Guess Who's Back?!

Hello Everyone!!

 

I'm sure you've guessed from the title and the fact that I've posted this that BLANK KANVAS IS BACK!

 

I took this on my Canon DSLR 1200D at Sky Gardens in London. This was a great photography day out! I'll blog about it to show more photos and I am definitely going back!!

I had to put the blog on hold while I sorted my life out, haha! But all is going well! I worked hard and passed my A levels with an A in Art (Wahoo!). I also had to apply to art college. After working on my portfolio and going to many interviews, I was accepted into University of the Arts London and I am now studying an Art and Design Foundation Diploma at Camberwell College of Arts. (Wow all of that sounds so official - in a nutshell I now go to art college).

 

So, there is a lot to catch up on and its all very exciting!

 

I thought for todays post I'd like to reintroduce myself  because it has been so long and I feel like it will be nice to start again. So here goes......

 

Hello everyone, My name is Katherine and I am the writer and creator of the blog Blank Kanvas. I am an art college student and I have recently specialised in 3D Design: Theatre, Screen and Performance. Art is my life and I know it sounds cheesy but it is very true! Look around you, everything has been designed, everything is art. Isn't that exciting?!

 

Here is an outdoor installation I created in A level. With everything going on I never got a chance to blog about it. Better late that never right?!

Don't worry I'm not going to change the existing format of the blog too much but I have got so many new ideas!

 

Here's a little taster of what's to come!.. 

• My First week at art college

This is my favourite photo I took of a sculpture we created in the first week of art college. Can't wait to blog about this!

• Explaining the different pathways in art

As brilliant as Painting and drawing are there is a huge world of art out there. This is a section of a 3D piece I worked on a few weeks ago.

• DIY room decoration
• Gallery visits (because you can never have enough!) and I'm hoping to collaborate with other bloggers! 

I have been going to so many galleries so I have a lot to tell you about! In this photo is the lovely Isabel (aka Izzie the illustrator) She is absolutely brilliant and we have so many plans for collaborations, so watch this space! (I'll put a link to her blog at the end)

• Photography days out
• Experimenting with new and different materials in art

Here is a little experiment using textures.

 

One of my favourite weeks at college. We made the wall in to our sketchbook, anything we made went on the wall. I loved this project and will definitely blog about it soon!

• Experimenting with baking and cooking (I'm not a pro but this way, I can make the mistakes so you can keep your kitchen clean when you have a go! haha!)
• Drawing in public
• Life drawing

Sorry about the nudity (you can scroll past if you want haha) this is a few 10 minute paintings I did in a life drawing course.  Life drawing is a brilliant way to improve your observational drawing skill, once you get past the naked people fact... 

• Explaining my specialism

This is the first ever maquette I made in my specialism of design for stage and screen. I am hoping to one day go into model making. This project was all about developing characters. I learnt so much and will definitely pass on my knowledge to you in a blog post!

• Looking back at old A Level work (advice)

Here one of the pages from my old A level sketchbook. Oooo it will be wired looking back and seeing how far I've come!

• AND SO MUCH MORE!!!!

So there you go! I'm back in action!

 

If you are reading this now then thank you so much for sticking with me! The future is very exciting and I can't wait to share all this creativity with you!

 

As always Blank Kanvas has been about inspiring creativity between all of us. I'm still only learning and so we can go on this creative adventure together!!

 

Here's a link to the wonderful Isabel's blog https://izzietheillustrator.wordpress.com/

 

Thanks again!

I hope you have an absolutely brilliant day!

 

 

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!

 

 

 

Hello Blog World!!

Hello and welcome to my first proper blog!

If you're reading this then some how you have stumbled upon my blog (and if you're reading this then thank you for continuing to read!).

 

A bit about me

My name is Katherine and I'm an A Level student studying Art, Product Design, History and Politics at AS, hoping to further go onto A2. I have enjoyed being creative and imaginative with art and design from a very young age and lucky enough to have a wonderful family who encourage this creativity in every part of my life.

 

This is the first outcome I did for AS Art. It was in the style of the artist Anselm Kiefer. I will blog about Kiefer and how I created this dramatic effect using hay, acrylic paint and palette knives.

I also absolutely love music! I have quite an eclectic taste in music, so I love pretty much anything. I especially love how different songs can make you feel so many different emotions. At the moment my favourite band is Years & Years, I think they are just brilliant! I'm very much influenced by my Dad's amazing collection of CDs and Vinyl and if you're into music like me, then why not check out my dad's brilliant music blog 'eat the music' at http://musicnatters.blogspot.co.uk/ 


I love going to galleries!! This is a photo I took when I visited the Saatchi gallery. (I took this photo on my iPhone 4S and it is unedited). The Saatchi gallery was amazing and I will definitely blog about this.

Well that's enough about me...what's this blog going to be about I hear you ask.....
 

A bit about the blog

So I started this blog because I love art, design, craft, baking, etc. I find that when I do these I feel truly happy. I wanted to create this blog to share this happiness and hopefully, not only for me to inspire you, but also for you to inspire me.

I came up with the title 'Blank Kanvas' for this blog because I didn't want to restrict this blog to one topic, hence the blog is a blank canvas to be filled with ideas, inspiration, design, imagination and creativity. (And I just made 'canvas' into 'kanvas' because my name's Katherine).
 



Here is a photo I took of the streets of New York, I call it 'Concrete Jungle'. (I took this with my iPhone 4S and edited using instagram). This is to give you an idea of what my photography is like. Why not check out my instagram, the link is in the side bar. 

 

I love experimenting!! This is a quick portrait experiment I did using oil paints and palette knives. I will blog about experimenting with different mediums.



Potential content

At the moment, my first thoughts of content for this blog will be:

• painting techniques
• drawing techniques
• jewellery making/ beading/ friendship bracelet making
• baking
• photography
• DIY
• customising objects
• textiles
• design movements
• gallery visits

 

In no way am I a teacher or specialist in any of these topics but I fully enjoy them and thought it would be a good idea to share my experiences of these topics to hopefully inspire others to do so too. If you have any other creative topics you would like this blog to cover then please let me know in the comments and I would be delighted to try them out.



I was able to take part in this amazing installation piece with my school. We were inspired by the artists Anselm Kiefer and Ilya Kabakov. I will blog about these artists and the installation.

So there you go, a little introduction to me and the blog! Hope you enjoyed and please feel free to follow this blog to see the next blog post. (And if you're reading this then you're amazing and thank you for reading my first blog post).