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.