My Dad's Art

I went down south to Dorset to see my old man last week for a couple of days.

Always good to see him and hang out down there.

Anyway when I was down there I thought I would take some pictures of some of his artwork.

My Dad is a very talented artist in his own right.

(Here is a picture of him.......)

He is self-taught from a young age. Having never really got much of the way of art training in school, he decided to instead practice himself by doing copies of photographs and from doing studies from paintings by the old masters.

He worked most of his life at British Telecom as an engineer and then a sales manager. However when he had spare time he would draw and paint.

When I was growing up he started to get into doing Murals (wall paintings). These were always very impressive and he did back drop paintings for our school play productions … a large jungle scene for the school dining room, and a underwater themed design for Northampton Hospital’s children waiting room …  to name a few.

I will get him to send some pictures of them so I can scan them in and put them up in another post.

However, in the mean time here are some photos of some of his other works and some pictures of his new art studio he has set up at his house.

Most of these are water colour paintings. A medium he enjoys working in and is very skillful in. He also has done work in pastels and charcoal and pencil etc.

Unfortunately the quality of these images isn’t that great as the paintings were in frames and I had to take photos of them from my phone camera. They obviously look a lot better when you view them in real life.

These ones are of a mural he has done of a bookshelf theme for his hallway at home.

He always likes to add little points of interest in his murals such as the mouse and funny titles for the books in order to keep the viewer entertained.

George's Art Heros ... Pablo Picasso

In the United Nations headquarters in New York there is a full size replica tapestry copy of the large grey toned painting Picasso did for the 1937 Paris Exhibition. The painting is called ‘Guernica’ and it depicts the horrors of the bombing the Nazis did to innocent civilians in April 1937 to the town of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. It is widely considered to be one of his masterpieces.

Fast-forward to the 5^th of February 2003 and Colin Powell and John Negroponte gave a press conference at the United Nations regarding what was then going to be the likely conflict of the second Iraq war. The conference was held in the same room that had the tapestry copy hanging up and a large blue curtain was placed to cover it so that it would not be visible in the background. Many journalists suspect that the Bush Administration covered the tapestry for the reason that it’s not really the sort of picture you want in the background when arguing a case for a controversial war. 

Controversy always surrounds Picasso’s work. Some people can’t stand it saying he draws like a child, and that it is stupid messy art that anyone can do.

Ironically Picasso himself even commented on this stating:

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up”

and..

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”

He of course was right…. Here are some examples of his very early child hood works….

 

This is why I personally love his work and why he is a hero to me. He knew he could draw well from a young age. I think he got bored with that after awhile as he couldn’t take it anywhere new, different and interesting. Over the following years he decided challenged all the rules of art and throw them apart. He inspired completely new ways of doing works, inspiring all sorts of movements and styles. He inspired not just artists but other areas such architecture, graphic design, fashion and product design. He helped to break free from the old ways of classical traditional painting and turned the art world on its head.

Many of his works weren’t about drawing a subject all perfect and formally correct, instead it was much more how to express the essence of the subject …. capturing all the intangible characteristics rather the obvious surface level tangible ones.

To illustrate this point take a look at these drawings Picasso did of a Spanish Bull:

You can see him showing how you can still have the essence of a subject but can experiment with it and really turn into something new and interesting. It goes back to his quote of drawing like a child ... it is hard to draw like a child when you are a serious and formally trained artist. You have to train your self to strip things down to their simplistic essence and to un-do all that you have learnt before. Children draw with an unhinged level of freedom and creativity and that is what Picasso wanted in his work. Being a trained formal artist though helped him achieve greatness as he could take this approach and meld it with visual knowledge and techniques to take his work into the realm of greatness and genius.

To show you what a genius I think he was have a look at this short video montage of him at work. … It shows the passion and energy the man had all throughout his life even at old age and the vast wealth fame and celebrity superstar status that he gained.

Video courtesy of ‘‪guitarnica’ on youtube.

Enjoy!

Abstract Art

Abstract art has been known to divide opinions.

Some people don’t mind it as an art form and are rather non-different… Other people really love it and enjoy the visual diversity it brings …. Then there are some that hate it saying that its just messing about with colours and textures and that it is rather simplistic and child like.

I am of the opinion that it has a valid place like any other art form and should be respected whether it is your cup of tea or not.

I like abstract art as it brings about a level of freedom for an artist. It allows them to just go into full expression mode …. to kick aside the rules of doing a piece all realistic and representational and instead strip things down to a play of colour, shapes and textures. The best way I can describe it is like a jazz band just free-styling and “riffing”, they still follow certain music rules but they twist them and let notes just flow out of their subconscious.

I find sometimes that doing realistic drawing can be quite stressful thing. You are always under a lot of pressure to make sure things are all in proportion and correct looking. Abstract art for me is a bit of therapy away from these types of works. It allows me to just switch off my brain for a while and just let my visual subconscious side just express itself and have some fun.

I also think doing abstract pieces can make you a better artist whatever your style is, as you learn a lot about the basic visual elements and how they interact with each other. It also teaches you to let your feelings flow out and how to edit them effectively to make a picture interesting.

Bellow are some of my recent pieces …. a lot more can also be found on my website: www.georgesneyd.com