Hannah Guy

‘My practice is situated between photography and film. The point at which the still appears to become a moving image fascinates me.’
— Hannah Guy http://www.lensculture.com/guy.html

With Thanks http://www.hannahguy.co.uk/ for this image

Today's lecture was given by Hannah Guy who has recently returned to the South West from Canada. She said that her life, art and photography are integrated; I have recently felt this to be the case in my own life. I do not feel separate from my art and photography, I feel less like a student and more a creative practitioner.

I found Hannah's lecture very relevant to my own practise, and was interested in the artists she mentioned who have influenced her work. She named David Casper Friedrick, Mondrian, Rodney Graham and John Hillier. I have only previously heard of David Casper Friedrick whose paintings I discovered when I was looking at Elina Brotherus work. I look forward to researching the others.

Another useful resource mentioned was the "Singular Images Essays on Remarkable Photographs" by Sophie Howarth.

Hannah's practise includes lost and found objects which she said allows the past to talk to the present, along with collection cabinets, family history and photographs and letters. These are all objects that have come to the fore in my own practise. For my final major project this year I am continuing with my research into the object and the self, and also the philosophy of Duality looking at opposites such as light/dark, lost/found and absence/presence. These are all concepts that I find fascinating.

Our final major project will culminate in the making of a book, Hannah suggested we look at the website photoi.net

After the lecture we had a short seminar and were able to discuss with Hannah, who has experience in curatorship, our up and coming exhibition. She asked how our work links together and gave us some tips on topics we should add to the speeches we have to give on the night.

David Hockney

The Culture Show BBC2 at 7pm on 27th February 2012

David Hockney interview by Andrew Marr

David Hockney is an influential living painter who has lived in California for many years, but started to paint his home landscape in Bridlington, East Yorkshire while on a regular Christmas visit to his mothers,' and stayed for six years. His father had been a conscientious objector and his mother a Methodist.

His paintings are filled with vivid and vibrant colours, painted on several canvases that have been put together like a jigsaw. He said that these landscapes had to be large and majestic. He has also filmed the landscape during the four seasons, using eight cameras, placed in the same locations throughout the seasons. These films move in a timeless sequence so that what you are given is a feast of colour and the seasonal changes as they naturally occur. I felt drawn into the film sequences and could have watched them for ages.

David Hockney has "come home." He is now in the latter part of his life, and as happens when you mature and grow older, the landscape of your youth returns to your hear and mind as somewhere that pulls you back to rediscover it. At least this is the way I see it. Now that I am getting older, I too look at the landscape of my upbringing as somewhere that I need to document at some stage in the future. There is nothing like it. Memories of the landscape of youth are powerful emotions and with age comes a recognition of its beauty and impact on your life.

As David Hockney spoke about his work, he said that scale is an important factor in seeing the Bigger Picture, as a way to view the landscape because it is itself sometimes imposing and sometimes all encompassing. He said that the Chinese see the landscape as something you walk through, the Europeans see it as if looking through a window at a fixed point. A Chinese saying he recalled was "Painting is an old man's art" and he spoke of there being an urgency in making the art and that they gold a lifetime of experience.

Hockney has been greatly influenced by Pablo Picasso's Still Life's. Duchamp's Woman Walking Down Stairs, Cubism's art of depicting space,the dramatic sense of space and the Cubist experience of space "Where I end, you being." He said of the Grand Canyon that is is a "Big Spacial Thrill." Hockney admitted that he is "Affected by Space, it thrills me" this can be seen in mot of his work, as in the Swimming Pools of his Californian paintings.


He has used the IPad to sketch and paint examples of work starting work on his canvases. The colours are wonderfully expressive and capture the mood of his pallet. There are so many different hues of colour and he said that you have to really look at what's around you to realise that its not just green, or just red, there are so many variations of colour when you stop to look long enough. He has captured this in his paintings which really are magnificent works of art. I am only sorry that I will not have the opportunity to view them. The exhibition in London is already fully booked and it does not run for long enough, in my mind.

All the canvases are being hung in their seasonal order. Picasso said "give me a museum and I will fill it" David Hockney has the same sentiment. he has been given the whole of the Gallery Space to show his work and you can walk through it from one season to the next. wonderful.

A few quotes for the programme ....
"You can teach the craft but its the poetry you cant teach" David Hockney

"It's what the artist does, not what he says" Henry Matisse

"There's never bad weather in Britain" John Ruskin

"An Artist can support hedonism, but he cant be a hedonist because he has to work to hard" David Hockney.

I thoroughly enjoyed viewing this programme, and it is so relevant to my work as a photographic artist. Seeing the light is the ultimate beginning and end to the way I photograph, and the way I see the world around me and the work I try to produce.

Exhibition Preparations

It has been an incredibly busy week making preparations for the Exhibition next week. Organising the Preview Evening has been quite stressful, with heated discussions and some discontent amongst the group. However, this is only to be expected as it is the first collaborative exhibition any of us have undertaken. By the end of the week, all disputes had been resolved, and calm was restored with us all pulling together once again. We met on Friday to create a mock up of the frames in the order they will hang on the wall at Sprouts. Photographs of the mock up were shot.  These will be our guide on March 1st when all the frames and prints will be hung in situ.

We are creating folders to include an artist statement, a portrait and thumbnails of the images we are each exhibiting We will also include Business Cards in the folders to give to our guests.

The following is my artist statement and my chosen images.

“The landscape thinks itself in me, and I am its consciousness”

Paul Cezanne (1839 –1894)

The camera plays an integral role in my art. It has become a part of me that records the life I see around me, in the city, in landscape of both the interior and the exterior, where beauty is timeless. The camera demystifies my thoughts and emotions, capturing a scene intuitively, that later discloses its meaning to me, of memory, of being, and of the fragility of life itself. The landscape is the music of my eyes, the rhythm of life I see before me that never fails to capture my imagination.

“We are never real historians, but always near poets, and our emotion is perhaps nothing but an expression of a poetry that was lost”

“The Poetics of Space” (1958) Gaston Bachelard (1884 – 1962)

Barbed Wire

Blue Clock at Cremyll

Capt'n Jaspers et al 

Frozen Lake

Music in the Air 

Nula Playing Harp 

Faith and Emotion 

Pink and Blue 

Sprouts Lunch 

This morning I visited Sprouts for a cup of tea and delivered one of our Posters; I also wanted to take an Invitation to the Charity Shop close to Sprouts that is staffed by students from Plymouth University. Garry (the owner of Sprouts) had asked them to coincide their first late night opening with our Preview Evening which may bring more people to our event.

Steph and I had had lunch at Sprouts on Thursday; we had briefly discussed a few things with Garry about the arrangements for the Opening of the Exhibition. He had suggested that we invite Martin Bush who has an Art Gallery at Royal William Yard. We walked to his exhibition and delivered an invitation. We also spoke to Garry about whether we should pay for a buffet of some kind, but he preferred that we only supply the drinks. As it is a Restaurant, I can understand his point of view, and if people want to eat they will be welcomed to sit down for meals.

When we left the Restaurant, both Steph and I felt elated, excited and just a little nervous. 

Exeter Visit

The visit to Exeter today was a very useful exercise. Admittedly  we didn't have much time to peruse the art or long, but it gave me the opportunity to find my way around the city so that when I visit again I will know where to go. I don't know Exeter at all, but I will now return on the train in the near future to re-visit the Museum and Phoenix Gallery , and also take the opportunity to photograph the many architectural features in the city, and take a walk on the riverside. It will be good to spend a whole day there.

The photographs of Margaret Cameron and William Fenton were on show at the Museum, this was the main exhibit I wanted to view today. I wasn't disappointed.

With thanks to http://rammuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/roger-fenton-julia-margaret-cameron-early-british-photographs-from-the-royal-collection for these images.

Clinton Parry Esqre’, 1868. Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879)



Queen Victoria (1860)

Queen Victoria's Target by Roger Fenton

Another exhibition at the Museum was the "Into the Light." Walking through this gallery space I was struck by the colours, and freedom of expression that I felt on viewing them. I especially love paintings that are completed in the landscape and not in the studio. These have a wonderful sense of uninhibited brush strokes and drew me into the scene.

A painting that particularly appealed to me was Studland Beach (1912). This had the effect of stopping me, and wanting to look more deeply into the scene.

There is something intriguing in this painting. There is a great deal of negative space here, the two girls on the left corner are only shown from the shoulders up and the four subjects on the right have their backs to the painter. the title of the painting is a little ominous to my eye. The painting holds many questions.

Another of Vanessa Bell's paintings I found on line which is a beautiful view out of a window. windows and doors hold a fascination for me.  She was recognised as part of the Fauvism Movement.

Portrait of Vanessa Bell

Invitations

Today I had some films to deliver to Specturm, I wanted to edit and hand in my images for printing, and I also wanted to return to The Range to buy our Invitations. I achieved all of this except that Creations closed early today at 2.30pm and by the time I had finsihed editing it was 3pm. I was a little frustrated but I will hand my memory stick into Debbie tomorrow.

It has been a little stressful today, Lightroom wasn't working in The Hub, I waited a while for a technician, but thankfully Luke was in the office and said I should use the BA's MAC so that I could get on. I was appreciative of this as I didn't want my day to be wasted!

I headed over to The Range to find far too many invitations to chose from. I rang Jess as I was a little haranged, together we decided on a pack of 50 pastel cards with envelopes. They were a slightly cheaper option than the white ones. Tomorrow we need to make a list of all the people we can invite, we are limited to 50 guests.

After my busy day, I decided to take a walk to the Boat Yard which is just over the bridge from The Range. It was good to walk and dispel any negative energies that were slowly building up in me. I always carry my camera with me so I shot a film of some abstract veiws of the old railway bridge, the road bridge and the boat yard. It was a fresh and energising couple of hours.

Tomorrow we are going to Exeter for a College Trip. There is also a trip to London that I would have liked to have joined but having only recently visited London, I felt the expense was too much.

Reading Week

It was a very busy week. I've been searching for frames, trawling the charity shops, attended the Plymouth Auction at Shobrooks, and searching my cupboards at home. We are using the French Salon Style to exhibit our images. The display would be in keeping with the style if we can get as much of a variety of frames as possible. I've found four that are suitable, and I'm thinking of using some modern frames that I may paint and distress if I have the time.

It took me a whole afternoon to dismantle the old frames and clean them, cutting my fingers on the glass several times.

The Exhibition Preview Evening is nearing and as yet we have not sent out the Invitations. I am in a slight panic about this as normally people need more time to respond. However, there is nothing I can do about this until we have a meeting next week when we are all back at college.

We also need to discuss our budget and other things such as getting a Comments Book, making a book of all our images so that people can then see which image belongs to which artist if they should be interested in buying any prints, and I would also like to make a book of my own to accompany my work as a separate piece of art. However, I'm not sure how the other members of the group will feel about this and I really don't know that I'll have enough time to make it.

Images taken on my Mobile ... me choosing frames, cleaning and deciding which images I want to use.

I have also been working on my final major project, I have decided on my idea now, and have been shooting lots of film on my Mamiya 67 in black and white. I'm quite excited about the images, I am liking them very much. My concept is based on absence and presence, continuing with the connection between past and present and using the sunlight as it shines through the windows at home to create images in a film noir style. I have been researching Structuralism and looking at the writings of Levi Strauss, William Benjamin, Sasseur and Susan Stewart. I have decided that my three case studies will be the paintings of Vermeer, and the work of  Uta Barth and Tacita Dean. They are all very different artists, but all focus their work on light, the act of seeing, chance and coincidence and connections with the past. I'm finding my research very interesting but there is some chaos in my home and in my head at the present time.

It's a very busy time for us, but I am finding that I am thoroughly enjoying the pressure and the process. My whole life is "art" and for me this is wonderful, and something I have always wanted. I have a passion and that passion is taking over my life .... great!

Sunday Close to Home

Sunday Close to Home, a set on Flickr.

We had an hour inbetween session today; I had a film to develop that I wanted to process. I haven't processed a 35mm film for ages as I've been shooting mainly in colour on my Pentax K1000. I went for a walk on Sunday and these are some of the images I shot.

Lomography

https://account.lomography.com/register?voucher=penelopedavies

I have joined this Lomography Website for fun and inspiration. I hardly ever use my digital cameras now and always have an analogue camera around my neck. I love both 35mm and 120mm film.
My cameras are - Pentax K1000, Mamyia 67, MamyiaFlex Twin Lens and Lubitel 166B.

My newest is the MamyiaFlex ....this image was hot with my Mamyia 67

Guler Ates

I was looking at the Royal Academy of Arts website and found Guler Ates work. To my mind, it is absolutely stunning.

http://www.gulerates.co.uk/Your%20joy%20is%20here%20today...%203.htm

Wolferstans

Wolferstans Solicitors held a small presentation evening for the five winners of their competition. We were given a warm welcome, and after discussing our work with the Director and others from the company, we were presented with our cheques. It was said that the art had been a great success. It seems that people have strong opinions about it when they view it, and whether they like it or dislike it, it has created a thought provoking subject for discussion. Wolferstans are very happy with the reaction they are getting and thanked us for our submissions.

We were each asked if our work could be used for various marketing sources, websites, magazines etc. I agreed to this as I think publicity is good in whatever form it takes. I asked that I be credited for my work and that my email address should accompany it whenever it appears in publications.

Expired Film January 2012

Lomography January 2012, a set on Flickr.

Here are some images that I shot using Expired Film. I'm thinking of using some for the March Exhibition as I think they will fit in with our "Shabby Chic" theme.