Tag: Looking Out
Ex. 4.6.2 – Squaring up
Ex. 4.6.1 – Painting from a working drawing
Another exercise I enjoyed because it made me paint a little looser. I felt I was not a slave to the detail; I used my studies to refer to but the final painting was built up of memories and experiments. In. The past I’ve always tried to be really specific with the light and shadow, trying to replicate it exactly in other work. But here I felt my marks were more painterly. This is what I feel I would like to try more of.
However…at what point do these relaxed, painterly marks become noisy? I need clarification on this, I think.
The painting changed when I started to work with the highlights and shadows, especially on the chair. I then added a glaze over the wallpaper and this gave a peaceful haze to the corner.
Ex. 4.3.2 – Aerial Perspective
Ex. 4.3.1 – Linear Perspective
(Studies on Linear Perspective in Drawing 1 here)
Ex. 4.2.2. – Hard or soft landscape
Ex. 4.2.1 – View from a door or window
Ex. 4.1.1 – Writing a review
A web exhibition and museum review of Artist of the Nation
The timing of this module, Looking Out, has coincided with my summer visiting Iceland. This was an ideal opportunity to discover and research a new artist, particularly Icelandic, and hopefully visit a local exhibition.
The National Gallery of Iceland have a website outlining a selection of Ásgrímur Jónsson’s works. This online exhibition is of his folklore, landscape and cityscape collections. It is a clearly set-out website allowing easy navigation to the chosen category. Along with the description and context online are many thumbnails of his work. Clicking on these gives a larger image allowing a clear view of the piece.
In each category are approximately 70 images, not in chronological order but arranged according to the text. I enjoyed this format; I had never really come across an ‘online exhibition’ before. Most galleries’ websites have a small amount of outlining text accompanied by one or two examples of work, giving the viewer enough information to decide to visit the gallery in person.
Although I feel that nothing can beat visiting a gallery in reality, with its meandering, tranquil atmosphere, a virtual gallery allows people who may not be able to visit in person access to a wide variety of works.
What I ended up seeing was the Ásgrímur Jónsson Collection, located in Reykjavík at his residence on Bergtadastraeti 74. On his death he bequeathed this location to the Icelandic government and it has been almost frozen in time ever since. I had a preconceived idea that it would contain many of Jónsson’s paintings; I failed to read the small print that the gallery was actually a museum and his house was just that. It was made up of his living spaces and his studio upstairs with some, maybe ten or so landscapes on the wall.
Ásgrímur Jónsson is a landscape artist of significance; the countryside was his main inspiration. After studying in Europe, he enjoyed painting in watercolour on his return. He spent most of his time in Reykjavík, especially when winters made travel elsewhere difficult but the surrounding countryside were also important locations in his work. He worked with light and its effect and even in the city this was still a major feature; the times of day and weather affecting the colours and light of the city and rural landscape.
If his early work was light and representational with a Romantic and Impressionist influence, his later work conveyed more emotion in its colour; he painted freer and bolder with a more abstract representation of the landscape in an Expressionist style.
Although it was not what I was expecting it was very enjoyable because of its intimacy. Standing in the studio with the paint splatter still on the wooden floors and table legs, discarded paint tubes still in a bowl was rather haunting and poignant, I felt more of a connection with the artist himself than I possibly would have done in a large town gallery, where his work is the sole focus.
References
Tea and Doodles 