Creativity, Art, Design and Photography Q and A

Hello everyone!

 

The other day I was inspired by my good friend Isabel's blog post on a creativity, art, fashion and photography Q and A. I asked her if I could have a go at her Q and A and she said 'of course', so here I go!





This is a photo of part of a whole road of street art I saw in Brighton. I absolutely love street art and the wonderful bright, bold and expressive colours that are used. When I'm walking a long and find some, it always makes me so happy haha!



I've changed a couple of the questions from fashion to design, I absolutely love fashion but I don't know enough about it, if you love fashion and want to know more then check out Isabel's blog!

 

Here's a link to her amazing Q and A Isabel's Creativty; Art, Fashion and Potography Q and A ! I definitely recommend checking Isabel's blog out! Portfolio By Izzie BlogSpot / Portfolio By Izzie Wordpress

 

Right so lets get to the Q and A! Feel free to dip in and out and let me know your answers to the questions too!

 

What is my favourite piece of artwork?

 

'A Bar at the Folies-Bergère' - Edouard Manet

 

 

As much as I absolutely love contemporary art and using a variety of different mediums, there is something that always brings me back to this painting as being my favourite piece of art work.

 

(I was torn between choosing this and 'water-lily pond' by Monet)

 

I truly love this painting, personally I love how it effects me emotionally. At first glance I am drawn into the girls sad eyes, we as the viewer are looking through the man in the reflections eyes. I love how there is so much going on in the painting, yet it is a freeze frame in time. To me (and please let me know your opinion) I feel that this painting makes me reflect. There is so much going on in the world, we laugh and joke but when do we freeze and ask  if we are we ok? (I know, I'm deep haha)

 

I also love how not only are we seeing through the man's point of view but we can also see her point of view through the refection in the mirror, compositionally I think this painting is brilliant too!

 

Who is my favourite artist?

 

Gerhard Richter

 

This is a self portrait. Gerhard Richter's portraits are very photo-realist yet have this amazingly, interesting and talented blur technique.

Gerhard Richter is my favourite artist because I love his versatility. I am in awe of his work; he inspires me to not be afraid to try something new and step out of my comfort zone.

 

Gerhard Richter also makes huge squeegee paintings. I had the honour of seeing these in person at the Tate Modern, my last blog post talked about it, feel free to check it out Visiting the Tate Modern

         

I also love Gerhard Richter's photography. He created a series expressing the relationship between mother and child, I love the colours of the physical edit and definitely want to try this out.

 

What is my favourite medium in art?

 

At the moment my favourite is biro as I love how I can over draw and make my drawings so much more expressive and detailed! (I have run out of so many biro pens lately haha, I think I only have one left!)

 

This is a section of a detail drawing of wood bark in black biro I have been working on. I'm drawing on a collage of different man made materials to create different, interesting textures against the biro.

 

 

What is my favourite art movement?

 

I love impressionism! I think it was such a turning point in art at the time it started and I love how different people can see the same thing so differently.

 

This is an impressionist painting by Monet called 'Water-Lily pond'. I love this painting, I had to put it somewhere in this post haha!

 

 What is my favourite invention?

It sounds so super cheesy but my favourite invention is the pencil! Because of the pencil, what we think and feel can be more easily communicated. Because of the pencil, further brilliant inventions have been created!

This is one of the earliest pencils created.

I don't know what I'd do without a pencil.

 

Who is my favourite product designer?

Well one of my favourite products is Lego! So I've got to say that my favourite product designer is Ole Kirk Christiansen, who created Lego in 1932.

 

 Who is my favourite photographer?

Stephen Gill. He is well known for his series of photos called 'talking to ants'. His photos address the topic of flaws and imperfections.
 

         

 

What is my favourite theme within photography?

 

I truly love all types of photography. What I love most is the ability to capture the beauty of the world in a snap shot in time.

 

 

This is a photo I took when I went to Bournemouth. I took this with my iPhone 4S. 

 

What is my favourite photograph?

The Girl in the Room – Johnson and Johnson’s Imagine by Phoebe Rudomino
 

I just think this is a truly beautiful image.

 

So there we go! Thank you so much for getting to the end, I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed making it!

 

Thank you so much to Portfolio By Izzie for letting me do this! Make sure you check her Q and A out too!

 

I hope this has inspired you and let me know your answers to the questions, I love to hear from you.

 

Thanks again, hope you have a wonderful day!

 

 

 

Visiting The Tate Modern

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all well! It feels like a while since I've last posted, I've been very busy lately but I have so many ideas for this blog so the posts are going to be  regular again! (Sorry)

This was a photo I took at the entrance, inside the gallery. The triangles were filled with mud so possibly plants will grow there one day.

 

The other day I went to the Tate Modern. For those of you who don't know, the Tate Modern is a popular art gallery with very current art work.

There are a range of Tate galleries, here is a link to the main website http://www.tate.org.uk/

I had been to the Tate Modern before but I was very young and didn't really get it (I'll be honest some of the work is very 'out there'). Going again, now I'm older, was quite refreshing and I found I had even more respect for these works in person.

 

I recommend going along if you're ever in London, even if you are not really into contemporary art, it is definitely worth while visiting as I found it really helped to expand my mind further into the prospects of art and how different people view things so incredibly differently.

 

There is a lot of work exhibited in the gallery and I thought for this post I would just talk about a few of the works and artists that stood out to me. Feel free to just scroll through and pick out what you like, I'll leave links through out to the website so you can check it out!

Here's a link to the Tate modern website http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern


Sam Francis 
Around the blues

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/francis-around-the-blues-t00634

This painting was huge and very striking. This was the first time I saw it through the rooms. It caught my attention straight away.

This was one of the first paintings that really stood out to me in the gallery. The initial feel of the painting is that it is an abstract piece; however, after I did some research, I found that it has personal meaning to the artist.
 

To Francis each colour has a symbolic meaning.

I found out that Sam Francis was a pilot in the Second World war. He was very much inspired by Monet and his 'water lilies' painting ('Water Lillie Pond' is one of my favourite paintings, I have a poster of it on my wall!). I can see from looking at the painting he was also very much effected by his life as a pilot, as the painting has the appearance of an aerial view and "communicates the silence of the skies".

I gained this information from http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/francis-around-the-blues-t00634/text-display-caption  

Lee Bul

Untitled (Carvings White)

 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lee-untitled-cravings-white-t13992

I used a shutter speed of 0"4 and zoomed out when taking the photo to gain this effect. I also slightly enhanced the exposer when editing on Pixlr Express.

 

This work was hanging from the ceiling. I found it very unusual, if you want to see what the sculpture actually looked like then check out the link above. I played around with the shutter speed when taking the photo and I think it came out looking pretty cool!

 

 

Gerhard Richter

Cage 1-6

 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/richter-cage-1-6-l02818

 

The canvases were huge so I took a photo of the bottom left hand corner of one of the paintings.

 

 

I am a huge fan of Gerhard Richter and to it was an honour to finally see his work in person! Being exhibited were his squeegee paintings and they were so much bigger than I had imagined. I love how the colours underneath burst through the block colours. I also love the amount of layers in his paintings, seeing it in person has made me appreciate him so much more and I think I will do a post on Gerhard Richter later on!

 

 

 

Lynda Benglis

Quartered Meteor

 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/benglis-quartered-meteor-t13353

 



 

This sculpture was in the corner of the gallery and I found it a little unnerving. It is made of layers of polyurethane foam and looks a little like cooled lava. I think it is very unusual and striking, let me know in the comments what you think about it, I'd love to hear!

 

 

George Condo

 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/condo-colored-dream-objects-l03343

 

This link is to the main painting shown in the photo but feel free to have a look around on the website as a lot of George Condo's work was exhibited in the Tate Modern.

 

I really loved the aesthetics of his work and I want to stick some of his works up on my wall!

 

Lee Krasner

Gothic Landscape

 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/krasner-gothic-landscape-t03291

 

 

The painting closest to you in the photo is the work of Lee Krasner. I really liked the marks made in this piece and found it really stood out to me.

 

 

Jacques Mahé de la Villeglé

Jazzmen

 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/villegle-jazzmen-t07619

 

I love collage and I loved the bright colours of this work!

 



 

Roy Lichtenstein

Whaam

 

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lichtenstein-whaam-t00897

 

The painting in real life is a long rectangle I look the photo at a different angle to try and emphasise the impact this dramatic piece of pop art has.

It was amazing to be able to see this incredibly famous piece in person! I love pop art and Roy Lichtenstein's work, I think it is so iconic.

 

 

Manolo Millares

Painting 150

 



 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millares-painting-150-t00579

I thought the ripped canvas effect was super dramatic and eye catching and this is something I would love to try!

 Mark Bradford
Riding the cut vein

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bradford-riding-the-cut-vein-l03456

 

I thought this work had a huge impact on the room

I found this work really interesting and different. Mark Bradford uses Paper, varnish, silicone caulk and charcoal on canvas and I love the amount of layers and textures created.

 

This is a close up photo of a section of the painting. I wanted to show the amount of textures and marks made on the canvas.

Eva Rothschild

Riches

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rothschild-riches-t12576

 



This was a sculpture in the corner of the room. It created great shapes and reflections.

 

 

So there you go!

 

I know this post was very long but I wanted to show as much of the gallery as possible, to hopefully make you feel like you came to the gallery with me!

 

 

I definitely recommend making a visit to the Tate Modern if you are ever in London and feel free to explore the Tate's website to find out more and see if there is a gallery near you.

http://www.tate.org.uk/

 

If you have made it to the bottom then you are the best! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed visiting the Tate Modern with me (haha).

 

Let me know what you think of the artwork and if there are any other galleries you recommend! Lets share our creativity and make this blog a place of inspiration!

 

Thanks so much, have a brilliant day

Nature Photography!

Hello everyone!

 

The other day I went to my favourite park to take some nature photography with my professional Camera (Canon EOS 1200D).

 

I was pleased with how some of the photos came out and wanted to share them with you to hopefully inspire you!

I used manual focus on the flower in the foreground. I was so lucky to be able to focus on the bee in the flower (I also used zoom because I didn't want to get to close to the bee, haha!)

I used close up settings on my camera, manual and auto focusing and I really tried to think about composition when taking the pictures.

 

I enjoy photography so much! it is just a hobby for me so if you have any tips or tricks please share in the comment and we can all inspire each other!

 

Feel free to dip in and out of this post. I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I enjoyed making it!

 

 

Close ups and zoom

 

I was able to use a zoom lens for these photos which was very exciting!

 



I had to stay really quiet when taking this but I managed to take a close up photo of this amazing butterfly. I think butterflies are so beautiful!

I used a zoom lens, for the first time, to take this. I was so amazed at how far it could go and still keep an amazing quality image. I recommend a zoom lens!

There was a vast amount of these tiny flowers so I tried to get a close up to show their beauty. I also used focus to emphasise the flowers even more.

Landscapes of the woods

In the park there is an amazing woods that seems to go on forever! I couldn't leave the park without going in and taking photos! Here are some of the photos I took in the woods.

 



I would love to get a wide angle lens and try this shot again, I think it could look much better!



Theses stairs are my favourite part of the woods! It looks so magical!!





I took this low down on the ground behind a tree stump. I focused in on the background and I'm pleased with how I have captured the light hitting the leaves.



Double exposure/editing

 

I used an app called Pixlr Express to edit my photos. I do not have Photoshop and I've found that this free app it a good replacement (considering it is free).

 

I have used Photoshop at school and I think it really is amazing! I hoping to do a blog post on Photoshop soon!



I edited this photo on Pixlr Express. I used double exposure to contrast a photo of wood grain to bold flowers.



I edited this on Pixlr Express and used double exposure. I also made the flowers appear more florescent to contrast against the bark of the wood.



 

Focusing on a varying composition

 

It can be quite difficult to pick out what to focus on in a busy composition, like a bed of flowers. I keep practising and I think these have turned out quite well!

 

So there we go!

 

I hope you have enjoyed this post! Please let me know of any ways I can improve because I'm only learning and it would be wonderful if we could share our creativity and inspire each other!

 

Thank you so much for reading! Please feel free to check out my other posts and join this creative adventure by following to be told when I make a new post.

 

Thanks again, have a brilliant day, and don't forget to be creative!



Doodle in Progress

Hello everyone!

 

Recently I've noticed a lot of people doing these really cool doodles in really detailed circles! I think they are amazing and I've see so many on Instagram that it inspired me to try for myself.

 

I haven't got the specialist tools and skills but I have got a thin and thick pen and the love of doodling so I thought... why not!?!

 

This is just a quick little post (mainly photos) I hope you enjoy and possibly be inspired to grab a pen and doodle! It doesn't have to be perfect (mine sure isn't) but as long as you enjoy it, that's all that matters.

 



I used a fine 0,4 pen for the smaller, detailed parts.







I've seen a lot of people use special tools, like a compass, to make a perfect circle (which looks amazing!) but I wanted to practise my precision, so I tried out free hand circles. I know it's not perfect but if I keep practising then hopefully I'll get better!

 



 

 



I also used a thicker felt tip pen for any parts with block colour.





I also tried to be fancy with my camera angles! Haha!



 



I tried to overlap circles to make the doodle look more 3D.





This is a section of it.



I'm hoping to fill the whole A3 page with this doodle! Once I've filled the page I was going to scan it and try out washing different colours over it.

I hope you enjoyed this post, when I've finished the whole page I'll do another post to show the finished product!

I also hope that this has inspired you to get creative, pick up a pen and doodle! I doodle all the time in the margins of my books but this was my first time drawing the circle doodles.

 

If you have a go then please feel free to send them to me on Google + https://plus.google.com/u/0/+KatherinePittsBlankKanvas/posts or my Instagram https://instagram.com/_.kxtherine._/ 

I would absolutely love to see your versions!

Feel free to check out the rest of the blog, get inspired and share your creative thoughts!

Thanks for reading, I hope you have a great day and enjoy getting creative!