Sandra Blow- "Composition" (No date given) oil paint and hessian on hardboard
Born 14th of September, 1925, Sandra Blow is an incredibly significant artist into the leading work of abstract pieces. She started her artistic career by studying at St Martin School of Art, 1947 to 1948, under the teacher of Ruskin. She began to teach at the Royal College of Art and received second place in the John Moors Liverpool Exhibition. She was known as Alberto Burri's partner or lover in simpler terms and her work clearly shows Burri's materials and techniques used such as tar and wood. She describes that her works biggest flaws are the problems of balance and position. She is known as an academic abstract painter. I feel that Sandra Blow's work clearly links to John Wells, even by looking at their pieces side by side, you can see similar techniques of paint brush strokes and the way materials are used to layer the paintings and pieces of work. With the three pieces i have chosen from their work. I can see even the same dark colours and tones used. To conclude I feel that Alberto Burri is an huge influence on Sandra Blows work, I found her work on the Tate Modern website after following the links to artist similar to Alberto Burri. By saying that is sounds like I just want another artist to copy, to do similar work in my sketchbook. However that is completely wrong, I really like Sandra Blow's work, her own independent work,whilst it may have been influenced by Alberto Burri, it still appeals to me.
This particular piece is called "composition", it was made with oil paint and hessian on hardboard. At first glance you can see a thick looking material, then you realize a burnt like textured piece in the top right corner. I thought at first it was material, the kind of material that was used to wrap parcels in, in the old days. However after reading about it in more detail, I found that it was hessian, a type of wiry, rough material used to hold things such a potatoes. If someone still didn't know what that was, the best way for me to describe it is to say that its a brown rough material, with frayed edges. Anyway back to the painting. I then found out that it was covered with in different parts with oil paint and stuck onto hardboard. By looking at it, I can clearly see that different sections have been cut or ripped and stuck onto the overall piece in different directions. On one particular strip, the underneath has been covered in red paint, which is slightly visible through hessian material. There is three main colours used, red ,blue and black, they are each placed boldly in different parts of the piece. However none of them join together, could this be done on purpose to create a certain effect? I'm not so sure. I believe that the form of this piece is more 3-D, whilst its not a sculptor or something that is usually classed as 3-D, its come of the page, the layers of materials make it stand out not just as a 2-D piece but rather an 3-D piece of artwork. They are easily seen lines in this piece. All pieces of material are connected to the middle section, where your eyes are drawn to first, this creates an 3-D effect. The different lines create different outlines, almost creating small shapes into the piece of work, then the stronger lines of material come together to connect, they create an overall shape. Tone is very noticeable throughout this piece. Firstly there is the solid black colour in the top right hand corner, which has the burnt like look. Reflecting on what Alberto Burri's work often creates. There is then two other primary colours in orangey red and blue. These are placed so closely together but don't touch. I would definitely define the tone in this piece as being dark, Sandra Blow uses a darker coloured back ground, two dark coloured oil paints but then contrasts it with a greeny blue coloured paint to make an overall background. The mark making in this piece of artwork is very visible. I admire how Sandra Blow has made marks into this piece, they aren't made by brush strokes or shading but are made with materials, which I really like. They are delicately created with the materials and then strong colours are used to give the lines and mark making real power. Also Sandra blow makes mark in the paint she uses, by where she has placed the paints and how much she has used. The composition of this artwork is very intense in my opinion. You are first drawn straight to the black colour, looking at how textured it is, I feel that it gives off feeling of you wanting to touch it, you want to feel the textured piece of work. Then, you are drawn to the centre as I feel you are in most drawings, to see the linked up pieces of material which your eyes can then follow them in different directions. I have looked into why this piece has been created and found out that it was purely inspired by Alberto Burri's work, as I have said before Sandra Blow dated Burri and her work was deeply influenced by him, I couldn't find out whether is was created whilst they, showing the emotions of love or if it was created after they broke up, showing the emotion of anger or sadness. I feel I can create really good studies from looking at Sandra Blow's work, her work enables me to use dark colours and materials to experiment with and create overall textured layered pieces. I think that Sandra Blow's work links beautifully within the topic of layers, her work clearly shows layers with materials built on top of each other and different paints built on to each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment