Friday 27 February 2015

Portrait Faces carved out of phone books




Alex Queral 

Alex carves portraits out of old phone directories


Tuesday 24 February 2015

AS Art Edexcel Relationships Tom Phillips John Keane Layering words and images

Tom Phillips

Tom Phillips chose words at random on pages from a found book and obscured the rest of the page to make images with unusual relationships between text and pictures


Here is the original page of text from the novel


Tom Phillips produced the paintings as a book - here is a page from the first edition from 1973


Here is the same page from the original novel in the 2004 edition



John Keane 

John Keane visited Nicaragua in 1987. 'Contra' rebels allegedly funded and aided by the American Govenment were fighting with the Govenment troops. Keane produced paintings and drawings of poeple attempting to carry on normal life in a war zone. The series of images was called 'beekeeping in a war zone. His paintings and drawings collaged in US Dollars and newspapers to make the connection between the 'war' and the causes of the war






Thursday 5 February 2015

AS Edexcel 2015 Art - Relationships Wire Sculpture looking at Negative and Positive Space






wire sculptures Barbara Licha
Love the way that the sculptures explore the relationship between positive and negative space


Tuesday 3 February 2015

AS Art Relationships Edexcel 2015 Caravaggio Chiaroscuro balance between light and dark


Caravaggio - master of the balance between light and dark to create atmosphere


Supper at Emmaus





Kathe Kolwitz


Kathe Kolwitz


Kathe Kolwitz


Kathe Kolwitz


Kathe Kolwitz


AS Edexcel Art Relationships - Anamorphic Projection

Anamorphic Projection

Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to occupy a specific vantage point to view the image properly


Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors (National Gallery London)

If you view this painting from the bottom left hand corner (it was originally painted to be displayed over a staircase...so as if you were walking up the stairs from left to right)


Then this is how you would see the skull ( mistakes are due to it being restored by painters less skilled than Holbein in the 19th Century, still they also painted out the huge cod pieces so they got some things right)


Any painting that uses one or two point perspective uses anamorphic projection, because you have to stand in a particular position - have a particular relationship in the way you are placed - for the painting to work

AS Art Edexcel 2015 Relationships - Sculpture in the landscape

Henry Moore and many other artists produced pieces of sculpture that were intended to be placed or sited outside, some with specific locations in mind. These pieces, abstract natural forms have a relationship to the forms and shapes of the landscape in which they sit and visually function in a way that they wouldnt if they were in a gallery



Henry Moore King and Queen



Henry Moore King and Queen



Henry Moore King and Queen



Barbara Hepworth - Family of Man 1970


Barbara Hepworth - Family of Man 1970


Henry Moore - Mother And Child - Relationships AS Art Edexcel 2015

Henry Moore British Sculptor

Produced many sketches and sculptures around the theme of Mother And Child looking at the relationship between two figures


Mother and Child carved from stone


Mother and Child scaled up from small sculpture and cast into Bronze



Three views of the same sculpture (although as Henry Moores final sculptures were cast into Bronze through an industrial process many of his larger pieces are editions with more than one of the same sculptures

Mother and Child scaled up from small sculpture and cast into Bronze


Maquette or model of idea for Mother and Child Sculpture




Henry Moore idea sketch for sculpture


Monday 2 February 2015

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt - Character Heads A2 Art Flaws Perfection Ideals Compromises

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was an 18th Century Sculptor and Art teacher at the local Academy. He had already produced a small number of his 'character heads' when having applied for promotion he was dismissed from the academy with what was described as a 'confusion in the head'

During the final 9 years of his life he created a series of character heads holding the intense expresions for hours while he carved them in marble.

It has been argued by more recent art historians that Franz Xaver was suffering from paranoia, hallucinations and mental health problems or Crohns disease a digestive disorder.

It is difficult not to feel a sadness in the story of the sculptor, let go from his post at the Art Academy because of his state of mind, finishing his life spending his time producing a series of painfully accurate self portraits before dying in his mid 40s









A2 Art Edexcel 2015 Flaws Perfection Ideals Compromises Portraits

Portraits with face decoration to show character





Aura Rosenberg






Arnulf Rainer