Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse

31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954

He was a French artist, Known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsman ship.

He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter.

Matisse is commonly viewed, along with Picasso and Marcel Duchamp, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century.

Although he was initially labeled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly known as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting.

 

 

His mastery of the expressive language of colour and drawing, won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.

 

He was a Fauve - Fauvist movement. - Active 1903-1908

Fauve is a title which means "wild beast." this group means wild beast. Because of the wild color, powerful, brutal brushwork, the term was derogatory. Whose work was characterised by bright and non-natural colors and simple forms (i.e. they painted objects not in the colors that they were, but the colors that the painters chose). E.g. Matisse painted his wife with a green stripe down her face.

 

Style: they combined the Expressionist painter’s high-key colors and emotional force with the Impressionist love of images of contemporary early 20thcentury life. They were not interested in symbolism subject matter but more in the act of painting, in their case the organization of color and form on a 2-dimensional surface. Their style of painting included slashing brush strokes and thickly outlined patches of color of the same tone.

Themes: portraits, still life, and landscape. Matisse also loved decorative pattern.

 

My oppinion:

His paintings are mostly in one dimension. The lines are simple, which reminds me of how Michael Craig Martin uses his lines. Matisse uses complimentary colours but his technique in painting is completely different from Michael Craig martin’s technique. His brushstrokes seem to be smooth which reminds me of the ancient Chinese paintings. The portrait painting sometimes seems distorted.

His landscape paintings however interest me. His bold brush strokes makes the painting seems sketchy yet detailed. He uses white spaces to create depth and perspective. The imperfections he created made the painting perfect in my eyes. It all comes together as one.

Painting

The dark colours in this painting was  known as Matisse's dark Period. This is the time when he was going through personal difficulties. One personal difficulty was that Matisse was not able to find many buyers for his works to support his family.

Metisse mainly uses the colour blue in this painting. The shades and tones of blue represents the afternoon atmosphere, but I also assume that  the colour reflects his emotion and feelings when he painted it.

 

 

 

Evaluation project 2 city scape

Material used:

·      Black + White sticky paper(A3)

·      Scalpel

·      Cutting mat

·      A3 (tracing paper, black + white paper, plain paper)

·      Magazine of city scape

·      Drawings of city scape (observation, perspective)

Techniques:

·      The cityscapes are from magazines and observational drawings.

·      Gather and compose the drawings on the A3 tracing paper.

·      Simplify the drawings, so it is easier to cut out and it would look less messy.

·      When drawing the buildings, you should add bridges so the black sticky paper won’t fall out.

·      On the tracing paper, shade in the section that are meant to be white(this is the part you are going to cut out)

·      Stick the black sticky paper on top of the white sticky paper.

·      Use the sticky tape to stick the paper (photocopied from the tracing paper) on top of the black + white sticky paper.

·      They should all be in A3 size.

·      Use the scalpel to cut through the photocopied paper and also through the black sticky paper.

·      You should not cut through the white sticky paper that was underneath the black sticky paper.

·      When using the scalpel, don’t put too much pressure on the paper. (This would damage the white paper underneath.)

·      Any loose black sticky paper should be glued in.

·      When you finish cutting out the white parts, mount it on white paper.

·      Mounting (Stick the finished city scape on top of the white paper. The white border around the paper should be all the same length.)

Evaluation

Subject Matter

What inspired me were the cityscapes and the landscapes.

The technique I used for the work is from Kara walker-cutting of black and white paper, but the buildings

Itself was influenced by architects like Frank Gehry or Ludwid Mies van der Rohe.

Techniques

One of the techniques I used was to simplify the buildings. I want the audience to clearly see the composition and more importantly so the final art work won’t look like a mess.

I learnt that cut outs are not always flat and boring. Composition is very important.

The composition could make the buildings stand out even without complimentary colours.

I’m satisfied with my work, but if I can produce it again I would modify the background to be more perspective mainly because it looks really flat.

Flat background is mainly what I would want, but in this case the main colour is black and white, the objects are quite plain. To make the background be less plain, add some shadow lines.

When I was working, sometimes the part that I cut out doesn’t look right at the end result.

What I did wrong was that the cityscape didn’t look full.

When I look at it, it feels like there was something missing. I spotted that something was missing when I looked at it from far away. There was a big gap between the buildings.

Next time...Before I decide what parts should be black or white, I would stop and look at the shaded parts and look at it from a distant.

I would be able to spot the big gap between the buildings.

Kara works on negative and positive points by cut outs. She creates illusion well, but I don’t think I applied what she did as much, as in what is in the background or what is in the fore ground.

 

This is an eye level view. The composition is not random. I used a mixture of curvy lines and dramatic strict vertical shapes/lines to give that strong look, Just as strong as the buildings itself.

Review

My idea changed in a couple of ways: I have added some shadow lines, I simplified the windows on the buildings and I also placed a building behind another to create an illusion of the objects as if there in front of another or behind.

Evaluation project2

Evaluation for snow board Project

Steps:

First I experimented with colours

·      I made patterns from mono printing. I laid out 3 pieces of A4 paper on top of a large piece of paper. The papers are next to each other. Use a roller and roll it on the 3 paper, each with primary colour. The papers should be stuck on to the large piece of paper. I placed a clean A4 paper on top of the red poster paint that had been rolled on.rub then gently peel it off. This would create a wood surface like structure. I then place it on top of the yellow and then the blur paint. For the second experiment I placed a number (cut out) on the paint then place the clean paper. On the paper, the number would be left blank and the background would be shown in many different colours. Mono printing creates many interesting textures and colours.

·      Then I start to experiment on mark making by biro pen. I was planning about using different type of mark making on the snow board but not with biro pen.

·      I also cut out interesting structures of buildings, colours and interesting mark makings from the magazine.

·      I also want to include my name in front of the complicate background design I got from the magazine. Si Scott was the biggest influence of creating the typeface. First I made my name straight and with san serif. I then make the ends narrow, similar to Si Scott’s work. I added blades at the end to create that sharp and strong looks to name.

·      I started looking at an artist called Kara walker. She is famous for the cut outs she made in galleries. Kara works on negative and positive points by cut outs. She creates illusion well. She makes me feel like she was telling me a story every time I look at her work.

·      I then start to look into cityscapes and start to practice drawing buildings with perspective.

·      I start to go out and do observational drawings from outside instead of making a transcript from the magazines. I start to look in to the 3 main types of architectural drawings: plan (Architectural building plan, floor plan, and site plan), elevation and cross section.

·      I gathered buildings that I’ve got from magazines, pictures I took, observational and perspective drawings all into one A3 tracing paper(photo copy, shade in the part you want to cut out, cut out shaded parts, stick the black sticky paper on to white)

Final design

·      I gathered the experiments I did and start to group them.

·      I put the letters I made (my name) to join with the crazy textured background I got from the magazine.

·      I put the picture of a fashion theme eye with make up with the building I made.

·      The front of the snow board would be my name in white and a thin black outline to shape the letters up. With a contrast the background has crazy bright and bold colours. The bamboo on top and bottom was added. It is black because I wanted it to look invisible, but still joined to my name so the name wasn’t floating around. The colours of the background are bright, bold and mainly in primary colours. I was influenced by Gerrit Rietveld. He uses either tonal colours, bright and bold colours or primary colours.

·      For the other side of the snow board I try to make the colours as bright as the other side so it would still look like it is the same board. The building is no longer black and white but is painted in bright colours. You might wonder why the mouth is still there? Wouldn’t it ruin the whole composition? The reason why I still included the mouth is because I want to look at it and make my eyes look around instead of looking out of the snow board. Because the eyes are round and the building is angular it has that strong contrast from each other, so I decided to put the mouth in.

·      I like my work to show myself and who I am. My work is usually bright and full of colour. Bright colours represent the happy and crazy side of me. I love art and splashing bright colours and I’m sure it shows how much I like bright colours.

·      When making

·      I painted the snow board with acrylic paint because the paint is very thick and vibrant. The problem I faced when painting the snow board is that I find it a little difficult to blend the colour around the eye. When I applied paint around the eye it was very thick and hard to be gentle with it compared to water colours.

Review

If I start this project again I would switch the face the other side, because on this board I was busy painting and drawing that I didn’t look if it was at the right way up. I would also draw the lips differently, maybe by drawing it bigger and turned more on the right. I would also like to blend the colours of the eye shadow a little bit more and also more colour.

I like the blending technique I used throughout the board. I made it clear what is in front and what is behind.

 WRITTEN BY NINA JONES

 

Johaness Gutenberg

When and where did Johaness Gutenberg invent the printing press?

He invented the printing press in the 1440s.He was a metal worker in Mainz, Germany.it was the first machine to spread the rebellion by printing books

What is a PrintingPress, how does it work?

Printingpress is a device to print ink onto a paper, cloth. The device puts pressure onthe Moveable type (individual letters or punctuation), this takes an enormous amount of labour involved in operating thethousands of ceramic tablets. The components he used for his type pieces are froman alloy of lead, tin and antimony.

Whatis Moveable Type?

Moveable types are type pieces that are used in the printing press machinearound 1450.Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press and independently developed a movable type system in Europe. The type base is casted on a matrix and hand mould.thetype pieces are made from an a lloy of lead,tin and antimony.

 

What was the impact of the Printingpress?

The printing press spreads information quickly andaccurately. People start to know how to read, write and use literacy correctly.

Since the books are released, the church then can’tstop spread of controversial new ideas. Scientists spread the knowledge of livingorganism and a lot of people turned against church and religion.

Origins of the western alphabet

·Phoenician alphabet

>It is originally from the ancient Middle East about 3000 years ago.

>It is the ancestors of western Hebrew, Arabic, Tibetan and many Indian letter forms

>The Phoenicians were Mediterranean people.

>The biggest influence is from the area that is now Syria in 1050 BC

>The letters used to be drawing of animals or objects for example the letter ‘A’

>In 1050 BC letter ‘A’ was an ox,when time passes by the alphabet got rotated and simplified.

 As shown below:

 ·800 years later(600 BC)in ancient greece the alphabets have been either;rotated,simplified or completely changed.the way the alphabet is read is also different,the text is read from left to right.

                                                                                             ·100 AD about 1800 years ago the ancient Rome have carved the capital letters in to stones.

>It is capitalized because it is easier to carve straight lines on hard surfaces like stones.

>For the lower case(non capitals)they are written on paper by ink.

>Up to 1440 AD all books and documents were hand written(eg.Lindisfarne Cospel  750AD),until the invention of the printing press.

·When Henry VIII (the 8th) took control of the church and made everyone to be a protistant.It was the new religion that henry the eighth made everyone and every  priest to be a protistant.

>The reason why he changed and made a new religion is because he wanted to devorce and marry a new wife.

>the only people that could read or write in those days were the monks and the priests.

>Because no one knows how to read books,they believe everything the priest says and think it is right.

·In 750 AD: The irish hand written bible was released.They were written by monks.

>The style changed from serif fonts to san-serifs.

· Printing used to be very expensive and the only organisation that could posibbly get hold of them are the government.They used it to be in control of people’s ideas by propaganda.The books that are printed were all checked by the government,so no body speaks against them.
 

>Go back about 200-300 years,different font style eg. TIMES then become digitallised and people starts to design their owm fonts.

·  In 1450 AD: Gutenberg bible was printed.

>Johaness Gutenberg:the invention and impact of the printing press.

>Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1440s.

>he was a metal worker in Mainz,germany.

>The printing press was the first machiene to spread the rebellion(knowledge) by printing books.Personally,Printing press machiene was a success and had produced the first gutenberg bible in the 1470s.

>In 1470, germany starts to spread their knowledge around europe.Italy, france, England, poland, netherland and spain were interested and start to use the printing press.

>By 1500,People all over the world were interested on the facts;People starts to read and write;universities,scientists,professors and teachers starts to write books and documents to spread the knowledge.

>Thousands and million of books have been printed.

· In the 18^th century literatures around the word starts to write books.1 Billion books were printed in europe that year.Huge amount of ideas and knowledge have been shared.

>all the documenturies made the church have no longer have the control of their knowledge towards the world.

WRITTEN BY NINA JONES