Happy Tears

I tried something new in today’s lesson which was all about collagraph prints, and the pictures I show here are what I made in class without any preparation. I cut out some thin layers and tore them out carefully otherwise the spaces would be empty instead.

My project for print-making is mainly self-portrait, and I also do some prints reflecting self as well. Two different tones of colours, warm and cool colours are used here to show my positive and negative feeling. There’s both positive and negative side in those prints as flowers are known for happiness (as I believe), but here they are just like tears (which are known for sadness).

I know sometimes it’d be good to create some works quickly and immediately without preparation, so I’m gonna try it next time again, and I hope that they will be good enough to share to you all 

360° Film

My very first film is now on here! It’s just 24-second fast-motioned short film recorded how my camera and I see the Castle Park. I’m gonna make something even special next time! Check hereto see the process and my ideas behind this film.

360° Photography

360° will be a still film that I made with 60 pictures (it’s still in the process in the moment). Ideas come from how my camera and I see the world. I took these picture in the Castle Garden in the afternoon while I was standing and holding my camera in the same position, turning 360 degree and taking these 60 pictures.

The film of 360° is gonna be up next week, and I can now show you some of the pictures from the video.

    

What do you think? Isn’t it beautiful? I like this park so much as I can avoid the crowd and breathe some fresh air there! It’s a good place to do still life drawing and painting as well!

Visiting Tate Modern in London

I spent 4 hours in Tate Modern because there was a lot of exhibitions and I also went to the special event which was about art therapy. (It was a one-day special event, and it was free of charge! I didn’t know that before I came there, how lucky I was!)

The event was so interactive and people can talk and share their artworks and their feelings towards art. I found it really interesting because there was some small workshops that I could actually create artworks with different people in the meantime.

I have never been to neither Australia nor desert, but this landscape painting by Sidney Nolan is overwhelmingly majestic and it shows the silence of Australian desert as well. He was one of Australia’s best known painter and print-maker who was born in Australia and worked in Australia and London. This painting belongs to a series of aerial landscapes that he made in a three-month journey across Australia.

Sidney Nolan
Inland Australia 1950
Oil paint on hardboard

Max Ernst was a German artist who was primary pioneer of the surrealism.  He created this ruined “cityscape” with a technique that Ernst called ‘grattage’, which is scraping. It involved placing the canvas over planks of wood or other textured surfaces, and then scraping paint across it, and its shape formed the basis of the image. This type of technique was one of techniques that surrealist artists explored as a way of blending their work.

Max Ernst
The Entire City 1934
La Ville entiere
Oil paint on paper on canvas

This is one of a series of seascapes A-F which Emil Nolde painted while staying on the island of Sylt in northern Germany. Nolde was a German Danish painter and print-maker and is considered to be one of the great oil painting and water-colour painters of the 20th century. He is known for his vigorous brushwork and expressive choice of colours. Golden yellows is one of the colours which appears frequently in his work, giving a luminous quality to otherwise somber tones. He also did flower paintings which showed his interest in the art of Vincent van Gogh.

Emil Nolde
The Sea B 1930
Meer B
Oil paint on canvas

This is definitely my favourite from the pictures I chose to post here. I never thought of tea stain could also be the “colour” for painting before I’ve seen this! I’m gonna try something like that with print-making later!

Nicholas Hlobo is a South Africa based artist who likes to create artwork with different materials such as rubber inner tubes, ribbon, organza, lace and found objects.

The title, Macaleni iintozomlambo, refers to a traditional Xhosa belief whereby boys would throw rocks into the river before skinny dipping as a sign of respect towards the river.

Nicholas Hlobo
Macaleni Iintozomlambo 2010
Ribbon and tea on paper

The painting below used two basic elements which are the straight line and the curve as a starting point to create simple shapes, and it looks complicated and amazing.

Saloua Raouda Choucair
Composition in Blue Module 1947-51
Oil paint on canvas

There were loads of amazing artwork in Tate Modern,  and most of the exhibitions are free. Click here to see more details if you are interested. 

Frieze Art Fair 2014

I went to the Frieze Art Fair at Regent’s Park today. Overall, I like this fair because there were loads of amazing artworks in a variety of forms and presentations. However, first thing that I don’t like was the floor plan of this exhibition. When I entered to the exhibition without a guidance, I didn’t even know where I should first start my journey there. I think they should provide something like the arrows to guide people and it would be easier to not get lost. (I was totally lost and I think I missed a lot.)

Second thing would be the ticket price, I got mine £37.5 without any discount because the student ticket was sold out…  I think I would go there again if I could get a student ticket next year otherwise I couldn’t afford it a second time. They shouldn’t limit the amount of student ticket and they could actually check our student card to prove that ‘We are student’.

Anyway, if you haven’t been there before, I suggest that you go there at least once. However, you might need to go there next year as the last day of Frieze Art Fair 2014 will be tomorrow. Click here to see more details of the one in the coming year.

Marina Abramović is a performance artist based in New York. Her work explores the relationship between performer (usually herself) and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind. The Garden of Maitreya is one of the pictures from her series of performance art – Places of Power. We are tiny, as comparing to the world, the places of power showed the limits of our body.  Abramović is right in the middle of her picture to prove that how The Garden of Maitreya is powerful.

Marina AbramovićPlaces of Power, The Garden of Maitreya, 2013
Pigment Print
63 × 83 ^9/10 in
160 × 213 cm

Alex Prager is a young American art photographer and filmmaker who lives and works in Los Angeles. Her photographs were first created with a history of Hollywood and its photography, and also the cinematic image in art contexts. She tended to make her works exaggerated and costumed in order to speak to the ambiguity of seduction and spectacle.

Alex Prager
Untitled (Parts 1 & 3), 2014
Edition of 6

Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist and art collector. White Cube 2014 was the latest artwork that he made this year. This work is very inspiring as I couldn’t believe that almost everything can become an art piece as long as you are creative. It just looks like a map of an urbanized city that is taken from the sky.

Damien Hirst
White Cube 2014
Scalpel blades, skin graft blades, zips, stitching needles, aluminium filings, stainless steel studs and glass paint on canvas
72 x 108 in. (182.9 x 274.3 cm)

Charles Thomas, as known as Chuck Close, is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist. He is known for portrait painting just like the one below. When I first saw this piece, I didn’t even take a closer look of the name of its artwork but I could tell this is Kate Moss, an international famous super-model. Also, I thought it was something made by photoshop at the very first beginning, but it is actually an painting.

Chuck Close
Kate 2013

Did you also go to the Frieze Art Fair this year? What do you think?

Jerwood Drawing Prize 2014

Drawing is definitely my favourite! (By comparing to the subject of Len-based & Print-making) I wish I could have been more and more drawing-based exhibition! Jerwood Drawing Prize exhibition ends on 26 October 2014, so if you still haven’t been there, please go visit or you will miss a lot! Click here for more details.

The first one I saw was by Alan Bond, he lives and works from St. Margaret’s House Studio in Edinburgh. He is the founder of Seven Seven Contemporary Art, which is a gallery with strong international links and private galleries. These simple airplane paintings look like prints too, and you cannot actually tell if they are really airborne or not.

Alan Bond
Airborne
Watercolour and pencil

Another work that I found it so impressive was a lot of birds drawn on the cloth. I never thought of drawing on cloth but on paper only. Drawing is simple but when it comes with a special way of expression, it becomes something unique. Shivangi Ladha‘s work is about her own relationship with animals in different cultures, which based on her personal experiences, life journeys, how and what she observes. She tried to experience the environment the animals live in and made response by creating artworks. As her empathy towards animals deepens when time passes, she believes “All life forms are equal and share the same conscience”.

Shivangi Ladha
Shroud of sparrow
Pen on cloth

This is my favourite one from the Jerwood Drawing Prize exhibition. It is an Oak tree drawing with graphite on paper by Hannah Downing. She is a young artist who is currently studying a Master degree in Fine Art and she specialized in drawing as well as painting. She also uses collage as a way of exploring themes associated with realism. I like her works so much as you can see her drawing is so detailed and real. I can tell she spent a lot of time on her work. My works are inspired by her because I like to do my drawing with realism as well.

Hannah Downing
Vertical panorama: Oak tree
Graphite on paper

Jessie Brenan‘s drawing practice focuses on social history of places, and I found her work look so 3D exactly like a real historical building.

Jessie Brennan
Apostelstraat 20
Graphite on paper

I can’t wait to see the next Jerwood Drawing Prize!

Visiting Tate Britain in London

I went to Tate Britain for the Exhibition of Late Turner and Turner Prize. I got the combination ticket for £14.50 (without donation) which is cheaper than a single one. Unfortunately, it is not allowed to take picture in those two exhibition, so I can’t show you some great paintings from them. Late Turner is the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to Turner’s late work. If you are interested in 18th century paintings, they are 100% for you. More details please click here.

Don’t worry! I’ve still got some pictures from the permanent exhibition!

Break Off 1961 is an oil painting on canvas by Gillian Ayres, an English painter. Also, she was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1989.

Melanie and Me Swimming 1978-9 is an acrylic painting on canvas by Michael Andrews who was a British painter. His paintings evolved from real life, such as photographs of people and places with his memories. This painting is based on a photograph of Andrews and his daughter – Melanie swimming together. I love it at first sight because I think it is so alive and I felt so warm when I saw it.

Can you tell that it’s a silkscreen if I didn’t mention? I thought it is a photographic instead! This is an acrylic screen-printing by John Stezaker in 1978-9. This art piece goes straight to my inspiration both for photography and print-making! He is a British conceptual artist.

The last piece I found it really interesting is a photograph by Mona Hatoum in 1985 named as Performance Still, and Hatoum later did a gelatin silver print and mounted on aluminium on paper in 1995. She is a video and installation artist who currently lives in London. There is a lot of meanings behind this simple picture which is somehow inspired me, and I believe that different viewers could gain something different too.

I am gonna be the one who is leading those shoes instead of being their follower.

Visiting Saatchi Gallery in London

Saatchi Gallery is a must-go gallery in London. I spent almost 2 hours and more there. There was a variety of artworks with different forms and styles! I’m sure that there would have something which interests you! Click here to see their news and plan your visit now.

5 Sculptures were made by iron which are outside the gallery - Guardianes 2010 byXavier Mascaró, who lives and works in Madrid. A lot of sculptures by Mascaró with traditional casting techniques have exhibited in Los Angeles, Madrid, New York and Paris. Those five sculptures look exactly the same with each other. What I like most is how Mascaro made them look so old and antique, and they really look like some treasure from 100,000 decade ago in China.

Site-specific oil-installation 20:50, used sump oil and steel, dimensions variable, was first created by Richard Wilson in 1987 and was shown as a permanent installation atSaatchi Gallery. Wilson lives and works in London who is one of Britain’s famous sculptor and installation artist. When I first saw this installation, I found it really futuristic. I like the reflection from the oil and I believed that it was a huge mirror instead at the very first beginning. It looks really amazing.

Antonio Malta Campos is a Brazilian artist who is specialized in painting. You can see he began with a single pattern in his artwork, and transparencies of each colour layers made light and shadow stand out. I really like his geomagnetic painting and how he mix-and-matches the colours and it looks really extraordinary because of the forms, transparencies and also colour combination.

Antonio Malta Campos
Black & Blue
2007
Acrylic on canvas
230 x 360 cm

Another paintings by Antonio Malta Campos is presenting the soundless conversation between a couple in a painting with the effect of abstract and figurative elements. Again, the colour combination of these two art pieces are brilliant.

Antonio Malta Campos
Figures in Red
2004
Oil on canvas
230 x 360 cm

Antonio Malta Campos
Figures in Red #2
2004
Oil on canvas
230 x 360 cm

This is one of my favourite mixed media artwork from the whole gallery which is made by Aboudia, who is from Abidjan and works there as well. I think that the oversized skulls are his symbol and you could actually see a lot of skulls in his painting, which I found it really interesting as he put a wide range of colours on his paintings, but they still look depressing rather than happy.

Aboudia
Enfants dans la Rue 2
2013
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas
125 x 200 cm

I was speechless when I saw the installations of hundreds (or more) of sculptural giant ants in a spacious room which is specially only for them. They are just too real, especially when you took a closer on each of them. I thought I was in a film production studio in Hollywood. Rafael Gómezbarros, who made them all alive because he is intended to let us know that we should be aware of death of violence. He also exhibited them onto some historical buildings before. The effect wouldn’t be so good if there was only one ant in a room, I think this is just insane when they come together. How awesome they are.

Rafael Gómezbarros
Casa Tomada
2013
Resin, Fiber Glass, Madera, Screen Cotton, Cuerda Arenas, Cerrejón Coal
Body:50 x 20 x 50; Legs 90 x 50 cms

In the following pictures are some photographs by Davide Monteleone, is an Italian editorial photographer who pursues his long-term personal projects. He won numerous awards because of his personal projects, including various World Press Photo prizes and several grants like “Aftermath” and the European Publisher Award. The pictures he took in black-and-white made thing clear and precise.

Davide Monteleone
Spasibo
4^th laureate of the Carmignac Gestion
Photojournalism Award

There is a lot of amazing artworks in Saatchi Gallery! I believe that if I have time, I would definitely go there again!