For the last exercise for this part of the course I chose to do an illustrated report on a single figure portrait. I chose the Marchioness of Cholmondley by John Singer Sargent. I selected thios portrait as it was on display at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts as part of the Masterpieces: Art of …
Category: Part 4
Jan 12
Annotate a Henry Moore figure sculpture
This was quite a challenging exercise. I enjoyed seeing the Henry Moore sculpture at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts and I think that I learned a lot. Thanks to following this course I now look at works of art with a much more curious eye – I don’t just look at them any more …
Jan 05
Research: Look at more recent figure sculptures
For this exercise I was fortunate that Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space was on display at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, being on loan for a limited period. I learnt a lot more from being able to see it and examine it closely’ far more than would have been possible from a …
Jan 03
Annotate a female nude
I enjoyed researching this painting, it brought home to me the different ways the female nude can be portrayed – the difference between the portrayal by Hayez and by Gentileschi is striking. It is very interesting though, to consider Hayez’s exclusion of the elders from the scene. In some ways the viewer takes their place …
Jan 02
Research: Does the female nude exploit women for male gratification?
This was a very thought-provoking exercise – I had seen nude paintings and statues in galleries before, but had never really questioned the gender roles behind them. It was good to research contemporary women artists as I came across quite a number that I had not heard of before and I enjoyed researching their work. …
Jan 02
Visit a Cast Gallery
For this exercise I visited the Cast Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum; only to find that it was partially closed!! The main part of the gallery that I wanted to see, the area with the casts of Greek and Roman sculpture was shut. It wasn’t a complete failure though as as one of …
Jan 02
Annotate a Classical Sculpture
I chose to annotate a sculpture of Aphrodite (Venus) that is in the British Museum with a much later copy in the Victoria and Albert Museum. This is the first time that I have tried a full annotation of a sculpture and I didn’t find it easy. With paintings there is always the style, background, …
Dec 31
Research: Accuracy of representation of the human figure
Is there any tension between art based on the classical ideal and art pursuing anatomical accuracy? Some thoughts: Art based on the classical ideal is based not just on individuals or anatomical renditions but also on the proportions and balances between them. portrayals can be anatomically accurate but are they as aesthetically pleasing as those …
Dec 27
Exercise: Commission a portrait
I found this exercise a bit tricky initially. Eventually I thought it would be a good idea to commission a portrait of my wife. I wasn’t too sure how to approach it at first, so I looked at a number of fairly recent portraits from the NPG website. This gave me some ideas of the …
Dec 27
Annotate a self-portrait
When visiting the “Masterpieces: Art and East Anglia” exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts I saw a painting by Maggie Hambling called ‘Drawing the Sea – Self-Portrait’. I thought that it would be an ideal subject for this exercise. It is certainly very different from many self-portraits that I could have chosen. I’m …
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