Ruth Speer is an upcoming contemporary artist that focuses on oil paintings on a wooden/mdf surface. Her work involves art movements such as the Renaissance and the pre Raphaelite, but with a supernatural twist.
This painting of her’s is entitled; ‘Allmercy.’

I found Speer’s work on Instagram and then found that she has a portfolio online devoted to all of her pieces.
Something that Speer heavily references when posting about her work is religion; specifically, Christianity.

The verse: “For the teraphim speak iniquity, And the diviners see lying visions And tell false dreams; They comfort in vain Therefore the people wander like sheep, They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.” – Zechariah 10:2, is a verse from the Bible and ‘Allmercy’ relates to this through the lack of sight that beholds the being within the painting – thus creating the idea of being lost and trying to find a pathway forwards.

In addition, this painting resembles classical paintings usually seen in churches depicting characters such as Jesus and his mother the Virgin Mary. These paintings depict them with gold or yellow circles around their heads, much like the painting above – putting forth the idea that part of the inspiration for this piece was Christianity.

Bibliography:

https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Sorcery-And-Magic

My blog has transformed my way of thinking while I was not conscious of it. The tasks majorly increased in difficulty for me, however, due to valuable research, I found myself thoroughly engaged in a subject matter I am truly passionate about.

I found the most challenging of the tasks to be ‘Task 7,’ of which we had to compare two texts; one by Leo Steinberg, and the other by Richard Serra. The reason for this was because of the vocabulary used by each artist and attempting to interpret the conclusions that each artist made. Although I found the Richard Serra text far more understandable, I still struggled to find the comparison between the two texts.

I became extremely engaged in ‘Task 9,’ relating an aspect of theory to a piece of contemporary art. This task aligned perfectly with my ‘Manifesto’ project, as, in my study of Queer Theory and the Gender Binary, I was able to find such a wide variety of contemporary artists who live the subject matter. I became invested in the work of (Heather) Cassils from this area of study, and utilised his emotive performance ‘Becoming an Image’ in relation to Queer Theory. However, I found ‘Task 10’ allowed me to turn inwards on my practice and summarise the way I work and where my interests lie.

What I have taken away from this process is a more concentrated knowledge of how I work and what I want to produce work about.

I looked at two artists who both use paint but in very different ways. Robert Holyhead paints with bright colours and leaves texture from the paintbrush. He also leaves white squares seemingly placed randomly across the image. The white squares look like they have been cut out where they are so precise. I think that the image could be a person’s mind; the brushstrokes represent thoughts, feelings and memories. There are memories that people forget over time, like childhood memories. The white blocks could represent these memories that are forgotten.

The other artist I looked at was Secundino Hernández. The painting that I focused on was an untitled piece that looks like paint thrown onto the canvas in a rushed manner. Most of the paint is focused in the middle so it looks like a dark void on the canvas. The appearance of this piece makes me think of feelings and emotions of a confused state or mixed emotions.

Although the styles of painting are very different, they remind me of similar themes. I thought that they could work together well, so I decided to try combining them. I used masking tape to mask off areas that would be left white. I then used purple, blue and black paint with evident brushstrokes to colour the paper like Holyhead’s work. I took the masking tape off the paper and painted a similar pattern to Hernández piece over the top. I made three of these paintings, experimenting with the black patch of paint in the middle of the image. The first one I just painted straight on using a paint brush. The second one I dripped the paint from the tube then moved it around using a paintbrush. The final piece I dripped the paint from the tube and didn’t move it with the paintbrush. On all three of the paintings I flicked paint on with a paintbrush, and used tissue to make a speckled appearance.

I really liked how these paintings turned out. I think the two styles, even though both very different, work well together. I chose to use the same colour scheme on all three of the paintings so they would make a series, also I wanted to focus more on the black patch of paint over the top than the background.

This is a photo of all three of the paintings displayed together

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 1, only the background

Tate Britain- A Bigger Splash, David Hockney,1967

In many of Hockneys pieces he has painted water. I thought ‘A Bigger Splash’ was one of the most striking pieces within this series. The painting is of a Californian swimming pool where there is a splash, which is implying someone has jumped into the pool. The idea of capturing movement in a ‘still’ is something we cannot do in real life and seeing it in a painting is satisfying. I think this painting is one of the most memorable contemporary paintings I have seen, due to the simplicity and the colours cleverly used in the painting. When I see Hockney’s photo of his paintings they look very smooth but in the flesh have much harsher strokes than expected. This piece had a smoother surface compared to the

rest of his pieces in his exhibition. I believe it needed to be smoother because in the piece there is a use of a lot of solid colour and without the brush strokes being smooth the painting would have not had the same finish. The piece was also much bigger than anticipated and the size of the piece created further impact. The marks around the canvas were not clean which surprised me because I always tried to clean up around the canvas by going over it in paint. But this showed part of the process of making, which was interesting to see.

The first thing we are drawn to by looking at “A bigger splash” is the splash in the pool. Compared the rest of the images we can feel more movement and energy. The shapes compared to the splash are very rectangular, which emphasizes the movement. Such artists like Jean Dubuffet and Bernard Cohen has inspired Hockney how to draw the movement in the water. Additionally, it is also the placing of the yellow diving board contrasting with the blue making the water look more vivid and alive.

A Bigger Splash 1967 David Hockney born 1937 Purchased 1981 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T03254

Tate Modern- Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power

The exhibition includes works starting from 1963, when the civil rights movement started. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X are associated with many of the pieces in the exhibition. The works were challenging and confronting the attitudes towards black people at the time. A broad range of works such as ‘vibrant paintings, powerful murals, collage, photography, revolutionary clothing designs and sculptures made with Black hair, melted records, and tights’ are exhibited. The majority of visitors were black people (70 percent) which are very rare sight.

The exhibition included critiques of Abstract Expressionists works which said that their work did not truly represent what a black Art work should be, due to use of bright colours. However, these were the works that I appreciated the most. They were not as shocking as the more provocative pieces such as Benny Andrews’ work which was directly aimed at White Americans. Additionally, they were in contrast with the majority other works in the exhibition which were dark or monotone. This showed that black work could be just as colourful and free. The large difference in approaches in Black Art shows the disagreements between artists in topics and thought. Also the clashes in the civil rights movement between peaceful protest( Martin Luther King) and violent protest(Malcolm X/ Black Power) was the biggest demarcation lines in the exhibition and the ideology behind the works.

Renée Cox, Hot-en-Tot Venus, 1994, photograph

The piece is not a traditional representation of a ‘Venus’ because the woman is black and the breasts and buttock are emphasized by plastic. She bought these body parts from a Halloween shop. People did not think these body parts were offensive until included into the ‘Hot-en-Tot Venus’. Black women in previous pieces would have been portrayed as slaves and would have never been the central figure. This strikes a very high contrast with other previous ‘Venus’ pieces, which makes this piece appear very shocking to the general public. Additionally due to the piece being a photograph, its realism conveys a message more strongly. This piece challenges views in society concerning race and gender. The key focus when you first look the image is the breasts and buttock. She has done this purposely to show how women are portrayed in society. The stereotypical meanings behind this could be that the woman is a sex object. Therefore, the piece is trying to express the exploitation of women through the context of race and sex.

Cox is reacting to the under representation of black people in European Art history and also by extension of European history. For example, the fact that West African Moors brought toilets and building technology to the Visgoths of Spain is generally overlooked. So she takes the iconic “Venus” figure and augments the breasts and buttock. She may well be emphasizing the stereotypical attributes of African women through the device of the “Venus”. She is saying that these “hot-en-tot” proportions are just as desirable as the more traditional European Venus. Her straight gaze from the women looks asserting and she is suggesting that African women should be proud of their bodies. Therefore, this piece has a very strong effect which would probably change people’s opinions in society in the 1990s.

Bibliography

Renée Cox: A Taste of Power

Video of the Week: After Hot-En-Tot: Two conversations with Artist Renée Cox

I am familiar with the blog layout because I was required to have one in Media Studies which I studied for A-Level. I enjoyed having a space where I could write about my work in a less formal way than an essay. I also used the blog technique in my Foundation Art course in college and I found it very motivational to look back on my thoughts and previous work that I had done throughout the year when it came to writing the final evaluation at the end of the year.

Personally I think that the research and communication module has helped me find and research other artists and learn about the differences and similarities with contemporary art and modern art.

Having the blog has also helped me with time management because there is a lot going on in the course and it was helpful to understand that I had and needed to set time aside to research different artists and theories so that I could complete the tasks we were given. I particularly liked task 3 where we had to analyse an image because it really made me think about the thought that went into Nikki S.Lee’s project. I also really liked task 10 because it made me think about my work as an artist and reflect on my thoughts and processes which I know will help me in the future when it comes to creating work. Task 7 was the hardest for me because I really didn’t understand the texts and found it difficult to understand what they were talking about and how to compare them.

I would like to evolve my painting skills and start using glaze to see what effect it could give my paintings, but I also want to experiment with different textures in my paintings. This would help with my knowledge of using mixed media and creating a wide variety of different outcomes to anything I have tried before.
So using other materials such as crinkled/folded paper like I experimented with in my contemporary project. I then could paint on lots different textures including crinkled/folded paper and use this like I would normally use a paintbrush and transfer the colour and marks onto other surfaces. This is a great way of moving away from the traditional painting tool, the paint brush and started to invent and experiment with new tools I can create.
I could also use low cost materials such as string, yarn, fabric samples and incorporate these into my work to make mixed media pieces and to highlight the different textures from the new painting technique. I could use imagery and collage them together incorporating these different multi medias to create a new fixture of techniques that might not have been experimented with yet.
This project is feasible for me as I have some of these materials ready to start with, and if I find it successful and interesting I can continue exploring further into the practise and source new materials to try and experiment with.