Media (paints)

As an artist I'm a huge fan of using paints,as with all my work i like to combine the use of all the different kinds of paint in my work as they all provide fantastic properties,all though this year most of my work has been based on using acrylic paints as i have done alot of research on pop art in which acrylics were and still are used in pop art .


Acrylics paints have been around for almost two decades,they are made by combining coloured pigments with a synthetic resin.The thing i like most about acrylic paints are that due to being water soluble they dry very quickly which in some senses can work to your advances as you can quickly work over them time and time again and can apply in thin washes or thick,unlike oil paints.


For those artists who previously tended to combine water colour with gouache,acrylics provide an alternative method with sometimes better results from my own point of view.As they can be used on any surface they are perfect for the likes of myself whom like to experiment on different surfaces and textures rather than a plain canvas.


Watercolour are also a past time favourite of mine due to there transparent glazes of colour which appear to be luminous when applied to a white background in which are important characteristics of watercolour.The tones of colour completely depend on the amount of water added to dilute the raw pigment.The powdered pigments are bound in gum arabic, which is soluble in water.Pigments can be divided into two groups mineral organic,


Mineral:Earth colours

-Yellow ochre

-Terre verte

-natural ultra marine

-Artificial: Cobalt blue,viridian,cadmium.

Organic:

-Animal:Indian Yellow,sepia,carmine.

-Vegetable:The madders,indigo,sap green

-Artificial:Prussian blue.


Washes and colour mixing



When i was in secondary school i was advised that the best way to handle working with watercolour is to start with nature.Blue skies for example made up of gradated washes which bear little relationship to the rest of the rest of the painting,think of it as your foreground.Colour masses which simply merge into each other are difficult to control so you need to have a certain amount of control over the paintbrush and the amount of water you use.At first i found it extremely difficult to control the colours merging but that comes in handy sometimes especially when your painting from a distance in which you can create a somewhat undetailed but fairly accurate account of what your looking at with the use of colour.


Gouache


Gouache paints are opaque and tend to dry lighter than when first applied.They have been in use for a much longer period than watercolour,yet recently have been replaced to some extent by acrylic paints which can achieve a similar effect with the controlled use of diluting them with water.Gouache colour can be used thickly or can be watered down dependant on what effect you want to achieve,it can be used on white paper,coloured paper,cardboard and manila wrapping paper.The opacity of gouache ,and the fact that light colours can be layed upon dark divides the similarity between the characteristics of watercolours. Therefore there is no point in using it as a substitute for watercolour as it should be exploited for its own inherent qualities.I find that dry brushes (brush starved of colour) works well with gouache as you can add texture to a painting without having to use other materials mixed with the paint.


Oil Paint


I have never really enjoyed working with oil paints due to being very impatient when i start a piece of work i cannot wait to see the out come and find that from previous use i continue to work on top of it and never seem to finish the piece as it takes so long to dry, i feel i end up ruining the painting as i continue to constantly build up colour and end up with a huge smudge.As it has been a medium most widely used by artists for hundreds of years,i appreciate the beautiful paintings we are so lucky to be able to see up close in our galleries.The mixing and manipulation of oil paint can create beautiful brushstrokes ,texture and glaze.It can be used to give expression to very different levels of feeling.(Van Gogh-turner seascape/William Turner-Snowstorm).




Oil paint is made by mixing powdered pigments with certain types of drying vegetable oils-linseed or poppy oil.There fore this is the reason for the slow drying process which comes as an advantage to artists when doing a still life or portrait .Also even when dry the colours retain their tonality and do not become lighter.


The use of oil to bind pigment was supposedly developed in the low countries in the fifteenth century.In Venice ,it is said that oil paint was used to combat the effect on wall paintings of the high humidity and general dampness from the canals .

The beauty of Andy Warhol

The beauty of Andy Warhol's work



This year i have been particularly interested in the works of Andy Warhol.As i have been doing my own work based around the pop art era ,this artists work inspired me just through the simplicity but deep meaning that he projects ."Beauty?What is that?-Beauty in itself is nothing."(Andy Warhol).A legend of the pop art era the artist who's career took him from rags to riches who was trained as a commercial artist yet created a completely new type of artist within himself which caused complete controversy which changed the world of art.Warhol's had a high competitive determinism in which created his ow legend.The artist was a dedicated and enthusiastic admirer of both film stars and the contemporary cult figures of North America literature.A creator,producer and actor in one ,he enriched the world by providing us with an idol from the world of art.




His very well known screen print of Marilyn Monroe which has become world wide recognised iconic image was Warhol's favourite model.In contrast to her portraitist she was always flesh and blood,even though only a comparatively small number of people actually saw her in person.The screen was what granted her the status of sex-goddess.Along with the iconic image of Marilyn ,Warhol love of film stars inspired his creations of his work on other icons of his era like the 'king of rock' Elvis Presley,the beautiful actress Elizabeth Taylor and many more inspirational figures of this century.For all their differences these stars have one thing in common :they are the personification of the American success story.It also appeared that these icons also had a sense of tragedy about them,Elvis frequently fell into fits of depression and had a tragic death,Marilyn tried in vain rid herself of the stereotype image of dumb blonde sex symbol and also had a tragic end,Liz Taylor constant struggle with health problems.Therefore it is not surprising that in some sense he identified with these stars,as having suffered from nervous breakdowns as a child after the death of his father and suffering from depression in depression in his later life. Warhol had chosen Marilyn as his model after her death;death had set the seal on her supernatural existence and his work created a triumphant advance of television as it was a set image which would later be of iconic meaning."When a person is the beauty of their day,and their looks are really in style,and then the times change,and ten years go by,if they keep exactly their same look and don't change anything and if they take care of themselves,they'll still be a beauty."This statement made by the artist relates to the artists Marilyn Monroe immensely as her beauty captured in his image and her style is still loved by many still to this day .




Art critics consciously wove a mystery around his life and works and reduced his personality to useful proportions in order to play down the uniqueness of his art.Warhol was the original source of the truth that surrounded him,"you can only become a star if everybody is talking about you."