More artist experiments

After carrying out experiments influenced by Scott Naismith, I decided to move on and try to understand Vytautas Kasiulis's style better. Kasiulis is indeed an artist who's style is very lively and expressive and personally harder to adapt to landscapes, however the knowledge of observing his paintings in his museum have helped during these experiments. 

My starting point was to observe one of his paintings called 'Šokis' (The Dance)  which I got an opportunity to view. For this drawing I wanted to understand how Kasiulis painted his characters and adapted them to the background. Hence I focused on the dancing man on on the left side of the painting, however instead of using paint I decided to try and use another media that Kasiulis often uses which is oil pastels. I chose oil pastels mostly because they are bright and make very clear and bold marks and lines on paper.

(Media used; brown paper, oil pastels, plain paper, acrylic paint, biro pen, hairspray)

I discovered that oil pastels are quite a good media to use to recreate Kasiulis's style, however not something I would particularly choose to use in landscape paintings. Once I finished observing the section of Kasiulis's painting, which I chose to draw on brown paper because it added tone and depth to the drawing, I decided to glue the brown piece of paper to my sketchbook on a white painted background, however it did seem to lack of detail and looked quite dull. Hence I decide to incorporate Scott Namiths style into this drawing, as previous studies had taught me that layering sections of the paper can make the page more lively and colourful. Once I layered the paint I also went round sections of the paint with a biro pen and hairspray, as I have done this technique on quite several of my other experiment and it turner out to effectively highlight and bring out sections of the artwork. 

(On the left Vytautas Kasiulis 'Šokis' (The Dance) oil on canvas, taken in Vytautas Kasiulis Art Muesum, on the right, Scott Naismith 'Red Burst' Oil on canvas, 30 x 30cm (1)

I proceeded to look at another painting by Kasiulis called 'Gatves scena' (Street scene) 

(Media used; acrylic paint and oil pastel on paper)

(Above Vytautas Kasiulis 'Gatves scena' (Street scene) 1950's, pastels on paper,  taken in Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum)

I tried to work similarly as the artist would have worked, I stated off by painting my background with vertical brush strokes, making sure thick paintbrush lines are visible showing different tones. Once under base had dried I painted another layer of acrylic paint, but this time in a more turquoise colour than before and making the brush strokes horizontal this time, as Kasiulis also painted his paintings so that there would be a clear contrast between two layers of paint on the canvas. I then once again observed one section of his painting which I drew over the background using oil pastels. Although that was initially all I planed to draw and paint on this page, I felt that this painting was incomplete, hence I decided to cover it up partially with some white acrylic paint along with a few marks around the page of green acrylic paint. The end result is seen on the right side of the image above. I like the fact that the image I drew before still comes through the paint that I applied on top, however it is distorted and unclear, but even then I know there is something there. In a way it resembles memories, because I have viewed  'Gatves scena'  in Kasiulis museum, however months have passed and although I remember the painting it is vague and not as detailed in my memory as it would be from viewing it. 

Overall I think this painting has given my theme a deeper meaning. I am still focusing my theme on abstract landscapes, however I want to embrace them through feeling, colours and memories as of what I feel and remember every time I think of a specific place in my home country.

Bellow is another quick experiment I carried out in Kasiulis's style

I used the same paint as for the piece of work seen previously, all I wanted to achieve with this is to see how different tones of green mixed with other colours and media will appear on the acrylic paint. It is a tester to help identify the best media and technique.

Whilst experimenting in Kasiulis's style, I decided to go back to Joseph M.W. Turners style, and create a watercolour painting on paper using a panorama photograph I have taken in Vilnius, Lithuania. However I believe this painting has a lot of problems with it and has not got a good outcome as expected.

(On the left photograph of Vilnius panorama, taken by me, on the right Joseph Mallord William Turner ' A Conflagration, Lausanne' Watercolour on paper (3)

The main mistakes I made whilst painting this was the fact that I painted a landscape painting of a landscape photograph on a portrait page. Hence buildings, distances and proportions are not drawn or space out right making the painting look pressed together. Another downside is the fact that I decided to paint a modern city in an artist style who painted buildings of the time over 200 years ago, the painting may have turned out more effective if I would have painted in a style of a contemporary artist style, or painted parts of old town, where the buildings have been round for over a century. 

I also found it difficult to paint in watercolour as it became quite dirty as the colours started mixing together. 

For next time wherever with Turner's style I should try to focus on the actual lights and colours of the subject matter rather than buildings or any other precise details. 

I have also found a description which says Turner was 'known as 'the painter of light', because of his increasing interest in brilliant colours as the main constituent in his landscapes and seascapes.' Which in fact relates strongly to the concept of my theme of observing environment of a surrounding or landscape through colours and marks of different media. 

I also discovered Turner is classified as a English Romantic artist. Romanticism was an art, music and literature movement of the 18th and 19th century. Romanticism was considered and opposite to Neoclassicism (which was also a dominant European movement). Romanticism focused on nature being seen as a natural environment and focused on individuals their originality of imagination and experiments, it allowed organic development and emotion. Whereas Neoclassicism focused on human nature, precision, logic, rules, orders, traditions and imitation, which categorised as 'emotional restraint'. 

Since reading about this movement I have gained a better understanding of the type of artist Turner may have been and how he saw art. As Romantic's were not afraid to experiment and be creative, they had no specific rules as to subject mater or beauty as they expressed it in their own way. Which I think is quite inspiring to be more creative and free to express ideas and a personal style the way I want to. 

All three styles

Whenever I went through all the artist styles and processes in order to gain understanding and develop my own personal style, I decided to even further refine and combine the three artist styles and inspirations to create work that is more personal and independent.

Bellow is the process of my works development as I combined the styles together. I used watercolours, coloured chalk, ink, acrylic paint on paper.

Here is the second page in the same style. I used acrylic paint, coloured chalk, ink, a burner on paper.

Here are the artist paintings that I took inspiration from;

(On the left, Vytautas Kasiulis 'Mulen Ružas' (Moulin Rouge) oil on canvas, 1980's,  taken in Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum, and on the right, Scott Naismith 'Diminuendo Shore'  oil and acrylic on canvas 40 x 40cm (2)

(Above Joseph Mallord William Turner 'Colour Beginning' c.1820, Watercolour on paper, Support: 335 x 423 mm (4)

For this painting I focused on a photograph I have taken from an air plane, I chose this photograph in particular because of the subtle and soft colours that the sky has created, It is interesting how there is mixture between cold colours such as light blue and the warmer colours such as peachy yellow and light pink, it can give off mixed emotions of the surrounding. 

(On the left image A, on the left image B)

To begin with both experiments that are pictured above have been created using the same type of process, there we only a few variables as to media used, but not significant difference. My main inspiration for creating the backgrounds was Joseph M. W. Turner's painting called 'Colour Beginning'. It is really subtle and simplistic however it gives of positive vibes and modesty which I liked as I didn't want the background to over power the details that I added later.
For my first attempt image B I began by applying light purple watercolour in the middle in the page, I applied it free hand allowing it to look messy and more free flow. Whereas for image A I didn't apply any watercolour as I wanted to see the difference. For image B I then applied colourful chalk onto the watercolour, I chose purple shades with  a bit of yellow and light pink, however purple was dominant, because coloured chalk was quite bright I applied a thin layer of white acrylic over it. For image A I also applied coloured chalk however I applied it straight onto plain paper, and I chose more yellowish tones with a hit of pink and purple, I also applied white acrylic paint. After completing the backgrounds of the sky I began to focus on brief detail from the phonograph which is  white clouds.  To create the clouds I took inspiration from Naismith's painting 'Diminuendo Shore' as to how he layers sections of the canvas, however I also looked at how Kasiulis has painted separated fine dots in the painting  'Mulen Ružas'. Hence I took into account how I compose and space out the patched of layered paint over the sheet, I applied both bigger and more textured patches as well as small less detailed ones in little clusters. To finish off I poured on some ink onto the page and let it drip off freely, this exposed and made the page stand out more. For image A I also used a burner to slightly burn the page and create a warm yellowish tones, I also added some burgundy patches of acrylic paint to add warmth. 

In result separately these pages may resemble the sky less, however one they are looked at together they compliment each other, as to image A having warmer tones and image B having colder ones, just like the sky does.

Overall these two experiments showed me a very unique way of recreating an image through colour, feelings and memory. It also supports my abstract landscape theme as it it is rich in indirect or clear details. I also like how these pages seem misleading to others, although I know it is paintings of a sky, a few people have said that they look like cherry blossom trees, which is interesting, as in a way it means my work shows different aspects of landscape in one image, yet leaving the viewer to question what they see.



References;

1) Scott Naismith 'Red Burst' http://scottnaismith.com/30cm-red-burst/
2) Scott Naismith 'Diminuendo Shore' http://scottnaismith.com/diminuendo-shore-40cm/
3) Joseph Mallord William Turner ' A Conflagration, Lausanne' http://www.william-turner.org/A-Conflagration,-Lausanne.html
4) Joseph Mallord William Turner 'Colour Beginning' http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-colour-beginning-d17180

Progression of experiments

Ever since gathering my artist research and Ideas, I have started making progress in my sketchbook by experimenting with various media, colours, textures and artist styles.
For the first pages I decided to focus on a Joseph M.W. Turner, and his technique of watercolour painting. For these two pages the media I used was: watercolours, hairspray, pen, pencil, tea stain.
Which were inspired by two of his paintings called  'The Burning of the Houses of Parliament'  and  'An Italian Castle above a River'. The main purpose for the first page was to use watercolour in a blurry and unclear way, yet still show the subject matter. For both of the pages I used pictures I have taken in Lithuania to observe and draw. I found out that painting and drawing naturalistic scenery was easier than man made buildings, as trees and other plants allowed me to paint and draw more free hand allowing my watercolour paintings to flow organically.

(On the left Joseph Mallord William Turner 'The Burning of the Houses of Parliament' Watercolour and gouache on paper, c.1834–5 (5) On the right Joseph Mallord William Turner 'An Italian Castle above a River' (6)

I then began looking at Scott Naismith's style and techniques (Sketchbook images bellow). I though the best idea would be to go straight for the media he uses the most, which is oil paint. I wanted to understand more clearly what it is like to layer paint over each other, hence I for inspiration I focused on Naismith's painting called  'Diminuendo Shore'. However there was a down side to this as oil paint takes long to dry hence the paint started to smudge and the colours were not clean, as they began mixing together, due to this I painted over some of the oil paint with white acrylic paint to tone down the page and make it less intense and bright. Another down side was that instead of using a canvas, I used oil paint on paper, which meant that the oil paint started coming through to the other side of the page(image on the right) . At first It didn't look appealing, however I then discovered that Naismith has a painting called 'Optimism Scotland' which is a painting of a map of Scotland, which also resembled a photograph I have taken from an airplane during my holidays. Hence by taking some ideas from Naismith's work and my own photographs I started going round the outline of the oil paint with a pen and spraying it with hairspray in order make the page stand out quite boldly. This gave me an idea of two sided paintings. Where one side of the page can be deceiving to the other.

(On the left is an image I took from an aeroplane, on the left, Scott Naismith 'Diminuendo Shore'  oil and acrylic on canvas 40 x 40cm(1)

(Scott Naismith  'Optimism Scotland' Oil on linen , 80 x 120 cm (2)
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
I then repeated the technique again focusing on my own photograph of a sandy beach 
(Images bellow).  However this time instead of applying small patches of different colours of paint, I mainly used blue, purple and white oil paint, which I blended out on the page smoothly and I tinted the paint to create different tones to represent the sky (image on the left and the middle). I then tried to paint the sand  in Naismith's style of layering patches of paint, however it didn't turn out right, hence I covered the paint with white acrylic paint, which created a rougher and more bumpy texture which in a way represents the sand quite well , and then I applied some tea stain to create a sandy tone. The picture on the right side, shows the outcome of the oil paint once again coming through on the other side of the page. It is interesting how originally the colours I used are purple and blue,  but  on the other side they come through as yellow and green. This time due to smoothing the colours out, the colours on the other side appear quite subtle. I then again went over them with some biro and hairspray, to make the page stand out a little bit more. I did discover that the image on the right resembles Joseph M.W. Turner's painting called 'Fire at the Grand Storehouse of the Tower of London'. This has taught me of an interesting and unique way of combining two artist styles together to represent landscapes, in a quite indirect way. 

(Media used for work above; Oil paint, tea stain, acrylic paint, biro pen, hairspray on paper)

(Media used for work above; acrylic paint, biro pen, hairspray on paper)

Since trying out oil paint, I decided it would be best to also try acrylic paint, which is another media Naismith uses. For this page I focused on the colours of his painting called 'Cumulus Light 2' which is full of deep and lively mixture of colours that portrait the sky during sunset. This experiment clearly proved to me, that acrylic paint unlike oil paint, has the property to dry very quickly, which had allowed me to layer paint onto the page, without the colours smudging or mixing together. However unlike oil paint, the acrylic paint I used did not show through on the other side of the page, although this is a good thing for some work, I personally liked the see through effect that oil paint created, as it allowed my work to represent two perspectives of landscapes. Oil paint is also much more creamy and thick than acrylic paint, hence it can be applied onto media so that there is a bumpy or uneven texture to the artwork which makes it more interesting, whereas with acrylic paint most of the time when I applied the paint it would be quite flat and smooth surfaced, unless applied in larger amounts or more layers. 

This experiment has led me to think that to achieve the best results it may be best to use both oil and acrylic paint together, as each has good qualities that the other one may not. However I most importantly discovered that working in acrylic paint is more convenient and practical, as well as less time consuming. 

(Above, Scott Naismith 'Cumulus light 2' oil on linen, 80 x 120 cm (3)

For the two pages bellow (both with the green and the pink backgrounds) I decided to take all of the understating and techniques I have discovered from my previous work into consideration and refine it, to make it even more personal. My theme is 'Abstract Landscapes' however for me It was vital to firstly understand ways of creating effective backgrounds that consist of textures before beginning to properly making my focus points natural and landscapes. 

For Both experiments my inspiration was Naismith's painting called  'A Different Perspective'. However unlike the artist, I decided to make my work brighter and more colourful through out the page. 

(Above, Scott Naismith  'A Different Perspective' oil on linen, 80 x 80 cm (4) 

Here is what my first experiment turned out as bellow. I used acrylic paint, PVA glue, biro pen and hairspray on paper. 

Originally this page was suppose to be slightly different, as I did try gluing down plastic bags with PVA glue onto the paper, which I then would have painted over with acrylic paint. However it did not stick down as desired, hence I removed the plastic bags, however the PVA glue remained hence why the bottom left side of the page is quite cracked and uneven, however this added an interesting and unique texture to the surface of the paper. I then continued by applying some green paint which I tried to apply with a gradual shade of tone from light to dark green, this was also inspired by the painting of Lee Ufan ‘From Line’ which I viewed in London Tate Museum, Ufan makes his painting appear gradually decreasing in colour and paint, which is what I in a way tried to achieve with my background. However unlike Ufan who made long downward lines on a canvas until the paint on the paintbrush would be used up, I did not do that, but did make it appear as if that was the case, however it didn't look as effective.  I then continued to work in Scott Naismith's style, by layering acrylic paint onto the page. I didn't cover the whole page because the previous page that I had pained had showed me that a page covered completely in patched of paint may be overwhelming. Whereas balancing out both a visible background and some layered paint in sections of the page is more effective. Because the background turned out to be quite a dark green, I decided that the colours of the layered paint should also be slightly darker, with more grey and brown tones. To finish the painting off, I went over the cracks in the paper with a biro pen and then sprayed hairspray over it to add some detail and depth and make the cracks stand out. Later on I also noticed that some of the acrylic paint has chipped of the page, revealing white paper, I actually find this quite interesting as it reveals the original surface of the background. 

Here is the second experiment in the same style. I used acrylic paint, PVA glue, biro pen and hairspray on paper. 

Unlike the other experiment, for this one it was much easier to apply the pink paint to create the background, firstly because the surface of the paper was clean with no glue or other media already on it, also I found out that making a gradual colour change background with lighter colours such as a baby pink, was much easier to achieve than with darker green paint. I did have some problems with the green paint smudging from the other page onto the pink background, however I covered it up when I was layering the paint. For this experiment i tried layering a smaller section of the page. However I don't believe it looks as interesting or effective as the other experiment does, this could be due to more empty space remaining, making the page look quite plain and incomplete. I then tried to create a texture with PVA glue however on top of acrylic paint rather than under the PVA looks quite messy and unappealing. Overall this painting lacks of detail and will have to be improved.

Since beginning my experiments I have already gained a lot of knowledge as to how media can be presented in my work to match my theme, I will take what I have already learnt and keep improving it as well as combining it with new techniques I am still to discover, which will help me later on when planing my final piece. 

References;

1) Scott Naismith 'Diminuendo Shore' http://scottnaismith.com/diminuendo-shore-40cm/
2) Scott Naismith  'Optimism Scotland'  http://scottnaismith.com/80-x-120cm-optimism-scotland/
3) Scott Naismith 'Cumulus light 2' http://scottnaismith.com/80-x-120cm-cumulus-light-2/
4) Scott Naismith  'A Different Perspective' http://scottnaismith.com/80-x-80cm-a-different-perspective/

5) Joseph Mallord William Turner 'The Burning of the Houses of Parliament'  http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-burning-of-the-houses-of-parliament-d36235

6) Joseph Mallord William Turner 'An Italian Castle above a River' http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-an-italian-castle-above-a-river-tw1675