Process and BrainstormingBefore beginning with the actual piece, I decided to brainstorm different ideas in order to get a better sense of what I would be doing. To begin I knew I wanted this piece to be a still life and I would be working towards creating a simple piece. Knowing this I began to research the artist Morandi who also worked with still life and the creation of simple or ordinary objects. I didn't know exactly what objects I wanted to work with or even which type of medium. With still life (or any piece), I usually enjoy working with pencil since I have more experience with it and it is easy to fix my mistakes.However, I do feel that it would be best to get comfortable with experimenting across other mediums, since I would not always be creating pieces with pencil.
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Planning Sketches
These sketches were made to represent ordinary objects which can be part of what we routinely see in our daily lives. With these sketches I looked for things that could display a certain symbolism such as repetition and second chances.
Meaning of the PieceThis piece is meant to display an over complicated topic in a simple image. With this piece I wanted to symbolize two important aspects of life; repetition and second chances. The image is purposefully repeating the same image because that is what we experience in our ordinary lives. It is easy to let days pass on over and over again as repeated routines, which can be frighting to think about. The baseballs represent the good that can be seen in repetition; that being second chances. Many times by waking up again it is easily forgotten how every day in life it is a another chance to fix or improve your mistakes. Many people also find simplicity to be a negative or ordinary thing, but like this piece there are things beyond the first image that at first might not be so clear until you begin to overthink what was once seen as an ordinary object.
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Experimenting/Developing Ideas
Knowing that I would be working across a variety of different mediums I decided to experiment with working with pen, oil paint and acrylic paint. I found it difficult to create form with oil paint and pen. With pencil it was easy to create form and value and also I was able to make mistakes and erase unlike with paint and pen. I do have more experience with acrylic paint but this would be my first time working with oil paint. Oil paint was hard to work with because it was not easy to blend and mix colors. Initially I was planning on doing one large still life but I was unable to work with such large proportions which required an immense amount of shading. Therefore, I decided to work across smaller images which would be repeated.
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ProcessTo begin this piece I cut out pieces of paper in which I would draw the same outline. After completing the outline for four pieces of paper I began with the easiest medium, which was pencil. Since it was the first image it required the most time because I had to think about the creation of value and form which came o me easily once I had done it the first time. I then repeated the same process with oil paint, acrylic paint, and pen. Once I had completed all four images, I went back t each and gave it some more detail and finishing touches. Once I completed the four images I placed them together and photographed the final result.
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For this piece my inspiration was Giorgio Morandi. Morandi was a realist/modern Italian painter who focused on representation itself. His work mainly revolved around the selection of common household items and landscapes, painted in muted tones or warm colors. He created a strong relationship between light and space, ultimately creating a legacy generations of realist/modern painters. Morandi painted familiar forms with careful attention to the quality of light. He painted many generic objects in which his representation of these objects displayed a sense of his personality or the environment he was in. Morandi studied closely the elements of daily life, implying further significance to them and emphasizing on their beauty and simplicity. He highly focused on his approach to color, space, light, and line as puzzle that needed to be adjusted; commonly manipulating volume, space, and shape. His minimalistic style soon became a legacy to other 20th century artists who approached similar still life creations and techniques.
“Natura Morta” (Still Life) (1916) displays an arrangement of bottles rendered around simplicity. Morandi believed that although his work was simple it carried an important significance explaining, “even in as simple a subject, a great painter can achieve a majesty of vision and an intensity of feeling to which we immediately respond.” He showed that this piece was of particular importance to him as this piece was displayed in his studio for many years and and chose this particular painting to show at the 1948 Venice Biennale. This is what mainly inspired me to create my piece the importance of simplicity and what it truly means. I wanted my piece to have muted tones and to have close attention to light and space. Like my inspiration I wanted my piece to display a sense of my environment. As Morandi I hoped to create a large emphasize on the attention to light and space which are critical in creating realistic form. “Giorgio Morandi Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist-morandi-giorgio.htm.
Wilkin, Karen. Giorgio Morandi: works, writings and interviews, 2007. |
"Natura Morta" (Still Life) (1916) 2014. Web. 25. Nov. 2017
"Still Life With FIve Objects" (1956) 2012. Web. 25 Nov. 2017
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