Professional Documents
Culture Documents
A2 Personal Study
The interest for the theme that I have chosen for this project was first
sparked by a documentary I watched. It was one of three; a series entitled
A History of Art in Three Colours and this particular episode focused on
the colour blue. It came to the conclusion that blue was the colour of
escapism; it enabled people to grasp things like the sky and the horizon,
which otherwise, could never be reached.
This emphasis on the dark blue sea with faded horizons, and the piercing
blue of a clear sky instigated the ideas I had, to base my project on the
theme of natural landscapes. My ideas were reinforced by a trip to the
MMU Degree Shows, June 2014, where I saw several pieces of artwork
based on the natural landscape. These were mostly quite abstract, so I
thought about how I could get similar effects but with a slightly more
realistic finish. This then triggered my thoughts on Impressionism and
especially Monet because he painted landscapes, and used an
untraditional and unusual choice of colour combinations but the overall
finish was very realistic and accurate.
On the 28th June 2014 I visited Manchester Art Gallery where I was
predominantly interested by the gallery containing A Highland Romance
Victorian views of Scottishness. This featured a piece by Henry Moore
called Arran (Across Kilbrannan Sound), it consisted of the sea, and the
hills of Arran in the background. The composition was very simple but the
main focus was on the colours and freedom of the sea, composed of many
different shades of blue which evoked the feeling of energy and
movement.
Over the summer holidays I went to Scotland where I was able to view the
wildness of the landscapes and also to view several sunsets. I particularly
noticed the way that the vibrant colours of the sunsets were reflected in
the sea, which I photographed, and this influenced my decision to go on
and investigate further the effect that light has on water and the sky.
Additionally, I was able to view some of Monets work at the Kelvingrove
Art Gallery in Glasgow. The first piece I saw was Vetheuil which Monet
painted in 1880. The painting depicts a countryside scene with a tree on
the left in the foreground and a small town in the background. The sky is
made up principally of white, fluffy clouds, I noticed that these are painted
with short, brisk brushstrokes and create the effect of movement. This is
similar to the way that the grass is painted in the foreground, all the
brushstrokes are in the same direction, and along with the bright colours
give the reader the impression that there is a warm breeze which makes
the grass sway in the wind.
Another noticeable feature about this piece is the way Monet uses colour.
The shade under the tree is not black, as would be the traditional colour to
use, instead a combination of dark blues and greens is applied and
contrast subtly with the warmer reds, oranges and yellows used in the
sunlit areas of grass. This technique Monet developed through his work
of using complementary colours to convey the contrast in tones of light
is something that I want to explore further with relation to light.