An Invitation to Gaze: Vicarious Portraits

This blog is a visual, on-line record of my art work and my personal research (guided simply by what I like) into art history and contemporary art.

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Saturday, 20 August 2011

Vicarious Portraits

I have just completed my submission to the National Open Art Competition 2011. I had two pieces accepted for the Competition's exhibition in Chichester last year. It was a very good event and I am hoping to have work accepted again this year. Fingers crossed!

Click here to read more about The National Open Art Competition

(Above) The Arab Boy I Know through Kees Van Dongen, 2010

Kees van Dongen is one of my favourite painters and I often look to his work for guidance.

The 6 pieces I have entered into this year NOAC share a common theme: The Artist's Model. This is a reoccurring subject in my work: people whose image has been immortalised in the collective consciousness by the artist. So, I have never met the sitters in these portraits but I know their image through their representations by other artists. I think of my paintings as vicarious portraits.

All 6 pieces are in mixed media (Indian and acrylic inks, watercolour crayons, water-soluble wax crayons) on 100% cotton rag, acid-free paper and are all quite small, typically (before mounting and framing) about 14cm by 18cm.

(Below) The French Sculptor's Russian Muse 2011

This painting was inspired by images (photographs, paintings and sculptures) of Dina Vernay, a Russian woman who lived in Paris and posed for (among others) the sculptor Aristide Maillol.

(Below) Picasso's Girl 2011

A painting inspired by a black and white photograph of Picasso's model, the artist Françoise Gilot.

Click here to find out more about Francoise Gilot.

(Below) The Black Beret 2011

This painting references various images: a photograph of Brigitte Bardot sporting a black beret, a portrait of the actress by Kees van Dongen and “the red scarf” portrait of Aristide Bruant by Toulouse Lautrec.

(Below) Jacqueline III 2010
This is the third in a series of paintings that I did in response to various portraits by Picasso of Jacqueline Roque.

(Below) La Martiniquaise 2011

And finally, a portrait of a woman whose image I know through the wonderful lithographs of Matisse.

At a Glance

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To be is to be perceived

I hope that you enjoy this blog. If you are new to the site, don't forget to check the older posts that are now in the archive (see either "Blog Archive" or "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page). And please pass the link onto any of your friends or contacts who may be interested; better still, why not sign up to follow my blog with regular email up-dates? (See "Follow the Blog", again at the bottom of the page - just keep scrolling down).

Your gaze is very important and it's good to know that my paintings are being seen. After all, "esse est percipi" as the eminent Mr Berkeley maintained: "to be is to be perceived".

Sidonie, la mère de Claudine, as I (erroneously) imagined her (SOLD)

Sidonie, la mère de Claudine, as I (erroneously) imagined her (SOLD)

Every picture has its own story to tell and whilst they are by no means obligatory, titles can provide a useful point of access to a painting or other art work. They allow the artist to offer meanings and even to tell a story. If there is a narrative behind the titles that I create for my paintings it is usually one that tells of the painting's creation: how the painting came into being, evolved and took on its final personality. Certainly, as I am painting my "portraits", (which sometimes reference a "real", living or historical, person but not always) I find myself entering into a dialogue with them, getting to know this person that is taking shape and form on the paper. This painting of Sidonie actually started as a study after looking at the highly stylised treatment of the female face in medieval stained glass windows. (When I was at art college I won an award that allowed me to travel around France to study stained glass. My study was quite preliminary but it is an interest that has stayed with me.) I'd also recently visited the church in Tudeley, Kent, to see the wonderful stained glass by Chagall. Most of the windows in Tudeley use a predominantly blue palette, but a couple of the windows are an irridescent yellow. Surprisingly, yellow is not an easy to colour to use in large areas even if it is one that cannot fail to evoke warmth and optomism. So, as this gentle woman's face took hold on my page I found myself thinking of "Sidonie" the mother of Claudine, the little girl in Colette's autobiographical stories La maison de Claudine in which Sidonie is a discreet but constant, loving and protective presence and force. Sidonie is evoked in these short stories from a child's perspective; this painting too has a certain child-like vision. So, the gentle woman on the paper became, in my mind, "Sidonie, la mère de Claudine." Unfortunately, after re-reading La Maison de Claudine, I realised that the real or original Sidonie was actually blond and rather short and round. So, I had to revise my title: "Sidonie, la mère de Claudine, as I (erroneously) imagined her."

Artist's Statement I

Figurative and very colourful, my paintings feature mostly women: heads and faces, nudes and full-length, dressed portraits. Some of my work is produced from direct observation but more often it is informed by the photography and other imagery that animate the media (publicity, magazines, television, film, the Internet). Always "reality" is tempered by the process of drawing and painting (I enjoy making and leaving the marks of the crayon and paintbrush) but also, inevitably by perception, memory and imagination. I try to create images that are full of colour and life and, no doubt for this reason, sensual. Sometimes, my paintings are also a little "quirky": the sitters often strike a sideways regard that engages the viewer's gaze. My paintings are an invitation to gaze at the gazed. Gazing in this way mirrors what the artist does. The artist looks and through their work they give another significance to what they have seen. The act of looking, the gaze, is very important, or as the Anglo-Irish 18th century philosopher George "Bishop" Berkeley reminds us: "to be is to be perceived". Of course, the gaze is particularly important for women, who throughout life are accompanied by images that define feminity. The gaze is equally very important for the artist, whose work is born from looking and surely created for the purpose of being seen.

Many of my recent paintings have been developed from Sony Reader drawings. These are drawings that I have produced using the tactile pad and pen and the manuscript function of the Sony Reader PRS 600. In addition to the primary text-reading function, Sony has equipped its e-reader with an application that can be used for doodling. I enjoy using this device to draw even though, or perhaps because, it is rather unrefined as a drawing instrument. For example, the line produced by the Reader pen is invariable and compared to the small area provided by the screen for drawing, rather thick. The resulting mark is comparable to that produced by a large felt-tip pen, but it can be erased. I have found a way of importing these documents from my Reader to the computer and from there to other graphic applications from where I can work them further, sometimes whilst they are still in an electronic format using Paint or PhotoStudio, or more often simply by printing them and then reworking the image in mixed media on paper or light weight card. In this way, the digital drawings are a kind of palimpsest: the original electronic document provides a basis for reworking and development into a new work, which tends to keep its original small format; a size that contributes to the end painting's sense of intimacy.

Artist's Statement II

The Female Face
With the secularisation of society, the icon has evolved and now occupies a space beyond the preserve of religion; one constant remains however: the female face is still the principle messenger and continues to dominate the imagery of our culture. Omnipresent, she is almost a "cultural barometer", or more literally, a personification of cultural norms and trends.
My works comment on the ubiquitous female face, They are not so much portraits as simple painted representations of this female face. They have been described not only as colourful, but also edgy and sensual. perhaps because the women that populate my paintings are aware of, indeed pre-empt the viewer's gaze. The gaze that looks out from my paintings is, I believe, as intriguing as it is impenetrable: intriguing enough, I hope, to trigger the viewer's curiosity and speculation on the paintings' significance. Further layers of meaning may be generated by the paintings' titles, which offer a possible narration to the images. However, if the titles are a narration, the artist is an unreliable narrator. The titles, like the paintings, question the polarity of fact and fiction. just as the sitter's appropriation of the gaze creates equivalence between the viewer and the viewed and my work challenges the distinction between the subject and the object.

Behind the Mask, a Woman's Portrait

Behind the Mask, a Woman's Portrait

This self-portrait was developed from a drawing produced using the Handwriting function of the Sony Reader, which I have re-worked in mixed media (ink, watercolour, gouache) on paper. Many of my paintings feature portraits of women, or rather representations of the female face, which have always and continue to fascinate artists and image-makers. The title offers another layer of meaning: “Behind the Mask: a Woman’s Portrait.” Throughout life, women are accompanied by images that define their femininity. The female face that we see in our culture’s imagery is like a mask that represents one aspect of a woman’s identity. (See post of same title, dated: 25.04.10)

See the Archive

See the Archive

In mixed media (ink, crayon, watercolour...) on paper this portrait of my partner was developed from a drawing produced using the Handwriting app of the Sony Reader, which I enjoy using to draw even though (or perhaps because) it is rather unrefined as a drawing tool: the line produced by the stylus is invariable and, in comparison to the area of the small screen (9cm x 12cm), quite thick. The resulting mark is comparable to a marker-pen line, but it can be erased. The original electronic document provides a basis for reworking and development into a new work.

An Object of Vision

"A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself."

"One might simplify this by saying : men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. [...] The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object - and most particularly an object of vision : a sight."

Two quotes from John Berger's book "Ways of Seeing", published by the BBC (London) and Penguin Books Ltd (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England). First published in 1972. These quotes are found on pages 46 and 47 of the 1985 paperback edition.

Sony Reader Drawings

There is frequent reference in this blog to "Sony Reader drawings". These are drawings produced using the tactile pad and pen that comes with the Sony Reader PRS 600. In addition to the text-reading function Sony have equipped this e-reader with a bonus application for handwritten notes and doodling. I enjoy using the device to draw even though (or perhaps because) it is rather unrefined as a drawing tool: the line produced by the pen is invariable and, in comparison to the area of the small screen (9cm x 12cm), quite thick.

I don't think Sony envisaged sustained use of this application as the resulting documents, once uploaded onto a computer via the Reader Library, are not easily transferred to other software applications for further use. To keep the images and to do paper printouts I have to first import the manuscript document from the hand-held Reader device to the Reader Library software from where I do a copy of the whole computer screen showing the drawing embedded in the software. (see below). The drawing can then be cut and pasted into a clean page using Paint, Photostudio or Photoshop and then printed. The process of importing the drawings from the Reader to the computer is a little convoluted but the hassle is worth it as I often use the paper-prints of these drawings as a palimpsest. They provide a good starting point for more work.