FMP Historical and Contempary Research

Ford Robbins

Ford Robbins is a American photographer and printmaker who specialises in creating abstract visual imagery that show light, texture and mood of contempary New Mexico and American landscape. He is a member of the American Society of Media Photographers. His images speaks of his journeys over many decades. His work are black and white prints. He is inspired by the environment in which he lives, surronded by the natural forms, light, texture and movement of water. 

John Herschel

John Herschel

John Herschel was an English mathematician, astromoner, chemist and experimental photographer. He made contributions to photography by exploring colour blindness and ultraviolet rays. He also made improvements in photographic processes and inventing cyanotype. In 1819 he also made the discovery of how soduim thiosulfate could be used as a photographic fixer to fix the images.

George Rockwood

George Rockwood

George Rockwood was a 19th century New York photographer. Around 1855 he developed a proffessional interest in photography and in 1857 he opened his own studio with his brother and began work as a photographer. He has been credited to of introduced the carte-de-visit format of photography to the United States from France. He competed with well known photographers such as Mathew Brady.

Alfred Stieglitz

Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and art promotor who was instrumental in making photography an accepting art form. He was born in New Jersey in 1864. He went to New York in 1890 to prove that photography was cabable of being an expressive art form. He was part of the movement photo-secession which emphasized the craftsmenship of photography. He created platinum prints a process used by yielding images with a rich tonal scale.

Eva Watson-Schütze

She was an 19th century American photographer and painter who was a founding member of the art movement Photo-secession. In 1883 she enrolled in Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she studied under the painter and photographer Thomas Eakins. She had wanted to become a watercolour and oil painter, but by her twenties she developed an interest in photography. By 1894 she opened a photography studio with Amelia Van Buren. In 1987 she opened up her own portrait studio in Philladelphia.. Her work is powerful and romantic and figurative.

Gertrude Käsebier

She was born on 15th May 1852. Gertrude Käsebier was regarded as the most influential photographer of the 20th century. She married Eduard Käsebier in 1874, this marriage wasnt a very happy one as she says this inspired her work. Her photographs show motherhood and they emphasize the bond between the mother and the child. In 1896 she became an asisstant to portrait photographer Samuel H Lifshey where she learned how to run a studio and the techniques of printing. She became an inspiration to other young women who were starting out in photography, these include Clara Sipprell, Consuelo Kanaga and Laura Gilpin who went on to have successful photography careers. Throughout the 1910s she continued to expand her portrait business by taking photographs of important people at that time,  Robert Henri, John Sloans, William Glackens. By 1924 her daughter joined her in the business.  

Clarence Hudson White

Clarence Hudson White  was an American photographer and one of the founding members of the art movement Photo-secession.  His influences were his family and the social lifeand culture of rural America. He photographed just before dawn and dusk. He took up photography in 1893. He self taught himself in the subject and was known for his photographs that empasized the spirit of America. In 1906 he and his family moved to New York to promote his work and to be closer to the photographer Alfred Stieglitz who he had helped to make photography a true art form. In 1914 he began teaching photography by opening his own school of photography. His photographs were not posed for , he controlled the scene and even had costumes made for his models. He knew what kind of images he wanted to create in his mind and made them happen. His compositions were very much a simple form.

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About Me

I have been studying Art and Design now for 3 years. I have really enjoyed studying the subject, and have learnt a range of different techniques and processes, and my creativity skills have soared. I especially enjoyed the Textiles project from the first year, as I used my own photography to help further develop my work. Also for the Tell Me a Story project, I heavily included photography to help me achieve my outcomes. I feel now though that this is the time to study a specific area in Art and Design.  When I started out I had no inkling of what I wanted to do in the future. As the course progressed, I developed a keen interest in Photography.  I would love to be able to be given the chance to further develop my skills and learn more in depth about the subject and learn a range of techniques.  I like to create diverse and effective images in Photoshop from my own photos. I have used this technique in a couple of my previous projects, and find the outcomes very visually interesting. In my spare time I do like to use photography, anywhere I can really. I like to capture landscape images and the natural world. I will continue to use photography in my spare time to gain confidence and experience, and in future projects I intend to use my own photography in anyway I can. For my FMP, I will base my work on photography. My career aim is to have a job in the field of photography. I am immensely proud of what I have achieved in the past 3 years and I am keen for my progress to continue.

My Work

Design Crafts Project

 I have created outcomes in ceramics, jewellery and felt. My outcomes reflect my main inspiration, natural forms and organic shapes.  In ceramics I have created 3 candleholders. The artist Rose Dickenson influenced my heavily. The cutout shapes allow light to shine through. I will hang copper shapes in the cutouts, to reflect light and combine materials. My ceramic samples show use of paper resist, sgraffito, slip decoration, glazing and oxides. In jewellery I learned how to texture copper effectively using the rolling mill and metal punches. In felt I have learned how create a 3d form using a resist. 

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Bridge Project

For this live brief I had to create a sculpture for a sensory garden. My inspiration came from drawings of insects at Liverpool Museum. I took all the shapes of the insects and created them in handmade plastic using earthy colours to tie in with my theme of the natural world. I knew that in my sculptures I wanted to create light and colour to make them visually interesting.  To get the effect of seeing them in the garden, I took the models outside and photographed them at an angle where it gives the model some scale. The backlighting adds drama and shows how effective the coloured plastic would be. In Photoshop, I like to create a new image from my own photos. I love playing around with all the different effects to create an interesting image.

Tell me a Story

In this project I produced a series of narrative images about my phobia of high buildings.  This technique is . As I want to do photography, I thought this was a good opportunity to take my own photographs, so I went out and photographed high buildings.  I then developed these images in monoprint, an effective technique with clear black lines which I scanned into Photoshop. To add detail, I added a range of patterns and colours to make the images effective.  I combined the images of my work with photos of myself looking scared to help communicate my fear more. I cropped the photos of myself to highlight my facial expressions by zooming in. The storyboard is successful as I like the composition of the images and it helps to get the idea of fear of high buildings more easily.

Graphics Project

In this project I was asked to design a book cover. I researched a range of art movements to develop my book cover designs, and chose Pop Art as it’s bright, colourful and fun. In the research I saw a repetition of symbols; this is where my inspiration comes from. I learned the technique of screen-printing. I like this technique as its always interesting in how your design will print. Also I was heavily influenced by artist Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. With the research I then started to develop my ideas using mixed materials. This helped me into scanning pieces of designs in a manipulating them in Photoshop to create something new. The screen prints I think are successful as they communicate Pop Art well through colours and symbols. My final book cover design, I think is also successful, as I have used bright colours and symbols that relate to Pop Art and you can clearly see my artists influence by the benday dots.

Textiles

These are a small selection of my textile pieces I created in the first year of the course. For this project I had to create 3d forms using textiles. I learnt how to use materials such as calico and vanishing fabric. I also learned the technique of painting brusho ink onto paper and then ironing it onto calico. This gives the piece a more textured look. One of my strong points in textiles is colours, I know what colours compliment each other and work well together, and ones that don’t. I enjoyed blending the neutral, calm and relaxing colours and fabrics together.

Wallpaper outcomes

                                                      Wallpaper Design 

For this project I had to design wallpaper suitable to my chosen theme, which was hotel boutique. The techniques I learned in this project were screen-printing. I was influenced by the natural world and the art movement Art Nouveau. The bottom images was my first outcome, I really like how the colours work together, although they are quite bold colours, it comes across quite relaxing and calm. Although the leave shapes didn’t all in sync with where they were suppose to go, I think that makes it more effective. For my second outcome, I really wanted to challenge myself into creating a more difficult pattern to work with in screen-print. I was influenced by the curvy lines and shapes in Art Nouveau. With this print I experimented in putting the pattern on different colour backgrounds, I think the top two came out most successful as they are visually effective and interesting to look out.

                                               Drawing
The top images are samples of my still life drawing. In this unit I learned how to get the composition of objects correct. I used a range of drawing techniques including, pen and ink, chalk, pastels, collage and drawing with my left hand to make the drawing look loose. This project has helped me a lot with my drawing skills, I feel more confident now to draw a group of objects. In still life drawing, I learned how to measure and where certain things should be placed on paper. The charcoal image is one of my best drawings; I like this technique of drawing, as I can show where the light shines simply by rubbing out the charcoal, I like the high contrast effect produced. I really enjoyed this project as it helped with my confidence to be able to achieve a good piece of work.


This is the end of UCAS blog

Narrative Image Making Research

Gin Lane

Beer Street

William Hogarth   Beer Street and Gin Lane 1751

William Hogarth is a historic painter/printmaker, social critic, saturist, major influence on narrative image makers.  He was born in Smithfield, London in 1697. At the age on 16, he was apprenticed to Ellis Gamble a silverplate engraver. By 1720 he had his own business engraving book plates and painting portraits. During the 1720's he had started to produce political satires. He also paints pictures that tell a moral story. One of many paintings he did was the The Harlots Express, which shows the downfall of a country girl after she had moved to London. Gin Lane and Beer Street are two prints, designed to be shown together. They are engraved directly from drawings. He is comparing the two drinks and the effects by showing how different the two streets look. The people of Beer Street are happy and healthy, whereas the people on Gin Lane are being destroyed by their addiction of Gin. Gin Lane tells the story of desperation, death, poverty, suicide and starvation. Beer Street portrays the lives of the wealthy and healthy and happy people. The two streets portray very different stories. Hogarth was influenced by Pieter Bruegal the elders La Maigre Cuisine and La Grasse Cuisine  engraved by Pieter van der Heyden. I think that his work is very historical and confusing, and in some of his paintings its hard to find out what the story is, and what the painting is trying to communicate. Thats a good point as it makes you want to delve more into the painting and try a work out what the story is.

The Swing 2002

Ash Wednesday

George Shaw Ash Wednesday and Swing

George Shaw who is a contemporary artist, who is known for his highly detailed approach of English subject matter. He studied art, but gave it up for some years, before returning to study at the Royal College in London. He uses materials such as enamel paint. He mainly does pictures that relate back to his childhood, where he grew up in Coventry. His paintings are quite dark and sinister and they obviously tell a story of someones childhood and upbringing. The painting of the swings makes me feel like hes looking back on a lost childhood, the way the swings are painted in a dark colour and the gloomy setting. The paintings make me feel cold as most of the paintings are set in a wintery scene, ive noticed in many of the paintings he has bare trees, which indicates the season.

Hand

Tim Eitel Hand


Tim Eitel is a fine painter who was born in 1971 in Germany. He now lives and works in Berlin. He paints figures in landscapes with a implied narrative. He uses materials such as oil and acrylic. His work is characterized by a atmosphere, a absence which adds a dimension. I think the hand painting may symbolise death or the end of someones life. The way the hand is postioned on the cover, is like the person is very weak, also the arm is rather skinny, which also indicates the person could have or is very ill. I also think the choice of neutral colours adds to mine conclusion, they are cold colours.

Eberhand Havekost 


Eberhand Havekost is a contemporary German painter based in Berlin.  He works from photographic sources eg, shots from a video and TV, as most of his paintings, a model wouldnt be able to pose for them. He selects subjects ranging from buildings, trains and trailers. He paints a series of repetitive images to replicate the visual change in nature.



Anthony Green

Anthony Green is a realist painter and printmaker. He was born in September 1939 in Luton. He was educated at the Slade School of Art. In 1960 he moved to Paris on a scholarship.  His paintings are mainly of domestic life, and have the elements of irregular shapes. His paintings are Narrative and Figurative. He uses materials such as Oil, silkscreen and lithography. His work is mainly influenced by his own life and key elements and stories in it , for example: Marriage, his two daughters, anniversaries, parents, in-laws, sex, food, sadness and happiness etc. I like his work as I like how he uses irregular shapes and you get to see the story from all different angles. A majority of his paintings look like your on the celing of the room and looking down into the story. I also like how it gets your mind working, and thinking into what story he is trying to communicate, its intruiging.

Gregory Crewsdon

Gregory Crewsdon is a American photographer born in September 1962.  In the 1980's he studied Photography at SUNY Purchase in New York. He graduated with Masters in Fine Art from Yale University. His photographs are mainly situated in small American towns, they are quite disturbing and surreal. They are set in a location, mainly in neighbourhoods, townships etc. They are staged, with props and lighting. They are also quite gloomy and dark, and often feature a naked women who cuts a ghostly figure. I like his work as i like how he stages scenes on a location, but it also quite hard to get into as the story he is trying to tell doesnt come across very easily.

Things I like

Which wedding would you like to go to?

Vicky Woodgate

I like this artists work as I can see what they are communicating. In the top image it is comparing the interests of two young children one female and the other male. It differintiates the two. It also gets into the childrens mind. In the bottom image, it is comparing the weddings of Kate Moss and Kate Middleton, I like how both images tell a complete different story, Kate Moss is perceived as being a bit lairy and loud and a little common, whilst Kate Middleton is seen as being classy and lady like.

My own primary source photo, I have developed into a monoprint and edited in Photoshop

Lucinda Rogers

Lucinda Rogers is a illustration artist. She studied Illustration at the Edinburgh College of Art for four years. Through out her career Lucinda has worked for clients such as The New Yorker, The Guardian and The Times. Her work shows us cities in lots of different ways, capturing the scenes and the buildings. She uses materials such as pen and ink and watercolour, crayon and gouache. She is inspired by what is around her and life in cities. I like her work as I like how she captures the life in the cities and what materails she uses, I think the choice of materials are good as they work really well together. I would take inspiration from this artist for my work, as I am doing buildings, I would like to now use pen and ink and watercolour together on my monoprints of buildings.

Sophie Ryder    Crawling Lady-Hare, 1996 Bronze

Sophie Ryder was born in London in 1963. She studied combined Arts at the Royal Acamdemy of Arts, during her time there she was encouraged to develop her skills in sculpture. She uses materials such as bronze, wire, sawdust, wet plaster, old machine parts and toys, weld joins, torn scraps of paper and charcoal sticks. She manipulates the wire to shape the creatures. She uses charcoal and pastels to sketch out early ideas of the sculptures. The hares are beyond animal form, they have human aspects to them, based on Sophies body.  The sculptures have a powerful image and they make you think what the artist is trying to communicate. I think she is trying to commuincate the female body through the hare. Some of the hares are realistic and some fantasical. The sculptures have lots of texture, which makes them more interesting and gives the sculptures individual patterns. I like the sculpture as I like the way the artist has communicated the female body through the hare, its very imagintive and the female body and the hare work well together.

Bruce Munro    Field of Light , 1992

Bruce Munro is a British lightining designer. He was born in Salcombe in Devon in 1959 and studied fine art at Bristol Polytechnic.  He is most famous for his ' Field Of Light'. Field of Light is consisted of 6,000 acrylic stems each topped with a glass sphere containing optical fibres. The stems are powered by an external projector and there is no use of electric power. He was inspired by the desert flowers after a rainstorm. He is inspired by nature and I think that this is one of the main visual qualities as you can cleary see he is inspired by nature, and the sculpture looks like flowers. The sculpture gives off a warm feeling. I like the sculpture as I like the use of the materials and how they are powered. The sculpture looks great when lit up in the dark, and I think its quite inspiring.

Bruce Munro   CDSea

CDSea is made from 600,000 unwanted CDS'S. Munro appealed to the public via radio and press to urge anyone with unwanted CD'S to send them to his workshop. He was overwhelmed by the response, as CD's came as far as California and Brazil. The installation took 140 people to help lay the CD's over the weekend.
The installation forms a pattern, so there is a pathway for people to walk through it. I think the visual quality in the work is the use of light. The Cd's capture light from all different angles and they shimmer in the light, which brings the installtion to life. The work looks every inch of the sea. Munro was inspired by an Australian beach, he said the beach looked like a shimmering blanket of silver light. He said that the "play of light" had transformed his mood and that "CD Sea" was a construction of that moment. I like the work as I like how the artist has used materials to work with light. The CD's communicate the sea well, as they shimmer in the sunlight and moonlight.

Alexander Calder  Finny Fish 1948

Alexander Calder was born in Pennsylvania in 1898. He is most famous for inventing the mobile.  He experimented with motorized mobiles but in the 1930's he became more settled with the idea of natural air animating his work. I think the visual qualities of the work is how the materials have been used, they hang from the wire so they can move freely, which makes the work more interesting as it brings the character of the fish to life. He uses materials such as painted steel rods, painted steel wire, ceramics and glass. I think the painted steel rods, draw you into the materials used inside of the fish.  I like how the materials used inside the fish, indicate the scales of the fish. I also like how he makes the sculpture look like its bouncing in the air.

Andy Goldsworthy  Icicle Star

Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor born in 1956. He studied Fine Art at Bradford College of Art. His work involves the use of natural found objects. He is heavily inspired by nature, and the materials he works with are all organic, including brightly-coloured flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns. His work is situated in natural and urban settings. Photography also plays a crucial part in his work, as some of his work cannot last. In this sculpture he uses ice as his material.  He created this sculpture on a rock, near to where he found the icicles. He created this sculpture by dipping the thick ends of icicles in snow then water, holding them until they froze together, occasionally using forked sticks as a support until they stuck, then breathing on the sticks first to release them. I like this creation, because it looks like a dandelion seed which is organic, I also like the sharp clean edges of the ice and how it look 3 dimensional.

Bill Woodrow  Tunnel, 2010

Bill Woodrow is a British sculptor who was born in 1948.  The sculpture consists of rusted iron chains to which small, but heavy, lead-cast books with gilt edges are attached. The chains flow out of a dark tunnel housed in a yellow form leaning against the wall. This three-dimensional assemblage is complemented by a series of paintings on paper; they vary in colours and show the unadorned tunnel entrance from various angles.

Sally Matthews

Sally Matthews was born in Tamworth, Staffordshire in 1964. She studied a foundation course in Art and Design., followed by a degree in The Department of Sculpture. She is heavily influenced by animals, she is inspired by her love of them, their movement, smell and nature. Her father was a vet so she had a earlier interest in animals.The materials she uses for drawing and sculpture are often suggested by the subject, or the place she is working in. She also uses recycled materials and reformed metals. I like her work as I like how she captures the movement of the animals using recycled materials.

Tony Cragg  Grey Moon 1985

Tony Cragg is a British visual artist specialized in sculpture born in April 1949 in Liverpool. He studied Fine Art at the  Gloucestershire College of Art and Design.  During his time there he was introduced to sculptures by Roger Ackling.  He left Britain in 1977 and moved to Germany, where he has lived and worked since. He rose to public attention in the early 1980's. The materials he mainly works with are discarded construction materials and disposed household goods and plastic, wood , stone , metal and industrial objects such as glass bottles.  He uses simple techniques such as stacking, splitting, and crushing. He plays around with the forms, colors, surfaces and textures. Grey moon is created by using different shapes of plastic including the lid from a film canister and a toy soldier. I like this piece as I am drawn into the piece by the materials used, I am interested in what I can find. I also like the colours used, it has tone. Its like a transition from light to dark. 

Mark Langan

Mark Langan is a self taught artist from Ohio. He creates 3d sculptures from cardboard. He uses materials such as cardboard, corrugated boxes, non toxic glue and a razor knife. He also collects materials from around his neighbourhood. He hopes to inspire people to recycle through his work. I like his work as its very intricate and textural and inspirational, I also like how he uses his materials and how delicate the outcome is.

David Mach

David Mach  is a Scottish sculpturor and installation artist born in Fife March 1956. He studied at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art between 1974 - 1979. While there he experimented with the different techniques and ideas he has continually developed. He then went onto study at the Royal College of Art between 1979- 1982 where he gained a Masters degree. His style is based on mass produced found art objects.,these include teddy bears, magazines, car tyres, match sticks and coat hangers. He also works in collage. His work is represantational and controversal. His work above is called the Match Head Series, in which are portraits made from unstruck matches glued together so that only the coloured heads show on the surface.

Antonio Gaudi

Niki De Saint Phalle

Niki De Saint Phalle was a French sculptor, painter and film maker.  After suffering a breakdown, whilst in hospital she began to paint and re evaluates her life and considers communicating that through art. She was influenced by the works of Antonio Gaudi, I can see the links between their works, as they both use mosaic. She was particualy influenced by Gaudis "Parc Guell",  and decides to create her own garden of mosaics. I like her mosaics as they are very brightly coloured and very visibly interesting.

Theo Jansen

Theo Jansen is a Dutch kinetic sculpturor born in March 1948. His work are skeletons of animals, powered by wind power. He uses materials such as piping, wood and wing like sails. Some of his sculptures are able to store wind which enables them to move for a extended time.  Some of them even have the ability to anchor themselves in the sand when the wind threatens to blow them away.

Thomas Heatherwick

Thomas Heatherwick is a English designer born in February 1970. He studied 3 dimensional design at the Royal College of Art. Early influences include trips to Earls Court to see the latest fibre cars.

  

Michael Brennand Wood

Michael Brennand Wood is a visual artist, lecturer and arts consultant. whose work mostly focuses on patterns and how they connect to our spiritual, cultural and sociological history. He was born and raised in Bury, into a family who worked in the mills. He recalls visting the mills as a child and be fascinated by the machines and how the threads used to speed back and forth. A characteristic of his work has been a sustained commitment of contemporary and historical sources. He uses materials such as machine embroidery, acrylic paint, wood, glass and collage, embroidery, pattern, lace and recently floral imagery. He says he was influenced to use fabric, as it connects to his childhood, and that fabric was his "childhood toy". His pieces are colourful, dramatic and rhythmic. He has explored and developed his own techniques mixing textiles with other media. I like his work, as he has made his textiles sculptural and his pieces are very brightly coloured and are all full of different materials. I have linked my work to his, as I have used textiles and made it into sculpture. My textile pieces are also brightly coloured.