Different ways of using photography;
Working in pairs, we picked out a random action and a random place from a pile and used them together to create a photograph.

The first was -
Gallop, on the floor; looked like this

The second was -
Fist bump, the wall; looked like this

50 Photographers of note

My top 3 photographers;

Steven Klein

The distressed burned look in this photograph really caught my eye and I think this technique is quite effective. I'm not sure if this has been done with Photoshop or if a negative was burned but either way it is extremely interesting


 Nan Goldin

I am greatly inspired by Goldin's work. I think her work is simple and clean but her ideas are very clever. Her work seems almost amateur but she still shows thoughtful compositions and lighting in the natural surroundings.


Martin Parr

Parr's work is always interesting compositionally and this photograph is no exception.

Transform - Fine Art

For this weeks private study task I have been asked to research and post 3 artists who use walking as part of their creative practice.

The first artist I came across was Jan Dibbets. He is a Dutch conceptual artist born on 9th May 1941.

His work does not show an obvious approach to the use of walking but I find his panoramic like images give a fantastic sense of movement across a landscape. This piece of work is called Panorama Dutch Mountain 12 x 15° Sea II A, and was made in1971.

The second artist I found was Richard Long. Long's work is similar to David Nash and Andy Goldsworthy who I wrote about in a previous post. 

Richard Long is an English sculptor, land artist, photographer and painter. 

His work stems from taking walks through rural and remote areas in Britain, the plains of Canada, Mongolia and Bolivia. When researching into his work, I found this piece to be one of my favourites. The simple lines of repetition show a natural yet thoughtful composition.

"Nature has always been a subject of art, from the first cave paintings to twentieth-century landscape photography. I wanted to use the landscape as an artist in new ways. First I started making work outside using natural materials like grass and water, and this led to the idea of making a sculpture by walking. This was a straight line in a grass field, which was also my own path, going 'nowhere'. In the subsequent early map works, recording very simple but precise walks on Exmoor and Dartmoor, my intention was to make a new art which was also a new way of walking: walking as art. Each walk followed my own unique, formal route, for an original reason, which was different from other categories of walking, like travelling. Each walk, though not by definition conceptual, realised a particular idea. Thus walking – as art – provided a simple way for me to explore relationships between time, distance, geography and measurement. These walks are recorded in my work in the most appropriate way for each different idea: a photograph, a map, or a text work. All these forms feed the imagination."
—Richard Long

The final artist I found was Hamish Fulton. He is a British artist and photographer, born on 21st July 1946. 

He is an artist that works solely on the idea of walking, solo or as a group. 

He has stated "If I do not walk, I cannot make a work of art" and has summed up this way of thinking in the simple statement of intent: "no walk, no work".

3 Textile artists

Here are a few artist that have inspired me during my time exploring the Textile area;

Focusing particularly on artists who use an interesting colour palette and techniques in which they create their work.

Mark Rothko

 

 His work is pure colour and I find it fascinating how something so simple can be so effective. The proportions of colour vary in size but are organised thoughtfully.

Dawn Dupree

I particually like Dupree's work as she shows an excellent use of layers and textured surfaces. Colour wise, her work is relatively neutral but adding in small sections of bright colours of red and yellow makes the work very eye catching.  

Barbara Rae

The aspect in her work that I find most interesting is her use of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines varying in width and colour. The lines cover the majority of the paintings and they draw your eye from one end to the other.

David Nash - Sculptor

Having researched the work of a variety of different designers, in my opinion, I thought that David Nash was one of the most interesting.
David Nash was born on the 14th November 1945. He is a British sculptor and creates a range of works, which includes installations, sculptures and drawings, usually using the medium of wood. Bearing in mind a sustainable approach, rather than causing damage to forestation and woodland areas, Nash uses dead trees so not ending their natural life.
His exploration of shape and form, work well with this type of material and stood out to me as he recreates the properties of trees in a playful manor.

This piece of work called Pyramid was made in 1997 - 1998. The 3D shapes are made from oak and were charred with a propane torch to produce the very dark black colouring. This is very striking and I find this piece particularly interesting as he is contrasting 3D shapes with 2D drawings in charcoal. The use of repetition is also very clever as this gives the illusion of depth whilst looking so effortlessly simple.

In response to seeing this piece of work I created my own 3D object that is my own 'homage to the artist'.

 

The shapes in Nash's piece were the main source of inspiration for my own work. I constructed a cube frame out of copper wire and hung paper sphere and triangle shapes from the top of the frame with white cotton string.

Here are some more pieces of work by David Nash that I find interesting:

David Nash's work greatly reminds me of the sculptor Andy Goldsworthy whos work I also appreciate. Goldsworthy is the other artist that I am looking into and comparing to Nash.
Andy Goldsworthy was born on 26th July 1956, and likewise to David Nash he is also a British sculptor, using natural materials such as stones, leaves and twigs.