Wed 06.03.2013

Frank Auerbach

Today I continued my research in the library. I looked at some painters who I had studied during Part 2 such as Frank Auerbach and how they use colour and apply their paint. I thought about how this more abstract use of paint created very interesting colour work such as that which I did during my previous project because when I was not focusing on neat lines or realistic depictions I was free to focus entirely on colour and how different ones interacted. But I also weighed this up against the more pictorial approach which I had seen with African Artists I looked at earlier in the week and how this gave a lot of scope for exploring detail, pattern and composition.

Emmanuel Ekong Effery

I also found some more African artists whose work was interesting. I looked at several books about contemporary Art in Africa and found that some artists appeared throughout all of them and were clearly prominent in this area. These included Georges Illanga Di Nyma (who I looked at earlier) as well as Emmanuel Ekong Effery and Twin Seven Seven.  The latter two create art which is similar to that of Georges Illanga Di Nyma, in that it is mainly figurative (but highly
stylised) and very clearly from a certain cultural background. However these works are even denser than Di Nyma’s; every inch of the canvas is filled and particularly in Ekong Effery’s work each element leads on from the next and is connected so that there are literally no gaps or blank spaces. This was a different way to approach ‘filling a space’, previously in my work I had looked at layering overlapping but I really like how this technique means that everything is inter-connected and there is a really flow and interaction within the composition. 

Twin Seven Seven

Twin Seven Seven’s work is very dense in texture and mark making. This may be linked to his background in carvings. The work has a very distinctively ornate and ‘rustic’ feel to it which I find interesting but I feel that the impact of individual elements can be lost and the work lacks definition because there is too much pattern and mark making. I prefer Emmanuel Ekong Effery’s approach which uses pattern and embellishment but this is coupled with areas of flat colour and relative calm which makes certain things stand out. Sometimes he also takes one colour which is opposite on the colour wheel to the other tones (e.g this royal blue) and uses this to further define certain areas.in Twin Seven Seven's work sometimes the colour tones are all very similar and thus certain elements all blur into one.

Today’s research has given me some things to think about. I am beginning to see something of an overall ‘style’ in the work that I am looking at which is helping me to define my theme. I have also learnt about ways of composing an image and what I think works best. I think my work so far has gone fairly well but a little as though I am short on physical evidence to show for it and would therefore like to start compiling my sketchbook soon. I also think that I am still looking over quite a range of ideas and inspirations (such as two very different styles of painting) and could do with narrowing down my ideas in the days to come.