Pierre Bonnard

                                “If it’s harmonious it will be true – colour, perspective, etc.                               We copy the laws of our vision – not the objects”

The Mantlepiece, Pierre Bonnard, 1916, oil on canvas, Private collection

 

On the second week of February, I visited London. A remarkable exhibition of Bonnard at Tate Modern.

“The paintings of Pierre Bonnard create a remarkable sense of intimacy. Many of them allow glimpses into a private word, depicting the domestic life that Bonnard shared with his companion, Marthe de Meligny.”

 

                                                       “I leave it… I come back…                                                              I do not let myself become absorbed by the object itself.”

 

“Although these works lovingly record the details of daily life, they do not simply transcribe what the artist saw. An initial moment of inspiration would be remembered, reflected upon, and reimagined as he composed his paintings in the studio. Rarely satisfied with his first effort, he often worked on each canvas over several months or even years.”

Pastoral Symphony, Pierre Bonnard, 1916-20, oil on canvas, Musee d’Orsay, Paris

“Pienne Bonnard was one of the greatest colourists of the early twentieth century, best known as a painter of intimate, domestic interiors and brightly coloured landscapes. Bridging impressionism and modernism, Bonnard’s work is characterised by an extraordinary artistic vision, a rich and unconventional palette, and exceptional perspective. Preferring to work from memory, Bonnard imaginatively captured the spirit of a moment and expressed it through his unique handling of colour and innovative sense of composition.”

 

Tate Enterprises Ltd, 2019, Pierre Bonnard catalogue, London

 

Exhibition plan research

 

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Exhibition Proposal

1. An up to date statement about your practice.

“Don’t try to be original. Be simple. Be good technically, and if there is something in you, it will come out” Henri Matisse

Reaching the end of my degree course I find that Matisse’s words are very wise in their simplicity. In the beginning, I was trying to create something original. In the course, I discovered that “originality” means nothing if there is no real meaning in what you do. If it doesn’t express yourself then your creation is blank and dull. So I tried to do what I do best even if it wasn’t original: I painted. I painted endlessly and tried to be faithful to who I am in my concepts and technically efficient in my practice.

My paintings are a celebration of beauty, strength, and vulnerability of human life. This is a visual poem about human existence. A piece that is so unapologetically and powerfully real. I chose large-scale canvas in order to offer the viewer the experience that s/he is part of the picture. In that way, the viewer becomes a voyeur that witnesses intimate moments of the life-size figures.

The Cypriot landscape with vibrant colours and light continues to surround my figures. The images of peasant life transcend revolutions both industrial and political, wars, and the pressure for change for a better life. “My people” have survived wars, poverty, refugeeism but feel safe outside in their fields and groves. The earth that gave them life is like a mother until the end.

2. A brief outline of the kind of work you expect to be making for the exhibition and a timescale for its completion.

• October – December: research, photographs, sketches and working on the large canvases
• January – March: finishing my paintings for the degree show and experimenting with different ways of exhibiting my work. Making maquettes in order to have an actual presentation three-dimensional
• March – the degree show: putting everything together for the best possible result

3. Specify any specialist technical assistance you anticipate needing with either the manufacture or display of your work.

Whatever the final idea of the presentation is going to be I will need assistance to manufacture the structure that will hold the canvas.

Also, I still have not decided whether to include audio with the final artwork. But if I am going to include other media I will need technical assistance with the installation of a surrounding system. Most probably sound rather than image projecting.

4. Specify the type of space (size, walls, daylight, subdued light etc.) that you anticipate needing.

For the first design, painting widespread in the corner (see images below)  ideally, I will need a wall of 10 meters in length preferable in a corner (5m to the left of the joining, and 5m to the right).

For the second design, the circular installation (see images below) I will need a central space of about 16 square meters.

If the daylight is not great in the room (due to the closure of the windows) I might install a few spotlights.

5. If the intended display is complex please include drawn plans or info about how the work will be displayed.

Here’s are some photographs of the two most dominant ideas I have at the moment of how I compute to exhibit the painting.

Maquettes of the two possible ways of exhibiting:

FIRST OPTION:

SECOND OPTION:

 

6. List of audio-visual equipment required, if any.

Spotlights in the case the lighting is not sufficient

Two audio speakers with the rest of the equipment that will need  (if decided to include them)

7. An estimate costing the materials or equipment required for your exhibition.

A meeting with Dallas and Nigel was made to discuss both of these displays in terms of cost, technical difficulty, timescale, materials, and design. The first option with the painting widespread in the corner it’s easier and cheaper to be made with a cost of around £150 pounds and the second one around £250.

Fine Art affordable auction

In order to collect some money for producing our catalog for the final year degree show, we organized an affordable art auction. Students, friends, and tutors from different disciplines donated work. 

A day before the auction opening I aid with setting up the work at G39 Gallery. Whenever I have the opportunity to take part in curating and helping with organizing events and exhibitions I love to join in. Engaging with this kind of happenings helps me to shape and enrich a professional thinking and practice in the field of the art business. As always it was a beneficial experience as I got closer with people from the art circle in Cardiff and cultivated my practice in establishing an art event.

Pass/Fail Summative Assessment

• Up-to-date statement

• Documentation

Painting Technique

My work at the moment and my plans for the next semester

The significance of pictures and  videos in my practice, bracketed by an interview of Bill Viola

Technical challenges and thinking concerning my artwork

•  Contextualisation:

Atlas Richter

Lisa Reihana, “Emissaries”

Emile Zola

How my work links with the Cypriot art scene

My work at the moment and future plans

Since the beginning of the autumn semester, my objective was to crack on with the work and complete as much as possible of the large painting in order to have more time in my hands to work with the technical part at the following semester.

While working on the last big painting I was developing a collection of videos which I am going to work on during Christmas break. I am also using footage from past years as a reference when painting my main artwork.

One idea is to incorporate ‘visual search’ in the piece which allows you to use a device camera to capture an object from the painting that will be automatically linked to an online document. In this case, you can point your camera to the painting and accordingly to the scene you capture it will play for you the appropriate videos of the actual scenery.

The other two options are to have the painting hanged in a circle and place three screens in the middle playing in a loop all these videos, or leave just only the painting with a surrounding audio system for sounds.

All these ideas and the material I have collected are going to be worked and carefully planned during my Christmas break. Till now I achieved what I wanted. To make the most of the paintwork. The first week when I am back in the studios I am going to have a more comprehensive discussion with the technicians and start generating the final piece.

I studied a few artists and artworks to get ideas and context for the way I am going to exhibit my final piece. As I have mentioned above, at the moment I am at the early stages of researching and planning the presentation of my work. Adamantios Diamantis, Lisa Reihana are some of the artists that inspired me in the way I am going to exhibit.

MADE Winter Exhibition 2018

At the beginning of December, I participate at Cardiff “MADE” Winter Exhibition with one artwork.

In my spare time I enjoy making abstract paintings inspired by nature and cityscapes. Utilizing the sovereign colors and shapes I am trying to depict what is in front of me with floating brushstrokes and vivid colors without tracing objects. Such as the artwork I submitted for the exhibition: a beautiful chilling nightfall in a busy city.

Artistic Statement of 14/12/2018

“The world in my mind, my heart and body were more real than the immediate world around me, my family, my school, my friends. I keep a constant dialog with myself… and that’s for me the center of my work”. (Bill Viola)

My paintings are a celebration of the beauty, strength, and vulnerability of human life. This is a visual poem about human existence. A piece that is so unapologetically and powerfully real. I chose large-scale canvas in order to offer the viewer the experience that he/she is part of the picture. Like a voyeur that witnesses intimate moments of the life-size figures.   

The Cypriot landscape with the vibrant colours and light continues to surround my figures.  The images of peasant life transcend revolutions both industrial and political, wars, and the pressure for change for a better life. “My people” have survived wars, poverty, refugeeism but feel safe outside in their fields and groves. The earth that gave them life is like a mother until the end.

I continue to work on my large canvases from the images that I have collected from my homeland Cyprus. I now paint more elaborately with more confidence and know exactly want I want to emphasize on the piece. I believe that this is evident in the quality of the lines and the amount of paint that I have used. The layers of colours are less now but there is a continuity in the images and more intimacy. The figures have become more expressive and lively.

 

 

An artistic statement developed by Sara Fôn Treble-Parry’s reflection on my work

It is always helpful to hear other people’s opinion and thoughts about our work. That reflection gives us feedback to think about how successful we have been to out goals. Constructive criticism is welcome and I am very grateful when my friends drop by my studio space and talk about my work.

“Reflecting on time, history, and the sense of nostalgia, Mike concerns himself with everyday situations and scenes that may seem small to the viewer in a normal situation but will give the viewer time to think about them in his huge, ongoing panoramic painting. It will not only be about past events, however, as it will also be about current ongoing events in his life, as he will be taking a year on this painting, therefore will reflect his time at university, documenting his everyday thoughts while he’s studying. This sort of reflection will enable him to also enjoy the smaller things, which is exactly what he wants the viewers to take from his piece. He is currently documenting these events digitally through photographs and videos, however, the painting will enable him to delve deeper into the people’s expressions, detail in landscape, and even the activities they are doing in his documented photos and videos. With the use of chalk and acrylic paint, they will supply him with both adequate speed and detail for this challenge. Mike’s aim will be to capture people as individuals with deep and detailed histories and perhaps will blur backgrounds to intensify this to the viewer. The sheer amount of work going into this piece reflects the time being spent thinking about these people and the scenarios.”

 

An artistic statement on Sara’s work

In regards to a workshop and a lecture on how to write a personal statement, I undertook the task to write a statement reflecting a fellow student’s current work. Below is the artistic statement on Sara Fôn Treble-Parry’s work.

A huge element of human evolution is communication. Communication is evolving constantly to make human interactions more successful and follow the standards of the time.

Sara’s work has progressed to the new technological trend of emojis, with an emphasize on the way emojis have a different meaning when put together in a specific way, creating sexual sentences entirely on their own without the use of any words.

Many images of foods have turned into sexual symbols in different places, and there is also a historical exploration of using foods as sexual objects. Every day more and more people use food emojis as a compelling and appropriate way of communicating and forming conversations around sexual topics. She is currently working with the medium of paint to illustrate this sexual emojis through the use of fruit machines, creating the right combinations that are used to “win” on dating apps in order to achieve a sexual conversation.