Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Tarkovsky was a critically acclaimed film director from Soviet Russia but worked mostly in Italy after his films were prevented from winning awards in the Soviet Union.

Between 1979 and 1982, Tarkovsky took around 60 polaroid pictures, titled 'Instant Light' depicting his native Russia and Italy. 

“Tarkovsky often reflected on the way time flies and wanted to stop it… The melancholy of seeing things for the last time is the highly mysterious and poetic essence that these images leave with us. It is as though Andrei wanted to transmit his own enjoyment quickly to others. And they feel like a fond farewell.”

www.trakovskyfilm.com

Modern amongst old architecture in Paris

Placing modern architecture amongst old, grand landmarks in Paris seems to be a regular architectural theme. The Louvre pyramid is especially outstanding, it stands impressively amongst a powerful palace and demands as much attention as, if not more than, the palace. Likely because of the stark contrast from old to new and the unusual structure being next to a more comfortable, yet still majestic, one.

The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism

'a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace'

F.T.Marinetti - The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, 1909, Le Figaro

Paris!

Paris was so much fun! And so beautiful as well.

Here's a few snaps and highlights from the trip

Some friends and myself at the Louvre

At the eiffel tower with Charlotte

Being tourists

A ceiling in the Louvre

Victory of Samothrace

Selfie with Lisa

The Pompidou Centre

Dali graffiti at the Pompidou

Bridge over the Seine river where people attach padlocks with their's and their lover's initials

Sacre Couer

View of the Eiffel Tower from Sacre Coeur

The July monument by the Bastille

The Eiffel Tower at night

Midnight Eiffel Tower trip to end the trip

I shall be posting more detailed stuff in the coming posts!

Paris study trip!

Hi all!

Exciting news, tomorrow I fly to Paris with the art history department at my university to research for my international study project! I'll be there for 4 nights and will be taking a lot of pictures and doing a lot of artistic research to share for when I get back. 

My project is on the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation on Île de la Cité behind the Notre Dame cathedral. It's a Holocaust memorial dedicated to the 200,000 people deported from France under Vichy rule, most would've perished in Nazi concentration camps. I'm concentrating on how the memorial works with the space surrounding it including the Catholic cathedral, Notre Dame, because the Catholic Church were notoriously anti Semitic during and just after WW2. 

I will also be doing a tonne of touristy stuff because I've never been to Paris before! I have an early start though so better get to sleep. See you all on Monday!

Xx

Ed Fairburn

Ed Fairburn is an illustration graduate whose art is mostly figurative. He has worked extensively in incorporating portraiture within mapwork, relating the surface of skin with the patterns created on maps, as shown below.

Ed's Facebook 

edfairburn.com 

Henry Moore's sheep sketches

Henry Moore is an artist best known for his bronze sculptures which are scattered in locations across the world, however, little people know that he was also a talented sketcher and it is his delicate sheep sketches I am going to concentrate on in particular.

Moore lived in Much Hadham, a small village in East Hertforshire, and worked in a small studio overlooking a sheep field. He spent much of his time studying the sheep in his sketchbook, the way they moved, behaved and the shape of their bodies. Moore managed to capture the sheep's faces in very intricate detail, his method was to make a small, sharp noise to grab the sheep's attention so that they would turn to look at the source of the noise for several seconds, with a long, blank stare on their faces.

Moore was fascinated with the mother-child bond of animals, larger forms protecting smaller ones, a theme which is noticeable topic of interest in much of his work. Many of his sheep sketches are of ewes protecting their lambs, one may say a large influence on his artwork. Lord Clark (Civilisation and Landscape into Art) comments that Moore expressed 'a real affection' for his sheep subjects.

Moore sculpture at Kew Gardens, notice the similarities?

His sheep sketches are very accurate and first look solid in form when standing from a distance, yet when you get closer to the imagery you start to notice his style. Zig-zags and rushed ball point pen lines dominate the drawings, thicker and more panicked scratches where there is less light and softer yet still sudden and vigorous on the brighter parts of the scene. Moore also rarely started his sketches by outlining his sheep, but started shading straight away, a risky strategy especially with the use of ball point pen but nonetheless effective.

Moore rarely outlined his sketches before shading

Buy Henry Moore's sheep sketchbook here

Art and About (2)

Took my housemate Alicyja to the sky mirror after shopping today - it's near the Nottingham Playhouse

The mirror was designed by Anish Kapoor and was installed in 2001 - costing almost 1 million pounds! It was voted Nottingham's favourite landmark in 2007, beating the castle and the Robin Hood statue and other mirrors have since been installed in Brighton, St Petersburg, London and New York, Nottingham however was the first!

Romero Britto

After I finished working at camp last summer, a few others and myself flew down to Miami for some well deserved sunshine and rest. Miami is beautiful and I would love to go back after I turn 21, it's so vibrant and busy, everyone is young and beautiful and there's so much to see and do.

One night after we finished our meal, a couple of us were walking down Lincoln Road looking for a frozen yoghurt shop and we stumbled across a colourful and bright shopfront, Romero Britto's gallery, nicknamed 'Britto Central'. We went inside and stayed in there for a good hour. His work is so rich and lively, a mix of cubism and pop, as he says on his website. We walked out of the gallery feeling really good about ourselves and 10x happier than we had done walking in. I fully understand now the point of art therapy and how art can lighten someone's mood since spending an hour in Britto Central.

Romero Britto is originally from Brazil, a self taught artist whose major influences are Matisse and Picasso after being introduced to their work on a trip to Paris. He moved to Miami age 25 and shortly after became an internationally reputable artist, believing the main aim of artists should be to enforce 'positive change'. 

www.britto.com 

My personal favourite and my phone case - Mona Cat

Britto