Why Didn't Dexter Win?

Click on title above for interview with painter Dexter Dalwood. The last painter to win the Turner Prize was Tomma Abts in 2006. Look at both of these painters in the context of the other artists who were shortlisted alongside them. Is there a reason that one should win one year, and the other not? Look for the other painters that have been shortlisted in previous years. Peter Doig is a big name just now in Painting- he was shortlisted in 1994 and didn't win, but it didn't do him any harm in the long run. How effective does each painters' work look in the context of the other artists shortlisted each year? Try working it out.....

Tomma Abts

Dexter Dalwood

Peter Doig

PATHWAY STAGE

There will be some changes to the blog now that you are moving on to your Pathway subjects. It will now become more directed towards the different subject areas, so look out for posts that relate to your subject choices. In time the Top Ten Forest Artists will be changed, and replaced by contemporary artists and designers who staff feel are important for you to look at.
We are keeping the blog open to all Foundation students; although you are now moving in to specialisms, it will be a valuable for you to see what other students are looking at across the different subject areas. So keep checking-in regularly!

Show Opens at F.E. McWilliam Gallery

Foundation sculpture, with an F.E. McWilliam piece in foreground

'A Strange Fruit'

by students of the Foundation Diploma course at Newry

'A Strange Fruit'

Oak, Pine, Acrylic, MDF and Perspex

'The Holding Tree'

Wire drawing/ sculpture by Jamie Hodgett

'Elements'

Welded steel sculpture by Cathal Gorman

Students of the Foundation Diploma in Art and Design course feature strongly in the 'Forest' exhibition at the F.E. McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge, which has just opened. The show runs through to Saturday 15th January 2011.

Finishing Touches

Students and tutor Agnes Murnin getting ready to send the group's sculpture off to the F.E. McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge. The exhibition opens tonight at 7pm, and runs through to 15th January. Be sure to visit the show!

Success!

Well done! the group submission has been selected for the exhibition, along with individual works by Jamie Hodgett and Cathal Gorman. It is very important that everyone attends Agnes's class on Tuesday, to put finishing touches to the piece. Works will then be moved to gallery the following week. Get ready for the opening!

Awaiting Selectors' Decision

The group submission has been made, we should know outcome by start of next week. It has been   proposed that the final work can be sited indoors or outdoors. It might look something like this......click on the highlighted text to see it bigger.

Deadline approaches.....

Students who are entering individual sculptures to the exhibition must have work ready to be photographed on Monday 25th October. This will take place in the Photography Studio NW008 at 10am. Otherwise, students will be responsible for meeting the Friday 29th deadline themselves.

It Will Continue to Grow Except at that Point

Check ou the latest edition of Artforum (it's in the library now) for artist Giuseppe Penone's works with the forest....click on the headline above for a link.

Final Proposal

The students have selected this idea for the final group proposal. You must now take this design forward to the construction phase- what is already decided is the 'sphere' part, but how can the rest of the design be fabricated/ modified/ developed in terms of materials and installation? Post your ideas here as soon as possible! Also, titles need to be proposed and decided upon, so add these to your posts as well.

Installation Ideas

Each student should work on a large scale A1 drawing as a proposal for how the final sculpture may look/ how it could be installed. We will be proposing that as part of the exhibition, a selection of these drawings will form a backdrop to the piece itself. Above is a rough Photoshopped idea of how it may look..............

Working Drawings

Now that the collaborative work is taking shape, it is important for each student to make some 'working drawings' that investigate possibilities for the over-all piece. Only one can be used for the final piece, but each of you should be using drawing now as a way of giving shape to your ideas. Above is a very basic idea of support and base for the sculpture- how else might this be fabricated?

In Response to Klimt.....

There are a lot of great visuals coming up now in terms of contextual research, try translating some of this into drawing as well....draw, draw again, good idea, bad idea, then try it out in 3-D....

Birch Forest

I’m a major fan of Gustav Klimt and ‘Tress from Wood’ immediately reminded me of the ‘Birch Forest’ series and a few others such as The Apple Tree, The Park, Bauerngarten mit Kruzifix and so on.

The textures he creates merges the different aspects of the painting into one greater whole which captures the observer who picks through the painting trying to absorb each little bit. I feel like I’m trying to find hidden images and get caught up in the small details so that I have to concentrate to understand the bigger picture as per the idiom “can’t see the wood from the trees” which will form the basis of my research. I’m hoping to explore hidden meanings, blindness and fear of the unknown and oneself.

I also love the linear nature of the Birch Forest paintings, the trees stand like soldiers in the forest hidden within the myriad of surrounding detail. I’d like to feed something like this into my research as well – to find ‘the trees from the wood’ i.e. individuality as opposed to mass conformity.

Into the Woods......

Anyone working with fairy tales/ Brothers Grimm? Heard on the radio this morning that Stephen Sondheim's production of Into the Woods is being done again to celebrate his 80th birthday. Check it out on Google Images for some great visuals and graphics which you can use as contextual research in your sketchbooks. Click on the Into the Woods... title at the top for more information.....

Trees return from Dublin....

Our first course study visit, to Dublin's galleries and museums, had plenty of exhibits to spark off associations with the forest theme....from the contemporary such as Norbert Schwontkowski at the Kerlin, to an old historical guy like Corot at the Hugh Lane. Also, at the Museum of Modern Art the Cuban artist Carlos Garaicoa took things into a firmly 3-dimensional way of making art......and a good example of how even flat images can be brought into a more 3-D format....try to check him out more online if you missed the Dublin trip, as the Painting classes will be using his work as a starting point.

Ready for Foundation?

Did you remember to visit the sculpture show at FE McWilliam Gallery? Because it ended at the weekend! Still worth a visit to Banbridge as there is a show of other works in the gallery gardens, and the cafe is good too. It's important to visit as it will give you ideas about where your work could be sited, if it gets into the student show. Next show in gallery space is painter TP Flannagan at end of month. 

You should get a letter from the college over next few days asking you to come in and register for course, on Thursday 26th August.

STRUCTURES AND DRAWING

Well done all who have been getting the ideas and images flowing out of the forest! The best thing to do now is to start making drawings in your sketchbook in response to all the stuff you have collated so far... don't over-think it! Just take a line for a walk, as Paul Klee once said. This will be useful as the first bits of work you'll do on the course will be mainly drawing based. Drawing is a primary tool for any artist or designer, the roughest of sketches can lead to unexpected places. A few things caught my eye over the summer...mainly 3-D and architecture. For instance, the fantastic new 'canopy' at the new entrance to the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh made me think of the relation between this and the canopy of a forest. Inside this building, another 3-D structure revealed itself to me. Also, a forest canopy type structure of concrete and wood is the basis of the Scottish Parliament building. So, after all these structure encounters I was having a coffee in the Botanic Gardens and used some coffee sticks and sugar paper to make my own little wooden structure, which revealed a figure in its shadow. Like I say, the smallest doodle can lead to unexpected places......

One last thing- remember first day of term is Tuesday 31st August for Full-time students. We have a study trip planned for Dublin galleries and museums on Friday 3rd September- please bring £10 to cover the coach when we meet you on Tuesday.

Yet again, by happy accident I stumbled across this by Escher. I love this - it is so eerie and magickal and a little bit haunting. I feel that it conveys a good sense of what a forest means to me; full of fabulous things but some are secrets within Nature and have their own powers and destructive abilities. I love the up-side-down roots of the trees in the reflection, and also the idea that perhaps they are not a reflection at all?!! I have so many ideas and images at the minute and I am so completely stuck!

seiko kinoshita

I remember standing under the branches of the tree and being aware of a barrier I wanted to cross. I realise the external environment reflected my internal one! The barrier was within myself. Between the me I know and the forgotten, hidden parts.

crossings by Ulla De Larios

I caught my reflection in a window and noticed there were a number of my faces there. The parts of me I want to connect with and befriend! Got my niece to photograph me!


Think I'm going to try to paint a face onto silk and weave it into a structure I can suspend overhead. I want to be able to stand under it and look up through it, like standing under the branches of a tree, reflecting the barrier within myself - the barrier I long to cross, to connect with and befriend the hidden parts of myself.

I'm still going with my 'crossing/connecting/befriending' theme.

I've become obsessed with faint obscure faces. Love these ones by Tim Hawkesworth.

I came across a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, and loved his reference to a forest and someone coming towards him.

'By what dim shore of the ink-black river,

By what far edge of the frowning forest,
Through what mazy depth of gloom are you treading your course to come to me, my friend?'

i have added a link to the story cause i cant be bothered to type it out lol cause this blog thing wont let you cut and paste :)

http://www.luminarium.org/mythology.ireland/werewolves.htm

I have Been searching the net for insperation for my project and i decided that i wanted to
stick to my my irsh roots and explore irsh folklore and mythology, i have always been fasinated by myths and tales from my nan who had all these crazy stories about faries and suchlike and i felt this would be perfect inspiration for and artistic out come :)

above shows some old irish illustrations from an old folklore story called

LEGEND of PRIEST and WERE - WOLVES.....

possibly my outcome?

I just remembered I took these images of artwork at a cafe in town with my mobile, so the qualitys really bad. I really loved the pop-up effect, and the fact there done in wood is perfect for the theme "forest" I could possibly maybe do something along these lines for my final piece, I know its still early days to be talking about final pieces', but I could take inspiration from what I have been looking at and my photographs. we'll see. :)

first set of photographs

These are my first set of photos, I used my beautiful two year old niece as the subject, I wanted to try use little red ridding hood and the teddy bear picnic as inspiration and I also wanted the outcomes darker. The fact that the images are showing a two year alone in the woods is dark enough (she wasnt really alone, clearly lol)

I used photoshop to do a (dodgy) colour mask one image, which after I did reminded me of the movie "schindler's list", its a brilliant movie, if you haven't seen it I'd recomend you do. After I coloured masked that I adjusted the others. one image shows her food for grandma scattered on the forest path, this I found quite sinister, almost crime scene like. The teddy bear picinc images are very cute, not really the dark effect I wanted. I have lots of images I just selected a few to post. I'm going out again to take more photographs to see what else I can come up with. All comments are greatly appreciated thanks. :)

oh p.s - if your going to take a two year old out to take pictures of them......dont! they dont listen and say "NO!" alot.