Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Southampton City Art Gallery study visit

Southampton City Art Gallery

The catalyst for our visual art study visit to Southampton City Art Gallery was to see an oil painting held within it's excellent permanent collection -  a beautiful artwork by the artist John Singer Sargent, titled "Major E C Harrison as a Boy".  Painted in 1887.


The full length portrait shows the young E C Harrison standing proudly in a sailor suit, wistfully looking out into middle distance. The alizarin crimson and burnt umber ground interlaced with the deep shadows help contrast and push the pale glow of Harrison's determined countenance reinforcing his boyhood aspiration to one day serve his country as a soldier.

Harrison rose to the rank of Major during the First World War. Tragically losing his life in 1915.

John Singer Sargent, the celebrated portrait artist, who undertook the commission to paint the boy E C Harrison in 1887, later became an official war artist for the 1914 - 1918 conflict.

 
I love art!

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Abstraction and Colour Project

Trinity Art Group member E.G. has created a series of beautiful abstract paintings in acrylic. His simple yet clever idea to use urban landscapes as a starting point - the observational pencil drawings are then abstracted with special emphasis on geometric form. Thus revealing beautiful and hidden patterns in our everyday environment.




E.G. starts from observational drawings of urban surroundings. He then uses a "view finder" (a card frame") to isolate and discover hidden abstracted patterns. 

 The abstracted compositions are then re-drawn and act as the backdrop for a series of colour studies which are explore Colour Theory.