Fri 22.03.13

Indian Painting

Today I did some more reading and some organising of ideas. I took out a book about Indian Textiles and looked at some others about Indian Art. Last year I undertook an extensive project which was inspired by India and I thought that these areas might add to my research into African Art and the drawings and photographs of North American artefacts which I recorded at the RAMM. I did bookmark some artefacts and some paintings / photography of India but overall I feel that this work does not sit very well with my other sources of inspiration. The images which I noted were appealing in terms of colour, but Indian Art tends to have a very ‘flat’ feel to it and although there was lots of detail and beautiful decorative features they were of a different style to the work which I have looked at so far.

North American Costume

I did however follow up my work at the RAAM by researching into North American/American Indian artefacts and I found that there were volumes of beautifully crafted and highly decorative items which I found really inspirational. I also thought that the style of this art merged well with the African art I have already looked at. The colours are very earthy and the use of things such as animal hides, feathers, hair and beading adds to this natural feel. I also considered looking into Mexican artefacts and textiles as I remember seeing some books about this at Tremough and I may have a look at these when I return to the library.

I am going to take home some books about North America over Easter but I think that I would definitely like to see some more artefacts first hand. I did some research into where I could do this and came across the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford which houses a huge collection of artefacts from all over the world. I also looked into Birmingham Museum and what is kept there as this is the nearest major city to where I live.
Pitt Rivers Museum