Artist research

I studied several artists throughout this project - three in particular stood out to me; Sigrid Holmwood, Roy Oxylade and George Bellows - \9the artist who painted ‘Men of the Docks which I studied in the national gallery).

Sigrid Holmwood

Her paintings are historical re-enactments of the work of a painter of peasant life, referencing sixteenth century genre-painting and nineteenth century impressionism. She sometimes performs in costume while she paints, dressed in clothing accurate to the 17th C subject of her paintings. In line with her interest in historical accuracy and reenacting old techniques as part of her contemporary practice, she makes her own handmade paints according to historic recipes. She is known to use traditional materials and techniques in a playful manner, for instance combining fluorescent pigments with egg tempera.

I like her paintings due to their playful appearance as well as their impressionist style. I find it ready interesting how she makes her own handmade paints and the fact that she often uses bright colours as a base colour for her paintings. The way she paints the figures in her painting is unique- often with use of line. I like the composition of her paintings and how there is a calm but playful atmosphere conveyed through her work.

Roy Oxlade

Oxlade’s work is inextricably entwined with his home and studio in Kent, which formed the foundation of his pictures. Articulated by recurrent motifs - scissors, jugs, lemons, lamps - selected for their aesthetic and functional qualities, domesticity and ritual are central to his oeuvre. The artist’s wife, fellow painter Rose Wylie, also appears regularly in his pictures, in her role as lifelong muse. For Oxlade, the future of art meant going back to basics – of returning to ‘primitivism’. Drawing was a critical tool; he referred to the medium as the essence of his practice.

I like the way Oxlade paints in such a loose and abstract way, his work has a playful and childish appearance and the objects he paints are not painted in a very structural or three dimensional way, they are often painted as if they are two dimensional, just giving the impression of the objects. He ‘draws’ with paint often just painting the outline of the objects. I like how he doesn’t limit himself with colour but still manages to tie the colours together in his work, often by using small marks of the colours in different areas of the painting.

George Bellows

Bellows painted cityscapes, seascapes, war scenes, and portraits, and made illustrations and lithographs that addressed many of the social, political, and cultural issues of the day. Although Bellows's art was rooted in realism, the variety of his subjects and his experiments with many color and compositional theories, and his loose brushwork, aligned him with modernism—as did his commitment to artists' freedom of expression and their right to exhibit their works without interference from academic dictates or juries.

Although he was not considered an impressionist, I’ve been able to see elements of Impressionism in Bellows work such as the way he paints figures/face/ water etc. I like his limited colour palette and the way he ties in different elements of his work by using the same colours in different parts of the paintings. I like that the scenes he often picked to paint represent issues in society which are still going on in the modern day.

Along with these three artists, I also looked at a couple of artists to help me think of ways to paint the figure in my piece. (Below)

Part 2: fine art painting specialism

Part 2: fine art painting specialism

Movement in time and space: transcription project: artist research

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