A cat obsession? Louis Wain

 

 

An artist I recently found is Louis Wain. He is particularly known for his drawings/paintings of cats. This may sound quite dull at first, but the interesting thing is that this English artist had Schizophrenia and some psychologists believe that you can see this in his artwork!

 

He lived between 1860 and 1939. He was declared insane sometime in 1924 and was put in a hospital in Tooting. After a short period of time here, people noticed Wain’s talent and a fund was set up for him so that he could live at ease for the remainder of his life.

 

His artwork certainly is individual, and his cats are inimitable. There is so much detail within each picture and there is a vast amount of colour used. He has made the ‘cat’ his own; from portraits to scenes of cats dressed up, Wain has created such an array of cats. It is thought that the paintings with the detailed patterns in are the ones that show his Schizophrenia, but we can’t really know for sure.

 

However these paintings are my particular favourites. He must have spent hours painting these since the patterns are perfectly formed. Some paintings remind me of Eastern paintings, like Buddhism paintings, because of the vivid colours used and the different shapes used. He uses lines of various thickness and curves to create the patterns, and these curves meander round each other to create a busy but orderly effect.

 

In other works, it’s the eyes that define the painting.  He paints large eyes onto cats, forming different expressions; sometimes surprise other times happy. In some of his paintings, he uses bright lime yellow colours for the eyes. This then grasps your attention straight away.

 

I hope from reading these descriptions of his work, you will study further into these weird and fantastic art pieces. Many prints of his work are available online as well as in some art galleries.

Art in Buddhism

Many people know about Christian art, but Buddhist art as a whole, is not so well-known despite the fact that it is one of the six main religions of the world. Buddhist art came about around 500-300BCE and over time has spread all over Asia. Although Buddhism did not emerge till around 500 BCE, it took a couple of centuries for the art of this religion to develop. Buddhist art’s main theme is the Buddha and the life of the Buddha. However, there are also many different symbols and themes in Buddhist art, such as the Wheel, or the Bodhi tree. A lot of art also represent some of the bodhisattvas, which is an enlightened being/ existence.

 The first forms of Buddhist art were found on pillars. A monarch named Ashoka, who ruled around 272 to 231 BCE, had helped spread Buddhism across India by the use of pillars.  The pillars tended to portray pictures of the Buddha and keys aspects of his life, like his enlightenment, as well as earlier Indian beliefs. These pillars were quite Persian like and at first, had Indian subjects like cows, lions and elephants. These pillars seemed to be the first of Buddhist sculpture.

There were also ‘Stupas’, a mound in which relics were placed and a place where some Buddhists may have worshipped. Stupas played an important role in the development of Buddhist art too. Stupas could have lots of decoration and embellishments on; however, it is thought that the earlier Stupas were much more simplified. But there was still a lot of visual imagery on these earlier Stupas, and these images have helped us to learn how art has developed since then.

I find Buddhist art so interesting. I think it is because it evolved nearly 2500 years ago, and yet we know so much about it. It has managed to spread from country to country and it has developed so many variations. It is full of narratives and colour and although this blog is just a very brief overview of how it started off and developed, I hope that it sparks an interest in Buddhism. So why not learn more? There is so much more information out there.

Caught Yellow Handed

Some of you may have heard about the vandalism that occurred at the Tate Modern last weekend. The victim was a Rothko painting called ‘Black on Maroon’ and it was part of a series named the Seagram murals. The culprit had written “a potential piece of ‘Yellowism’.” The culprit has in fact come forward as Vladimir Umanets who is the co- founder of ‘Yellowism’. It is believed that he was trying to draw attention to his movement, as well as increase the value of the painting. But what is ‘Yellowism’? All the articles I have read about this story does not in fact explain fully what it is? Vladimir Umanets says that ‘Yellowism’ is different form art. In art, you have the freedom to interpret how you wish. However in ‘Yellowism’, you don’t have the freedom of interpretation. ‘Yellowism’ is an element of contemporary visual culture. In other words, ‘Yellowism’ is an idea mixed into the modern society of art.

In my opinion, I can’t make heads or tails of this movement. Above all, why draw on a piece of artwork in order to attract people to a movement, which isn’t even to do with art? ‘Yellowism’ is not art nor is it anti- art. So a piece of art should not be vandalized for the publicity of a movement that is trying to tear itself away from the art culture…?

However some believe that he did not vandalize Rothko’s painting.He has even said that the writing increases the value of the painting.It is thought Vladimir Umanets was merely expressing himself onto this piece. This then raises questions. Is expressing oneself onto art vandalism? Or just art in itself? Expressing yourself is seen as art, but is it acceptable to express oneself on another’s expression? And if you understood these questions, what then should be done with Vladimir Umanets? Should he get away with it or be fined etc.?

I personally think he is in the wrong. He has used a painting by a famous artist for his own gain. Although many say any publicity is good publicity, I think that whenever ‘Yellowism’ is mentioned now, people will always think of this crime committed, and that can’t be a good thing.

The Noble, and the Webster

I found two more artists this year that I have loved. These two artists actually work together and they are called Tim Noble and Sue Webster. They create interesting shadows from objects they have made out of everyday things like rubbish. They have even been known to use taxidermy creatures in their artwork. Now you may be thinking that this is very weird but their results are so astounding. The shadows created look like Noble and Webster’s head or a crow. Their artwork is very contrasting and distinct and this technique is so curious, I don’t think I had ever seen something like this before.

So a couple of months ago I did my own photo shoot using the technique of Noble and Webster. When I was doing the photo shoot, my current theme for my art was tree shadows. I made a tree out of rubbish.Although my results were not quite the standard of Noble and Webster’s, I did get some interesting and weird results, which worked well with my project.

I really enjoyed doing the photo shoot and I suggest trying it out for yourself. It is quite easy to replicate, so why not have a go?

All you need is some rubbish, a room that can be made fairly dark, a torch/light source, a camera and a blank wall is always useful. Creating the shape out of rubbish is probably the hardest bit. I would recommend doing a tree or something like it as they are quite easy to make out of rubbish, but if you’re feeling adventurous why not try to recreate your own shadow just like Noble and Webster!

Make sure that the sculpture made out of rubbish can stand on its own though, otherwise taking a photo of the shadow will be quite hard…

Black out all the lights in your designated room and place your sculpture about 2 metres away from the wall. Then get your lamp, torch, light source and point it at the sculpture, the shadow should be created against the wall and your ready to photograph it. I took shots of the shadows at different angles and I moved the sculpture around a bit to make the shadow bigger/smaller but have a play and see what works for you.

It’s really good fun, hope you enjoy it and feel free to post your results I’d love to have a look at them. Also have a look at Noble and Webster’s website to see some of their shadow photos for yourself.

Janet Judge- a quick thought

Finding artists for research can be a very difficult task. For my current project I have found it near impossible at times. However, it is so satisfying when you accidentally come across an artist that you love, especially when you find them on holiday like I found Janet Judge on my holiday to Cornwall.

Janet Judge paints amazing seascapes, boats and general landscapes of Cornwall. I love her style, although some people may think it looks untidy or messy. But I love how she sketches over paintings to define certain objects or emphasise the depth of the water.  In some of her latest work she has let some of the water-colour run to create a much more interesting background (see ‘Red Lobster’ on her website).

She isn’t afraid to use colour and she manages to portray the splashing and crashing of waves with flicks of paint across her artwork. Her themes for her artwork are very Cornish, from crabs to seascapes, which is certainly not a bad thing. I think she shows Cornwall at its best in her work; through the sea, boats, the harbours and coastlines that she paints.

I recommend having a look at her website because many of her paintings make me think back to times I have had in Cornwall with friends and family. I can imagine that having one of her pieces in my house would be like having a little piece of the Cornwall that I know in my own home.

The picture above is from her website. This post was written truly because I like the artist- no other reason.

olympic art in the park

The Olympics have arrived and as I write this, I see that we have just won our 20^th gold medal. I have managed to visit the Olympic park in London and I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and being dressed in the GB’s flag. However, I am no sports writer and today I’m actually blogging about a sculptor I saw in the park. I don’t know what it’s called or who it’s by- too busy to notice thanks to those dancing coca cola people in the park. If anyone finds out please comment, as I would love to know.

The sculptor I’m talking about is of the classic red phone box you tend to see all over UK. However for some reason, the artist has stuck one of the doors on top of the phone box. Did I forget to mention half of the phone box is buried underground?

This does seem strange but I suppose most of the art in the park was quite odd and random, such as the huge RUN sculptor that apparently lights up at night. But it does make me wonder what the artist was trying to get across with this phone box. I understand why they used a red phone box. All tourists visiting the park would know and recognise our bright red phone boxes just as they would recognise the red buses that go around London. But why is the box half in the ground? Why is a door stuck on the top? It is funny and quite a novel thing to see but why is it in the Olympic park of all places? Particularly since the landscape design of the park is excellent. This red phone box does not seem to fit in with the backdrop of the river and beautiful flowers surrounding it. It feels like someone has literally gone and planted it into the ground and didn’t bother to notice the landscape around them; they didn’t bother to think about where this phone box may fit in. However, maybe that is why this phone box is there- to not fit in? To be honest I can’t be sure and I have never visited any other Olympic park so I have no idea about what sort of sculptors are in Olympic parks. One thing is for sure though; I think it’s one odd sculptor.