George Seurat - Pointillism

George Seurat was a fine artist which took part of the Neo-Impressionism movement in the history of Art.

The Neo-Impressionism movement defined an idea of avant-garde art that was found and developed in France 1886 to 1906. Artists within this era were interested in science and the study of optics.

Seurat experimented with colour pigments. He developed a technique of drawing which he called 'Pointillism'. This showed a rational and scientific approach to colour and light.

One of Seurat's most known painting is 'A Sunday afternoon on the island of Grande Jatte'- 1884. This took him quite a long time to finish it up as it is painted on a large scale and the technique chosen was very time consuming.

 

[George Seurat, 1884, A Sunday afternoon on the island of Grande Jatte, Pointilism,
2.08 m x 3.1 m, Art Institute of Chicago Building]

This painting showed how Seurat has approached a very good outcome with the use of the vibrant contrast and the brilliant highlights created with a huge amount of dots with paint. 

• This is a very interesting website which showes the painting of Seurat in HD + zoom (you can identify the composition of small dots).

http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/a-sunday-on-la-grande-jatte-1884/twGyqq52R-lYpA?utm_source=google&utm_medium=kp&hl=en&projectId=art-project

• This video shows a very good explanation of the idea behind Seurat and Pointillism. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOBeis-GaL8

Recently I went to an art exhibition which was held at the st.James Cavalier, Valletta/Malta. The exhibition consisted of many artists and one of them was Steve Bonello. I noticed that his work really resembles that of Seurat as he used the same technique but instead of using dots of paint he used small felt-pen strokes.

[Steve Bonello, Il-Poeta tan-Natura, Technical pens and coloured inks]

The same thing, Bonello used the scientific approach of colour contrasts.

Heilbrum timeline of Art History, Georges Seurat (1859–1891) and Neo–Impressionism, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/seni/hd_seni.htm, [Accessed on 23/3/14]

Wikipedia, A Sunday afternoon on the island of Grande Jatte, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sunday_Afternoon_on_the_Island_of_La_Grande_Jatte,
[Accessed on 23/3/14]
 

Arts & Crafts - William Morris

William Morris was an English designer, writer and lecturer which took part of the 'Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood' and English 'Arts & Crafts movement'. He began his artistic skills by studying at the oxford university and afterwords he began his training as an architect.

Morris was a great friend of Dante Gabriell Rossetti, infect in several paintings of Dante there's featured William's wife 'Jane Morris'.

Morris founded an art firm in collaboration with Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Webb, and others, this was called 'Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co' & later in 1875 he started his own firm 'Morris & Company'.

The designer William was very much influenced by medievalist, and in his pattern designs you can easily identify the inspirations of certain leaves etc..

He was a pattern genius with brilliant ideas.

William wallpaper designs and interior decor had revolutionized the idea of arts and crafts. In fact the medieval inspired patterns had became as his trade-mark.

Now a days Morris is a very common source of inspiration in several different sectors of the design industries all over the world.

• Fashion industry

New York fashion week autumn/winter collection of Ostwald Helgason, Alice + Olivia and Tory Burch 2013.

The designer shows their clear inspirations from Morris as they transferred several patterns and made them their own by creating garments that are fashion forward.

The one garment that stood out the most in my idea was the Alice + Olivia Floral Skirt. It's is beautifully sewn and has a magnificent pattern/colour scheme.

[Alice + Olivia Floral Skirt , New York Fashion Week, 2013]

Alex Korchynski, March 23,2013,Design, William Morris inspires at New York Fashion Week,  http://www.thegenteel.com/articles/design/william-morris, [Accessed on 20/03/14]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris, [Accessed on 20/03/14]

 

Visit - other artist work

This is another artist's exhibition space that took part of  ‘Xebgha nies' held at the st James Cavalier – Lower Gallery.

The name of the local artist is Steve Bonello and in all he had 6 art pieces that were presented.

When looking at his drawings i immediately made a comparison with another famous artist as he uses interesting drawing technique. The technique resembles that of George Seurat - Pointillism, from the Neo-Impressionism movement. Instead of drawing with dots, Bonello chosen to draw with small pen strokes.

This is the first artwork presented.The name is 'In-nemmiesa' and the mediums used were technical pens and coloured inks.

The artwork features a local theme as there are iconic elements from 'Malta' in it. The first iconic thing that i noticed was the wall 'Hajt tas-sejjieh' in the fields and the other element is the church.

3 figural drawings are presented which they're in a very interesting composition. I noticed that the artist used the 'Rule of thirds' to balance the whole outcome in a very effective way. In my opinion the colour scheme chosen went quite well with the theme. He made clear contrast between the figural woman and the background so that it stands out.

This is another artwork from Bonello's collection. the name is 'The citadel Madonna' and the mediums used were technical pens, coloured inks and polychrome pencils.

This artwork also has the element of patriotism as the artist again features the iconic 'Hajt tas-sejjieh' and the church in the background. The church indicates that it's in Imdina-Malta as it is build the highest central part of malta.

Bonello made an interesting meaning to this artwork as he gave the name 'Citadel' meaning a fortress protecting a town. This indicates that the artist wanted to show the protection of the Madonna on the child

The colours chosen showed clear contrasts. He also took care of the composition as he made use of the negative and positive space to balance the artwork.

This was the next art piece. The name is 'Arena' and the mediums used were technical pens coloured inks and polychrome pencils.

This artwork consist of a numerous figural presentations. In all there are 17 human figures, 1 woman and 16 men. The men seem to be in a very good mood as the artist managed to show their enthusiastic behavior. On the other hand the woman seems to be also in a very good mood as she's putting up a good show for the audience.

The woman is drawn in the center while the men are on top looking down at her. This gave her the focal point as she's the center of attraction. The Block reddish colour of the wall separated the audience from the woman.

This is another interesting art piece from the exhibition space on Bonello. The name of the drawing is 'Il-poeta tan-nature' ( meaning the poet of nature) and the mediums used were technical pens and coloured inks.

Bonello managed to really tackle the idea of the nature theme as he drawn the poet alone by the sea with the butterflies going around his head in circles. Normally we see drawings with stars going around people's head meaning that they're dizzy or something like that. Bonello drawn butterflies instead pf stars so that he gives the idea of the poet consciously lost in nature.

The colours chosen showed the beauty of nature as the butterflies are drawn in vibrant colours, the sea has that beautiful light blue and the fields are shades of green and browns... therefore he used earthy colours in a brilliant way.

This was the 4th drawing of Bonello. The name is 'Imbeciles and frontieres' and the mediums used were technical pens and coloured inks.

This work features 19 human figures. Bonello is trying to send out the message of the different people in society. He managed to show this aspect by the different skin tones and outfits. 

The people are all in the same position as the artist is sending out the message that after all we're all the same.

The colours chosen makes good contrasts and balances the whole image.. Although the orange colour on the brown toned man is more vibrant. 

This was the last artwork that was exhibited in Bonello 'Xebgha nies' space. The name of this drawing is 'Cecilia & Herbert' and the mediums used were technical pens and coloured pens.

This drawing features 2 figural painting and nothing else. The background is 1 colour with few shades therefore the formal element of negative and positive space took a huge part of this art piece.

The colours chosen and the textures are giving out a calm feeling. The facial expressions on the 2 individuals are a bit different from each other as the woman seam to be very serious while the man is smiling. This showed the comperism of 2 different characters in one drawing.

Over all I really liked these set of artworks from Bonello. The one thing that stood out the most in my idea was the brilliant exciting technique of drawing. It looks like it took him a long time to finish up this collection but the outcomes came out very effective. In the future I would like to try out this technique in my works and see how it will work out.  

Visit- Other artists work

I had the opportunity to visit this interesting exhibition which was all based on caricature. This was held at the St. James Cavalier – Lower Gallery, the name is ‘Xebgha nies’ and it’s a collaboration between 9 artists. The work exhibit was all great in my opinion because it had a sense of humor and showed a variety of mediums used. 

One artist that had really stood out was Moira Zahra. She showed a sense of commitment throughout all of her drawing as she kept with her theme.

  

In all of her drawings there is featured a big insect that is treated like a pet.

 

The name of this drawing is '5pm' and the medium used was pencil and Indian ink. In this painting you can notice the mustache man carrying an ant on his back. The facial expression of this man seem to be a bit 'pissed off' as he's cycling all the way on this old style bicycle. 

I really like the simplicity of the lines within this drawing as they are very sharp and clear. I also admire the striking contrast between the big round wheel and the long leg that made the drawing even more effective.

This drawing is 'Encounters' and drawn with pencil and Indian ink. This art work features 5 human figures that are waiting to cross the road and again an ant that is treated like a dog.

The way the figures are drawn, you can identify the different people of society. They are all different but seem to have something in common which is their facial expression. They are looking angry as they have no patience to wait for the traffic lights to change.The ant seems to be the only one whose calm.

 

I find it interesting how the artist managed to create a great composition between the different lengths of the people and also the great contrast between the human figures and the black block colour in the zebra cross.

The name of this painting is 'Backstage' and the mediums used were pencil, Indian ink and water colours. In this drawing you can identify 1 human figure, a cat and a spider that are put together in an interesting composition.

The room looks very messy as the model doesn't seem to care that much as she keeps looking at herself in the mirror. In my opinion this gives us all a lesson in life as we seem to not care on whats going on around us, just care about ourselves.

The colours are chosen wisely to create a vibrant contrast as the background is painted in cold colours (shades of blue) and the woman is painted int warm colour (red). This gave the whole painting a sense of focal point.

This painting's name is 'Weekend with Grandma' and the mediums used were Pencil, Indian ink and Water colours.In this painting there's 4 human figures and a huge ant.

The colour scheme of this painting screams summer. In the background you can notice all the summer stuff that we're normally surrounded with by the pool in a hot sunny day ( umbrellas, deckchairs,hats, sunglasses and cocktails)

The composition of this painting is very well thought as in the front you'll have 2 skinny figures and one a bit fat and at the back there's the huge lady that has covered half of this drawing.

For me the interesting part of this drawing is how the insect is integrating with the lady very well. It seems to be cuddling the opposite way the ant reacts in normal life.  

 

The name of this drawing is 'Downtown' and the mediums used were Pencil, Indian Ink and water colours. This drawing features 1 significant human figure and a huge insect (Again treated as a dog).

The woman decided to take her pet for a walk in this ugly weather. You can notice the weather by the drawing of the umbrella, the fabric that is flowing by the forces of the wind and also the pale background.

Something suspicious about this painting is that the insect seem to be leading the way instead of the woman leading him. The artist painted the woman in red clothing and accessories as she clearly wanted her to be the focal point.

Over all I found this exhibition very interesting and inspiring. Usually in my works I don't work with water colours and Indian inks that much, but seeing these art pieces i'm looking forward to experiment with these mediums and apply them into my works.