Reading ‘Landscape and Power’

Mitchell, W.J.T., 2002. Landscape and power 2nd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press. I read the selected chapters of this book over a few weeks, making notes here as I went. I read this book to understand how my intentions and landscape painting fit into landscape painting in history. And also to understand the British (and western)…… Continue reading Reading ‘Landscape and Power’

Artist: Clare Woods

Rubery Hill47 x 68 cmEnamel on MDF2000 Cold East122 x 183 cmEnamel on MDF2001 These paintings above, Woods says, are painted from many photographs taken at night. She would put use the camera flash to photograph undergrowth. Black Vomit Mistaken Point250 x 1050 cmEnamel on AluminiumThe Hepworth Wakefield2011 Woods works from photographs of British landscapes…… Continue reading Artist: Clare Woods

Artist: Pieter Jansz. Saenredam

This is the painting that I saw and sketched in Edinburgh’s Scottish National Gallery. The use of perspective, space and height captured is wonderful. The more I sketched the painting in the gallery the more I realised it had parallels with the structures in my work. Pieter Jansz. Saenredam The Interior of St Bavo’s Church, Haarlem…… Continue reading Artist: Pieter Jansz. Saenredam

Artist: Alex Katz

Katz, A. et al., 1999. Alex Katz, Torino: Hopefulmonster. Painting ‘Reflections’ 1994 (p.170). I am interested in the blocks of colours, and the marks made on top of the blocks of colour. This work has a limited colour palette, and is abstracting its subject quite extremely. Katz believes the ‘all-overness in a lot of the big…… Continue reading Artist: Alex Katz

Artist: David Hockney

The history of pictures begins in the caves and ends, at the moment, with an iPad.P.12. I saw a retrospective of Hockney at the Tate Britain a few years ago and the landscapes in it really stuck with me, especially the colour palette used. His work has been a subconscious influence ever since so I…… Continue reading Artist: David Hockney

Artist: Richard Smith

Painting, 1958, oil on canvas, 1520 x 1221 mm I saw this painting at the Tate Modern over the Christmas break and was immediately captured by it. The vibrancy and warmth of the colours pulled me in. Then the depth, energy, movement of the brushstrokes kept me in front of it; taking in the whole…… Continue reading Artist: Richard Smith

Piet Mondrian Revisited

I looked at Mondrian when I first started painting the woods nearly a year ago (post here). His method of working still inspires my practice. He spent his life working on abstract paintings and also painting trees. There was no linear transition from trees to abstraction, but a constant relationship between the two parts of…… Continue reading Piet Mondrian Revisited