Lady with an Ermine a la Picasso

This is my finished work of Lady with an Ermine a la Picasso.

I had a lot of fun working on this piece and am quite pleased with the results.

Here are the images together

Lady With An Ermine - 1490

I found an interesting article by A Wilson called "Decoding a da Vinci masterpiece: Behind the secret symbols of The Lady With An Ermine"

You can view the full article here.

Also reading Peter Chou's work you start to get an insight into Da Vinci's thought processes.  Peter talks about how this painting is of Cecilia Gallerani and that the Greek word for the ermine, or weasel that she holds is 'galee', which was probably chosen to represent her family name.  It may also refer to the character of Cecilia in that ermine's are too fastidious to dirty their fur, suggesting that Cecilia is of a wholesome and pure nature.  The ermine also represents the Duke Ludovico, whom Cecilia was the mistress, as he had received the insignia of the chivalric 'Order of the Ermine' from the King of Naples in 1488.  He was also nicknamed Italico Morel bianco ermellino (Italian Moor, white ermine).

(http://www.wisdomportal.com/Stanford/LadyWithAnErmine.html)

Where to now?

After looking at many different styles in detail and pondering over which image to use I have decided to go with one of my first thoughts and reinterpret a renaissance piece into a cubist piece, in the style of Picasso.

I have chosen Da Vinci's "Lady with an Ermine" created in 1490 and will reinterpret it in the style of Picasso's "Portrait of Dora Maar" created some 440 years later in 1937.

Cubism & Picasso

Cubism was really the first style of abstract art which became popular in the early 20th century and has been made famous by artists like Picasso and Braques.  Cubists wanted to challenge the idea of conventional forms and representation and played with perspective.  Many Cubist paintings depict people, places or objects from different angles and constructed of planes, forms and colours.

There were really two periods of Cubism - Analytical and Synthetic.  Analytical Cubism in which an artist would analyse a subject and create an image that created a sense of the subject by depicting it from different viewpoints and using geometrical shapes.  These early Cubist works were usually in muted tones and quite subdued.  Synthetic Cubism was a move towards a more abstract style with more colour and decorative styling.  Some of the characteristics of Cubism are colours, patterns and textures that alter between geometric shapes to freehand, with elements of dark and light, positive to negative, and plain to patterned.

Picasso is my favourite Cubist.  I am also intrigued by the fact that he painted several portraits of Dora Maar.  Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar were involved in a relationship for quite some time both personally and artistically.

Here are some of Picasso's portraits of Dora Maar:

My favourite one is this one:

This has the typical characteristics of geometrical to freehand, of colour and patterns and showing the face from two perspectives in that the face appears to be in profile yet we see both nostrils and both eyes.  Her skin colouring is quite unnatural and she seems closed in in her space.  It intrigues me that her lower hand looks quite normal but her hand by her face is quite spiky looking and menacing.  Her cheek also appears as though a rosy apple is sitting upon it.  It's almost as if the softness and attractiveness of the apple draws you in but you need to be careful of the thorns along the way.  Kind of like another story about Adam and Eve perhaps?  But why is she sitting in such a confined space?  Almost like she is in a box?

Fauvism

Fauvism is considered one of the first avant-garde movements that began in the early 20th century and Henri Matisse and Andre Derain are famous Fauvists.  Fauvist painters used bold brush strokes and vibrant colours which were often unnatural.  Les Fauves in French means "the wild beasts" and this style of art got its name from a critic.

Work by Matisse:

Portrait of Madame Matisse (The Green Stripe)

                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                   







                                                                                   
The Woman with a Hat

Work by Derain:

Charing Cross Bridge

 Woman in Chemise


                                                                                                                    .
                                                                                                           

                                                                                                   

Impressionism

Impressionists like Monet, Degas and Renoir were not very popular in their time because of their different style of painting.  Rather than spending long hours in a studio the new Impressionists were painting outside and tried to capture the immediate effects of light and movement in their work.  The short brush strokes that are characteristic of this movement which can look messy up close, blend beautifully when viewed further back.  Impressionist art is also about the use of colour.

Degas

Renoir

Monet 

I particularly like the work of Monet.  He abandoned dark colours and only worked from a palette of pure light colours.  He once wrote "As for the colours I use, what's so interesting about that?  I don't think one could paint better or more brightly with another palette.  The most important thing is to know how to use the colours.  Their choice is a matter of habit.  In short, I use white lead, cadmium yellow, vermilion, madder, cobalt blue, chrome green.  That's all".  He never used black and he created shadows by mixing other colours.  In fact at his funeral his friend was appalled by the black sheet covering his coffin and promptly changed it to a flowered one, exclaiming "No!  No black for Monet!".

Renaissance & Da Vinci

Renaissance artists typically painted religious images with subjects such as the Virgin Mary with many works created as altarpieces.  This style of art tried to capture beauty and experiences.  One of the most famous Renaissance artists is Leonardo Da Vinci and his painting "Mona Lisa" is probably the most recognised art work of all.  The Mona Lisa is also probably the most reinterpreted painting of all time.  One quick Google search will reveal pages and pages of images!  Just look at some of the interpretations below.

For that reason alone I will not go anywhere near the Mona Lisa for my reinterpretation project but I may still use a Da Vinci piece.  I think it would be quite fun to reinterpret a Renaissance piece into perhaps a fauvist style or maybe cubist style.

Baroque Art & Caravaggio

Baroque art was prominent in the 17th Century between Mannerism and Rococo and it is associated with the Catholic Counter-Reformation.  This style represents both a continuation and a radical transformation of the ideals of the Renaissance.  According to Marcelo Lima PhD (Introduction to the History of Art)  the Baroque period "forms the basis of modern culture, and constitutes the soil or foundation of some of the central aspects of modern experience".

I see Baroque art as dramatic and full of detail and usually has an emotional subject matter which makes viewing this art quite intense  and visually powerful.  Caravaggio is a great Baroque painter.  He created works with intensely expressive subjects with very realistic characteristics and used light and dark very effectively.

This is Caravaggio's "The Taking of the Christ"

The next two images would probably be my favourites from Caravaggio.

"Doubting Thomas"

"Judith and Holofemes"

These paintings are almost like photographs.  In fact he actually used modern darkroom techniques in creating his masterpieces, despite the fact that he painted over 200 years before the camera existed.  He may have treated his canvases with a light-sensitive substance as a way of fixing an image to the canvas.  The substance may have been a luminescent powder that was made from crushed fireflies.  He then used white lead mixed with chemicals like mercury, to outline the image (Lapucci in Squires, 2009).  

Caravaggio.com has some fascinating reading about this incredible artist.

Next Stop....Reinterpretation

Our second assessment piece for Intro Studio is a reinterpretation piece, where we choose a work of art from another artist and re-work it into a new style.  So to begin with I need to take a closer look at the periods and styles of art to get a feel for what I would like to do.

My first stop was at Art History Timeline - For Dummies
(http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/art-history-timeline.html)

and then WebMuseum, Paris: Glossary which you can view here.

Some periods or styles of art are:

Abstract Expressionism, Baroque, Classicism, Cubism, Dada, Expressionism, Fauvism, Futurism, Impressionism, Neoclassical, Post-Impressionism, Post-Modernism, Realism, Renaissance, Romanticism, Surrealism and of course Contemporary.

I will spend some time looking at the styles and the artists who relate to the period.

Ready to Install

I had my work printed at Officeworks and it is a glossy poster AO size.  I am thrilled with the results and think it is big enough to not be lost on the wall.  I have decided to make sound the second element to my installation and will play Darth Vader breathing sounds on an ipod.  I found this video of Darth Vader breathing sounds on You Tube.  It is just Darth breathing for three minutes, which is all I need for my installation.

Now to the printers

Although Cornelius told me that probably the most boring thing I could do with this work would be to print it out, I have decided that this is exactly what I want to do, but I will print it out in a large format and look at adding another element to it like sound or lighting.

This is my final image with added prison bars.  I don't want the bars to be the focus however, so I have played around with the opacity to make them blend in a bit more by making them see through.  Now I'm off to get it printed!

Almost there!

I think I am almost there now but I now need to think about how to install this work.

Here is what I have now:

I still think that it needs something more but I'm just not sure what yet....

Oh how I envy you

Photoshop is very, very time consuming when you have had no experience with it whatsoever.  It has taken a great deal of time to get my image to this:

How I envy those with Photoshop experience right now.  Of course, the more I am using it the better I am getting at remembering short cuts etc.  It took a while to work out how to inverse the picture so that I could delete the background and not the focus of the image but I will never forget how to do this now!

Digital Artists

Looking at digital artists has been very interesting and a little mind blowing in the process too.  Besides Sonia Falcone, whom I have taken a very strong liking to, I have also been a little besotted by the work of Italian artist Daniel Gay and Aussie Justin Maller and found a fascinating piece by Frederik Pietschmann.

This work by Daniel Gay is titled "Positronic Self Portrait".

I think this work is incredibly life like and perhaps a reflection of where life is taking us?  Will we one day be part man, part machine?  Our lives are so full of electronic devices and computerised equipment that it will probably make sense to integrate them into our own bodies in the future.

Daniel Gay trained as an illustrator and now specialises in computer graphics with a great deal of works focusing on a sci-fi or fantasy theme.








This work by Frederik Pietschmann is titled "Why so happy meal?"

I just love this work.  Taking the famous Ronald character from the world's beloved fast food chain and turning it into something dark is a great idea.  We all know that too much junk food is bad for you and using the Joker with the tag line "Why so happy meal?" makes you question why kids are so happy with their little happy meal of fat!









Finally, Justin Maller's work is incredible.
Visit his website here : http://justinmaller.com/
He was asked what art provides him and what it is about looking at, making and experiencing art that he loves.  He said that he prefers not to over think it and appreciates work from a technical point of view.  He likes art that takes a lot of skill to create and art that has a part of the artist in it.  He believes that you can see and feel an artists soul in visual work.
He was also asked what he hopes to achieve and express with his own work.  Justin describes his work as stuff that makes him happy and gives him a sense of satisfaction.

                         "I want to play on my computer for a few days, give my subconscious
                         a chance to run around, my conscious mind some time to concentrate
                         and play the solitary, shallow craft I have spent a decade honing and at
                         the end of the day have something cool to show for it.  If it challenges
                         me, goes somewhere unexpected, and it looks good and when I'm done
                         with it, then I feel good about it."

I have an idea

I was looking over all the images that I had chosen that could be a part of my work and trying to work out what to do with them.  Here are some of the images I have been looking at:

 It occurred to me that I can create a scene incorporating these sorts of images, but one that doesn't totally spell out what I am trying to say.  I now see an image of a backyard with a washing line and on the line hangs the mask, the underwear and a Pinocchio puppet.  To incorporate the fridge, I think I could perhaps have the washing line attached to it.  I will have a play in Photoshop and see what happens.

If at first...

I began working on my Adamson/Pinocchio piece in class today and it took some time to navigate around Photoshop to start with and I had to ask a fellow student for a few pointers a couple of times too.  I eventually got to this stage.

Then, I had my chat with Cornelius : ), who once again enlightened me as to where I was going wrong!  It is far too obvious to simply put Peter's face on to Pinocchio's body and I should focus on the images of the ill gotten gains.  They are intriguing and I need to remember that I don't always have to spell it out.  I always seem to forget this and go straight to the point.  So it's back to the drawing board, or Photoshop screen once again and time to start over.  A bit of a frightening thought when the work is due in two weeks time and I haven't got any ideas...I'm actually feeling a little overwhelmed.

Would I lie to you?

It's late on a Sunday evening and I have come to the conclusion that I don't think I have enough time to bring my original idea to fruition, to the standard that I would like, being such a newbie to digital art and Photoshop etc.

I have once again been combing through well known images on the net when I found Pinocchio.

This got me thinking about the elections coming up in Darwin and all the lies in politics.  It also reminded me about a classic political story that eventuated when I first arrived in Darwin.
The then Mayor, Peter Adamson was accused and convicted of using council funds to purchase a refrigerator, a Darth Vader voice changer mask and some women's underwear.  I thought it quite fitting that the former "Lord Mayor" would be undone by a Darth Vader the "Dark Lord" mask!

In my head I can see Peter's face on the body of Pinnochio, trying to tell Jiminy Cricket that he hasn't done anything wrong, despite holding a Darth Vader mask and women's underwear in his hands...

How to be a digital artist

I've searched and searched the net, and found a work by Stu Nankivell called "Woomera - The People Behind The Rockets".  He won the Library Hack prize for this comedic digital art work.

Whadyaknow? How to be a digital artist - ABC North and West SA - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

This is along the lines of what I was hoping to do for my project.  I'm just not confident about getting the outcome that I want.

Assessment 1

Ok, so my first idea is to take some old well known black and white photos and 'Darwinise' them by adding a voice over that relates to Darwin.  I came up with this idea after looking at lots of old photos and finding this one of Howard Hughes:

I imagine Howard saying something like "What do you mean you couldn't get a croc pic?", since the NT News always seems to have a picture of a crocodile somewhere.
I have found many images that I think could be useful including these:

I'm just not sure about animating their mouths or making a voice over.  Of course, this is something I have never done before.  I think I need to try and find if any one has done this kind of thing before and how they went about it.

Teclopolis

I also think that creating a video using the multiple theme would be really cool. Last year I watched a short science film during science week 2011 called "Teclopolis". It is a video made using every day objects that depicts how technology is taking over the world and we can't really escape it.  It has been described as "a whole civilisation running towards its inevitable destiny, while a super 8 camera searches for a lost love" (http://2011.riverrunfilm.com/films/teclopolis).  Yes, it is 12 minutes long, but well worth watching in my opinion.

What will it be?

I have been thinking really hard about what direction my assessment piece will take.  Last semester I made a painting about the birth of my first child and the death of the oldest living woman at the time, a sculpture using 850 swivels threaded on fishing line, and finally made prints using Manet's "Boy with a pitcher" and Darwinised it by giving him an NT stubby to hold instead.  I had a lot of fun creating all these pieces and now this semester we need to use the same themes to create a digital piece.  This might take the form of a book, a film or an animation for example.

Our lecturer Cornelius showed us a great website http://www.blublu.org/ and we watched the video Big Bang Big Boom.  I would love to make something like this but in 6 weeks that is kind of impossible!

Have a watch of the video.

Video Art

This video art installation by Sonia Falcone is amazing.  Lights and colours seem to dance in this work.  From the muted blue tones to explosions of bright multi colours accompanied by a complimentary music track.  I think this work is amazing and I feel almost mesmerized when watching it.  I felt very disappointed when it came to the end and would love to be able to see this installation in person.

Sonia Falcone Art

I have stumbled across Sonia Falcone Art, with works including paintings, sculpture installations and video art.  Truly lovely works to me and I wish there were more of them!

http://www.soniafalcone.net/category/gallery/

The Hai Gallery in London describes Sonia's work as a balance between natural and artificial, whilst respecting both as important domains.

Bill Viola

I have been looking at work by Bill Viola today.  His work is creative and can be very confronting.  Below is his video art work from 2004 titled "The Raft".

A very violent and emotional work.  Bill said that this work was commissioned for the 2004 Athens Olympics, showing a cross section of humanity.  They are waiting and then suddenly bombarded by powerful jets of water, knocking them down in a violent manner.  After the wave of destruction the people then start to get up and check on each other.  Bill said that he wanted the work to show people being able to withstand the onslaught and get back on their feet and go at it again.

"The Raft" eerily resonates with "The Raft of the Medusa", a very famous work from 1818 by Theodore Gericault.  This is the work below:

Gericault's 'Raft' shows the aftermath of the sinking Meduse in which over 140 people desperately clung on to the raft and hoped for life.  In reality only 15 people survived.  I think it's very simple to compare the meanings of the two 'Raft' works - surviving disaster, the glimmer of hope, strength in adversity, but I also tend to think that the works are also about chance.  Sometimes there is no reason for the terrible things that happen in life and bad things happen to good people all the time.

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog for Introductory Studio SVA103 at CDU.
It looks like an exciting semester ahead, creating art with a digital focus!