Part Three Outdoors Project 2 Landscape Research Point p.88

I remember studying works of varying Renaissance landscape artists at The Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum) in Vienna. I was amazed at how their artworks were divided into set bands to depict atmospheric perspective, dictated by a recipe color scheme: Foregrounds were in brown and amber tones; mid-grounds were in muted and forest greens; and the far distant horizon in dusky blue tones. Standing in a gallery surrounded by works by numerous artists, all following the same recipe really hit home to me how the style of the time dictate the way scenes were portrayed. Landscape depiction has certainly taken many turns since these earlier works.

Fig. 1. Doig, Peter (1990) Grasshopper. [oil on canvas].

Looking at the Grasshopper
by Peter Doig online, reminded me of this experience (Fig.1.). However, in his case he has used a similar color scheme but modernized the appearance of this forlorn scene. He has done this by abstracting the top band of the sky, with “thin veils of vivid blue masked with successive layers of dragged and dabbed paint. The middle band contains the land, a small settlement isolated in the desert of an arid landscape, the telegraph poles and lines the only clue to the connection with the developed world. Infused with a rich warmth of light, this is a nameless landscape in the middle of a barren land, of no specific time.” (Saatchi Gallery , 2016) The scene itself is reminiscent of small settlements in the middle of South Africa’s Karoo. 

Fig. 2. Doig, Peter (1997)

Reflection (What Does Your Soul Look Like?)

[Etching on paper].

What I find appealing about his print series Reflection (What Does Your Soul Look Like?), 1997, is that he has contrasted large solid tonal areas with filigree-like details of the ripples in the reflective puddle and the reflections of the bark of the trees (Fig.2). (Tate Museum, 2016) I also love the fact that he has implied a person standing on the edge of the puddle, but has not sought to depict them literally.

From my limited perspective of viewing artworks via the internet, John Virtue seems to be an inspirational artist with whose work I resonate. I absolutely love the large scale of his canvases and his use of pure black and white. His abstraction of the London landscape in the series he created for The National Gallery is particularly appealing because it strips the landscape of color and renders it in haunting honesty of form and tonal values. His works remind me of the early photographs taken by daguerreotypes. His artworks refer to their landscape subject, but with the power of abstract expressionism. I appreciated the inclusion of John Virtue’s intention in the write up on The National Gallery website which stated:

The colour would be a cul-de-sac, the colour would be a blind, the colour would immediately refer back to Claude, would refer back to Turner, would refer back to Constable. The very things that would suck you into a way of painting that is not only referential - it is almost subjugated by that tradition. (The National Gallery, 2016)

Working with elementary students, I often use Sharpies to create artworks, so it was amazing to discover the huge installation artwork created mainly with Sharpies. The video I watched filmed by Jason Read “documents the production stages of Aleksandra Mir’s exhibition at Drawing Room, 27 May 2014 - 19 July 2014.” (Aleksandra Mir, 2014) What fascinated me is the way that they used dried out and damaged Sharpies to create textural and tonal areas. I tend to throw out my blunt and drying out Sharpies. They also used what looked like insulation tape to help screen out the lines of the architecture while they were shading and adding texture to areas. Then once removed they were able to retain the integrity of the lines. The sheer scale of the project is quite inspirational.

All of this leaves me with the challenge to know my landscape and to seek ways of capturing some of its intrinsic essence in a manner which involves processing the information and details into an image which is not hackneyed, but vibrates with bold areas of solid fields of color and areas of intense texture and detail. This will be interesting to try to attain to, given my traditionally tight style, bound by slavish realism.

List of Illustrations

Doig, Peter (1990) Grasshopper. [oil on canvas] 200 X 250 cm At: London: Saatchi Gallery.

Diog, Peter (1997) Reflection (What Does Your Soul Look Like?). [Etching on paper] Support: 557 x 455 mm At: London: Tate.

Works Cited

Aleksandra Mir. 2014. [Film] London: The Drawing Room.

Saatchi Gallery , 2016. Peter Doig Grasshopper. [Online]
Available at: http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/artpages/doig_Grasshopper.htm
[Accessed 13 February 2016].

Tate Museum, 2016. Peter Doig Reflection (What Does Your Soul Look Like?), 1997. [Online]
Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/doig-reflection-what-does-your-soul-look-like-p11544
[Accessed 13 February 2016].

The National Gallery, 2016. John Virtue in the studio. [Online]
Available at: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artist-john-virtue/studio/blwh.htm
[Accessed 13 February 2016].