Kevins Grand Design

As Im a fan of Grand Designs as well as it being architectural, I thought it was worth a mention. Kevin McCloud  is set to attempt to change the building industry in britain, by making homes that are beautiful, affordable, sustainable and profitable. The program is set to air on Channel 4 on Thursday 8th of DEcember at pm.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/kevins-grand-design/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1

Lost in Lace

We went to the Birmingham museum and art Gallery, to see the Lost inLace exhibition. When we were there some of the work exhibbited partitioned the gallery off into different areas, but the material was still translucent enough to still have an open plan feel to the gallery. This was an intresting theme to gallery which I think links in to my theme of arhitecture quite well.

http://lostinlace.org.uk/

Whilst there I also looked at the plans for the Birmingham Central Library, which was linked with the Lost in Lace because it is surrounded by a large, circular, metal, lattice that surrounds the building. I latter went to see the site where the library was still being constructed.  I like the Plans of the Library as it looks very complex and intricate which intrests me about a building on this scale.

Photoshop

Today we did a workshop with Billy to learn basic bits and bobs in Photoshop here are some things I have manipulated:

Oxford Trip

On Tuesday 1st November we went to Oxford whilst there we visited the Ashmolean, The natural history Museum Oxford, and The Pitt-Rivers Museum. As well as the Looking in the Museums I also looked at the architecture of the museums themselves.

The Ashmolean

The Natural History Museum Oxford

I also looked at the Randolph Hotel opposite of the Ashmolean.

From photos I took and preliminary sketches I did drawings from them when we got back. I enjoyed the trip to Oxford as it has some stunning architecture.

Grayson Perry trip

The 22nd and 23rd of November our art foundation group went to London to look at an exhibition of The turner prize winner,Grayson Perry’s work in the British Museum called The tomb of the unknown craftsmen. The exhibition has many themes such as the idea of a pilgrimage, or people making a pilgrimage to the British Museum. it also looked at the idea of art by people who are unknown and have made beautiful works of art that are made by unknown craftsmen, giving the Exhibition its name The tomb of the unknown craftsmen. These works of art has been very influential to the recent work of Grayson Perry. The other main theme that links with the exhibition is god; the exhibition makes links with other cultures that make reference to god and makes links in his own work to Alan Meazels his own 50 year old Teddy bear that has been hailed as Grayson Perry’s own god by Grayson himself. Afterwards we met up and held a question and answer session with Grayson Perry. As a group we have been independently learning about Grayson Perry and his work, for example we watched the TV show Imagine: The tomb of the unknown craftsmen. This helped us get background Information about Grayson Perry prior to our question and answer session. In the question and answer session we were able to ask Grayson his questions about his current and previous work, as well as giving us advice in art here are some quotes of advice given by Grayson perry:

• you have to knuckle down and be prepared to put in the hours

• originality is overated

Here is a link to the programme i watched and helped me learn about Grayson Perry:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b016ycnn/Imagine_Winter_2011_Grayson_Perry_and_the_Tomb_of_the_Unknown_Craftsman/

Altered Perceptions

A workshop a few weeks ago looked at art that altered peoples' perceptions, may it be through smashing, covering, burning, wraping, deconstructing and constructing. Other artists that look at the idea of altering other peoples' perceptions includes;

David Nash who is most famous for his burning of his structures that he has built. Below is his 'Pyramid, Sphere and Cube'.



Also I have looked at Jeanne-Claude and christo who wrap things in order to alter their images on the small scale like paint cans to the large like the Reichstag in Berlin.

    

I have tried to follow along the lines of Christo and Jeanne-Claude and wrapping objects up in fabric and tieing them up with string. I saw one of there earlier pieces "wrapped cans" at Tate Liverpool, which fitted in with the theme of altering perceptions by covering. After recreating another still life that is covered with fabric I then drew large pictures of this scene using chalk and charcoal and then paints. This gave me a fairly structural and tonal picture.

Below are a few pictures of some paintings I did of this still life.

I also tried looking at the idea of wrapping with string, this was just a piece of metal and an acorn until I wrapped with string.

This mini project was useful as it helped with my basic observational drawing skills. It also helped to improve my drawing of more complex strucural things, in this case it was folds of fabric around different objects. 

“big money” by norwegian design studio skrekkøgle

“big money” by norwegian design studio skrekkøgle. they made a giant 20:1 replica of a 50 cent euro coin. they then placed the coin next to large objects and photographed them together, making the objects look like tiny toy replicas. this relates to the work i am doing on the model of the classroom and the ideas of changing the scale of things.

Imagine: Tomb of the Unknown Craftsmen - Grayson Perry

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b016ycnn/Imagine_Winter_2011_Grayson_Perry_and_the_Tomb_of_the_Unknown_Craftsman/

The episode of imagine on the BBC on Tuesday 1st November. It followed Grayson Perry's journey across Germany on his motorbike and recorded his thoughts, ideas and reasoning for his latest exhibition at the British Museum called Tomb of the Unknown Craftsmen. Watching this programme shows the eccentric style of Grayson Perry and enlightens us for our future visit to the exhibition Tomb of the Unknown Craftsmen.

Techniques - Printing

These last two weeks I have been busy in workshops and free time exploring the media and different methods of printing. The study of different media, printing being one of them broadens my knowlege and ability to use this media in my work.

First of all is screen printing. Screen printing involves cutting out stencils and laying them down over the printing surface. A stretched fabric screen is then put on top. A mixture of printing medium and acrylic paint is dragged across the fabric screen. Other stencils allow you to make multiple coloured prints. I liked this medium as it produces nice and sharp shapes and edges. Andy Warhol was a famous user of this method of printing.

Another form of printing is deconstructive screen printing. This is very similar to normal screen printing, using the same equipment, but different technique. Firstly to create this form of printing you need a colliagraph this is a textured surface which goes under the the screen. Thick ink is dragged across the top leaving a a textured imprint on to the screen. Once this has dried the screen is then laid over the top of the surface and soda ash is dragged over the top which releases the ink on to the printing surface. After a certain amount of times the ink eventually comes all off and less and less of the pattern is printed. I liked the process however it was very messy with varying results. An artist notable for her work in this media of printing is Victoria Crow.

We also looked at mono printing in the workshops we did this by having a thin mixture of oil paint and printing medium on a board. Paper is then put over the board and an image drawn on the paper, pushing that area of paper into the ink. Another method of monoprinting is by removing ink from the board to form an image puting paper on the board then prints the image on to the paper. I did like enjoy the printing as it has nice neat line. Tracey Enem is an artist well known for this form of printing.

I have also learnt about transfer printing. This involved having pieces of paper painted with transfer paint, once they are dry you cut out the desired shapes and put on the printing surface, then iron. This can be done on most surfaces and works very well on fabric. I liked the primary colours used as it reminds me of childrens building blocks.

Lino printing was the last form of printing that we learnt about but to do this we needed to learn how to create a repeating pattern we did this by drawing in the centre and then cutting in half and stick together the opposite way round drawing in the centre do this horizontally and vertically to create a repeat pattern. once the repeat pattern is made I then traced it onto the lino to be cut out. when the lino is cut out I was able to use the mix of oil paint and print medium and push down on the surface. I liked the repeat pattern side of this but I wasn't as keen on the lino printing as it was rather difficult when you had a complex pattern to cut out.

Ienjoyed the workshops and found them informative on printing and has allowed me to use this media and different techniques in more of my own independent work.

And the RIBA Stirling prize winner is...

Zaha Hadid With the Evelyn Grace academy.

RIBA stirling prize awards

Just a reminder if you are interested in architecture the prestigous RIBA (Royal Association of British Architects) Stirling prize is be announced this Saturday. The RIBA will choose the buildings that are deemed the best that have been designed or built in Britain. This year the finalists are:

• An Gaelaras By O'donnel and Tuomey

• The Angel Building by Allford Hall Monaghan Moris

• Evelyn Grace Academy by Zaha Hadid

•  Museum Folkwang by David Chipperfeild Architects

• Royal Shakespeare Theater by bennetts associates

• The Velodrome by Hopkins Architects

As well as earning the title of RIBA Stirling award winner the architect also wins £20,000. The awards will feature on the Culture show on BBC 2.

Cardboard Structures

One of the very first group workshops we did was involving the construction of habbitabal structures that taking our inspiration from the sculptor Emily Speed. Emily Speed makes large sculptures tht can be either worn or ravelled through.

Above is examples of Emily Speed's work.

Our group decided to make the inhabitant squeeze through a narrow entrance then exit through a large door at standing height. We also decided to take away some of the top layer of cardboard this broke up the large expanses of brown Cardboard. We also tried to keep the colour down to a minimum to so it was mainly brown.

I enjoyed this workshop. This workshop was useful in helping to show architectural form and  three dimensional drawings.

August 2011 - Egypt

This August I went on holiday to Eygpt. It gave me a chance to see places of historical, architectural and interesting importance. I also took this chance to experiment with our new camera, a Nikon D3100 which gave us better photo quality.   I also experimented with multiple modes and shutter speeds. The ancient ruins I visited on holiday were worn and gave some parts a very battered kind of texture.

 

When cruising the nile in the first week it gave us a chance to relax and aclimatise to the weather first, it allowed me to capture some interesting photographs.

Also on the top deck it gave me a chance to brush up on drawing quick figure drawing.

When we went hot air ballooning over Luxor it gave us a very unique perspective, birds eye views and large panaoramic cityscapes. A large featue in the city's skyline is the big mosque which is still currently under construction.

The photo which shows the mosque displays the scale it is being built on, dwarfing the surrounding buildings. The scale and boldness of this mosque appeals to me.

This image looks quite funny to me how all the sattelite dishes are scrambling for space upon the rooftops. It also shows other rooftop clutter that is the norm in Egypt.

As well as being nice and hot and the interesting sight seeing trips, it gave me alot of stimuli for my then upcoming Art foundation, it also gave me a great chance to play /experiment with the new camera.