Monday 29 October 2012

Research Object 5- Nancy Burson



For my last research object, I am looking at Nancy Burson. Burson is a renowned artist, the work I am most familiar of are her photo-manipulated portraits. The people Burson used for these manipulations were mostly famous actors, actresses or world leaders. For one of here pieces she used photos of Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, Hitler and Khomeini. The final image produced is absolutely astonishing. The fact that the portrait resembles all of them but you cannot really see any of them as individuals is very impressive. 

I recently worked on a brief in which I had to create one image that represented my personality but using Photoshop to manipulate it. I used Burson as inspiration and research and produced an image that was in some ways inspired by her work. My image consisted of 7 faces in which are my siblings, but I layered them to make one. The difference in my work was that I made it clear that I used different layers, as I wanted the audience to see the process and the construction of it.





Name- 'seven', Produced 2012, created using torch lighting, SLR Digital camera and photoshop. 

Thursday 25 October 2012

Research Object 4- Carol Naylor



Carol Naylor is an established textiles artist whom I studied a lot throughout my second year of a-level. I focused on her work, as I love the techniques she uses and the way she uses really beautiful colours on her wall hangings and other pieces. For my project I decided to make a table set, but using techniques I had seen Naylor use. I loved the way her pieces looked and how beautifully composed they were and wanted to bring that to my work. Although I wasn’t making a wall hanging, I definitely wanted to show the artistic side to my table set by almost portraying Naylor’s techniques on to my own work.

Her work is definitely something I will never forget as it was a great influence on my own, and I am so happy with the outcome of my piece in which got me a final exam grade of A. I believe that her techniques are beautiful as are her pieces and really aspire to use them a lot more within my textile work. Naylor is a great artist and I thank her for the inspiration. 

Below are some images of my final works for that project; I produced a tablecloth, a seat cushion, a table runner, napkin, table mat and a coaster. All were produced using techniques such as embroidery, applique, fabric painting, beading, reverse applique, stitching and all on a large scale based on cotton.











Monday 22 October 2012

Research Object 3- Chuck close



Chuck Close is definitely one of my favourite artists who has inspired me and my work massively, I really started to love portraiture a lot more when i discovered his amazing work. Close focuses mainly on portraits and recreating them using paint. He famously did self-portraits over a period of time using the same techniques as he did for the others. He composes them beautifully with soft strokes and intense detail. 

What I love the most about his work's from images and recreates them in such a fashion. Similarly to Close, I took a lot of my images and recreated them in the same manner. More than anything I enjoyed furthering my photography by using my skills as a painter, where I use acrylic quite a lot and like Close I worked on a large scale for a lot of my pieces. I really enjoyed working on large canvas, but I also experimented working on paper, wood and board.

Close is such an amazing influence and a wonderful artist and if not for him I doubt a lot of my work would have been created. He is an inspiration and such a talented man. Below are a few pieces of my work, not directly inspired by Close's work as such, but they have a strong link through the focus on portraiture.



This image is from a series of portraiture images in which I used torch light to highlight the facial features and expressions, 'Light, Image 1- Boy' 

'Light, Image 2- Girl' 
Both achieved with long exposure and shutter speed, size A4


 These two piece's of art are from my portraiture project, 'Inside Out', image 1 & 2
image one on left achieved using acrylic on card, size A0.
Image on right is oil on canvas, size A0.