Naomi Brooks

A2 Personal Study

The interest for the theme that I have chosen for this project was first sparked by a documentary I watched. It was one of three; a series entitled ‘A History of Art in Three Colours’ and this particular episode focused on the colour blue. It came to the conclusion that blue was the colour of escapism; it enabled people to grasp things like the sky and the horizon, which otherwise, could never be reached.

This emphasis on the dark blue sea with faded horizons, and the piercing blue of a clear sky instigated the ideas I had, to base my project on the theme of natural landscapes. My ideas were reinforced by a trip to the MMU Degree Shows, June 2014, where I saw several pieces of artwork based on the natural landscape. These were mostly quite abstract, so I thought about how I could get similar effects but with a slightly more realistic finish. This then triggered my thoughts on Impressionism and especially Monet because he painted landscapes, and used an untraditional and unusual choice of colour combinations but the overall finish was very realistic and accurate.

On the 28th June 2014 I visited Manchester Art Gallery where I was predominantly interested by the gallery containing ‘A Highland Romance – Victorian views of Scottishness’. This featured a piece by Henry Moore called ‘Arran (Across Kilbrannan Sound)’, it consisted of the sea, and the hills of Arran in the background. The composition was very simple but the main focus was on the colours and freedom of the sea, composed of many different shades of blue which evoked the feeling of energy and movement.

Over the summer holidays I went to Scotland where I was able to view the wildness of the landscapes and also to view several sunsets. I particularly noticed the way that the vibrant colours of the sunsets were reflected in the sea, which I photographed, and this influenced my decision to go on and investigate further the effect that light has on water and the sky.

Additionally, I was able to view some of Monet’s work at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. The first piece I saw was ‘Vetheuil’ which Monet painted in 1880. The painting depicts a countryside scene with a tree on the left in the foreground and a small town in the background. The sky is made up principally of white, fluffy clouds, I noticed that these are painted with short, brisk brushstrokes and create the effect of movement. This is similar to the way that the grass is painted in the foreground, all the brushstrokes are in the same direction, and along with the bright colours give the reader the impression that there is a warm breeze which makes the grass sway in the wind.

Another noticeable feature about this piece is the way Monet uses colour. The shade under the tree is not black, as would be the traditional colour to use, instead a combination of dark blues and greens is applied and contrast subtly with the warmer reds, oranges and yellows used in the sunlit areas of grass. This technique Monet developed through his work – of using complementary colours to convey the contrast in tones of light – is something that I want to explore further with relation to light.

To begin my investigations on the subject of light and the way it affects the colour of water and the sky, I made some observations from my photographs that I took of sunsets. I focused on colour and did some coloured pencil studies to try and replicate the colours I saw in my photographs. I found this to be successful in the way that I captured the reflections of the sky in the water, so I decided to move on to paint. At first this did not seem as effective, however I looked into the way Monet used colour and applied paint to inform my decisions on techniques to use.

Initially, from observing Monet’s work first hand, I found that the paint is applied very thickly to the canvas, in short, brisk brushstrokes. For me, this gave the painting energy and spontaneity which made me be able to feel as if I were in the painting myself; to feel the wind and hear the rustling leaves and wavy sea.

The oil paints Monet used are applied thickly with a palette knife. They give the painting a 3D effect which is caused by the paints being in relief, this adds to the feelings of movement and the constantly changing atmosphere.

In his book ‘Turner Monet Twombly’, Jeremy Lewison comments on the looseness and scale of Monet’s brush marks. When speaking of his technique Lewison says, “His paintings of Rouen Cathedral, for example, have no linear contours but consist of an accretion of small touches of paint, applied thickly to the canvas, which together represent the gothic edifice in an almost sculptural manner.” As Lewison implies, Monet tends not to use any definite lines in his paintings; he uses contrasting colours and direction of brushstrokes to hint at any edges or change in texture. I observed this when I saw his work, and again, felt that it adds to that impulsive, naturalistic atmosphere that Monet is able to capture in his work. He is able to create an ‘impression’ of the constantly changing landscape.

Lewison also compares Monet’s painting style to a mosaic; “The fracturing of the paint surface into individual patches of paint or strokes of the brush was an approximation of the way in which the eye apprehends nature, as a mosaic of colours before the brain assembles them into an image.” This is a trait of Monet which I would like to investigate to try and get the right balance of colours in my sunset paintings. From looking at Monet’s work I can see that instead of using the colour purple for example, Monet applies a stroke of red paint next to a stroke of blue paint. So although they are two separate colours close up, from a distance my eye merges them together to create purple; this is similar to the way that tiny broken fragments off colour in a mosaic combine together to form one big image. Monet also does this with complementary colours so that the brushstrokes become harmonised. An example of this is when the yellow strokes of a sunlit area contrast with the purple areas of a shaded area. Similarly, blue and orange are used together, and red and green are used together.

From this analysis of Monet’s work I experimented initially with different techniques of applying paint. Instead of using a palette knife I experimented with a glue spreader and the wooden end of a paintbrush. I found that end of the paintbrush worked well because I was unable to spread the paint evenly so it created a textured surface. Also changing the size of the brush enabled me to apply different sized marks.