FORMAL ELEMENTS

There are seven formal elements of art; These are COLOUR, FORM, LIGHT, LINE, SHAPE, SPACE, and TEXTURE. In order to look at all these elements in one, I will talk about them by applying them to one of the images I looked at in my scrapbook; Johannes Vermeer's "absolute masterwork" The Girl with a Pearl Earring.

COLOUR
Colour plays a massive part in any piece of art, as it has a direct effect on the viewers emotions. The colours used in this Vermeer painting were few, only 11 in total, but they have an intense effect. They all complement each other and instead of being bright and harsh, they are calm tones that draw your attention against the bone black background. The intensity of colour in the scarf and eyes draws your attention to the face, then to the bright white of the earring.

Pigments used in the Girl with a Pearl Earring...
1. white lead
2. yellow ochre
3. vermilion
4. red madder
5. red ochre
6. brown ochre (raw umber?)
7. charcoal black
8. bone black
9. ultramarine (natural lapis lazuli)
10. indigo
11. weld

LIGHT
Light and dark transfrom a painting, giving the artist the ability to draw the viewers attention to where ever he/she wants. This feature can be used effectively in all types of art- abstract, photo-realistic, colour, black & white etc. In this oil painting, the lighting draws the attention to the focus point of the piece- the pearl.It shows the folds of the material in the models scarf and dress. As a portrait, Vermeer effectively uses light on the face of the model to show the light source and our attention is drawn to this light where the face and pearl stand out against the darkness of the background. The pearl iteself shines brightly out of the shading of the neck area which is hidden from the light. When edited to be made black and white, the lighting can be seen well- and shows how effective it is in the piece.


LINE
Although it is hard to pick out many lines in the painting, they are there. They're not straight up and down, but in art that is not what is always implied by line; Lines can be straight and curved, and may even refer to the outlining of the shape in the image. In this painting, there are noticable lines in the headscarf to indicate folds in material, and curved lines in the dress to . Also line is used to define the jaw of the model- line in this painting has been used both to outline and add detail.

On Adobe Photoshop, I edited the image
(right) to take out the detail and leave only the main lines- these were the strokes in the scarf and the outline of the model and her facial features (the pink shows these features.)

SHAPE
Shape can be a whole host of different things- organic, geometric, flat, 3D, 2D, symmetrical etc. Shape is so important because it expresses so much-
*it keeps order in the work, defining something or calming it, or even making a piece more complex.
*it also gives the image its 'thing'. That sounds a little vague but shape can be ANYTHING so its hard to define how an artist can shape their work. But what it does is it sets the piece apart from others- like Vermeer's painting, which is famous for the composition but which couldn't be without the shapes of the titled oval head, and triangular shoulder towards the viewer.
* the other crucial point about shape is it expresses emotions- how else could abstract be considered art? If the viewer couldn't feel a sense of emotion being portrayed then it would be fair to say that it just looked like a load of scribble!


SPACE
Nothing exists without space, as it is the distance or area around, between, above, below or within places. In art, space can be described as either 2D or 3D.The space in 2D 'flat space' artwork like this Vermeer painting is limited by its height and width. While there is no actual depth or distance in this piece, there are qualities of the work that make the space a noticable feature-qualities such as the immense dark space that makes up the background (made using a combination of black, indigo and weld). Dark backgrounds were largely used in portraiture to isolate the figure from the distracting elements and enhance the 3D effect of the figure.


TEXTURE
Texture can be rough or smooth, soft or hard. In this Vermeer it is implied; it is the surface quality that can be seen and felt. In this painting the texture is visually apparent (seen) rather than physically (felt). The techniques Vermeer used add texture to the material in the headdress and dress of the girl, and the shading and variation in hues outlines folds and creases in this material. An online analysis of the 'working-up' of the 'Girl with a Peal Earring' looks at where Vermeer focused on layering the paint:

On close inspection the headgear is modeled with surprisingly rapid and broad brushwork, laboratory analysis reveals that the illuminated blue part of the turban was executed with a single layer of white lead mixed with ultramarine blue and then successively glazed with a transparent of the same blue with a very small addition of red madder. The yellow ochre garment seems even more abbreviated, if not spuriously, executed. The dark background which was already been set in the underpainting stage was then glazed with a mixture of indigo and welt to achieve a somewhat greenish tonality that has degraded in time. The only area of the painting which may have required considerable time to paint was the face of the young girl. But since only two layers of paint above the dark underpainting have been detected, much of the careful balancing of chiaroscuro may have been achieved in the underpainting phase itself.

GALLERY review

TUESDAY 17TH NOVEMBER 2009,

EXHIBITION REVIEW: Nessie Stonebridge’s ‘Postures of Delirium’

On Saturday 14th November, I found myself lost in the middle of Hackney looking for Vyner Street where a small gallery was waiting to be discovered, exhibiting the latest works of Nessie Stonebridge. I heard of ‘Madder139’ from the website ARTRABBIT, and instead of opting for the typical yet always promising TATE or National Gallery to look for new artists, I journeyed on a 176 from Tottenham Court Road to the unfamiliar area of EC1Y. It only took 30 minutes by bus and a further 20 minutes to find someone to ask for directions, and a broken umbrella, wet brogues and soaking A-Z to get to the gallery. It didn’t help that what I am use to as being a gallery is a grand large building with the likes of Monet and Singer-Sargent gracing its walls- Madder139 was found behind 4 large black bins and a graffiti ridden stairwell, with its windows all boarded up with brown paper.

After finding the gallery in such unlikely circumstances, even shockingly when I entered the room was no larger than my art class room with 2 women behind their desks tapping away at their keyboards with the exhibition on the walls surrounding them. And I was the only person visiting. Greeted by complete silence I wandered around, said an awkward hello, and asked to sit and sketch. They smiled, and I sat. After completely loosing the feeling in my right foot, I finished my sketches of a drawing that used charcoal and pencil on paper, and then asked one of the ladies what she thought of the exhibit. Bouncing ideas off one another, the overall impression and notes I left with included the words chaos, collision, sexual energy, fighting, frustration, speed, and depth.

The reasons I went were to try something new, go somewhere and discover something, and someone, new. I wanted to see this artists work as well because just looking at the thumb size image displayed online of one of her pieces, most using oil on linen or canvas, had convinced me to make the trek down to this gallery, and seeing them all in person was very pleasing. It’s hard to describe a painting when you just like it, especially if it’s abstract. The colours, the style- they’re all things that I could say interest me in Stonebridge’s ‘Postures of Delirium’ but, without sounding daft or slightly insane, they seem to exude an energy that is really appealing to me. Just one room with 10 paintings or so, and I left on a high and deep in thought. Before even knowing that the paintings were taken from personal events in the artists past, I could feel the emotion of the works in the colours and harsh swirls and strokes of the paint. The exhibit has converted me from an abstract antagonist, and was one of those great experiences when you see how really strong the power of art is. And that Hackney isn’t that bad after all.

GALLERY VISITS

SIOBHAN DAVIES 85 St Georges St, Elephant & Castle

MADDER 139 No.1 Vyner Street, Hackney

***

On Saturday 14th November I went to visit two exhibitions at Madder139 and Siobhan Davies Studios. I found both these exhibits on the website ART RABBIT, in areas where I would otherwise not have travelled to in order to look for galleries.

Madder139 was in Hackney, and is a small gallery in what I mistook for an office block. With its windows boarded up the only thing that led me to notice it was the gallery I was looking for was the small red lettering above 5 black bins. The inside is just one large room that held 10 or so paintings and charcoal drawings by Nessie Stonebridge. The reason I chose to come see this artists works was because although abstract, I thought they related to the idea of wrapped material in the twists and spirals of paint. And of course for the obvious reason that the images of the works were beautiful and I wanted to see them for myself (they did not disappoint!)

Siobhan Davies Studios was actually a dance studio where the exhibit I was looking for was at the end of the hall below the main staircase. This was surprising to me as I expected that the installation I had come to see would be surrounded by other works of art. Nonetheless it related well to my project, and Giosca's idea of hair extensions and hair accessories decorating printed paper turbans on sticks was a bizarre and fun piece to discover and visit. Ludovica Gioscia's installation couldn't have been more different to Nessie Stonebridge's abstract pieces though, which was interesting because I'd chosen them both based on the same theme.

ROSSETTI: 'THE BRIDE' ESSAY

PAINTING WORK: 'The Beloved'

'The Beloved', also known as 'The Bride', is a 17th Century oil painting by the fantastic Dante Gabriel Rossetti. One of Rossetti's most famous pieces, it is very bold and exotic, with beauty and religion (painting represents part of a song of Solomon) being just some of its running themes. In the painting, there are 6 figures; 4 women surrounding and a young child below the main figure, the 'Bride'. The 'Bride' is a pale figure, with those around her being of different ethnicity's. It is said that Rossetti was trying to show that beauty is of different races and colours. There is also a lot of natural beauty in the form of a variety of flowers in shades of reds, pinks and yellows.

I chose to look at this particular painting out of all those that I have already gathered as influence, because simply it is a beautiful piece. It isn't easy for me to say why I love the piece when I am so familiar with it in comparison to a piece I have newly discovered. The reason I originally put it in my book was because of the wrapping and draping of material around the brides hair, and the loose hanging of her printed clothes. I could identify with these features of it in relation to my photos and theme of wrapping, in particular turbans. Why I chose to look at it further in class, and have my classmates tell me what they associated with it and what was memorable about it (religion, nature and surprisingly Christmas being amongst the most common comments), was for a mixture of reasons. As a fan of the artist it could be because I love his work, the traditional beauties portrayed, and warm bold colours used. Out of the images I had collected, it was the most appealing of the lot; the composition and layout being considered carefully, as the artist fills the canvas with women, voluptuous sleeves and draping headscarves, flowers and detailed body adornment; the rich colours and different hues used, and the light pale tone of the bride contrasting against the background and other figures.

Sophie Calle and ROSSETTI

SOPHIE CALLE and her GHOSTS

"I asked (them) to describe and draw it for me. I then replaced the missing painting with these memories."

This quote from Calle best desrcibes her exhibit where she used peoples ideas and thought of a painting to replace the piece itself.
Using Calle's idea as a starting point, I decided that the piece I would concentrate on was 'The Bride (the beloved)' by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. I then showed the whole of my art class the image. They then individually, as I described what I thought about it and some background information, wrote down 5 words to describe their initial response. Later working from memory they described what they remembered, using words and images. Image wise, people drew a lot of faces surrounding a centre face, with foliage surrounding them. Words that were used to describe the image were religion, beauty, christmas (due to the warm red and green colours) and nature. I used these ideas and my own to then write a response to the painting- ROSSETTI'S 'THE BRIDE' : PAINTING WORK...

VISUAL CONNECTIONS

John Berger ESSAY

‘Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognises before it can speak.’

Based on the BBC television series, John Berger’s Ways of Seeing was praised by many critics although to me his theories were hard to follow. The book alters out perceptions of the things around us, and the way we look at a work of art; it gets you to ask questions. When thinking about the many points Berger makes in relation to the artist images I have chosen, it is quite difficult to look back and question why I chose them; what made me chose that particular image out of a gallery full of others?

The starting point of my project is my holiday homework, which is based around the Ernest Hébert oil painting Girls of Alvito. I found this image when visiting the Musee d’Orsay in the ‘Italian Models: Hébert and the Peasants of Latium’ exhibition. Starting my project w

ith a painting I physically saw has made a big difference because the feelings and aesthetic features that made me choose it are what I look for in other artist images, and when taking photos. When I first saw the painting being used to advertise the exhibition, I thought it was a nice piece and it did prompt me to go to the gallery , but in person everything looked ten times better; the colours, the cliffs, the layers of clothing, the hair, the piercing eyes. The detailed simplicity of the image stops you in your tracks; the girls in the painting make you question the story behind it- why did Hébert choose to paint them? And with such exhausted expressions? To me, the girls in themselves

have the power of making viewers stop and stare purely because their eyes feel like they’re looking right through you, as if they are numbed of all expression and feeling.

Berger said that ‘the past is not for living in; it is a well of conclusions from which we draw in order to act.’ Although it may have a simpler meaning, I interpret this to mean that this beautiful piece is the well in which I will take from, the feelings it provokes and what makes me gaze at it. Thus the features that made Girls of Alvito special helped me to find other pieces that I can move my project forward with. After reading Ways of Seeing, to say I chose these other images because they were beautiful and related to Girls of Alvito seems far too simple. In the first of many essays that makes up Berger’s book, he says’ The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.’ It is one of many statements in the book that he makes that when put into context are true. To say, in relation to one of my other artists work for example, that Edmund Dulac’s Scheherezade is just a beautiful drawing would underestimate its appeal once you know that it was used as a part of the illustrations in a children’s story book, which gives it that magical charm.

my SECOND A3 DRAWING using MORE PHOTOS

my first A3 DRAWING

From my variety of different photos, I had a lot of choice as to what I could draw for my first A3 drawing. I chose to use one of the photos where my model was profile, and had a patterned scarf wrapped & twisted around her head. I think that the drawing was successful because the lighting in the photo made shading look effective,ant the pattern makes the drawing really interesting and detailed.

the TURBAN PHOTOS