Anglesey Arts Weeks Open Studios Countdown Video
Anglesey Arts Weeks Open Studios Countdown Video Read More »
The Anglesey Arts Weeks Open Studios Guide is now available as a pdf. There are loads of exciting artists opening their studios across Anglesey so lots to see and do. Download it quick whilst stocks last!
AAW Open Studios Guide Read More »
I’m excited to be participating in the Anglesey Arts Forum Open Studios 2018. The festival runs from Saturday 24th March until Sunday 8th April, and features a number of very talented artists from across the Island, so please put the dates in your diary. Why not make a day of it and come and see as many of us as you can?!
More exciting details to follow, so please share as widely as you can!
Anglesey Arts Forum Open Studios 2018 Read More »
As part of the Savvy Painter Growth Studio, I took part in the 21 day #savvypainterinstachallenge on Instagram. The video above (based on Van Gogh’s Chair ‘self portrait’) is one example of my attempts to use the Japanese technique of Notan to analyse the composition of paintings by famous artists.
Notan, which loosely translates as ‘light-dark’, can also be used to investigate other aspects of a painting besides light and shadow, such as pattern, repetition, balance, saturation etc.
You can view the work of all the students participating in the challenge by clicking on the hashtag link above, or see all my Instagram posts here.
Savvy Painter Growth Studio 21 Day Notan Challenge Read More »
The Association of Anglesey Art Club Biennial Exhibition ended yesterday, so I’ve just been to collect my submissions and was thrilled to learn that the two paintings above sold. Together with Jenny Armour, I also won a ‘special award for an exceptional body of work’ in the People’s Choice, so I just wanted to say a big ‘Thank you!’ to all those who voted!
My thanks to all the hard working ladies and gentlemen of the AAAC Committee who organised the exhibition, as well as to Oriel Ynys Mon for hosting it.
AAAC Exhibition Sales and Award Read More »
The judges for the the Association of Anglesey Art Clubs Exhibition were kind enough to select the six recent paintings and drawings above (including the significantly reworked triptych, ‘Up and Down South Stack Steps’) for the exhibition. It’s now open in the Oriel Ynys Môn in Llangefni until 4th March 2018. There is some fantastic work on display by many talented artists from Anglesey and the surrounding area, so it’s a great way to spend an hour! Why not drop in and take a look?
Work Selected for the AAAC Exhibition in Oriel Ynys Môn Read More »
Just to mention that I’ve changed the name/url of my tumblr site from lookdraw to andydobbieart so as to keep it in line with my other social media sharing site names.
I’ve also added some new work including the sketch above, but please bear in mind that I post virtually every figure drawing/life drawing I make onto tumblr as a visual diary of sorts, so it includes some pretty unsuccessful experiments as well as a few completed paintings!
Tumblr Site URL Changed to AndyDobbieArt and New Work Added Read More »
This is another nude, painted in acrylic on a deep edge canvas. It’s another attempt to investigate methods of representing the human (female) figure in a style which seeks to emphasize the planes of the figure in space, as well as the interlocking shapes between the planes.
It’s based on a study from a recent life drawing class. The thinking behind the painting developed during its execution. At various stages I was thinking of works by Philip Guston, Jean Helion and Paul Klee. Once again, I was also thinking of Douglas Cooper’s (1970 p.33) book, “The Cubist Epoch”, in which we read that Picasso said of his own pre-Cubist painting entitled ‘Dance of the Veils (Nude with Drapes)’, 1907, that it should be possible to “‘cut up’ his canvas and having reassembled it ‘according to the colour indications… find oneself confronted with a sculpture.'”
This painting is part of a developing series in which, once again, I’m seeking to investigate and understand how to use those – notionally ‘simple’ – colour dimensions of hue, value and saturation so as to encourage the viewer to confront the contradictions inherent in representing a 3 dimensional subject on a 2 dimensional surface.
If the viewer is made to feel that the image portrayed is oscillating between abstraction and figuration, whereby, one minute a particular bounded plane is simply an abstract flat colour shape, then the next is recognisable as a foreshortened thigh projecting into space, then this painting will have achieved its objective.
Dimensions: 60cm x 80cm, supplied ‘unframed’ on a deep edge canvas which have been painted, so it may not need framing, depending on personal taste.
New Painting: Reclining Nude II Read More »
This is a painting of a reclining female figure reading a book, which was developed from a study produced during a recent life drawing class.
It’s part of a continuing series in which I’m investigating how far it’s possible to push the use of flat colour and interlocking shapes to represent the planes of the human figure in space without mutating into completely unrecognisable abstraction.
In this particular painting I tried to simplify the planes as much as possible and to reduce the representation of shadows to the absolute bare minimum required to make a coherent picture. I’ve also tried to reduce the geometric aspect of the shapes to try and create a ‘softer’, more organic, feel.
As well as my ongoing meditation on (/arm wrestle with!) Josef Albers’ book, ‘Interaction of Colour’, and a current interest in the work of Milton Avery, I was also inspired by a brief section in the Chambers Arts Library book, ‘Movements in Painting’ which discussed a French group called OuPeinPo (Ouvroir de Peinture Potentielle). Apparently, OuPeinPo “did not present itself as an artistic movement but as an inventor of constraints, structures, systems and methods”. As an example of their work, the book displayed a work called ‘Sleeping Kangeroos’ by Aline Gagnaire, in which coloured paper shapes were cut out and weighed, to ensure the exact same quantities of colour were used, which sounds like a fascinating idea.
This work is painted in pastel acrylic colours on canvas board.
In case it’s of interest, I’ve included a picture of the original study I produced below, but please bear in mind that it’s a (large A2) sketch completed in under two hours, so is rather loose and unpolished!
New Painting: Reclining Figure I Read More »