Author Archives: stuart512319

About stuart512319

Open College of the Arts (OCA) student currently studying Drawing 2

Part 6: Tutor feedback

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Drawing 2: Part 6 – Tutor formative feedback summary

Part 6: Conclusion

  • Potential in PP pieces, possibly not fully resolved.
  • CR is interesting but still needs more clarity and focus – too broad in its reach for a short essay and maybe focus more on two or three artists and more recent art history. Conclusion ends rather abruptly and seems to be like the beginning of a conversation around mark making, rather than a concluding point about deconstruction [My comment: I don’t actually see these as mutually exclusive).
  • Recto drawings of PP have potential in terms of structure & materials – allowing the form to be deconstructed/rearranged and moved to different locations.
  • Use of household non-precious material as support and base layer texture works.
  • Piece let down by illustrative, slightly decorative aspect.
  • The effect of light and shadow could have been explored more, perhaps by using more layering and negative space.
  • In trying to search for a more specific focus, have started to tighten up.
  • Verso drawing of PP less illustrative, more geometric – allowing for greater contrast with the environment and arranging/re-arranging of different sections, a more relevant and coherent idea.
  • The idea of disrupting the picture plane and outer edges to question drawing as a 2D image/object is worth pursuing.
  • Results not entirely engaging and in the end ambition of PP and deconstruction as an idea worth exploring was perhaps overwhelming.

Stuart Brownlee – 512319
30 April 2019

Study Visit 2 – Kilmorack Gallery

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One of the sources I use to find out what art is available to view in the surrounding area is a free magazine that is delivered to every household in the inner Moray Firth catchment – the ICA Magazine whatsonhighlands.com

ICA Art listings – issue 200

My favourite gallery to visit is the Kilmorack Gallery www.kilmorackgallery.co.uk , just outside Beauly. It is a converted church and is a surprising space – intimate while spacious. The exhibitions are always interesting, well hung and thought provoking.

I went along to the opening afternoon of the Spring exhibition on Saturday 16th March 2019. Featured were two artists: Beth Robertson Fiddes and Colin Brown:

Beth Robertson Fiddes – Recollection: northern dreams (catalogue cover – “Midwinter” [mixed media] 99 x 160cm)

Colin Brown – Love letter to Europe (postcard)

In her new body of work Beth Roberston Fiddes paints stunning mixed media landscapes that immediately draw in the viewer to the wild beauty of Scotland’s far northwest, St. Kilda and Iceland.

There is a truly glacial feel to the world as shown in the painting “Cold Rest”, with its evocatively layered ice patterns in the foreground and dramatic lighting. The slightly warming red glow on the rocks perhaps hints at a coming thaw:

Beth Roberston Fiddes – “Cold Rest” [mixed media] 32 x 84cm

The painting “Iceland Red” has a sense of unexpected warmth beneath the water set in a crevice or rock. The foreground layering stands above the pool, emphasising the sense of perspective. The mark making and scratching of the rocks and stones adds intriguing texture:

Beth Roberston Fiddes – “Iceland Red” [mixed media] 61 x 76cm

As a contrast, Colin Brown’s (40 x 40cm) collages pay homage to fifteen European cities that he has spent time in, capturing a sense of their history, culture and excitement – his personal ‘love letter to Europe’ in these uncertain times.

His paintings portray an insight into his personal positive connections to the cities of Lisbon, Florence, Gothenburg, Nice, Amsterdam, London, Glasgow, Siena, Munich, Barcelona, Paris, Copenhagen, Brussels, Berlin and Prague.

His “Amsterdam” collage includes references to Rembrandt’s 1630 etching ‘Self portrait in a cap, open mouthed’, tulips, museums and football amongst other motifs:

Colin Brown – “Amsterdam” [mixed media collage] 40 x 40cm

The “Glasgow” collage picks up on the football connection with images of ‘Old Firm’ heroes, a football pendant for Partick Thistle FC, a highland dancer, and the iconic Barrowland Ballroom (now a well known music venue):

Colin Brown – “Glasgow” [mixed media collage] 40 x 40cm

There is an obvious lively and humorous application to these collages that highlights both the common geographical and cultural thread that joins these cities, while also bringing out their individual histories and identity.

As Colin Brown states in the catalogue to the exhibition “We are all different yet the same”.

Stuart Brownlee – 512319
15 April 2019