Sir John Lawes Art Faculty

Monday, 2 February 2015

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt - Character Heads A2 Art Flaws Perfection Ideals Compromises

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was an 18th Century Sculptor and Art teacher at the local Academy. He had already produced a small number of his 'character heads' when having applied for promotion he was dismissed from the academy with what was described as a 'confusion in the head'

During the final 9 years of his life he created a series of character heads holding the intense expresions for hours while he carved them in marble.

It has been argued by more recent art historians that Franz Xaver was suffering from paranoia, hallucinations and mental health problems or Crohns disease a digestive disorder.

It is difficult not to feel a sadness in the story of the sculptor, let go from his post at the Art Academy because of his state of mind, finishing his life spending his time producing a series of painfully accurate self portraits before dying in his mid 40s

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A2 Art Edexcel 2015 Flaws Perfection Ideals Compromises Portraits

Portraits with face decoration to show character

Aura Rosenberg

website

Arnulf Rainer

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Sunday, 1 February 2015

A2 Edexcel Art and Photography Flawes Perfection Ideals Compromises Looking Through Water Lorraine Shemesh Jennifer Walton

Painting - Lorraine Shemesh

Drawing - Lorraine Shemesh

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Jennifer Walton

Amazing atmospheric paintings of figures moving through water

Jennifer Walton

Website

Friday, 30 January 2015

AS Art Edexcel Relationships - Colour Theory - Colour Relationships

Claude Monet Haystacks Series

Claude Monet painted a series of observational studies of local haystacks. He was looking at the effects of light and the relationship between the colour of the object and the colour of the shadow

AS Art Edxcel Relationships Colour theory and relationships - Bridget Riley

Bridget Riley Op Art. Bridget Riley used the way our eyes work placing precisely placed and constructed lines together in such a way that if you stare at them movement is created.

Bridget Riley produced later paintings that looked at relationships between colours. But Mr Higgins loves these early monochrome paintings because the illusion of movement is created.

Early Op Art? Dazzle Ships / Dazzle Camoflage

During World War One and to a lesser extent World War Two British Royal Navy used striking patterns on their ships to confuse German Submarines and Ships. The idea was seeing the ship against the moving waves or through the periscope of a submarine it would be impossible to tell what it was and which way is was travelling