12fp(s) - painting 1

Before I begin:
Should I reveal the name of the film that features in the paintings, or should I let people guess??? For just now I'm going to let people guess the film source, and if someone gets it right or has a good guess I'll let them suggest a film for me to paint later in the series...

Below is my first film-influenced painting of the series:

Before starting this painting I aimed to make it quite minimalist with regards to the amount of colours and texture. This aim has been achieved to a considerable extent, but I have reservations about the car in the foreground, which I think is perhaps a little too strong within both aspects... Overall the image works fine, it is just that the actress (whom I originally wanted to jump out as the centre of attention) seems to get 'disguised' by the colours/textures of the foreground car and the lightness on the mans jacket.
I had my original aim for keeping the painting quite minimalist long before I started the painting because the source image/film is really stylish in black and white, so I didn't want to ruin its innate style by swamping my painting with colour. To help me keep things simple I took influence from Tim Sale (the graphics illustrator for hit TV show Heroes), and another illustrator, Rene Gruau, whom I recently discovered via the messageboard on Sale's website.

The Gruau image below is the piece that most influenced my film painting. (There was a second image which was equally appealing, but I'm going to save that one for another blog post soon)!
The similarities between Gruau's work and my painting at the top of this blog post may be very subtle (almost non-existent), but that doesn't really matter - is it not quite boring when an influence is straight-up copied by another artist anyway?

I posted this painting on my Facebook profile on Monday, and among the feedback it has received so far, Alison Cross described it as "a bit of Edward Hopper mixed with Luc Tuymans".
I'm really happy about the Hopper remark because he is one of my favourite painters, and has been inspiring some of my work to differing extents since 1999! I don't think our painting styles are particularly similar here, but I can certainly see a strong connection with regards to the impression of a narrative and the filmic composition.
Prior to Alison's comment I had not heard of Tuymans, but I have since checked his work out, and I can clearly see the similarities in our painting styles. Some of his work is available to view on The Saatchi Gallery website here, and a much larger selection of Tuymans work is available on his page at ArtInThePicture.com here.

12fp(s) - New series of paintings

For the past week or so I've been preparing for my first painting series called "12fp(s)". This is just a fun/personal exercise influenced by my interest in Film, but I am aiming for it to lead smoothly into a second series, which will be created from a stimulating hybrid of my practices in Animation, Concept Art, and Painting.

The aim of this first series is to portray a still image from various films (hopefully 12 different films at the end of the series), using whatever artistic interpretation feels right at the time of production in order to create something new.
I don't necessarily intend to re-create the mood evoked from watching the original film, or to develop each painting within a specific direction, I just want to see what happens when I have free reign over source material and learn from the experiences.

If the reader has any suggestions for film stills that I should paint I'd be happy to hear/see them. Likewise, comments and feedback are always welcome.

Cheers.

Influences part 19: Berthe Morisot

My recent finger paintings (previous post) have been inspired by the Impressionist movement of the late 19th century, which challenged pre-existing ideals, "emphasized colour to express form and create mood" (Robinson, M. quoted in Pickeral, T. 2007), and celebrated modernity. Key figures from the Impressionist movement include: Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Paul Cezanne, but the Impressionist that most influences my finger paintings just now is Berthe Morisot.

Morisot's work had its first of several appearances at the prestigious Salon de Paris in 1864 when she was 23 years old. In 1868 she formed a close friendship with Edouard Manet (another artist associated with the Impressionists), and they influenced each others development equally. Their relationship remained close when Morisot married Manet's brother in 1874 - the same year that the Impressionists had their first exhibition (which Morisot was part of).
Her artworks tend to focus on daily experiences of domestic life because her gender & class were restricted from urban settings and nude figures due to the culture. As a result of this much of Morisot's work portrays the comfort of women's domestic life, much like fellow female Impressionist, Mary Cassatt.

What I admire about Morisot's work is the careful use of colours, combined with the soft brushstrokes, which gives her paintings a subtle vibrancy that enriches the whole image without distracting from the calm, feminine subject matter.
For the past few weeks I have been collecting a series of Morisot paintings from the Internet and examining her style as the primary influence for my finger paintings.
My painting style so far is a lot bolder and nowhere near as subtle/beautiful as those of Morisot, so it may be regarded as ridiculous to link her with my paintings; but then again, it never was my intention to closely copy her style - I simply use her work as an influence so that I avoid using a tighter/controlled painting style or end up with a carefully painted image that tries to imitate reality.
My reason for this is that after studying animation at Edinburgh College of Art for the last 4 years and researching/writing several essays that dismiss 'photo-realistic' art styles, I'm now reluctant to admire any style of art that tries to imitate a photo (or real life) because I feel that this style of art rarely lives up to the photo/real object that it is trying to imitate, so therefore more expressive/looser styles of art can offer a greater amount of visual interest for its audience.


Bibliography:
- Robinson, M. quoted in Pickeral, T. Impressionism. Flame Tree Publishing, London, 2007. Pg 11.
- Olga's Gallery. Berthe Morisot (1841-1895). Available at <http://www.abcgallery.com/M/morisot/morisot.html>. [Last accessed: 04 August 2009].
- Webmuseum, Paris. Berthe Morisot. Available at <http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/morisot/>. [Last accessed: 04 August 2009].
- Wikipedia. Berthe Morisot. Available at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthe_Morisot>. [Last accessed: 04 August 2009].

Professional Finger painting!

I'm including some more painting commissions that I've done recently, but unusually for me, they were made using my fingertips instead of paintbrushes.
This might seem like a silly method of painting (kinda like a 3 year old!) but it helps me to achieve a stronger Impressionist style (which I greatly admire just now), and working with my fingertips also feels much more expressive and engaging than my paintbrushes.

It is a painting technique that I first developed while doing my Paint on Glass animation experiments in 2008, which were inspired by the brilliant Paint on Glass animator Aleksandr Petrov [the video below].


Now that the little history lesson is out the way, below is my other recent finger painting.
(Inspecting this image on the computer right now, I can see several things that I don't like about it: as well as the obvious lack of depth, the colours and paint strokes are looking really bold on screen, which I think is distracting from the overall image... If anyone has any opinions then I'd love to hear them).

Although neither of these 2 paintings are particularly great, I think the style has enough potential to develop into something much more exciting as I develop my technique.
Using my fingertips is certainly a more engaging and stimulating work process than that offered by brushes, so this excitement will certainly help to maintain my enthusiasm for improving and developing the style further.