Exhibition - Carmelo Mangion

I was lucky to be invited by Carmelo Mangion's daughter Adrienne Cassar to view many of her father's works which included paintings and etchings.

Carmelo Mangion was born in 1905 and was one of Malta's leading pioneers of Modern Art. His favourite media were oils and gouache, while he was also equally proficient in watercolour and etchings.

Brooklyn Bridge, New York  (signed)

This is an etching done at the time while Mangion was studying in New York. It is a scene depicting the Brooklyn Bridge. His style has a certain roughness and the darkest area is in the foreground. The paper is stained due to its age and maybe improper storage.

Power Station  22 x 15.5cm   unsigned

This is a powerful depiction of the effects of industry. The composition creates a sense of balance. The dark areas around the chimneys gives focus to the main subject. The foreground is light and so the eyes are directed to the chimneys.

                                    The Two Chimneys 
                                       Gouache on paper   30 x 20 cm signed and undated

This is a painted version of the same subject as the etching. In the Two Chimneys the colours are limited and mostly in shades of white. One of the chimneys is closer to the viewer. The brush strokes are visible and give the painting a sense of movement.

   Christ Before Pilate   

Oil on masonite (65 x 83cm)

The colours in this painting are strong and bold. The reddish orange shades are in the centre while the dark shades of  greens surround the painting. Christ is painted in white with a halo around his head. He hangs his head waiting for whatever punishment he is about to get. The walls and the ground form triangular shapes. The group of figures, Pilate and Christ also form a triangle. The ground is like it is reflecting water with oranges and tourqoise. The colours and the composition give it an expressionist feel.

  Rooftops  

 Gouache on paper

60x36cm

This is an abstract painting. The buildings are flat with simple shapes of rectangles and sqaures. The colours are mostly shades of pink, whites and light blues. The sky is painted dark with a large circle which could be the moon or the sun. 

Bibliography

(online) Available at:<http://www.culturalmalta.org/index.php/Art/Artists/Carmelo-Mangion.html (Accessed 21st May 2014)

Neo and Post Impressionism

Neo and Post impressionism developed out of impressionist. A group of young painters came known as Post-Impressionists at the exhibitions ' Manet and the post-Impressionists ' held at the Grafon Galleries in London in 1910. These were artists who were influenced by impressionism but broke free from it and started their own artistic style expressing emotion and themes of symbolism . 

Among these artists were

Paul Gaugin ( 1848- 1891)

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)

Paul Cezenne (1839 - 1934)   

 The main artists of neo- impressionism were George Seurat and Paul Sigurac who sought to place scientific knowledge in art. The contrast of complementary colours and optical mixture

The neo- impressionists applied small touches of pure colour next to one another on their canvas. They depicted, landscapes places of entertainment Seurat developed pointillism/ Divisonism.

Signac wrote the highly influential 1889 treatise from Eugene Delacroix to neo- impressionism.

The treatise influenced artists such as pissarro, Van Gogh, Matisse and Kandunsky  

George Pierre Seurat
Self- Portrait

George Pierre Seurat was born on 2nd December 1859 in France. He was a French painter and a draftsman. In.In his earlier works Seurat produced drawings using conte crayon on textured paper.He then experimented with styles inspired by Delacroix and the impressionists. Seurat started using a scientific approach to the application of colour and composition. This led to a new technique known as Pointillism. This involved small dots of pure colour painted next to each other. Examples of this are Bathers at Asnieres and A Sunday on la Grande Jatte.

A Sunday on la Grande Jatte by George Pierre Seurat

La Grade Jatte was first exhibited in May 1886 in the final Impressionist exhibition. It portrays fashionable Parisians enjoying a Sunday afternoon at a popular spot on the River Seine. In this painting Seurat experiments with colour, subject matter and composition.It is a scientific approach to composition and application of colour.

This involved placing small dots of pure colour next to each other on the canvas. Seurat perfected the technique known as division of pointillism.

The colours in this painting suggests the effect of warm, hazy sunshine the figures although stylised and statue like give us the feeling of busy scene of people enjoying themselves in the sunlight.  

Paul Cezanne

Paul Cezanne was born on 19th January 1836 in Aix-en-Provence. His works which consisted of building form with colour and analytical approach influenced the cubist and the fauvists. He lived between Aix-en-provence and Paris where he studied and became involved with the impressionist movement. In 1880s Cezanne started moving further away from the impressionist style of painting.

The Large Bathers  (1906) by Paul Cezanne

The theme of nude figures as a group in a landscape attracted Cezanne for a long time. In the final decade of his life time Cezanne painted three large oils of female bathers. Possibly began as early as 1895 and were still being worked on just before his death n 1906. Shy of woman, he did not use female models, so most of his nude paintings were created. In this painting and also the other two, Cezenne paints the figures as solid forms and they are in harmony with their setting, the sky and trees.

The colours are bright following the ideas of impressionism focusing on light. Many of the forms of the bathers are heavily outlined but at the same time combined with areas of tone.

The Composition creates a balance and calm in his painting.The trees form the sides of a huge triangle and the figures are also arranged in triangular groups.      

Vincent Van Gogh 

In his early paintings Van Gogh his work was dark and naturalistic when he moved to Paris his style changed due to coming in contact with Impressionist Artists.

His palette lighted and was influenced by Japanese prints. In 1988 he moved to Arles where he painted hundreds of canvases and created his greatest master pieces.

Vincent Van Gogh- Chair

In Van Gogh's chair' Vincent used paint thickly and left the brush strokes showing. Often he used the paint directly from the tube. He used firm, dark outlines paint to the shapes.

Van Gogh painted a pipe and tobacco pouch to show that he only needed to paint everyday objects that surrounded him.The onions  sprouting in box could have a symbolic meaning as Gauguin wanted him to paint from imagination and not real life.The box also has Van Gogh's signature. The floor's perspective is exaggerated. This is inspired from the work of Japanese artists who disregarded the rules of perspective.   

 'Starry Night' by Vincent Van Gogh

In Starry Night there are whirling clouds, shining stars and a bright crescent moon. In this painting spacing between the curving swirling and the stars is created using heavy and thick brush strokes which give the painting rhythm and movement. Starry Night composition is surreal and stylized. This shows it was distinct from the Impresssionist technique. In this painting he used thick brush strokes. In his technique he adds depth as well as a rich texture to his  work.

The main light source are the bright stars and crescent moon.

Van Gogh used white and yellow to create the spirals giving attention to the sky.

The village is painted in dark colours but the windows are brightly lit with small blocks of yellows, oranges and greens with a dash of reds to create a scene of comfort. It is peaceful in comparison to the dramatic night sky while the silence of the night can almost be felt.

The cypress tree dominates the foreground on the left and the church tower gently breaks up the composition. He chose dark blues and greens to show the reflection of the moon. Dominance of blue is balanced by the orange of the night sky.

Paul Gaugin- Self-Portrait

Paul Gaugin was born on 7th June in 1848 in Paris. He was a leader of post-impressionism. He usesd bold experimentation with colouring. His subjects are expressed with a strong sense of design, bold, flattened ,simplified forms, colour. While living in Pont-Aven, Brittany, he created Vision of the Sermon. He used pure, intense colour. This marked  the change from the Impressionist style to the Post -Impressionist.

Gaugin travelled to Panama and Martinique and in 1891 he set off to Tahiti where he lived in poverty. This was his most creative period.   

Tahitian women on the beach an analysis by Paul Gauguin

Tahitian Women on the Beach was painted in June 1891. He used a style with both bold colours, flat and simplified shapes. In this painting there are  two woman sitting on the sand one is facing the viewer and the other one on the left is facing away from the viewer. The young woman sitting on the left hand side her back towards us and her face down. She is wearing a white top and a  red pareo cloth wrapped around the body forming a skirt with a white floral print . Her black hair is tied up with a yellow ribbon and a white flower is placed hanging from her ear. Her right arm extends towards the viewer. The women on the right is wearing pink, cross legged.  Although they sit next to each other they are disconnected and seem to be lost in their own thoughts. 

In this painting he shows stark contrast against the light were the two woman are sitting and the green water of the lagoon and the blackness of the sea,  which is highlighted with white from the breaking waves.  This  shows the foreground and background  creating perspective.

Bibliography

(online) Avalibale at:< http://www.artble.com/artists/vincent_van_gogh/paintings/starry_night/more_information/analysis

 (Accessed 12th May 2014)

(online) Avalibale at:<  http://www.artble.com/artists/paul_cezanne (Accessed 12th May 2014)

(online) Avalibale at:< http://www.squidoo.com/gauguin-tahitian-women-on-the-beach-an-analysis (Accessed 12th May 2014)

(online) Avalibale at:< http://www.gauguingallery.com/tahitian-women-on-the-beach.aspx 

(Accessed 12th May 2014)

(online) Avalibale at:< http://www.artble.com/artists/paul_cezanne/paintings/the_large_bathers (Accessed 12th May 2014)

Book

Janes, K.H.,Chivers, I and Zaczek, I., 2011. Great Paintings, London: Penguin Group

Japanese Prints

The art of woodcut originated not in Japan but in China in the 8th century. The Chinese invented a type of woodblock printing six centuries before it was used in the West.

The Chinese used printing in order to spread holy images throughout the vast empire. As Buddhism spread across the Far East, Korea and Japan started the development of printing. Japanese printmaking originated in the Edo region of Japan, now known as Tokyo. Edo is also the Historic period between 1603 and 1868. Japan was ruled by the military leaders called shoguns. They came from a family called Tokugawa. Although only Samurai could afford to commission art, the new middle-class could buy woodblock prints without text. These were cheap to buy because they were produce in multiple editions.

Utamaro Kitagawa

Japan continued to develop printing techniques. The original process involved four different artists.First the publisher chose the subject.  
Then a painter produced a design in India Ink on mulberry paper. The drawing was then glued to a  block of cherry wood leaving the compositor in relief. After inking the block. It was then pressed onto paper using a hemp pad. The result was a black and white print which then was painted in colour by hand.

Ukiyo-e was the most popular style in Japanese art. Ukiyo-e means 'Pictures of the floating world'.
The subject consisted of scenes of harmony, everyday living, historical events and landscapes.

One of the first major artists of Ukiyo-e was Hishikawa Moronobu. In 1660 he began to publish signed images of wood block prints without text which made it accessible to the middle-class. His prints were the first true style of ukiyo-e. He used a strong linear style and his work influenced artists for the next two hundred years.

Hishikawa Moronobu

Suzuki Harunobu introduced the full colour print around 1706 . This required a block for each colour which was printed on the same paper using an alignment mechanism. He used many special techniques and his subjects varied from classical poems to contemporary beauties. He also produced a number of erotic images.

Suzuki Harunobu - Snow (Yuki) from the series Elegant snow,moon.

Hokusai Katsushika created the well known woodblock print series 'Thirty six views of Mount Fuji' which includes the internationally recognised 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa'. This series made him famous both in Japan and overseas.

Hokusai-The great wave off Kanagawa

Hokusai-Waterfall

Utagawa Hiroshige produced thousands of compositions which included everyday scenes of city life and serene landscapes.
 Hiroshige was an artist who influenced the Impressionist painters. Wood block prints started arriving in the West when Japan opened its harbours to merchant ships in 1854.
 Van Gogh was excited by Hiroshige's shocking and non-western composition. He used Hiroshige's prints as a source of inspiration. Van Gogh copied two of his prints from the series 'One Hundred Views of Edo'. These were the Blossom in a Plum Orchard  and  a Sudden Shower on Howashi  Bridge. Artists who were inspired by Hiroshige's work were Manet, Degas and Monet to mention just a few..

Hiroshige - Sea at Satta (1858)

Impressionists influenced by Japanese prints

Van Gogh's Blossoms influenced by Japanese prints.

Vincent Van Gogh - The Bridge in the Rain (1887)

Edouard Manet- Portrait of Emile Zola

Harvard System

(online) Avalible at :< http://faculty.evansville.edu/rl29/art105/sum04/art105-7.html
http://www.asianartmall.com/AboutWoodBlockPrints.html (Accessed12th May 2014)
(online) Avalible at:<  http://emptyeasel.com/2008/04/24/a-brief-history-of-japanese-art-prints-also-known-as-ukiyo-e/ (Accessed 12th May 2014)

Essay 500 words - Twanny Darmanin

Twanny Darmanin was born in Balzan ,1951. He is a painter but he also does sculptures in various media. Twanny always loved art and he was inspired by the best artist Gabriel Caruana and Antoine Camilleri. Darmanin attended Paola Technical School between 1962-65 under the direction of Neville Ferry. Later on he studied at the school of arts under the director of Vincent Apap and Harry Alden. He also did a course in ceramics with tutorship of Gabriel Caruana. He is also a muralist and has painted using the fresco technique. Darmanin worked in the crafts industry and experimented with etching, printing, sculptures, glass blowing and glass painting.

  He took part in four exhibitions in 1981,1983,1996 and 2014. His current exhibition is at the Auberge d'Italie, Merchant street, Valletta.

In his early works Twanny Darmanin used a darker palette consisting of earth colours. His subjects are influence by cubism and surrealism, by Picasso and Dali's work. They are complex works created from influence and his imagination

Paintings: 1980-1990

 In his second exhibition he worked with a Maltese poet. Together they combined paintings,sculptures and poems. His colourful paintings are inspired by Cubism and Surrealism, but he works in his own artistic way of painting .His moods and feelings influence his dynamic painting. 

Later he started using a brighter palette using various colours, both primary and secondary colours. He also painted in monochrome colours. The subjects were simpiler and he captured scenes from everyday life which included landscapes and people from all walks of life.

In his present exhibition his artworks are referred to many aspects of life, history, religion, traditions and other elements of humanity. He is a painter who has passion for  love of colour, form and and simple texture. Today he creates figurative paintings with typical hard edge, subtle cylindrical and spherical forms. 

 He creates a sense of movement in his artworks. Most of his figures are faceless and but the artist forms and creates expressive movements with the torso and hands. Darmanin also exhibited with his paintings the sketches which led to his final work.

Paintings: Post 2010-2013

Faithful Friend

This painting shows an Old lady with two cats near her feet . The old lady is bending down low at her cats. They are the only friends in her life, it like they are her children. He creates a scene of mother hood.

The Enlightenment 

In this painting a clothed female figure on the foreground represents the symbol of awaking consciousness. At the background we can see the entrance to the temples which signifies the dividing line between the world of the conscious and the unconscious.

Biography

(online) Avalibale at:<  http://www.mellieha.com/artists/twannydarmanin/ (Accessed 7th May 2014)
(online) Avalibale at:<  http://twannydarmanin.com/bio/ (Accessed 7th May 2014)

Cubism

Cubism was a truly revolutionary style of modern art during the early twentieth century. It was developed by Pablo Picasso and George Braque between 1907 and 1914. It is often said that the work of Paul Cezanne set the stage for cubism.
Cubism depicted real people, objects and places not drawn from a fixed viewpoint but as if it were viewed from different angles. Cubist works are flattened, two dimensional, geometric forms. The colours consist of a fairly natural palette. Cubist painters rejected the traditional use of perspective and copying from nature and reduced and fractured objects into geometric forms and composition of planes. It was a new way of seeing which reflected a modern age.

Cubism had two distinct phases. The early phase called Analytical Cubism (1907-1912)  and Synthetic Cubism (1912 onwards).

Cubist research spread and new names emerged such as Juan Gris, Duchamp-Villion Raymond, Duchamp Marcel and Alexander Archipenko to mention a few.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) by Pablo Picasso

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon  marked the arrival of cubism. The painting depicts five nude female figures from the red-light district of Barcelona. The figures are composed of flat, simplified, angular forms. The faces were influenced by Oceanic and African masks. In this painting Picasso depicts human figures by making use of several viewpoints, which became one of the characteristic features of Cubism. The women's poses suggest sexual invitation. It is a rough line drawing, primitive and naive in which the woman have stylised faces and staring eyes. The figures and areas of the background are painted in colours ranging from whitish yellow to brown.The blue divides the right group from the left.

Le Portugais (1911) by Georges Braque

It is very difficult to grasp the subject when looking at the painting for the first time. It is a rendering of a guitar player in a Cafe. The guitar player which is a barely recognisable figure holds the guitar in his lap. The subject is depicted in many pieces of broken form. The vertical and horizontal lines form a web-like structure. Clues help us to reconstruct the image. The round, sound hole and the strings of the guitar enable the viewer to construct an image of a musical instrument. Braque also included the letters BAL and numerals. The palette is limited to brown and greyish tones. Typical cubist colours. Braque wants to convey meaning and ideas more than beauty in his painting.

Bibliography

(online) Avalibale at:< http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cube/hd_cube.htm (Accessed 22nd April 2014)
(online) Avalibale at:< http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/cubism.htm (Accessed 22nd April 2014)
(online) Avalibale at:< http://www.pablopicasso.org/avignon.jsp (Accessed 22nd April 2014)
(online) Avalibale at:<https://suite.io/alan-foljambe/3nfa2av (Accessed 22nd April 2014)
(online) Avalibale at:< http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/braque-the-portuguese.html (Accessed 22nd April 2014)

Books

Carsten, P.W.,2003.Picasso, VG Bild- Kunst, Bonn

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Impressionism

Impressionism began in the early 1860s in Paris. It was the first of the modern movements.  A group of artists including Monet, Degas, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot, Renoir and others who had been working together, called themselves Anonymous society of artist, painters and sculptors. They were rejected by the art establishment and so they decided to set up their own exhibition in 1874.  It was during this exhibition that the group got its name.  The Art critic Louis Leroy took the name from Claude Monet’s work called Impression: Sunrise. The group became known as the Impressionists.

 Artists painted en plein-air. They painted landscapes, scenes from modern urban (city) and suburban (in the country) life.  The artists painted outdoors rather than in the studio.  Ready- made paint in the tubes made this easier for artists to work outside the studio. They used colours which were pure and bright. Scientific research made the artists experiment with complimentary colours.  Colours were also applied side by side and the colours were optically mixed by the viewer’s eyes.  They painted quickly and the rapidly applied brush-strokes are visible in their paintings. Impressionists did not paint in detail but painted in mass of colour and light. The Impressionists were influenced by the development in photography. They were also influenced by Japanese prints. 

Impression Sunrise by Claude Monet

Impression Sunrise is celebrated as the symbol of the Impressionist Movement. It was completed during the late nineteenth century in 1872. This painting was first shown to the public in the L’Exposition des Révoltés exhibition with Monet, Bazille, Pissarro and their friends.

This painting describes a calm feeling of a misty maritime scene. Small boats float in the bay in the early morning sun  rising over the foggy harbour with ships and other various boats at port. Shadows of the boat and figures reflected by the sun’s rays can been seen on the water surface. Monet uses in his palette mostly cool, dull colours of greys and blue. He also uses splashes of warm colours of red and orange in the sky.  To the left of the canvas a four-masted clipper ship enters the harbour while smoke-stacks of steamboats fill the atmosphere. On the right hand side there are cranes and heavy machinery.

Monet’s sunrise displays several different tones of colour.  Monet’s later works exhibit a wider variety of colour juxtaposed against one another. He would come to use layer upon layer of paint in his future paintings.  He applied many layers to succeed in creating the perfect combination of pigment, but also to cover layers of paint when he changed his mind in the process of completing a painting, which happened often.  Up to fifteen layers of paint have been counted in a cross-section by scientists who have analyzed Monet’s paintings.

The brush strokes in Impression Sunrise, create a sense of rhythm which reflects the feeling produced by the motion of the sea.  Other feature of Impressionist painting was the distinct application of colour. Colours are placed side by side and are mixed optically by the viewer’s eye.  This technique can be seen in the sky and water of Impression Sunrise. 

Bal du Moulin  (1876) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

 This painting was one of the most popular works in the mid-1870s of Renior's works. It was first shown at the Impressionist exhibition in 1877. Bal du Moulin de La Galette was an open-air dance hall and cafe that was very popular with many artists living in Paris. Renoir used to go to the Sunday afternoon dances and enjoyed watching the happy couples. This inspired him to paint this scene.

Most of the figures in this painting were Renoir's friends but he also used professional models. Around the table are Renior's friends Frank Lamy, Norbert Goeneutte and George Rivere.

In Bal le Moulin de La Galette, Renoir captures a scene of real life in Parisian culture. 

Renoir's dark colours contrast well with the bright colours of the clothes that are lit by the sunlight coming in from the trees. He bathes the figures in sun and shadow. No black is used and not even outlines. This is a traditional Impressionist technique.

 Bal du Moulin de La Galette was one of the happiest compositions of Renoir's paintings. It is exhibited at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and one of the most celebrated works in the history of Impressionism.

The Child's Bath by Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt was a leading figure in the Impressionist movement. In her paintings she concentrated on the human figure and also had a fascination with Japanese prints which she had seen at an exhibition in Paris.

The composition of this painting is typical of Japanese prints. The high viewpoint looking down upon the figures, closeness of the subject and the dress at the edge of the painting are all oriental features. Also the decorative patterns on the carpet, furniture, wall and jug. She depicted her models is unusual and very natural poses.   

Olympia by Edouard Manet (1863)

Musee d’Orsay, Paris.

A female nude, tended to by a maid, while a black cat on the right hand side gazes mysteriously out at the viewer.  The maid presents Olympia with a gift of flowers, presumably a gift from a lover.

Olympia’s adornments consist of boudoir slippers, a necklace, a bracelet, a flower in her hair and a string around her neck.

The nude model in Olympia, Victorine-Louise Meurant, was also the model for Dejeuner sur l-Herbe.

 Manet used a strong brushstroke and paid little attention to smooth modelling and tone gradations of the flesh tones.

There is contrasts between a dark background and the light tones of Olympia lying on her bed which shows more attention.

Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe by Edouard Manet 

Musee d’Orsay Paris

.

Manet was influenced by the Realists (Courbet) and drawing inspiration from everyday life .Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe was exhbited at the Salon des Refuses. The public was shocked at seeing a painting of a nude woman having lunch with two fully clothed men.

 In this painting, Manet laid the foundations of Impressionism by using large areas of flat colours to create stark, daring contrast, dark palette and strong brush strokes.

The Waterlily Pond by Claude Monet

Monet painted Waterlily Pond in his famous garden at Giverny, northwest of Paris.  It is one of his 'Series' paintings in which he recorded the same subject at different times of the day. Monet sought to record the impressions and feelings of painting outdoors- en plein air. 

In The Waterlily Pond, Monet used short, rapid brush strokes and dabs of paint to create a harmonious pattern of colour, tone and texture. Monet sometimes applied paint with a palette knife for the foliage.
The bridge with its gentle curve bisects the painting. It resembles the Japanese bridges in the prints of the Japanese artist Hiroshige.

The patterns of the sunlight on the pond's surface create an almost abstract effect. Mauves and pinks are depicted in the bottom half of the painting. The brushstrokes become smaller and lead the eye to the edge of the pond. Reflections of the trees and foliage can be seen in the water.

The waterlilies are depicted with dabs of thick white, pink and reddish paint.

 Biography

Anon, 2014. Dance at le Moulin de la Galette. [Online]
Available at: http://www.artble.com/artists/pierre-auguste_renoir/paintings/dance_at_le_moulin_de_la_galette

[Accessed 18 April 2014].

Yurasits, J., 2012. ANALYSIS OF CLAUDE MONET'S IMPRESSION,SUNRISE. [Online]
Available at: http://blogs.longwood.edu/incite/2012/01/30/analysis-of-claude-monet%E2%80%99s-impression-sunrise/
[Accessed 18 April 2014].

Books

Anderson, J., 2004. THE ART OF THE IMPRESSIONISTS. Bath: Parragon.

Janes, K. I. a. Z., 2011. Great Paintings. London

Exhibition - ' Xebgha Nies' at St James Cavalier

This exhibition was held at St James Cavalier  from 21st February till 30th March 2014 . It was a collective exhibition with nine different artists taking part. These artists were Debbie Caruana Dingli, Andrew Diacono, Steve Bonello, Moira Zahra, Mark Scicluna, Paul Scerri, Saviour Baldacchino and Kenneth Zammit Tabona. The name of the exhibition was Xebgha Nies. As the title states the subject was about people.  Each artist produced their own style of work. Each one used different media, techniques and ideas to explore the subject.

Andrew Diacono

Man on a Penny Farthing

Mixed media

Andrew Diacono exhibited three sculptures and three paintings.

My favourite art piece was the sculpture Man on a Penny Farthing. 

 Man on a Penny Farthing  is very original. It was the first time seeing a sculpture of a penny farthing.It is made out of paper, glue, paint and metal.The artist had to construct his work in such a way to make it balance. The base is probably heavier than the rest. The colours are dark with areas of orange.

Paul Scerri

The Braggart - Open your mind before your mouth

Paul Scerri exhibited seven ceramic sculptures.Each sculpture portrays a different idea. They all have a symbolic meaning.

I chose this particular sculpture of a man holding his arms up, his brain open. The arms seem to suggest 'stop'  The head opening is a drastic means of expressing to open your mind before your mouth, meaning think before you speak.

Saviour Baldacchino

First Painting Aim at Serb

Second Painting Breast of Agatha

Oil on canvas

Saviour Baldacchino exhibited six paintings in oil. All of his paintings have a religious theme including the Last Supper and paintings depicting the martyrdom of saints.

The first painting depicts Saint Sebastian tied to a tree and shot with arrows. He is not drawn realistically but cartoon like.The composition is mainly the figure of Saint Sebastian at an angle with the tree. The colours in the painting are warm with a background of orange hues.

The second painting depicts the torture of Saint Agatha. The painting shows the expression of Agatha's face. She is about to be tortured. She looks scared.The top part of her body is naked, Three evil men with different expressions on there face shows they want to cut of her breast because the men on the right

is holding big scissors and the man on the left is holding one of her breasts. 
This painting is also drawn cartoon like but it is very effective. Agatha has a beautiful face while her aggressors are grotesque looking. The colour range from flesh tones to grey and orange hues. 

Moira Zarha

Encounters

Pencil and Indian Ink

Moira Zarha exhibited five works using pencil, indian inks and watercolours.

This painting shows five people at a zebra crossing . They are all tall and slim. They are wearing winter clothes. The woman on the right is holding a large bug on a leash and holding a cigarette in her left hand. A woman is with her arm around a girl who also has a large bug print on her t-shirt. The man next to her is standing straight with arms folded. The person next to the traffic light is wearing a hat,coat and holding an umbrella.

The composition of the painting makes it interesting. The drawing is executed in ink on paper.  

The drawing is basic and cartoon like. The figures are drawn flat and each one has a distinctive character in the way they are dressed. The black and white are well balanced.

What I like about this drawing is its simplicity and it is not complicated. I don't like the pets because I find them strange and different.They make me feel uneasy. 

Romanticism

Romanticism

Romanticism was most popular in Europe in the late eighteenth century and developed in the mid-nineteenth century.  The movement represented subjects of the time period, concentrating on imagination, the sublime, human feeling and emotion, nature and individualism.  The movement was a rejection to the neo- classical movement which represented subjects of horror, madness, violence and the supernatural.

Nature was also one of the main sources of inspiration for the Romantics.  Set against the background of the Industrial revolution, Romanticism was an escape from the problems associated with progress.

Romanticism presented different characteristics in different countries.

The French Romantic painters and sculptors showed a love of movement as in Gericault’s ‘The Race of Barbary horses’, ‘The Raft of the Medusa’.

Eugene Delacroix’s representation of the July 28 Revolution of 1830, ’Liberty Leading the People.

Exotic and mystical themes were also popular.

‘La Grande Odalisque’ by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ by 

Casper David Friedrich are two examples.

The Romantics in England found inspiration in nature.  Nature was the ultimate source of all beauty and all wisdom.

 Turner‘s travels helped his growing awareness of the grandeur of nature and its destructive force.

An example from his works is Snowstorm: Steamboat of a Harbour’s Mouth, 1841.

The painter John Constable wrote,’ by a close observation of nature, the artist discovers qualities in her which have never been portrayed before and so form a style which is original’.

 This painting is called Liberty Leading the People by the artist Eugene Delacroix.

 It is exhibited in Musée du Louvre, Paris.

This image shows the July revolution in 1830.

This painting portrays a woman that represents liberty. She leads charging people, trampling over the dead bodies beneath them.

She commands attention by holding high the French flag which is placed in the center of the canvas.  She is at the peak of the pyramid technique with the corpses placed on the lower part.

Smoke from the battle fill the background with the brightest smoke surrounding Liberty to give her more importance.

It is a strong depiction of the horrors of a battle scene.  

This painting is called The Raft of the Medusa by Theodore Gericault.

 It is in the Louvre in Paris, France.

Gericault chooses a dramatic episode for his painting. The subject is contemporary.  He painted a tragic event which happened three years before.  It is the story of a captain who abandoned his crew and passengers and left them to die.  The painting sends the message not only of a tragedy but also a political one.

Gericault used a strong palette and sharp contrast of dark and light which produces dramatic poses.  It is a muscular figure study.  It shows both horror and hope.  The figure waving the red cloth and the figures at the front of the raft are hoping for the faraway ship to see them. The figures at the back of the raft which is coming apart have given up hope.

 This painting is called Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich.

The figure stands in contemplation of the dramatic landscape before him.  It seems like the sea of fog is full of mystery. Friedrich was inspired by German landscape and deeply moved of the beauty he found in his homeland. He depicts the mountains, the trees, and the heavy mist above the sea.

 Caspar David Friedrich chose to paint the landscape vertically instead of the commonly used horizontal shape. The upright position of the canvas gives the figure prominence and focus in the painting. The figure stands right in the middle of the painting, and the horizontal lines of rocks and mountains lead towards him. His poise is one of a confident man, he leans on his cane, and a relaxed hand rests in his pocket. Gericault paints the figure with his back towards the viewer. This makes the figure something of a mystery to the viewer. The figure in Wanderer above the Sea of Fog could be a particular person, a high-ranking forestry officer, Colonel in the Saxon Infantry or a self-portrait.

Friedrich used a light palette. He mixes blues and pinks across the sky with the mountain and rock in the distance echoing these Colours. He paints the figure in a dark green coat - typical German attire.

Light seems to be coming up from beneath the rock, somehow illuminating the fog. The rock the figure stands on remains mostly in silhouette.

This painting is called The Third of May 1808 by Francisco Goya. (Prado, Madrid, Spain). The subject is very straight forward. With arms wide open a man kneeling is waiting for a brutal execution.  Civilians have been executed and others are waiting for the same cruel faith.  These were rebellions against the French army in Spain (Peninsular War in Spain (1808-1814).

The sky is dark. The town is a sinister backdrop. The execution is taking place outside the city. In the foreground the composition is tight. The soldiers form a barrier and the light from the lantern is focused on the central figure and the condemned men.  The light separates the soldiers from the martyrs.  The man with the white shirt is depicted larger than the other figures in the painting. With his arms open he is representing a Christ-like figure.

The condemned men look terrified and they all have different expressions.  Some cover their eyes and one looks straight at the executioners.  The monk says a final prayer.  He is a reminder of the Spanish Inquisition and shows that during executions, no one is spared.

Goya uses dark colours and form.  He used a palette with browns, black and greys to create a nightmarish atmosphere.  Goya used bold and dynamic brushstrokes.  He could have used his fingers or palette knife to create an expressive style.

Biography
(online) Available at:< http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/roma/hd_roma.htm (Accessed 24th March 2014)

(online) Available at:< http://www.artble.com/artists/caspar_david_friedrich/paintings/wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog
 (Accessed 24th March 2014)

  (Online) Available at:<http://www.artble.com/artists/eugene_delacroix/paintings/july_28:_liberty_leading_the_people
(Accessed 24th March 2014)

Book

Janes, K.H.,Chivers, I and Zaczek, I., 2011. Great Paintings, London: Penguin Group