Assignment 2

[Pippa]

I found this quite a hard topic to work on. It took me a lot of thinking to work out who as an artist had inspired me over the years and why. Mostly I think because I wish to produce really good photographs because I like pretty things. I would like to be able to express my appreciation for the beauty in this world both with places and wildlife in a photo to do it justice. I did realise however that there are three artists who have always stuck in my mind, but for different reasons, they are M.C. Escher, George Stubbs and Dale Chihuly.

M.C. Escher I like as it stretches the mind. His pictures are of objects we know, but still abstract and at first glance not what they appear to be. My favourite picture is his ‘Three Worlds’. This picture you can’t quite realise which point of view you are viewing it from. Are we under water looking up, above the surface looking down? It is only upon closer inspection that you realise we are at ground level looking at leaves on the surface, reflections of the tree’s and the fish in the pond. It really makes you step back and take a second look. It is also an extremely simple picture with strong lines and not a lot of shades of grey. I like the intrigue and boldness of this picture, it is not something you would just glance over and move onto the next one, it holds my interest.

George Stubbs I think goes without saying. To manage to paint horses to the degree of perfection he does is truly a gift. They may as well be photographs. He clearly loved and worshipped the animal to take the effort to include every detail, muscle, hair and emotion of the horse in each of his pictures. Also some of the pictures are almost life size which allows for an even greater depth of detail and to achieve this without fault shows a dedicated and talented human. He must have spent many hours studying his subject to get them just them so lifelike in his portraits. I like the effort put in to show off the immense beauty of horses. I admire the dedication and determination behind the pictures to get to this level of perfection, something I wish to achieve but often lack the patience for. The picture I like the best is Mare and Foals in a Landscape.

Dale Chihuly creates the most magnificent pieces of art from glass. To my knowledge there is nobody else who currently has anything similar. He creates beautifully powerful and colourful pieces. My attraction mostly is probably the medium of glass and the stunning colours he manages to use which are strong and vibrant as are the pieces. It also amazes me how he can take what is essentially a glass dish and form it to look like a clam – this just shows how open his mind is. His art is also very big and takes a lot of space – it is bold in design. The world is often to grey and mediocre, so I like the fact that his art if big, bold, colourful and I therefore find it uplifting. There are no half measures to it. Also to create this in a medium of glass which is relatively fragile is a lovely irony – the structure is strong and bold in appearance but not in it’s physical construction. Almost a paradigm of how beauty is often fragile.
I was privileged enough to be around when he did an exhibition at Kew Gardens in London, this was an unbelievable site to see. Kew Gardens is on a massive scale and for his work to be a significant part of it just shows the sheer enormity of the scale of some of his work. Also how something out of glass could fit in and look so at home in this environment. Probably my most favourite piece was a turquoise golf tee set that was on display in the glass house in Kew – on his website “TEMPERATE HOUSE LIGHT BLUE GOLF TEES, 2005TEMPERATE HOUSE LIGHT BLUE GOLF TEES, 2005” – Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – Small Installations.

I have checked the assignment criteria and it does say just one artist, however it also states there is no wrong or right answer. As I couldn’t choose between these as my favourite I have detailed what about each one I like – as they are all so different. I have noticed that there is however similarities that are similar for the reason’s I like them – so this has taught me something about myself – bold seems to be a theme!

[Duncan Rawlinson]

Thank you for sharing this. It was really well written. I have a good feeling this will inspire other photographers as well. I just wanted to share the links for others to see your inspiration. It’s nice to look outside the world of photographers. You can learn a lot from artists working with different medium.

Interesting choices of artists:

http://www.globalgallery.com/prod_images/esc-e4.jpg

http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/stubbs/images/works/mareandfoals.jpg

http://www.dianefarrisgallery.com/artist/chihuly/kew/photo_album/index.htm

[Author]

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