Portrayals.

I went to see the Portrayals exhibition at Banbury Museum in Oxfordshire.

Inspiring because Portrayals was the country's most celebrated twentieth-century and contemporary artists. It included variations of techniques that I could examine first hand.

It was relevant for this part of the course.

There is no doubt that being at an exhibition is so special because the feel, the energy and the emotions of the works are present. I find this is lost when looking at images in a book or online. I could see the textures, glazes, flat matt gouache or glossy resins, variations in applications and canvas sizes. The light directed onto a work of art is also a fundamental element of bringing the works surface to life. I noticed that some pieces were eye level, some grouped, and the curation of work impacted how to interpret the pieces.

I took several photographs in the exhibition. I enjoyed the time there. Although restricted to a 'Covid time frame,' I managed to take notes and images to reflect on at home.

I felt fortunate to have seen these pieces. I set the alarm off in the museum whilst looking at some of the pictures. The scowling attendants were a little severe initially, but soon they realised I was just so enthusiastic about scrutinising the artworks. One of them even assisted in getting as close as possible to the Frank Auerbach piece.

Claudette Johnson (Born 1959)

Figure in Blue

Gouache and pastel on paper.

The Figure in Blue is a large piece of contemporary art.

A woman looking over her shoulder, behind her blue tussled material, clothing or is it emulating emotions or deeper meaning?

It looks like direct observations at the upper part of the work with blended pastel marks, which are fragile and sensitive. The lower part is thicker and heavy with matt blue hues of gouache paint. There are dry brush stokes and fold forming, varied directional stokes.

This current piece of art by Claudette Johnson, as the plaque says, is one of a series of drawings where Johnson asked the sitter to put their body in contortion or tension.

My initial thoughts are, how calm the woman looks and why is the colour of the lower part of the work blue? Faint lines depict movement in the arm of the woman, is she struggling with clothing?

Several directional lines are balanced within the painting, one side protruding with a matched three pronged protrusion the other side.

There is a depth created and the blue material part seems to be coming out, the negative space in the woman's torso is filled with weight even though there is no paint or media there.

The piece represents the political issues she stands for and think it would have been very well received. I like the concept, application and content of the work.

How can I relate this piece to my work? The varied use of thick and blended media married together in one piece of art has intriguing results. Emotion can be depicted with a sensitive use of blending.

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Frank Auerbach (Born 1931)

Head of E.O.W. Vill 1956

Oil on board

Whilst in the gallery, I had written a few notes that I reflected on at home. I noted that the portrait has a circular movement, a sweep or flow of marks and textures. I noted 'all overness' of the paint. The glossy finish of the oil on board made parts shine in the direct light aimed at it. Was this a woman, a man, or just a kind of zombie? Layers and layers of earthy ochre and deep dark umber paint is caked and applied to the surface of this surprisingly mesmerising portrait.

The explanation plaque says Frank Auerbach would paint over and over his works. I wanted to reach out and touch the textures and feel the surface, but instead, I took angular shots with my camera to show the dimension in the artwork. In the portrait, the facial expression has sadness. The almost skeletal eye areas seem sunken and evoke an uncanny or repelling feeling. Yet, I was interested in this piece of art. A few words that describe its form and presence are eerie, leathery, damp, heavy, encrusted in paint and dark.

The piece won't be of immediate assistance with monotype, but I am intrigued about why Auerbach used this layered approach. I also note that Auerbach was a printmaker and made many portraits to reconstruct and reformulate his earlier or existing works. He used etching and ink to print, laying paper over the top and using the back of a spoon to press down for the print.

I can relate to Auerbach's work because I like to paint layers over my artwork, almost like I need to keep putting paint over and over in layers to make them what I want them to be.

Critics first described Auerbach's work as grotesque, obtrusive and self-indulgent, and the pieces were complex heavy and cumbersome to hang in an exhibition. Another fact that I can relate to is that Auerbach painted in layers as he worked over parts, so dissatisfied with his work, he scraped off paint and started again.

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Chris Ofili (Born 1968)

Popcorn Shells 1995

Paper collage, oil, polyester,resin, map,pins and elephant dung on linen and two elephant dung props.

Researching Chris Ofili earlier within this course work has been interesting, but seeing this piece first-hand was thrilling.

Popcorn Shells celebrates the heroes of popular music culture, mapping out family trees of musicians. The large canvas balanced on two resin-covered elephant dung balls that shone out with a presence in the exhibition was my favourite piece there.

The resin was in drips, and drawn with, it made various transparent musical note symbols amongst the photographic portraits, which seem halo-like in arrangement around photographic faces of musical heroes. I found myself wondering which type of resin Ofili has used and how he managed to make those particular marks.

Liking the contrast between the rich gloss of the resin and the matt canvas, I was fascinated by all the materials used to create delicate areas like the lettering for example.

Ofili's Popcorn Shells is powerful, luminous, three dimensional and intricate in places. Pale blues, popcorn coloured pale yellow, delicate white lace-like patterns and a underlying pink haze emulate from the surface. I think the word to describe this piece would be iridescent.

The inclusion of mixed media pulls me or draws me into this work, which encourages further development of this process within my work. The variety of all these different layers and contrasting textures does hold both your gaze and is mentally stimulating. Ofili seems always to have a strong reason or narrative behind his work, which appears to drive his passion.

A striking artwork with a great influence for me.

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David Hockney (Born 1937)

Portrait surrounded by Artistic Devices 1965

Acrylic on canvas 60 x 72 inch

A middle aged man in a grey suit and tie sits cross-legged on a non existent chair, his fingers intertwined and resting on his lap. He is grey, face, suit and skin, apart from his white shirt which picks out the white lines in his tie.

The chair (if it were there) would be resting on a circular pink floor or carpet, although we can only see half of this. In front of the man is an untidy pyramid pile of deeper grey cuboid shapes or forms having many straight edges, which contrasts to the rest of the painting. A cerulean blue shadow is cast by the man and this shadow steps down mid shadow to a paler hue outside the curve of the pink floor. One of the man's dark grey shoes peeks out behind the pyramid.

The man sits under high thin arch type structure with mostly yellow and orange segments, there is one green segment which stands out because of its colour. There is a brown untidy structure attached to this arch, is it a door with a red pathway running directly behind it?

In front of the arch high and above the man, several blue rounded triangular bottle type forms are seen, painted in blue white and grey sitting or suspended on a wire or shelf. They look similar to a miniature stonehenge but not in a circle, they sit in a line.

I couldn't get a clear photograph of the surface but honestly I think the pyramid part has a different surface texture. Could it be collage? This work is a balance of figurative and abstraction and a response to the cone, cylinder and spheres used in the fundamentals of art.

I am amazed at the untidiness of the marks if I am brutally honest. The underpainting in the face and the peach block tone brings glimpses of flesh tones to the face. There are stained marks, small lines of brush work for the material of the suit and block colours around the makeup of the work. It's interesting and creates space.

Would I hang it on my wall? No, but I could underpin elements my work with the variety of mark making, space created, the overlapping of objects and shadow all within this picture.

Other pieces within the gallery by David Hockney were drawings and studies for his works all quite raw and having an unfinished and sketchy appearance. The paper is even buckled in one which made me laugh as I thought of one of my monoprints that has the same look. If it was good enough for Hockney to display, then why was I worried!

I note the seated portraits were one on profile and the other front facing. I am drawn to the grid in the piece and very much like the reflections in the table top.

Another large painting by Hockney was next;

David Hockney

We Two Boys together Clinging 1961

Oil on Board.

As I initially saw two rounded oblong umber and peach hugging figures with thin red legs. A pale blue block or curtain on the left of the image with a deep blue love heart drawn onto it.

Red, black and white texts and numbers are randomly placed around the scene, which is weird naive and full of these codes.

I researched and found the Walt Whitman poem 'I Hear it was Charged Against Me' .

Hockney imitates painters, quotes from writers and represents the world he sees. I like the originality of the codes. I find the emotion and fragility of Hockney's piece here truly beautiful because at the time it was painted 1967 that homosexuality in Britain was finally decriminalised.