Sophia Jodoin

Sophia Jodoin was born in 1965 and received a bachelor of fine arts from Concordia University in Montreal. She mainly does figurative drawing with traditional media such as pencil and acrylic paint.  All her artwork is mainly only black and white with no colour at all. She does series of drawings that all relate to each other over a few years and then puts them together in a group; I think she does this so she can create multiple observations of a subject instead of just one piece so the viewer can see the subject from different viewpoints.

Sophia Jodoin, DRAWING SHADOWS; PORTRAITS OF MY MOTHER (2004), Charcoal pastel and acrylic paint (http://sophiejodoin.com/site/oeuvres-works ) 

In this piece there is a solid black background with a woman`s figure drawn in the centre of the paper with the top of her is very bright white and then begins to fade to darker shades of grey and eventually black. Tone features predominately throughout the piece as it is all about the contrast of light and dark. She creates depth and a sense of realism by using different shades of white eventually getting darker. The relationship between the shades is also a very big part of the drawing as they are complete opposites. The work was done on a 30 x 22” which is quite large, I think she created the piece on such a large piece of paper so she could be creative and expressive with her marks as there are some marks around the main figure that indicate light and seem to be more expressive. On the figure the highlights are all at the top and the drawing eventually fades towards the bottom, so the eyes are naturally drawn towards the top of the drawing then to the bottom. I think this is done as she was only trying to capture the essential lines and tones to represent the subject so it didn’t over complicate the piece.

The subject in question is the artists mother. The mother is seen as a gentle, nurturing and loving role in a child’s life, the artist has chosen to paint her in a very contradicting way as she has painted her as if she were a stone gargoyle which is cold and dead. These 2 ideas of the role the mother is generally seen as and the way the artist has portrayed he contradict each other completely.

Traditionally in portraits the subjects face is shown where as in this piece the back is shown, this makes the viewer question why they cannot see the face.

I am influenced by Jodoin`s work as the tones she uses contradict themselves as they are completely the opposite of each other. I can use the media she uses to show contradictions in colour. 

Katharina Chapuis

Katharina Chapuis was born in Zurich, Switzerland. She gained a diploma from School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Education, School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University, Boston, MA also Fifth Year Certificate, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA. She now lives and works in Boston, MA. This shows that she understands the materials she is using and how to apply them so I must be too picky about trying to recreate the effect she obtains, rather tweak it to my own style. (Information found at http://katharinachapuis.com/bio)

Her paintings are hues of colours interacting with each other; they normally feature concentrated/vibrant colours on the outsides of the painting and then in the centre a simple wash of the more dominant colour.

Katharina Chapuis, Untitled #LH-BG8,”25 x 75”, 2008 (http://katharinachapuis.com/paintings) 

In this piece Chapuis has used three different colours. She has used more concentrated colours on the edges of the painting and in the centre it is more of a wash. Throughout the piece there are patches of tone that are darker than the others, this gives the painting a slightly three dimensional look and keeps it from looking flat.

Chapuis uses colour expertly in her pieces as that is all they are about, how the colours interact to form a composition.in this piece she has used three main colours yellow, dark red and the main colour which is turquois. The three colours create a good composition as the more vibrant and overpowering colours are on the outside and there is a lot less of them.  Line isn’t used in her painting as they don’t require any rigid structure as it is more expressive with the colours. Tone is very predominant in this piece as it is all about the varying tones of colour.

The style Chapuis is similar to colour field painting which is large flat solid colours, free from subjective context. Chapuis’ work is free from subject other than the colour itself, by doing this the colour relationships become the subject. I find this very interesting as it leaves the viewer questioning whether it is a pure abstract, expressional piece or if it is based maybe on a landscape or the sky for instance.

The viewer’s eye is firstly drawn to the centre of the piece then they begin to explore the edges and look at the tones and use of colour. I am studying this artist as it is a contradiction to the others I have chosen, also if I study her work I could use the result of my experiments to create a background for a piece.

First drawings for Controlled assessment 2014.

I had created these drawings before i had chosen what question i wanted to answer. I focused on capturing detail and key lines that form the objects in these series of drawings. 

( I have listed the medium i have created them with below each picture.)
Some of these drawings had to be mounted into my new sketch book as the one they were originally in fell apart.

Fine liner and water.

In this drawing i tried to capture the reflective surface of the ring. I chose to use fine liner and water as I thought it would show the lighter areas better and the smooth surface of the ring where as if I did it in pencil the marks for the pencil would have been visible and the effect of a sooth surface would have been harder to attain.

Pen

 For this drawing i only focused on the main lines and movement of the objects. i chose a random selection of objects and drew them on top of each other to see if i could find similarities in the basic lines and give them a common factor. I think this method is effective as it creates an abstract and different looking piece compared to if id have done them all individually. i may look into doing this more into the future.

Pencil

 For this i put down a single tone of pencil and then used a rubber to create the lines to look like a feather. i think this was effective as it shows the delicate nature of the feather.

Pen

 I chose pen for this drawing as it suited the object i was drawing. when using pen i tent to keep to straight lines and the glass block was formed from straight lines.

Charcoal

Pencil

Pencil

Charcoal and white chalk (requires further development)

Pencil

 In this drawing I focused on a corner of a stamp and tried to show as much detail as i could. I think this method could work well in the future if i continue to look at an object in detail rather than focus in the who;e thing.

Fine liner and water

Pencil

Pen 

 This was a continuous line drawing done in pen. I gave myself a time limit which is why some details where left out.i think working with a time limit is useful as it forces you to hurry and you end up creating more interesting and expressive marks, also you get alot more work done in a d=shorter time slot.

Pen

For this page I used one medium, pen. i focused on 3 separate sections yet very different of a tree and drew them in a style to reflect there nature. For the branches I used expressive quick marks as I thought it would be the quickest and best way to represent the busy and hectic branches. For the leaf (middle) i took my time and used careful little harks to try to show how delicate the leaf was. For the bark (left) i used thick heavy lines that were rigid and sold to show the toughness of the bark. I think changing drawing style to suit the object/scene you are drawing is very use full as it gives the work more depth and thought which engages the artist and viewer more.

Observations.

I started by choosing the question ‘contradictions`. I began by creating some observational drawing of objects to try to understand how they could contradict each other not only by what kind of object they are but by creating marks and tones to represent them. By doing this the piece of art will gain new depth as an observer wound have to properly observe the art to understand why  it is contradicting.

Guy Laramee creates sculptures of landscapes in various materials, mainly books, and makes the landscape look realistic as possible.

This artist’s work drew me in as the work looks almost as if it was a photo of a landscape up close The work also contradicts its self in a way as Laramee is trying to create a realistic natural looking sculpture on a man-made material.

(1)  Guy Lamamee, ‘Serra Gaucha` (date unknown)

In this piece Laramee has recreated a mountain side amazingly, if it wasn’t for the visible book pages people might even think it was a photo.  I realise that in my controlled assessment I will not have enough time to do anything quite as accurate as this. I am also aware that I lack the skill and experience to do a sculpture of that accuracy but I may be able to study them and draw a similar style to the sculptures.

  (2) Katharina Chapuis, ‘Untitled #SQ-BG9`, (2009), oil on camvas

I have also thought about looking at colours and how they interact with each other as Katharina Chapuis does. I would like to see if certain colours oppose each other and have a contradictory relationship.  It appears that Chapuis uses very strong bold colours around the outside of the paper and uses light hues of the colours towards the centre of the paper.

(3) Sophia Jodoin, ‘Helmets and gasmasks`, (2007-09), N/A

Another direction I have thought of taking the controlled assessment is photo realism. Sophia Jodoin has drawn a helmet in this sketch that looks almost real. The black and white almost contradict each other as they are complete polar opposites in terms of colour.

I shall continue with my observational studies of object for now and eventually experiment with each artists style to help me find my own and to help guide me in a certain direction.

References:

(1): http://www.guylaramee.com/index.php/lineage/adieu/

(2): http://katharinachapuis.com/paintings/archive

(3): http://sophiejodoin.com/site/oeuvres-works/

Evaluation

My theme from the start of the course work has been faded as it was the one I found most interesting and the theme I could do the most with. At the start of the course I was taught to look at things in a different way, not just see them for what they are but how they could be turned into pieces of art other than just drawing them for what they are. Also I was shown how to study objects and observe them in a way that could make them a lot more interesting as a piece of work. All this lead me to doing semi-abstract landscape paintings.

During the course I studied a lot of artists including: Leonardo Da Vinci, Matt Flint, Squeak Carnwath, Michael Albert and Betsy Albert. All these artists lead me in the direction of expressive semi-abstract art where I found Christopher Mathie, I studied Mathie’s work and found the way he deconstructs an image and focuses on the line, colours and flow of the scene inspired me. He uses varying directions of brush strokes to create a sense of movement in his piece. He also uses different hues of colours that harmonise together. I was able to use that effect with reds and whites in my piece by applying a base coat of white paint, then applying red paint on top and mixed the paint together on the board. This created a gradual blend of the two colours.

For my final piece I am basing it of off and image I captured of a scene in Bradgate Park which I applied a filter too to give it a more interesting range of colours and to make it more striking. I am using acrylic paint to create the piece which for me is challenging to use as I am very in experienced with paint having never used it properly up until now. I find it hard to use as it is harder to get the tones and marks you want compared to a media I am very familiar with e.g. pencil. Although I find it hard to work with I find it very rewarding when I get the effect I was after; such as using  layers of paint to create marks and texture, also using washes of paint to a bring out colours from previous layers.

Whilst creating my piece I am able to make it personal to me as it being an semi-abstract piece I can add in colours that I think will add to the composition even if they aren’t there in the image thus making it more personal to me as other people might not have made certain decisions I have whilst creating the piece, for instance I used a red for the sky as if I had used the yellow it was in the image of the scene it would have made the piece to yellow and bland. Also the location of the scene (Bradgate Park) is personal for me as I have been there quite a lot and have a lot of faded memories of the place from when I was younger.

If I were to do another final piece I would do a lot more experiments with the media I am using beforehand as some difficulties can crop up when you haven’t used to media much and things can start to go wrong or there might have been a better way to use it. I would have also improved my planning of time as I sometimes had to rush things due to a lack of planning

Christopher Mathie – Ebb and flow of salt water II, mixed media on canvas (date unknown) http://www.christophermathie.com/abstractFIX-9-2012.html

Christopher Mathie uses mixed media which mainly involves oil paint.  He paints very quickly and freely whilst creating his pieces, this gives them an organic and rough look. He also sprays water onto the paint as he is painting, this makes the paint run and become thinner which makes it slightly translucent so it can show the layers below.

Mathie deconstructs images to their most basic form of just line and organic shapes and then tries to capture the movement and energy of the scene.

This piece (Ebb and flow of salt water II) is of a beach scene.  There are browns at the bottom left of the piece that represents the beach, and then towards the right and upper part of the piece he uses different tones of blue to show the sky and sea hitting the rocks on the right hand side that are black. There are tones of white and blue near/on the rocks that are the waves hitting the rocks.

Line has been used throughout the piece. Mathie uses the direction of line to create a sense of movement in the painting with the sea sloshing around and hitting the rocks. Mathie has also used tone very well in this piece. There are a variety of tones of brown in the bottom left corner that shows where the beach is lightest. Likewise in the sea, tone has been used to give a sense of waves and movement. Also Mathie uses a strong contrast of tones on the rocks as they are very dark and the waves that are hitting them are white.  Mathie has also used colour very well in this painting as the colours are in balance as no colour is overpowering.

This piece is composed well as the hue of the colours are gradual and soft, also the piece has a big patch of brown at the bottom left but Mathie has added a lighter shade of brown to the top right in the sky to balance it out. Mathie has also done the same thing with the white clouds in the top left, so the waves crashing against the rocks in the bottom right are of the same shade of white to keep a harmony within the colours. The piece is broken into thirds horizontally, with the darkest overall third being the darkest and it generally getting lighter towards the top.

I think Mathie has created this piece to show and emphasis the movement of the sea hitting rocks which is normally something you wouldn’t notice as much just from looking at it normally.

I find Mathie`s work very interesting, especially the abstract marks he creates to form an overall beautiful piece of art work. Also I find the way he looks at things in a different way he can create a whole new exciting scene with paint. Finally his work can relate to my general theme as the original image is lost within the expressive mark making and only the faded traces remain of it.