John Wells, born july 27, 1907 was a high influential artist in my opinion. All of his work inspires me and i have chosen to analyse three main pieces which inspire my work into my layers project. John Wells lived in Sussex until 1925, where he left to go and study medicine at the University College Hospital, London and studied there until 1930. He interest into art only began when he started to attend night classes at St Martins School of Art, where his noticeable talent was shown in the "Daily Express" dedicated to young artists. Wells studied with Stanford Forbes and was introduced to Ben and Winifred Nicholson, and Christopher Wood. He then put his interest in art to a side when he qualified as a doctor and began worked in different hospitals for the Scilly Isles from 1936 to 1945. Wells then worked in the war as a doctor but still made occasional visits to St Ives where he met Naum Gabo, who highly influenced Wells throughout all of his worked. Once the war had finished, Wells chose to restart his career as a full time artist. Newlyn, postwar was the centre of artistic activity to which Wells thrived upon, he opened such clubs as the Crypt Group (1946), Penwith Society if Arts (1949) and shared many exhibitions with Winifred Nicholson. Wells career began to thrive, when his work was shown throughout many different exhibitions in Britain and when he was awarded the Art Critics Prize by the International Association of Art Critics. In 1960 Wells was given a one person exhibiton of his work, the Waddington Galleries, which created a popular buzz around his work. However when Wells created a second exhibition in 1960, his work was given little interest. Wells then went back to Newlyn where he stayed for 30 years, arousing little interest in his work until the revival of St Ives artists where seven pieces of his work were exhibited for the Tate Modern Gallery. I find that Wells work clearly links to my topic of layers, as he layers different brush strokes, marks and materials on top of each other to create a overall layered affect.
"Microcosm"
John Wells- "Microcosm" (1957) oil paint on hard board
This was the first piece that attracted me to John Wells art work. I really like the way he uses a blend of different tomes and colours and different materials used to create scratch like marks onto the painting. I feel that this clearly relates to the topic of layers, he layers the different colours on top of each other, he uses different shapes in which in combines into the overall piece to create a beautifully layered affect.
This piece is untitled by John Wells.
John Wells- Untitled, (1961) oil paint, lithograph and crayon on paper
I again feel that this piece clearly shows layers, i also appreciate the materials used to create this, i like to work in different materials through my sketch book and i feel that by studying John Wells work it will allow me to try and consider using different materials such a crayons.
"Abstract"
John Wells- "Abstract", (1958) lithograph on paper
Again, I feel that this piece clearly shows layers, the different blocked shapes in two bold colours layer on top of each constantly throughout the whole of this piece. I believe that the best thing about this piece is the colours that John Well uses, they clearly are opposite and both equally stand out as much as each other but together they create a powerful piece of artwork.
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