I’m thrilled that my piece, ‘Head of Dying Minotaur’ will be on show/for sale as part of the Visual Art Open Finalist Exhibition, which is being held in the amazing @unit1galleryworkshop, London, W10 6TP between Thursday 10th and Saturday 11th this week. The @fairartfair.art and the @visualartistsassociation will also be participating/holding activities.
Bacchus and Ariadne after Titian 1Bacchus and Ariadne (after Titian)Bacchus and Ariadne after Titian 2Bacchus and Ariadne after Titian 3
My drawing, Bacchus and Ariadne (after Titian), sadly didn’t make the shortlist at the Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize but congratulations to those who did! On the plus side, it’s now available so please DM if interested! It’s a Cubist-inspired piece that takes liberties with perspective to explore Titian’s use of the figures and ground in his wonderful painting in order to describe the space they inhabit. Graphite on A1 paper (84cm x 59cm). Supplied mounted and framed.
I thought I’d mention that I recently joined the https://visual-artists.org/. If you’re an artist looking for help and support to take your business to the next level, then look no further! They are a team of very experienced and incredibly enthusiastic people with loads to offer in terms of advice, guides, templates and hugely informative webinars, not to mention insurance and mentorship. Highly recommended!
Just in case it’s of interest, one last post showing the development of Diana and Actaeon from the first rough workshop sketch, through experiments with colour, and an increasing focus on the interlocking shapes, to the finished work.
In the original post I mentioned that there was a hidden pun in this painting and, that to solve it, it would be necessary to consider what a mighty hunter or the goddess of the hunt would need that’s in both of Titian’sversions but not in mine?
The answer? A Bow ‘n’ Arrow (bone arrow…) of course!
Please ‘like’ this post if you groaned or ‘share’ if you rolled your eyes! In the meantime, I’ll get my coat..
Diana and Actaeon (Acrylic on paper on board 92cm x 53cm)
This is my first attempt at a Mythology painting which contains a hidden pun! Can you spot it? Read on for a clue!
The painting is based on the classical tale of Diana and Actaeon, in which the great hunter, Actaeon, stumbles across Diana (who is, ironically, goddess of the hunt,) whilst she is bathing. In her ire, she transforms Actaeon into a stag, after which he is pursued and torn to pieces by his own hounds after they fail to recognise him.
The painting was developed from a sketch produced during an Island Art Group workshop conducted by the artist Iwan Lewis. During the workshop, Iwan presented us with an eclectic collection of objects (see image below) for inspiration, having asked us to read the passage on the Death of Actaeon from Ovid’s narrative poem Metamorphoses prior to the workshop.
Iwan Lewis IAG Workshop
I found this approach truly inspirational and, on being informed that, as well as being goddess of the hunt, Diana was also goddess of the moon, I was prompted to bring together such disparate influences as William Blake’s print of Nebuchadnezzar, Pablo Picasso’s linocuts of bull fights (in which the abstracted skeletons of the bull, horse and rider are clearly apparent), the change scene from the film American Werewolf in London, as well as Titian’s wonderfulmasterpieces.
At Iwan’s prompting, I also began to pay extra attention to the interesting negative space between forms, rather than just modelling the forms themselves. I tried to focus on creating a collage/assemblage of interlocking blocks of flat colour that can be viewed as separate entities in their own right, but which then ‘metamorphose’ into a coherent image.
I also tried to select suitable complementary colours which would create conflicting effects of the warm background ‘pushing forward’ against the cooler main figure trying to ‘recede’ in order to deliberately set up contradictions between the figure and the ground as per aspects we’ve been learning about in the MoMA course on Abstract Expression.
All in all, this was an absolutely fascinating project and I’d love to paint a large scale mural in this style!
For anyone that’s read this far and wants a hint to help find the pun, then you need to consider what does a mighty hunter or the goddess of the hunt need that’s in both of Titian’sversions but not in mine?
Did you get it? Please give me a ‘share’ or a ‘like’… (Luckily, I don’t think Facebook has got a ‘groan’ button yet!)
