I had already planned to go to Birmingham art gallery this weekend, but it was handy, as my tutor requested me to go and look at some oil paintings to get a feel of the medium, close up by famous artists. Whilst on the phone to my tutor I mentioned my planned vidit and he told me to look at a piece of work which is his favorite by Ford Maddox brown, which Ill talk about in a moment. I had am amazing day there and wow, did I see some amazing pieces of art.
I noticed in oil paintings that they don't all have thick textures, which I thought they did, in there paintings. They can be painted thinly with so much detail.
I came across some paintings that caught my eye :
Charles Lock Eastlake 1793-1865 The Champion
This painting is amazing. I could not get over how the artist created an luminous effect on the skin, of the woman and on the champions armour It created great depth to the work. I felt as though they were alive in the painting.
David Roberts 1796-1854 The Departure on the Israelites 1827-9
This piece of art by David Roberts took my breath away, so much detail in this massive painting. I love the way how he created fog/mist. It gives the painting a sense of an area hidden with in the clouds, like an ancient ruin. The buildings are painted perfectly, with so much detail. This must of took him years and years to do. You can clearly see how much effort he put in to this. I looked closely and looked at the brush marks which were so fine in some areas. I took a photo close up of a little stone wall down the bottom and notice he has engraved his signature in the stone to make it part on the painting.
Charles Rossiter 1827 1897 To brighton and back for Three and sixpence 1859 oil paint
This painting caught my eye as it was quite vibrant compared to the rest of the paintings in this particular room of the gallery. I walked up to it and loved all the colours that he used. The only bad thing I noticed , is that the painting seemed a little flat. The little girl on the woman in green, has no shadow behind her, which makes it lack depth, and really stepping back you notice the whole painting is quite flat. Other then that the colours are amazing and there is a lot of detail in the clothing.
Jacob Lucasz Ochtervelt 1634-1682 The Music Lesson 1679 oil paint
I had to comment about this painting, even though the painting was very dull it worked. It worked to show the woman playing the piano. All you notice immediately, is her white silky dress. I had to look really close , it looked so real, the artist had done it so perfectly and also the lace detail was amazing. The rest of the painting dose not account to much, in my opinion, but he has mastered the texture of the silk material perfectly.
Ford Modox Browns Paintings
I had never heard of this artist before my tutor mentioned him, but after seeing his work, I am in ewe of him. I love his work. He has mastered oil paints and inputting so much fine detail in to them. As I was going through the gallery, I noticed he used his wife and daughter a lot in his work as models.
Ford Madox Brown 1821-1893 The Pretty Baa-Lambs 1851-1859 oil paint
I really admired this painting, it just make you smile at it with the baby lambs. He has create life like sunlight in this painting and the detail is beautiful. The clothing is life like with the folds of material. I remembered about what my tutor said to me on the phone about shadows are not black and light is not just white. They all have slight different colours in them, depending on what surface they are on eg, wood material shadow would be a dark brown. I noticed his point in this painting, with the wife's clothing, the dress she is wearing is a blue colour and within the folds of the dress, there are shadow areas which I can see are not black but just a darker blue. I absolutely love the little adorable sheep, hes got there woolly texture so life like, as though you could just stroke them. I think this has to be one of my favorites in the gallery.
Ford Madox Brown 1821-1893 An English Autumn Afternoon 1852 oil paint
This is the painting, to which my tutor referred me to look at. I can see why...so much detail and the colors of all the Autumn trees are just splendid. Autumn is my favorite season as the trees are all different colours and it makes our country look more beautiful this time of year. I read some of the notes next to the painting, it mentioned about he didn't do any pre-sketching for this, he just started on the canvas itself. I looked closely at this painting and took a few photo close ups. I noticed for the bushes, I think the painted a dark area then on the top stippled different green tones to create depth, which works well. The painting makes you feel like your sitting on a hill, looking out to the far countryside lands. In the middle ground, there is a lot of detail, with the forestry area and there again its just as though he has not missed anything out. He's tried to capture everything that he can see from where he is perched. There is even a women feeding her chickens, if you look closely and I cant make it out but what looks like a river. I thought there was a canal boat on there but looking more closely it looks like a double decker bus going by. I cant quite make out what it is. The branches of the trees are so well done there so much detail to take in. I can understand why my tutor admires this painting , its just so beautiful and looks like how a lovely Autumn day should be.
There was so may other paintings I looked at which I have took pictures of which I hope to talk on here about in time. I brought some postcards with paintings on which I have put in my sketch book to keep note of and inspire me when I get my next artist block.
Whilst I was there I met an artist called C K Jansz. At first I didn't think he was an artist, as he was disabled from shoulder down. There was a crowd gathering around him so I decided to see. I went over and could not believe it, he was painting with a brush in his mouth. I found out there is a group called hand and foot artists who paint with there mouths and feet due to disabilities. I was so inspired. His work was so amazing, he was in my opinion, even better then some artists who use there hands to paint. When everyone left, I started talking to him, telling him what I was doing and how amazing I thought he was to be able to do a painting, with a brush in his mouth. Seems impossible ... but obvosly not. He said to me to just paint what and how you want and if he can do it anyone can. He was such a nice man and I even got a small painting off him of an eye had done, when demonstrating to the crowd. He said its to inspire me :) just goes to show, nothing stops you from doing what you want to do in life.
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