Self Stacey Page Artist Research

Stacey Page is a mixed media artist from Georgia, America, working with such mediums as paint, clay and wood. She has instead settled on needles and thread, embroidering  headdresses and strange masks on old photographs salvaged from charity shops. Page chooses postcard sized photographs of people . She photocopies each photograph and sketches out the possibilities of her designs of her characters, and carefully deciding colour and stitch to create her outcome. Page creates a persona of that individual  based on what she believes they are like on the inside as opposed to what's on the outside regarding fashion, status, ego, and avatar. Many of her pieces are influenced by her mood and she recreates some of this into her work.

Todd

Embroidery on Photograph

http://www.staceypage.com/todd.jpg

 

 

 

Melissa

Embroidery on Photograph

http://www.artisticmoods.com/wp-content/uploads/Melissa.jpg

 

I like the contrast of the vibrant and bold colours of the embroidery threads  against the sepia and black and white tones of the photographs  as it helps to make the embroidery itself stand out more which I think adds to the surrealism within her pieces which I which I would like to incorporate into my own piece.  One of my favourite things about her pieces is her use of line that has been considered carefully to make elements seem more realistic like creating the feeling of fur in some of her embroidery pieces she does it in a way to make the beast come alive and make the viewer want to touch it  as it almost looks real. The lines in this piece follow a certain direction to lead the viewer's eyes around the body of the beast to allow the viewer to appreciate the whole piece rather than just be stuck on one focal point. Her pieces influence me to try Page’s technique of embroidering an avatar of myself that accentuate parts of my personality that stands out and incorporate that by embroidering mythical creatures or things completely of my own imagination  within my piece that represent these characteristics completely of my own imagination

 

Self: Frida Kahlo Artists copy

Self Portrait, Dedicated to Dr Eloisa
1940

 https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2793/4308192989_b351b845cf_b.jpg

This piece is an artists copy of Frida Kahlo's oil on canvas piece called "Self portrait, Dedicated to Dr Eloesser." Instead of the oils Frida uses in her piece, I used acrylics in order to capture the bright colours that is found within Frida's pieces.

I like using acrylics because I feel confident using this medium to blend colours and be able to create the right skin tone. In this particular piece I don't feel I created the right skin tone that resembles Frida's I need to make it slightly darker, but I still feel that I blended out the colours in the way that resembles Frida's painting style. I also wanted to capture the vivid colours of the flowers in Frida's self portrait and I can still achieve this by using acrylics. The acrylics helped to make the flora bolder and brighter especially the sunflowers and many of the leaves. What was particularly difficult about creating this pieces that acrylics is not a great medium to blend colours as it is a fast drying medium you have to work quickly to blend the colours so sometimes it can create unwanted streaks.

I think I was able to get the right proportions in my paintings that is similar in Frida's paintings, but there are elements in my paintings which is slightly out of proportion. The neck and face I feel is slightly longer than in the original painting and the body is slightly angled to the left. But in my painting I wanted to enlarge the face so I can add as much detail in the face and the background which is why many of the features are enlarged. 

If I were to do this painting again I would use oil on canvas so I can blend the colours slightly better as oils take a long time to dry I can use the paint for as long as I want without drying up. Oil colour is just as bold as acrylics and I will be able to create  colours that is reminiscent within Frida's paintings.



Self: Michal Janowski artist research

Michal Janowski was born in 1984, he is a Polish painter who migrated to England in 2004. Janowski in many of his artworks likes to explore the use of mediums within his work using things like Ink, coffee, spray paint, gesso , charcoal and acrylic. His paintings are mainly portraits or figure paintings,but he likes to blend both the conscious and the unconscious mind so his portraits are realistic with a blend of Janowski’s own personal  imagination. He starts with a life drawing or photograph and then develops it in photoshop and then  from there he creates his paintings by starting with a charcoal drawing and working into it with acrylic.   Janowski takes inspiration from historical post war figurative artists such as Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon and was inspired by their idea of bringing people closer to ‘the actual experience of a being’ so the inner thoughts, feelings, experiences and past of a being and what it is to be alive, he wanted to portray his own interpretation in his paintings. Janowski received a Graduate Certificate in the Visual arts from the University of East Anglia in 2009.

 

There is Soft (76 x 61 x 4 cm)
Mixed Media on Canvas
http://inagblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Michał-Janowski-2.jpg

Trickster - Shaman of the Liminal (102 x 76 x 4cm)

Mixed Media on Canvas
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/13/fa/e9/13fae9cfc74c2be78cd721b0011fd0a9.jpg

In God we trust (23.2 x 16.5 in)

Mixed media on canvas
http://saimg-a.akamaihd.net/saatchi/323748/art/1606755/809210-8.jpg

My favourite things about Janowski's pieces is his subject matter thoughtfully integrating imagination with reality by incorporating elements like horns into his pieces and removing the mouth which speaks to me on a deep level and inspires me to incorporate these types of elements within my final piece in order to represent parts of myself. I also like his use of mixed media to create a variety of textures to create a sense of realism within his pieces.

 

Self: Meghan Howland Artist copy

Adrift (30 x 40)

Oil on Canvas

http://payload280.cargocollective.com/1/3/125509/7908439/MegH2_500.jpg

 This piece is an artists copy of Meghan Howland's surrealistic oil painting labelled  "Adrift". However, in my painting instead of using  oils I used acrylics in order to portray the visible brushstrokes and subtle colours.  

This is one of my favourite paintings that I have done so far within this project, I feel like I was able to capture Howland's subtle brushstrokes that were visible in the background and in the face and I felt like I captured this aspect despite using a different medium (acrylics). I liked the visible and energetic brushstrokes within my painting as I feel it adds to this dreamlike atmosphere that you know it's not actually real but it feels real. 

I believe I was able to capture the skin tone really well by blending the colours which help to add to the realism of the piece however the skin looks slightly yellow in places to add shadows but in the original it was more pink. I possibly could've translated this over better if I used more white and pink than yellow to resemble the piece. I love the lighting created by adding little bits of white of the top of a layer, like on the nose, it helps to make the piece more realistic. 

I feel like I could added more white when blending colours for the flowers because at the moment they look slightly flat compared to the original. The blue I used also differed from  the original. So, if I were to create this copy again I would need to carefully  look at the colours and mix them accordingly.

At times I feel like the proportions slightly differ from the original piece I think I had to enlarge the body slightly in order to fit all the flowers in and in my version the model face is turned towards the viewer rather than to the corner. It was quite to decipher what some of the shapes were so it was rather difficult to represent them in a truthful way I had to change shapes slightly in order to incorporate all the shapes in the painting because I thought I didn't have enough space. But if I were to do this painting again I think  I would look at the proportions in more detail and be quite strict when drawing up the plan in order to make everything fit on the page.