Formative feedback

Student name John Tyson Student number 505242

Course/Unit Paianting 1 Assignment number 5

Type of tutorial (written)

Overall Comments Many thanks for sending me your 5th and final assignment.

Reading through the blog has given me a good idea of how you have approached the assignment and how reworking some of the paintings as suggested has definitely made an improvement. What I haven’t seen is the improvement to the large painting and I think that when this is done you illustrate it on your blog.

Looking first at the abstraction I see that this has introduced you to different ways of working and has increased your knowledge of artists. The palette knife technique has been used by many artists with differing results. When used mechanically it can be monotonous because of the regularity of the paint application. It can be a bit like plastering. I find Kyffin Williams work falls into this category.

Kyffin Williams

However using a variety of methods to apply thick paint can work much better and in abstraction, a painter such as Hans Hoffman you will find that the language of paint and colour comes together to good effect when abstracted from nature as in a painting like this called ‘Dew and Dusk’.

Hans Hoffman

Similarly the pairing down, manipulation and presentation of abstracted forms can be seen in Anselm Keifer’s work . Paintings on this scale are of course imaginary as opposed to done directly from nature as can be seen in the work of Joan Eardley who of course as a self consciously expressionist painter does not have the political agenda that informs Kiefer’s work.

Keifer

Joan Eardley

Of your two small canvases the most successful is the colourful abstract - Mixed materials into paint - for its simplicity of conception and unlaboured execution . Turner of course would use this approach as part of his process of painting, building up and expending from an abstract beginning.

Turner

However on the other hand the painting of the white cliffs seem like a picture postcard view painted on top of a prepared surface when it would have been better if the prepared surface had been used as part of the painting process and the view naturally developing out of it.

I also think your deconstruction of the rubic cube is a good idea and although you have painted it successfully in a painterly manner there is a whole body of objective painting that concerns itself with geometric abstraction that would also be worth investigating. An early exponent of Op Art for example is Victor Vaserely.

Victor Vasereley

Feedback on assignmentDemonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

Of the three assignment works one of which has been successfully reworked I feel if you are going to show them together, the weakest one is now the monochrome . Again by carefully manipulating the tone, in this case of the white middle section, it would improve the space in the picture. The other two pictures both work very well. The one showing the figure in the long grass has a combination of elements that have successfully come together from the lighting effects , the tonal recession to the paint application. There is a confidence in the touch and good textures in the grass and contrasts in both the figure and the golden light coming in on the top right hand side.

SketchbooksDemonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity

The sketchbook needs to be livened up more with a greater use of different media - Pen and ink, oil pastel, watercolour, charcoal, collage, bus tickets , shopping lists ,telephone numbers etc, I feel the seed heads , insects which is good subject matter could do with a bit of colour to help them out as you have done separately elsewhere. It might also be a good idea to fix the drawings to stop them smudging . ResearchContext, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis I notice a nice picture of a Rocking chair by Franz Kline but this is an early work and it would have been better to include also one of his signature paintings which were black gestural brush marks on a white ground. He is known as an Abstract expressionist and there is more than an influence of Jen in these Japanese ink drawing inspire works.

Franz Kline

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essaysContext, reflective thinking, critical thinking, analysis

Being critical of your own work is important as long as it is positive and it allows you to progress with your learning. You are beginning to write better about pictures as your analytical vocabulary increases. Remember to quote your sources and if possible start to use the Harvard referencing system .

Suggested reading/viewingContext

The Dulwich Picture Gallery at the moment has an excellent exhibition of the watercolours of John Singer Sargent, which stand out for their spontaneous application of paint, colour, vitality and technical ability.New exhibitions are always coming on in London – Jasper Johns, Modigliani , Matisse and on the south east coast there is a string of Galleries you can visit the nearest I presume to you being the Towner Art Gallery which will be showing an exhibition on Landscape called Green and Pleasant Land – mostly photography and Jessica Warboys who makes sea paintings by placing pigment on her canvas and then allowing the tidal actions of the sea to do the rest. I think these ones she did at Birling Gap. Pointers for the next assignment

● Reflect on this feedback in your learning log.● Redo the monochrome painting● Think of ways of combining all your small abstract paintings – butterfly wings, rubic

cubes the small abstract canvas, flower heads and insects on one sheet for assessment to help show experimentation. Perhaps if time allows do more of these for this purpose.

Well done, you have now finished your Painting one course and I wish you all the best for your assessment.

Tutor name James Cowan

Date 30.8.17

Next assignment due Completed.