Baaaad Artist…even worse Art critic.

Following from my post last week on the Uruguayan Artist Marcelo Viquez, I’ve been told, (by the Artist himself), that two of the works were not actually his (the first two), which is just a little embarrassing, so here are two more which definitely are. One from a selection of his paintings and the second from a series entitled monkey show. You can find them all here and be sure there not someone else’s. I have been unable to find out yet who the two imposters are, except that you can find the original source of those and more here. More precise and factual Artist reviews coming soon…!

Artem Krepkiy

 

I absolutely love the work of  Artem Krepkiy who I found recently on the Behance network. He is a Ukranain, artist and illustrator based in Kiev, who seemsto be generating some interest at the moment. I am very impressed by anyone who can heighten pencil work to the level of art where there’s no hiding behind colour. His work is full of textural emotion, created with soft and scratchy lead work and contrasting dark and light tones of distorted otherworldly figures taken from the metro or streets of Kiev. His work is challenging me strongly to break open a box of soft lead, Faber Castells and let rip.

Cy Twombly

After a few days away from home I got back to hear the news that my favourite living artist, Cy Twombly, had passed away. I had actually planned to write a post entitled “Is Cy Twombly the greatest living Artist?” Now, I guess not. Certainly, he was for me. I loved the naive, spontaneous and expressive way he worked with all media. He had a fantastic sense of rhythm and colour. His work could be both playful and aggressive, simple and complex, at the same time.  I am not someone who reads a lot about art, our artists. For me for art to work, there should be no need for any explanation. You should not need to know the history of the Artist or his work in order for you to feel a connection. All great art, in which ever field should work on its own merits and for me, at least, Cy Twombly’s worked on every level.

Don’t draw what you see

I’ve been playing recently with less observational drawing and painting and more with my own kind of free association technique, (although surrealism is not what I’m aiming for). I just want to create a piece without any preconceived idea of the final outcome or composition. I work mainly in pencil, watercolour and felt tip, because these are fast and easy materials and that way everything moves quickly. Also I deliberately don’t get too caught up with how it might look at the end. Additionally, I like the idea of pulling from different source materials and seeing what new associations these bring up when brought together. Working on waxed paper also keeps the randomness to a maximum. Have a look at this link, alcottArt which has a lot of nice children’s drawings. I love the freedom with which children draw and create. They have far fewer preconceptions about how things should be drawn than us adults.

Old man in his study

I think all of my favourite paintings and doodles are a combination of precision and accident. Although it would be difficult to find precision in this sketch, it was actually taken from an original photograph and not from my imagination. I do envy those artists who can draw directly without needing some kind of reference, such as a live model or photo, (I’m not one of them). But I digress, this one was taken from a photograph, of an elderly man, standing in a library and he had on an evening suit, but the rest is a deliberate distortion of the original image, with the accident being in the unpredictability of the water and paint.

more Politicians….

This time working with the same flat brush but in gouache instead of watercolour which results in  a flat more opaque colour and a little more aggressive.

Politicians

I was working from photos with a wide flat No.10 brush for these images. Sometimes I can’t help but get too involved in the detail of a painting or picture, especially when I’m not drawing from life. Using this kind of brush ensures the final result is simplified and that there is more accidental overlap of colour, which for me gets closer to the goal.