Zara Patton

Art, University, Life, Me...

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This is an emulsion painting inspired by Jackson Pollock.

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The Walker Art Gallery And Contemporary Art Interventions                                          17-09-2014

Today’s visiting lecturer was Anne who is the head of fine art at the national museums.

The main lecture was based on The Walker Art Gallery which first opened in 1877 as a venue for contemporary art. It also runs the John Moores painting prize which started in 1957 and includes winners such as David Hockney, Sarah Pickston etc. The Most recent winner which was only announced on Friday 19th September 2014 was Rose Whylie.

Rose Whylie – ‘PV Windows and Floorboards’ winner of the John Moores Painting Proze 2014.

Anne talked about the organisations which help the National Museums stay open and run on a daily basis which include;

Arts Council Collection

Art Fund Heritage Lottery Fund

Universities, Schools and Colleges

Contemporary Art Society

Media Organisations like the BBC

Other art galleries e.g. The Bluecoat, Tate, National Gallery etc

Other pieces of work that Anne talked about was a performance piece by David Brinkworth ‘The Gallery Cleaning Service’ 2004 which was one of the first performance pieces The Walker Art Gallery had. It was an interesting piece from how Anne described it. At first I was confused as to how this was a performance piece of art but the fact that Brinkworth spent months at the gallery getting to know how the cleaners clean the different areas of the gallery and what products they use etc. The fact that he studied and became part of the team before going alone on this performance to show how much work is put into keeping the gallery up and running and cleaned daily, and how it isn’t just brushing, mopping, cleaning windows, toilets, staircases etc it has a lot more which is keeping different rooms at different temperatures for the different pieces of artwork, cleaning the humidifiers etc.

The Walker Art Gallery is one of my favourite places to be, I love the contemporary work in there and how I have a new opinion on contemporary art work and that at a certain time, yes it is contemporary but then it gets a name or a century or title to the time but the contemporary artwork there at the moment keeps changing and it was amazing to see the John Moores Painting Prize. 

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Review of 'A Needle Walks into a Haysack' - Part of the Liverpool Biennial 2014

A Needle Walks into a Haysack

This exhibition was held at The Old Blind School in Liverpool as a part of the 8th Liverpool Biennial.

The Exhibition itself is an exhibition that reveals itself in different places around the city. It is set in five different spaces including FACT (four solo shows are showcased here), The Bluecoat, Tate Liverpool and St. Andrews Gardens. It is an exhibition ‘about our habitats, and the objects, images, relationships and activities that constitute our immediate surroundings. It is about effecting larger questions facing contemporary life and art, from an intimate and tangible scale that’s within everyday reach’  ‘The artists in this exhibition disrupt many of the conventions and assumptions that usually prescribe the way we live our lives. They attack the metaphors, symbols, and representations that make up their own environment, replacing them with new meanings and protocols’ (Sections taken from the ‘Festival Guide’ book for the Liverpool Biennial.

I hoped on the 86 bus into town to visit this exhibition and I genuinely did not know what to expect. I have never visited much exhibitions outside of main galleries such as the Tate and the Walker Art gallery etc. As I walked into the entrance I was created by these massive ropes dangling from the ceiling and to the right of me was an ice-making machine by ‘Norma Jeane’ I hadn’t a clue what this was about other than the fact it states that it runs on solar energy and the product continually melts away, I just seen a puddle of water and ice on the ground underneath and all I could think was the volunteers/employees have to continually mop up nonstop throughout the day!

I wondered of into a few corridors and noticed that the place was very eerie, old and a bit run down, it felt like a strange place to hold an exhibition particularly one for the Biennial in which I thought wold be placed in a more up-to-date building or environment. The whole time wondering through the building I felt as if I shouldn’t be there and kept getting goosebumps and shivers, the corridors and rooms reminded me of an old psychiatric hospital that was left run down in movies. A few of the places in which video footage was shown such as Peter Wachtler ‘Untitled 2013’ was too empty of a dark room in a place I already felt scared to enter therefore I did not enter any dark room as I felt uneasy to do so.

I felt that the majority of art exhibited was very strange and I didn’t get any of it or the strange meaning or reasons behind the artwork or the fact that none of it fitted into that environment. I felt that dark mysterious or ghostly art should be shown their or landscape art which was environmental or somehow collaborative with the viewers.

One piece in particular in which I found to relate to the space a tiny bit but this is not me reflecting on the art and the exhibition title as that itself is hard to do without knowing who the artist is, where they came from, their background, how they grew up etc.

Michael Stevenson’s burned doors was an interesting topic once I read the side slip, but otherwise I would have been completely lost without the information. The information says; ‘Michael Stevenson borrowed doors from the offices of Liverpool John Moores University’s school of computing and mathematical sciences. Local mathematicians have passed through them thousands of times. The piece is dedicated to another mathematician Jose de Jesus Martinez (1929-91) who founded the maths department at University of Panama City, who believed that the devil resised in the swing og a hinged door.’ ‘These doors are controlled in such a way as to reproduce and mimic the proof. Michael, working alongside Liverpool John Moores University’s school of mathematicans and computer engineers has paired each door swing with a computer game’

That all just sounds very confusing now when I read it back but at the time whilst in the eerie room I felt as though these doors where from an old hospital and not in use but the fact they are just random doors from university offices is strange. Other that the engineering and computing the doors are just ordinary doors and the fact that doors where used is the only common part of the previous story is the haunted hinges on the door.

  (Image from: http://www.newsfiber.com/p/s/h?v=Ed9Jtw%2BgIH1U%3D+BLP6Y%2Fxmc34%3D)

To sum up this exhibition in one word I would definitely have to say ‘Strange’! It was a rare moment and most certainly an exhibition or a place I will never forget visiting but I don’t feel inclined to return any time soon. It was one very interesting exhibition but still strange.

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Shortlisted for the Tate Liverpool

This is an email I was more than happy to receive! I was shocked to be shortlisted for the Tate Liverpool for the Blueprint Festival which was held on the 18th-20th July which was a three day festival for music, art and dance for young people. Link: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/eventseries/blueprint-festival-2014.

I unfortunatly didn't reach the next stage which was the exhibition but I am pleased I got shortlisted. I entered the piece below;

'Killywool' Mixed media on photographs 5" x7" Zara Patton

Here is my text entry along with the paintings;

'Name: Zara Patton

Age: 20

If you are under 18, we will need parental consent. Please email [email protected] for a consent form.

Images (2 maximum, less than 5MB each) of your artwork:

Title of artwork: ‘Killywool’

Media used: Acrylics

Dimensions: 5x7inch each (Quadriptych)

Year the artwork was created: 2014

Up to 250 words of information describing the concept behind your work and how it relates to the theme of the exhibition (optional): This piece explores the beautiful essence of the countryside in Northern Ireland whilst also capturing the way we use space in general in the environment with lampposts or electric wires, how the countryside space is used differently with tractors and barbed wire. This piece was carefully individually painted with a very fine number 0 brush to capture the detailing.

Hanging and/or display requirements: Velcro/Tac

Would you like to be contacted by Tate Liverpool for information about upcoming Tate events and exhibitions? Yes'

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Liverpool John Moores Painting Prize: The Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool)

I recently attended The Walker Art Gallery in order to gather a few possible ideas for my project. I did however get the opportunity to attend the private viewing of the John Moores Painting Prize however I had work on the evening and wasn't able to change it which left me really gutted. 

Firstyly here is a little section about John Moores Painting Prize;

'First held in 1957, the John Moores Painting Prize is the UK's best-known painting competition and is named after Sir John Moores (1896 - 1993), the founder of the prize. The competition culminates in an exhibition held at the Walker Art Gallery every two years, which forms a key strand of the Liverpool Biennial.

The John Moores exhibition is held in partnership with the John Moores Liverpool Exhibition Trust, and although the appearance of each exhibition changes, the principles remain constant: to support artists and to bring to Liverpool the best contemporary painting from across the UK.' (http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/johnmoores/)

Once I first entered the room I was amazed by the the majority of the art work and how much photo-realism there was. I was stunned by the art work of the artists and how they managed to capture such unique images with a WOW factor. 

Here is a few pieces that I was stunned by and still can't believe that these where paintings!

Juliette Losq 'Vinculum' watercolour and ink on paper, on canvas, 290 x 220 cm, 

'I make large-scale watercolours, including installations, which form immersive or semi-immersive environments into which the viewer may feel they can walk or fall. Through these I aim to challenge the ideas of watercolour as being a medium that, traditionally, holds connotations of portability, is to be used for preparatory sketching, or has associations with domestic scale and use.

Using resist, a traditional material of the watercolourist, I work over the surface repetitively as if building up an etching plate, creating multiple painted layers which simultaneously obscure and reveal those beneath. Within these layers I incorporate imagery derived from Victorian ‘Penny Dreadfuls’, newspaper illustrations, science fiction and horror films.

This becomes inextricably woven with the detritus of the marginal areas that I depict. In doing so I aim to evoke an uncertain world in which the uncanny can coexist with the mundane, and where the possibility of confronting what has been repressed may generate at once feelings of creeping malevolence or whimsical curiosity.' (http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/johnmoores/jm2014/shortlist/losq.aspx)

Untitled 2013

Jo Berry, 90 x 120 cm, Acrylic on Canvas.

I am amazed by how this has been painted having looked up Jo Berry I can honestly say I am quite speechless, the detail and fussiness of the painting. I am glad that this is an acrylic piece as knowing I can achieve a realism painting from paints that I love is amazing. This is a unique style that I haven't seen before until this exhibition and I would love to explore this idea. Website link to Berry's work http://joberry.me.uk/index.htm.

Et in Arcadia lego  Paul Collinson, oil on canvas  120cm x 180cm  2013

This a painting again with photo-realism. I did not have a clue that this was a painting, as I was looking at it I thought its a bit of a rare piece of photography and quite blurry but nice and smooth, then I looked at the note on the side and read it was OIL PAINT! WOW! All of Collinson's paintings are stunning! Link to Collinsons website: http://www.englandsfavouritelandscape.co.uk/index.html

'Sister is that you?' Reuben Murray, oil on Canvas

This painting is very large scale, it is hard-hitting and makes you think about the world and what goes on, it reminds be of Jenny Saville's work.

'Landscape (257)' Mike Silva, oil on linen.

This painting is quite expressionistic and similar to a style of mines however I have never painted on linen before and feel inclined to do so as I have seen quite a bit of this being done recently in galleries. 'Silva's paintings are demonstrations of a technical mastery that has always come naturally to him. What gives his work its edge , however ,is his refusal to sublimate or romanticise . There is no art in his compositions. What we are presented with is a kind of raw data of the artist's life, presented with an apparent neutrality- its the straightforwardness, the ordinariness of the artists imagery, whether it be personal or political, that allows us the viewer to connect directly with these works.' Link to Silva's work: http://www.charlieduttongallery.com/Mike%20Silva/Mike%202012/Mike%20Silva%202012.html

Overall this is one of the best exhibitions I have visted and I will most certainly be influenced from this visit and I can't wait to try out new ways and styles to create a twist within my own work also.

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A few photographs of Sefton Park. 

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I came across these pictures whilst taking a walk by Sefton Park then I got lost and wandered of to catch a bus to go home whilst in the underground part walking under the road I noticed these paintings, the web address www.tag-artarts.co.uk is posted on each of these boards. After a searching through the website I realised there is a link between this group and LJMU.

I am very impressed by the artwork especially the albert dock painting.  

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Photographs from Albert Docks Liverpool for the Wakeboarding competition. 30-08-2014

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Leonid Afremov

Leonid Afremov is an artist that I have been influenced since college. His work is fascinating with bright colours, texture and expressionism. I studied his work for several presenations in college and also produced paintings similar in style which are at home which I will upload photographs whenever I am back.

About Leonid Afremov;

Afremov was born in 1955, he is a Russian-Israeli modern impressionistic artist who works with palette knives and oils. His unique still is noticeable and his art work can be noticed from afar. His artwork is self-representative as he not only produces his artwork himself but he also promotes and sells also which is inspiring for me as an upcoming artist in the twenty-first century. Afremov paints mainly landscapes, city scenes, seascapes, flowers and portraits, his artwork is considered very colourful and politically neutral. His early artistic work was very influenced by Chagall and Modigliani.

(Information from: http://afremov.com/pages.php?pageid=2) 

'Paris of my Dreams' 30" x 40" oil on canvas.

'Love by the Lake' 30" x 40" oil on canvas.

'Fall Rain 3' 30" x 24" oil on canvas.

'Crawly-West Sussex-England' 40" x 30" oil on canvas.

'By the Dock' 30" x 36" oil on canvas.

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Amy Shackleton

I recently was glancing through google images under the search 'urban landscapes' when I came across Shackleton's work, I was amazed at how unique and stunning each of her paintings where, the line-like techniques and the boldness of the colours. I then went on to research more about the artist and this is what I found;

'Toronto based artist Amy Shackleton (b.1986) has exhibited paintings in New York City, London, Massachusetts, Toronto, Montreal and Calgary. Recently, a timelapse video revealing her unique process went viral, reaching over 1,000,000 people. She received her BFA Honours Degree from York University in 2008. ' 

'

Amy Shackleton paints representational works with a drip technique normally reserved for abstraction. She applies the paint with squeeze bottles and rotates her canvas to guide each drip as it falls down the stretched surface. Thorough planning, measuring and layering is involved, but she’s at the mercy of gravity.

The natural force of gravity allows for a refreshing unpredictability that helps illustrate the organic elements in her work. To combat the natural, she uses a rotating easel and a level–creating straight lines, controlled curves, and eventually, concrete buildings'

(Bio from http://amyshackleton.com/about-the-artist/)

Here is a few paintings that I like of Shackleton's work.

'Rising Above (Calgary, Cincinnati + Banff National Park)' 120" x 45" Diptych Acrylic and Enamel on canvas 

'Nightlight (London & New York)' 45" x 60"Diptych Acrylic and Enamel on Canvas

'Defrost (Toronto)' 45" x 45" Acrylic and Enamel on canvas.

'Heatwave (Toronto)' 45" x45" Acrylic and Enamel on Canvas.

I will sure be referring back to Amy Shackleton's work for future references and guidance. Shackleton's work is stunning and I am sure this kind of work takes a long time as I have watched a few youtube video's, Links below;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfstjvlw-pY 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yVhTyPaaLQ

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University 2nd year Fine Art Project

As of a few weeks ago I started a few paintings for my Level 5 project. 

I have decided to study rural vs city/urban as I am from the country but live in the city for university. However I want to make a twist on my art work and take parts of each section into the other maybe like a jigsaw mixing and matching the different areas together. Or maybe by putting a sheep in the painting of the city or new york style painting, imaging the Bombed out Church in liverpool full of sheep or chickens or cows, maybe go all sarfari or zoo like. But I want to incorporate how beautiful both the country and the city are, and how most cities these days have little sections of 'greenery' dedicated for appreciation, for example in Liverpool there is the area around the bombed out church, there is St. Johns Gardens and also Chavasse Park. Below is a few pictures of these areas along with the city itself.

Here we see people enjoying the sunshine at Chavesse Park above Liverpool One. (http://www.hortweek.com/chavasse-park-win-set-green-space-trend/article/1193606)

This is below the park, the normal busy shopping life of the city. (http://www.clickliverpool.com/tags/liverpool-one/)

St. Johns Gardens (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John's_Gardens)

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Studying Elizabeth Magill's Work

I recently visited The Hugh Lane Art Gallery in Dublin, in which I came across Elizabeth Magill's work. Her work is very simple styled and attractive. From choosing to study landscapes I knew this was the style I was aiming for, so I then went and looked up information about Elizabeth Magill and I came across that she grew up in Northern Ireland. Her style varies through the years but I have previously done a blog post all about Elizabeth Magill and her work. From that blog post I then went on to use a similar style as to what she used which was using a photograph and building up thin layers on top. (Below I have included several images of the process). I enjoyed this process and it may have seemed like little time was needed but I used a brush no.0 for the fine details of the leaves, wire and the trees.

I am pleased with my outcome of this process and I hope to develop this style further and possibly create a canvas similar style to Elizabeth Magills.

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First hand photographs

I recently took a trip home to gather a source of images to work from for my theme of landscapes and home country, I took this trip for photo purposes only so I didnt have much family time, I walked to everywhere these images where taken, I am pleased with the source I got and they have helped me a lot with creating my paintings and with experimenting. I had a couple of sunny days to capture some beautiful scenery and one little cloudy day in which I didnt capture much photographs.

Below I have placed only a few of the images into a collage to show a small idea of what kind of first source materials I am working from.

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Elizabeth Magills Work

Elizabeth Magill was born in 1959 in Canada but grew up in Northern Ireland. She studied at Belfast College of Arts. She now lives and works in London.

'For recent work, the creation process begins with a photograph which is scanned and the resulting image sprayed on canvas before being overpainted with oils to add highlights and contrast.'

Magill said, 'I'm not so much painting what is there but what I imagine might be there", ... "These works are not landscapes as such, but more like suggested backdrops to how I feel, think and interpret the world'

I like how she has said that she paints what she imagines might be there, I like to draw a nice sky whether thats a sunset, sunrise, clear blue sky etc rather than the dull sky we normailly see, which adds brightness to the painting. I will try a similar technique to Magill in which I will print out an A3 Photograph and then paint with oils on top and possibly experiment with acrylics paints also.

Having only looked up information on this artist I am only realising that she grew up in Northern Ireland just like me, so we could possibly relate in the places we paint or the photographs we take.

Below is examples of Elizabeth Magill's work, of pieces I particulary like and can relate to or be inspired by;

    I thouroghly enjoy how relaxing her paintings feel and how much they feel at home. They are also similar in how I discussed I like to create flowey skies or backgrounds to make the painting more relaxing and intriguing.

  This is the address in which Elizabeth Magill has her next exhibition in which I shall hopefully visit, although the exhibition isn't on until May it may inspire me for my own artwork at home or for work in the future.

Quasi–Real & Branch–Like (one person show) Wilkinson Gallery, London 16th May – 7th July 50–58 Vyner Street London E2 9DQ tel[phone] www.wilkinsongallery.com

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TATE: Keywords exhibition visit.

On Tuesday 11th March I recently visited the Tate to see the Keywords exhibition. As you walk in the room you are greeted with a long wall covered in artworks, some amazing and some which didnt appeal to me. However I admit that this was the best exhibition that I have ever seen, it was very relevant to my theme Society and helped with gather some ideas for my theme. 

As you walk in the gallery you are greeted with an Introduction which reads;

"Book - Raymond Williams Book Keywords - A vocabulary of Culture and Society.

Williams said he often wished some other 'form of presentation could be devised' to illustrate his study; the exhibition 'Keywords' is one such attempt. Here the words and images appear together in the gallery highlighting their relationship. The words have been arranged around art works dating from 1976 - 1996 with focusing on the words; structural, private, folk, violence, criticism, liberation and formalist, myth, anthropology, native, materialism, unconscious and theory."

This helped me develop a further meaning of society and areas in which I could study in my theme. I thouroughly enjoyed several pieces of art work such as those below;

Artist: Louis Le Brocquy 1916-2012

Title: Study Towards an Image of James Joyce

Year: 1977

Medium: Oil Paint on Canvas

Artist: Willie Doherty B.1959

Title: The Bridge

Year: 1992

Medium: 2 photographs on paper mounted onto aluminium panel

Artist: David Robbilliard 1952 - 1998

Title: That Beat it Quickly Smile

Year: 1987

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

I liked how this exhibition was layed out and the words were amongst each different areas the areas that these artworks of my favourites came from the keywords, violence and criticism, suggesting that out of a selection of thirteen Keywords I only choose images from these two catergories so I will try to look more into these and how I could develop those words into my own studio practice work.

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An oil painting I did tonight, this took about 30-40 mins not long at all,it was my first time using oil paints and I can say I thoroughly enjoyed using them and painting landscapes. Maybe this is good. 

I used this YouTube link for this painting. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Coih_-y4tVw&list=FL_OwQJXuf3hgbgz7s6_rpbA&feature=mh_lolz

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The Negligent Eye - Exhibition at The Bluecoat

I recently visited 'The Negligent Eye' exhibition which was at the Bluecoat. It was curated by Jo Stockham who is the head of printmaking at the Royal College of Art, London. The exhibition reflects of different methods of printmaking and scanning techniques are used and how it has evolved with us new contemporary artists becoming more and more digital with our work and printing styles and techniques, with reference to experimentation with computers, sculptural, mixed media work, video and 3D scanning. It reflects of digital technology and our lives with the impact it has on us. The exhibition looks at how it has become an everyday thing with digital scanners e.g. at airports, medical scanners and barcodes etc.

" Stockham observes, ‘scanning is riddled with an internal contradiction: is it a close reading or a glance?’ "

My thought of the exhibition was that it was very different than any other exhibitions or galleries that I have visited, there was a wide variety of work with different media but they somehow managed to relate to each other and I was able to see that they all had a connection. Although there was a lot of art work shown I was only fascinated with three artists work, they are as follows;

Jo Stockham 'Never Home' (2013, hand coloured digital print on banner paper)

There is something different and unique about this piece, the sense that you know what it is but its not clear enough to tell, its not a clear vivid picture but one which requires thought and a moment where you just stand at stare at the beauty of this piece. I looks like a picture taken through a pinhole camera but it is just a digital print in which was hand painted,

Jane and Louise Wilson - 'False Positive, False Negative' (2012 Screen print on mirrored acrylic)

'This special edition focuses on events that took place in the United Arab Emirates in January 2010 when Hamas operative Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh was assassinated in a hotel room in Dubai. Comprehensive CCTV footage of the victim and the perpetrators in the hours leading up to the murder was posted on YouTube and watched by millions of people. This material was compiled and edited by the Dubai state police, using face recognition technology to identify the subjects. The only space not captured on CCTV was Room 230, the site of the murder itself.

Jane and Louise Wilson filmed on location at the Al Bustan Rotanna Hotel in Dubai using specialist lenses and extreme close-ups to detail the architecture and interiors of the hotel. Their related series of work is a forensically detailed study in which the artists appear with patterns reminiscent of primitive masks painted onto their faces: dazzle camouflage designed to scramble the technology used in face recognition.These uncanny yet beautiful prints are activated by the viewer’s movement, triggering the appearance of ghostly figures, materialising then merging, shifting perceptions of what is visible within the faces and revealing the CCTV evidence beneath.'

I enjoy this piece and what it is about looking at CCTV footage is a part of what I have been looking into during my project, I will consider the style of this and look into possibly a similar look but with paints or mixed media to produce a series of paintings based on this piece.

Marilene Oliver - 'Family Potraits' (2003, Clear acrylic bronze rods)

Here Oliver has recreated a sculptural like piece of here mother and father in which was created by using magnetic resonance imaging scans. This is a very unique piece in which I was stunned whenever I saw it, I feel that this would of looked amazing if it was in the back room by itself in which you could have a better view from walking around. Its life size and different, I will definitely be studying this artist further.

To conclude this exhibition is definitely worth visiting and I am glad we got the change to see it, I will most certainly be visiting again and looking up these three artists works more in depth.