Picasso in his studio ???

A moment of contemplation in the studio … before the genius sets to work!

Making of the prototype

Small test pieces complete, I now need to make some prototypes of the final size. I need to make holes in the clay to test if I can hang the pieces, test the maximum size, Ive measured the kiln and I can get away with 55cm max. I need to consider that after the firings (biscuit and separate glaze firing) that the clay will shrink so I need to make sure the small holes will be large enough to thread the string or wire needed for suspension. 

Red and white crank clay
55cm long

More testing with the Horizon, Im experimenting with a fine roll of clay inset into the cracked slab.

Having cracked the clay I worked out that if you turn the clay and roll it out it expands the cracks on the underside making the finished piece far more dramatic

Ready for biscuit firing, important to make sure theres minimal handling and the pieces lay flat, so I have managed to get the prime spot at the bottom of the kiln. 48 hrs of firing ahead.

Next, the wait…… and onto the glazing, this will be determined by the results from my small test pieces, an amalgomation I think of the best results.  

Who said artists don't work hard???

Project III

Ceramic Installation - Horizon III

Well I have to say this project is much more than exhausting, my head is about to explode with the million different process steps that need to be considered. The final piece will involve me working through the multiple processes to synergise the shape, texture, size, colour of the glaze and how to install the piece once complete.

           

Test pieces

Glazing of test pieces ready for firing

I have a new found respect for all ceramicists, the journey of a finished ceramic piece can only be described as a minefield. Detailed documentation of every step, what clay you use, the type of slip, temperatures for the biscuit firing. Then its the glaze, multiple layers of glaze to attain the finish required, applying wax to certain areas before applying a different glaze to ensure a clean delineation between colours. The temperature reached during firing is critical, the colour of the glaze can vary if the temperature of the kilns is slightly off. So its all in the preparation, document the variables and then once all the test pieces emerge from firing a decision can be made on the how to execute the final piece. Process, process, process ………

Rothko - Permanent Exhibition, Tate Modern, London.

The Seagram Murals: A permanent exhibition originally intended for the Four Seasons Restaurant, Seagram Building, New York.

What was striking?

      The size and scale of the work (nine canvases all large up to 6m)  
A dedicated room
Simplicity in presentation
The dimmed lighting in the room, giving it a calm, sombre, contemplative,
atmosphere – evenly lighted and not too strongly.

      Canvasses were hung low to the floor – as a viewer you are visually drawn into 
the canvas. This was how the painting would have been painted.
If there are two canvasses they are hung close together
The room says ‘take me seriously’
The spacial relationships between all parts of the image
Interesting – they were v loose paintings - painterly . No precise clean lines

      Drips run in multiple directions – Rothko must have rotated the canvas whilst he
was painting to get these runs
The finish to the canvasses is quite crude, edges of the canvas painted.

The history: 

In the late 1950’s Rothko was commissioned to paint a series of murals for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building, Park Avenue, NY. He set to work – big canvases to fill the huge space offered by the restaurant. In contrast to his earlier work, his mood was quite dark. The previous bright intense colours of his work had moved to maroon, dark red and black.

This series was influenced my Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library in Florence, which had a deliberately oppressive atmosphere. Making the viewer feel that they were trapped in a room where everything is bricked up.

Rothko was angry by the wealth and opulence of the Four Seasons guests and wanted to trap these ‘wealthy dinners’. Having completed his work he decided to withdraw from the commission, he chose to not accept the money.

Rothko saw these paintings as objects of contemplation – requiring the viewers’ complete absorption

“You can control the image but not the reaction to it”.

                                                                                     Rothko

He didn’t believe that the Four Seasons clientele would be capable of this and would miss the point.

Rothko held a deep affection for England and decided to shun the US opulence and donate the series to the Tate.

The Paintings:

·      A looseness to the brush strokes yet at the same time precise

·     Rectangular canvas

·      Minimal variation of colours

·      Tonal values/layers to give a depth

·      Absence of clean lines/all soft and regular

·      Lighting key

Visited Tate Modern, London. April 2015.

Singer Sargent: Portraits of Artists and Friends

National Portrait Gallery, London. 12^th February – 25^th May 2015

                       

                   Dr Pozzi at Home
                      Oil on canvas, 1881

Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth
Oil on canvas, 1889

An artist misunderstood until now?  Known for being a formal society painter, a careerist happy to pander to aristocratic privilege working to commissions. This exhibition reveals a more intimate and psychologically penetrating insight into his friends; writers, actors and fellow artists. He is responding, not to patrons who pay him to look glamorous but to people he liked or admired or was just purely interested him. Free to probe their characters he provides an insight into the ‘in crowd’ of the late nineteenth century.

He reveals an exploration of individuality and challenges the status quo, his portrait of Madame x, caused a scandal when it was shown at the Paris salon (1884), this was because of its blatant sensuality. A picture of a beautiful socialite who was far from faithful to her husband. Society was shocked by her appearance, her shoulder strap allowed to fall suggestively loose, Sargent needed to retreat to London to avoid the uproar he caused in Paris.

Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife
Oil on canvas,1885

His friend and novelist, Robert Louise Stevenson is captured in a striking almost ‘snapshot in time’ picture. Does this painting capture the true self as he is caught striding across the middle of his living room, a lanky & thin man walking about and talking, whilst his wife sits passively under a gold threaded silk shawl in the corner of the painting, between the two people in this picture a door opens on to a sinister dark hallway, is this gloomy space revealing the dark side of Stevenson’s imagination?  Twelve months after this sitting Stevenson published The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. (Good and evil exist in the same self)

Henry James, writer and critic in the late nineteenth century was a close friend, Sargent telling his stories through his paintings, James through verse. Both were Americans, raised in Europe by affluent parents, well travelled they brought a realism to their work but they also experimented, exploring psychology and delivered a new sense of identity to their subjects through their respective works.

The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy
Oil on canvas, 1907

The thorn in the side for this exhibition for me was the ‘lack of space’ and interrupted flow through the gallery for us as viewers. The layout I believe failed the mastery of the paintings. Crowded bottlenecks at the entrance/exit (yes the same 2 meter corridor) to the exhibition and confused flow which caused frequent human ‘pile ups’. Distracting and I believe disrespectful to the art itself.

A refreshing and exciting exhibition where storytelling, personal intimacy & informality have been revealed, which at a typically staid and formal period for late 19^th Century portraiture created quite a stir. Definitely worth a visit but go early to minimise human pile ups!

Visited National Portrait Gallery, London. March 2015