizes the shortness of life – known as the ‘Vanitas’ theme, a lot of the paintings had hidden meanings within them.
The painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder below (right) depicts flowers that in reality would never bloom together all at the same time, it would mean that the paintings flowers could be enjoyed all year round. These beautiful and impressive arrangements would show off both the artists skill and the collectors wealth.

Following on from the 17th century, the 18th century continued with this format of ideas, but with floral decoration moving on to fabric, porcelain and wallpaper, this was part of the Rococo/ Late Baroque movement and was a style in which French artists became the influencers. This period saw ‘Still Life’s’ as becoming a genre itself and moving on from the hidden allegories of mortality or vanitas. France would become the hub for painting right up until after World War II and the Non-objective artwork.
The painting below (left) is by the artist Anne Vallayer-Coster and depicts a kitchen table with fish and glassware. She has captured the highlights on the glass and the luminescent sheen on the fish perfectly and yet ‘Still Life’ was considered the least technically challenging at the time.
Anne Vallayer-Coster was hugely influenced by Jean Baptiste-Simeon Chardin who was considered a master of ‘Still Life’ and was known for his Impasto paint technique and soft diffusion of light. In the painting below (right) you can see the heavy brush strokes and the clever use of highlighting and shade, as if every surface was thoroughly thought about and the soft velvety texture of the peaches can almost be felt.

With the 19th century ‘Still Life’ came back in favour, with ‘Impressionism’ and ‘Post-Impressionism’ making technique and colour more important than subject matter.
Edouard Manet used loose brush strokes and tone to paint this ‘Carnations and Clematis in a Crystal Vase’ painting below (left). Transitioning from realism to impressionism ‘Still Life’ would become more focused on depiction of light, movement and mood, using contrasting or complementary colours. I also looked at the work of Paul Gauguin I liked the vibrant colours of the ‘Still life with teapot and fruits’ (below right) and although the items appear flat and without any sense of depth, I think it helps to focus the attention more to the pattern and texture of the paint application.

The 20th century saw several art trends including Expressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and Surrealism to name a few. A group of artists named the ‘Les Nabis’ were involved in the move of Impression and academic art to abstract, symbolism and modernism. Odilon Redon was one of the artists involved in this movement, he would use symbolism to convey his feelings and his own imagination to portray form. I liked the still life of Flowers below (top left) for its simple background and soft appearance.
Still life had some what of a revival with the colourful and bold paintings of Fauvism and the fragmented and abstract paintings of Cubism. The artist Henri Matisse has created this beautifully bold still life (bottom left) using complementary colours to enhance the brightness of the painting. Pablo Picasso was known for co-founding the Cubist movement, where objects or figures were deconstructed and put back together in a fragmented and distorted way, creating a new reality. He did a series of guitar paintings exploring different media and different concepts. The guitar series was thought to have been the start of Synthetic Cubism in which items were painted in bolder colours and would include using different materials to make collages. I liked the painting below because even though there is no sense of depth to items, they still manage to stand out with the clever use of contrast and colour.

Contemporary Still Life hasn’t changed that much from earlier works, in a way that what is needed to make a ‘Still Life’ is still relatively the same. You would still apply light and shadows, composition and the application of colour, shading and texture. It has however evolved with media, with the use of photography or video. The still life below is just like a painting from the 17th century, with the lighting and flowers all replicated. Sharon core’s photograph has captured the flowers at the peak of their life, but the voyeur knows that the flowers will soon whither and die. It helps to remind you that life is short and we must lead good and fulfilling lives.

Sharon Core Image.jpg
The second still life is by Ori Gersht and depicts a floral arrangement being blown up, while being caught on film. The artist has taken the calm of a ‘still life’ arrangement and the violence of the explosion and perhaps used them as a visual representation of the conflicts going on in his homeland of Israel. (link below)

Sources

Websites
Pinterest
Wikipedia
Britannica
Tate

Articles
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2013/oct/19/10-best-contemporary-still-lifes

Books
Movements in Painting – By Patricia Fride-Carrassat & Isabelle Marcade

Exercise 4 – Complementary Colours

With this exercise I first of all laid out all of my tubes of paint and then matched them to Chevreul’s colour wheel as best I could. I had to mix Cadmium Red with Brown and Violet to make the Maroon colour segment. I noticed that one half of the wheels colours are cool and the other half are warm colours.
coursework Image
I started on the Complementary colours or Opposite colours first, noticing that when placed next to each other they seemed to make a strong contrast to each other. I also noticed that when the complementary colours were mixed with each other they almost cancelled each other out? They became muted almost earthy tones of colour?
Edgar Degas used these complementary colour contrasts to create striking artworks.

I then went on to the Analogous colours, which are the colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel. I think they help to create a harmonious colour scheme and artists like Van Gogh have used them to their full effect on the paintings below.

Exercise 3 – Broken or Tertiary Colours

With this exercise I decided to try neat mixes of colour as well as ones mixed with white paint. I also wanted to test out all the secondary colours suggested.
The first scale I worked on was the Orange/Red to Green/Blue noticing the different shades of Brown to grey colours I had created, which would be suitable for when painting landscapes, trees or perhaps even townscapes.
The next scale was the Violet to Dark Green, which created some interesting shades of Blues/Grey’s and Teal, all would work well if I was painting water scenes.
I then worked on the Orange to Violet which created some shades of Brown which I thought if mixed with a bit more white, would work well for flesh tones.
Last of all was the Green to Orange scale which created some Amber, Ochre and Green shades. Again I could use these mixes if I was painting landscapes, trees or even a beach scene.
Broken or Tertiary Colours Image 1 I think the white mixes helped to create a more solid colour throughout. I think they also helped to make flesh tones when mixed with the Violet and Orange or the Green and Orange.
I also did a little colour diagram below in my sketchbook, just to get an idea of further tertiary colour mixes. Its perhaps worth noting the different colour backgrounds (White and Grey) also create different effects with the colours, the Violet and Orange seem to pop more when on a grey background.
Broken or Tertiary Colours Image 2

Exercise 2 – Primary and Secondary Colour Mixing

I have used Acrylics for this exercise working on a mid grey background, and then picking out all of the primary colours from my paint box I began juxtaposing the different shades to find the most intense shade. With the neat mixes I found that the lemon yellow was the most brightest of the four and especially when placed next to yellow ochre shade. I then mixed the different shades of yellow with white and found that the most intense colours were a mix between medium yellow and lemon yellow.

primary and secondary colours image 3
The most intense colour with the different shades of blue was the Cobalt blue, except for when it was placed next to light blue and then they seemed like they were equally bright. I found again even when mixed with white the Cobalt blue was the brightest shade of blue.
primary and secondary colours image 2
I found it difficult to distinguish with the reds and even when they were mixed with white, they went more of a pink shade. I decided in the end though that the cadmium red was the most intense of the reds.

I then went on to create a scale of yellow through to red, yellow through to blue and red through to blue. I also did scales using a bit of white paint, which I think helped to create more intense solid colours, but it also helped to identify where the primary colours turned into secondary colours more clearly.
Lastly I experimented with different blue and red combinations to create different hues of violet. I think the magenta and ultramarine blue combination worked best. primary and secondary colours image 4

Research – The Colour Theories of Chevreul

Michel Eugène Chevreul was a French chemist whose work at the Gobelins textile factory involved the chemical research and quality assurance in the dyes used for fine fabrics and textile designs. This work eventually led him to the colour complications caused by placing certain threads of colour next to each other, he discovered that the clarity in colour was not due to the dye itself but rather an optical illusion. Through further investigation and experiments he created a fundamental “law” of the simultaneous contrast of colours:

“In the case where the eye sees at the same time two contiguous colours, they will appear as dissimilar as possible, both in their optical composition [hue] and in the height of their tone [mixture with white or black].”

He found three situations in which this colour contrast could be observed:-

Simultaneous Contrast – Which is the way a colour is perceived when placed next to another colour.
Successive Contrast – Which is when you have perhaps looked at one colour for a length of time and then look at another one. For instance when you have been outside in bright sunshine and then go into a dark room, the contrast makes the room appear far darker than it is.
Mixed Contrast – Is the overlaying of an after image upon a different colour.

Chevreul found that the visual effect of placing two colour areas next to each other, would create a shift in hue and value as if the preceding complementary colour were mixed with it. He noted that these colour shifts were strongest when they were placed side by side and so developed the chromatic diagram of colours below.

Chevreul Image 1

The adjoining colours appear to look completely different, both in their optical composition and in the strength of their colour. This is because the brain perceives the juxtaposed hues of colour in an exaggerated way. This also works in the same way for different levels of lightness. Chevreul also claimed that by placing one light shade of grey next to a darker shade of grey, it would then enhance the light shade lighter and also the dark shade darker. The diagram below shows the stripes of different hues of grey, and when viewed from a distance they appear as if they are channelled grooves, this is because of the double contrast, with each stripe viewed from right to left being lighter than the following and each stripe when viewed from left to right darker than the other. This was called ‘Chevreul’s Illusion’.

Sources
Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Eugène_Chevreul
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michel-Eugene-Chevreul

Click to access Chevreuls%20Law%20F1%20web%20good.pdf

Books

Exercise 1 – Mixing Greys – Anachromatic Scale

I started my first attempt with acrylic paint at the black end of the scale mixing a small dab of white in and getting lighter till I reached the lightest shades of grey and then white. I don’t think I managed to get the clear tonal progression I was after with this attempt so then went on to start off with white acrylic paint, adding a dab of black every time and mixing in a small amount of water, so the paint wouldn’t dry up too quickly. This seemed to create a more clear tonal step of shades so I went on to do another using this method. I found the mid grey tone somewhere between two of the shades I had created so I tried to create a blend of this tone to paint on the scraps of paper. I placed the scraps of paper at either end of this scale, one being beside the white and the other by the black end. What I noticed about the grey next to the white was that it appeared lighter in tone then the one placed by the black end of the scale.
I found this exercise harder than I initially thought it was going to be as you have to take into consideration the drying time of acrylics, the equal measures of paint to add each time and there was also the mixing of colour to create a completely even mix of each shade.

Exercise 1 Mixing greys - anachromatic scale