Artist: Johan Van Mullem

Johan Van Mullem is a Belgian artist that works in paint, sculpture and drawing.

Mullems work reflects that of Rembrandt and Francis Bacon. His paintings are mainly made using oil based ink on unprimed boards using both vibrant colours and earthy tones. 

His work is based on the things that the brain sees and experiences in our lifetime, as well as emotional information.

200 x 140 cm

60 x 40 cm

140 x 120 cm

180 x 140 cm

Mullems abstracted portraits are extremely intriguing, the swirled patterns reflect the process of the brain and show a lot of emotion. Clearly, the work uses a lot of motion to create the patterns and marks but also a variety of dark and vibrant colours which change the mood between each piece.

I like the way which the work shows that is was creating using certain movements, you can see where the brush was dragged to create a particular line.

Drawing Project Thoughts

Continuing from my initial sketchbook of observational drawings, i want to move out of the book and produce a series of sketches for a bigger piece. I think that the best way to approach this is to create a large number of small drawings.

I want the audience for the work to look and see that the work is about things around us and maybe things we wouldn't usually pay attention to. To wonder who the people are and what their lives are like as well as other small details in life.

I want to create a number of drawings to display from my observational sketches and show them in a small collective piece together.

Observational sketches in A5 sketchbook

Self Directed Project Continuation

Using the research from emotionally vague, i decided to explore the concept of anger as a physical feeling. Surely this is down to personal experience and each individuals tolerance and control. Personally, i tend to think of anger as an emotion that seeps through the body, starting from one point slowly then rapidly spreading until you have the feeling of releasing your anger. 

Firstly, to begin expressing these emotions i thought about the motion i would use to show the first stages of the feeling. I chose black as the base colour for my work to show the initial feeling, the initial feeling when the feeling arises from a certain trigger. The feeling slowly begins to spread if the feeling continues, gradually getting worse. I experimented with this by dripping the black paint to show the feeling slowly seeping from the head until you can feel it through to your chest. I also kept the black as a solid black colour or as a background as these initial feelings may not be as intense, but it also serves the purpose of being a good contrast for the other colours. 

I then began to work with white paint, i tried using the drips off a paintbrush and expressing the emotion physically by dripping or throwing the paint onto the page or canvas. This contrasts very effectively with the black and makes the white seem intense. The white is a way of representing the mad surge of energy some might feel when being wound up or continuing to be aggravated by a cause. The action of the paint dripping and swirling off the brush itself was very mesmerising and somewhat calming itself, proving that visual expression is a therapeutic cure. 

Lastly, i chose to use a dark red paint to contrast the monotone and to show a sudden dash of impulsive action, maybe a final snap during an argument or the act of slamming a door, the breaking point of anger which is short but a powerful outburst.

Fractions of larger pieces using black varnish, red emulsion and white gloss varnish on fabriano paper

Artist: Franz Klein

Franz Klein was an american painter associated with Abstract Expressionism. In the 1930's Kline worked with figures, he painted landscapes and cityscapes. His black and white work suggests references such as bridges and industrial buildings. 

His black and white work came about with the help of a projector so that he could use his drawings to show the dynamic shapes. 

His work is inspired by the New York City landscape and created the shapes and lines using the projector to blur the lines until they became abstracted.

Mahoning, 1956, 203.2 x 254 cm

For my own work, i am more interested by the style rather than the subject. I think that the lines and brush strokes can show a lot of emotion, the speed which the lines were made and the width of the brush all have an effect on the outcome. 

I think that the large scale has a positive effect as the piece seems more intense. The use of black and white also gives it more of a simplified quality but at the same time it attracts more attention to the black on white rather than the fuss of colour.

ref: http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=3148

http://www.abstract-art-framed.com/franz-kline.html

Self-Directed Project Context

Abstract Expressionism

To further develop my study into visualising the physical feelings of emotion, i wanted to look at how emotion has been explored throughout art in different eras. 

Abstract Expressionism is probably one of the best eras to explore as visually expressing emotions doesn't particularly take on a specific form.

Jackson Pollock being an extremely influential artist in the 20th century was an obvious choice to study when looking at how to express something on canvas. 

Autumn Rhythm No. 30, Jackson Pollock, 1950

Jackson Pollocks process of work was influenced by his alcoholism, effecting his judgement and perspective. The works were created while in complete silence and during the process and were created using the subconscious.

"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.

—Jackson Pollock, My Painting, 1956 (History of Art: The Western Tradition)

"A dripping wet canvas covered the entire floor … There was complete silence … Pollock looked at the painting. Then, unexpectedly, he picked up can and paint brush and started to move around the canvas.  movements, slow at first, gradually became faster and more dance like as he flung black, white, and rust coloured paint onto the canvas." Hans Namuth, photogrpaher 1950

The next artist i decided to explore was Gerhard Richter whose work i saw in the Tate Modern Gallery in London. He created a series of six paintings named after the American Avant-Garde composer John Cage. The paintings are created like his earlier works using a squeegee and a mixture of layering and erasure. They are built up of layers of brush strokes and scrapings and rippled paint during the process of drying. Some paintings resemble a running river whereas some appear to have the texture and appearance of a concrete wall. Richter was listening to the music of John Cage while creating the pieces and quoted 'I have nothing to say but i am saying it.' Richter was attracted to the way the music was constructed with total randomness, which was reflected in his work. Critics have commented on the similarities with the fluctuations in the music and the paintings.

Detail of one of Gerhard Richter’s Cage Paintings, 2006.

http://vimeo.com/36088557

Gerhard Richters work inspires me in the way which music influences the type of work and the marks that are made. Music has a great influence on emotion and i believe that using this i can explore deeper into the physical feeling of emotion. I think that anger can be directly effected by music as it is for some people, an escape or a release for held back emotions. 

Willem de Kooning: Gotham News (1955)

William De Koonings work 'Gotham News' reflects the hustle and bustle of New York. It displays marks which suggest violent movements or even energetic strokes. Although the work appears to be made rather quickly, each stroke was placed with a lot of thought, a lot like Pollocks work, it was planned and worked upon until the artist considered to work to be complete.

Ref: 

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gerhard-richter-1841

http://www.albrightknox.org/collection/collection-highlights/piece:de-kooning-gotham-news/

Drawing: Artist - David Hockney

David Hockney was born in 1937 and is an English painter, draughtsman and printmaker. Hockney has lived in Bridlington, Yorkshire and London but has also lived in California on and off for  over 30 years. Hockney is an important contributor to the pop art movement in the 1960s and has also been considered one of the most influential British artists in the 20th century. 

In the 1970's Hockney travelled a great deal and chose to work with line drawings. 

‘I never talk when I am drawing a person, especially if I’m making line drawings. I prefer there to be no noise at all so I can concentrate more. You can’t make a line too slowly, you have to go at a certain speed; so the concentration needed is quite strong. It’s very tiring as well. If you make two or three line drawings, it's very tiring in the head, because you have to do it all at one go, something you’ve no need to do with pencil drawings…Its exciting doing it, and I think it's harder than anything else; so when they succeed, they’re much better drawings, often.’ 

(Nikos Stangos, David Hockney by David Hockney, My Early Years, Thames and Hudson, London, 1976, p.158)

David Hockney was an acquaintance of Pablo Picasso who worked in the Cubist era and his work reflects the line drawings that he made. 

Portrait of Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) 1920 (graphite on paper)  

The simplistic line drawings show the importance of line and how much of a subject you can draw using a little detail as possible. Using this method also benefits the artist as it means that you can sketch quickly in observational pieces and times where you need to create a larger number of drawings at a faster pace.

For my own practice, I intend to use the idea that using a single line makes observational sketches and drawing in public places faster and easier to create. 

In relation to my original intentions, i think that creating a collection of observational sketches will show people the things that we don't necessarily pay attention to, the small details we overlook and the people that we wouldn't normally associate with and wouldn't pay attention to. 

ref (http://www.waterman.co.uk/artists/225-David-Hockney/works/1857/)

Drawing Project: Artist - James Jean

Image: One of James Jeans complete art works, Enoki II Acrylic on 3 canvases, 72 x 90" 2013

James Jean is an artist from New York and now lives and works in Los Angeles. After 2007 he left illustration and began working on personal projects and exhibitions. 

He studied at the school of Visual Arts in New York and began working as a cover artist for DC / Vertigo comics. 

images: http://www.jamesjean.com/sketchbook/2008_1.htm

Drawn on A5 moleskine sketchbook

James Jeans sketchbook work is created to use the sketches as a resource for future reference and to document ideas. It also serves a purpose to enhance the skill to draw. The images are drawn in public situations and hold a lot of cultural context such as drawings from a train, a coffee house or the people in the pictures all suggest travel. 

The drawings themselves are a tangle of detailed sections which overlap each other suggesting movement. The content appears to show situations of everyday life, it is sometimes unclear whether the subject is an acquaintance of the artist or a complete stranger. 

An artists sketchbook is actually quite a personal thing, the sketches on each page is a snapshot that the artist as an individual has observed in a way which another might not. 

James jeans sketchbook serves as a collection for ideas and references for his more detailed and main projects, but this collection of drawing made in every day life can be considered a piece in themselves. Each image appears to be peaceful and thoughtful. The subjects are looking away and appear to be working on something or looking at a particular object. In particular, i find the overlapping of the sketches to be rather interesting, its as if the artist got so far with one piece of a face or an arm when the subject moved, so the artist would have to begin the line again to copy the new pose.  

Using this inspiration i would like to take away the idea of creating drawings which show the natural poses and the peacefulness that you can see from James Jeans drawings. In public places where people go about their every day lives, it is interesting to notice small things that we normally wouldn't even pay attention to. 

This also links to my initial idea of looking at the world in front of us rather than being absorbed into this world of technology and seeing life through a camera lens or the screen of a mobile phone. 

To draw the figures itself requires paying attention to the details and looking harder at what is around you. During the process of drawing, i think that you tend to think about what you are observing in more detail and think about the subject you are drawing.

Self-Directed Project Research

One of the biggest influences for my self-directed project is a survey created to explore how feelings are felt physically.

"Emotions can be overwhelming. But not always so. They affect our thoughts and perceptions far more than we realise. It is well established that we are subliminally affected by visual media, and particularly in terms of unconscious emotions, drives and feelings.

I wanted to question how feeling can be experienced in the body, not simply in mind. I believe that we can use familiar tools to express understanding of experience, and not be restricted to the use of photographic stereotypes.

Can people describe their visceral feelings of emotion visually, and if so, would any patterns arise? In order to answer this, I had to develop some way of asking people to reflect on and describe their private feelings in a simple, repeatable manner, the results of which could be correlated visually and demographically.

By gathering concepts of feeling by word, colour and line and creating visual languages for anger, joy, fear, sadness and love - a kind of democratic visual language is created - a backwards-brand.

As a graphic designer, I am attempting to bring attention to the body's patterns of feeling and innate intelligence in a systematic but playful way.

Over time, this method may be developed into a therapeutic tool, and/or a means of visually representing feeling in an interactive, participatory manner."

Using this research i'd like to create a series of pieces using the bottom two images. I want to do this by using the paint to express visually how emotion effects us in the body.
The reason i wanted to focus on anger is because i believe that it is the strongest and most influential emotion. Personally, i find myself in situations where i would love to express myself freely when angry but it would be inappropriate. I wanted to visually express the way in which humans pent up these intense feelings rather than to react. This may not relate directly to anger, i want the pieces to relate to each individuals held back feelings, maybe even frustration from certain situations.  

http://www.emotionallyvague.com/index.php