Tai-Shan Schierenberg

The second artist I have looked at is Tai-Shan Schierenberg. Born in England in 1962, the eldest of three sons to a very young Chinese mother and a nascent painter-cum-poet father of Dutch-German origin. He spent the first years of his life with his grandparents in Malaysia but eventually returned to London for primary school, forgetting Chinese and learning English.

I like Schierenberg and in particular this image for reasons similiar to those expressed when I spoke previously of Rembrandt. This is "The Hermit", painted in oils, something I am getting progressively better at. He paints in a similiar way to Rembrandt, but with a more broken up feel to the lights and shados, making the face in this picture feel more weathered and old than in some of Rembrandts' Paintings. The sense of emotion in this painting is quite strong too. Schierenberg is capable of
making his paintings communicate to the viewer what the subject is feeling, one of the qualities I think separates artists such as him and Rembrandt from people such as me. When I look at the Hermit, I feel that the man is sad, but the outward slant of the brows dictates that he has resigned himself to his lot in life, and no longer tries to better his standing.

In my later work, I want to paint in a style that incorporates pieces of both artists, but I lean more toward Schierenberg at the moment, if only because I find his style easier to paint. I want to add some of the smoothness of Rembrandts shadows with the blocky weathered look displayed in this picture when I paint my own portraits linking to the theme of Passions and Obsessions, (Rembrandt painted loved ones, and I plan to do similiar) though whether the styles are compatible remains to be seen.

Rembrandt

The first artist have looked at this year is Rembrandt. This is a big change of direction for me. In previous years before this project I never really grasped how to paint in acrylics, or with generally thicker paints. This year I have made a breakthrough in that I have suddenly learnt how to paint in these media, and have also made inroads into the use of oils. With this in mind i decided to choose an artist who fit my newfound abilities.
I chose to study one of his self portraits, as I myself want to create a portrait at the end of this unit, as it is something new and different to me. The self portrait I looked at was done in oils.
I like Rembrandt and this picture in particular because all of Rembrandts' works have (to me) a spellbinding quality which I find absolutely fascinating, and makes his pictures fell more real. He creates powerful emotion in his paintings even when facial expressions are neutral, often accentuated by strong, stark and yet incredibly real contrasts between light and shadow, and the eyes he paints are captivating, as if they are actually looking at you. Rembrandts' works fell very honest; you feel that everything he paints appears as it did in life, and no attempt has been made to correct any ugliness etc as that would take away from the truth in the painting. I get a clear feel that Rembrandt loved his work immensely, and also loved the people he portrayed, which often included his family. Though I doubt I would be able to in such a short time as I have left in school, I would like one day to be able to create paintings that have the same "alive" feel and passion that I feel looking at Rembrandts' works, as well as be able to realise the same amount of detail and accurately include it.

Art Personal Study Intro.

In this book/ project so far, my main focus has definately been portrait work. As the theme is passions and obsessions, the portraits I've painted have been of the people I feel most strongly about, which has ranged from favourite musicians (such as Florence and the Machine), to members of my close family, to myself, as these are the people I experience the strongest emotions for, though the emotions themselves may be different. I want also to create some portraits of my close friends, as I believe I experience emotions on a similiar level for them as I do my loved ones.
Looking back at my work, I think that I have improved my skills in acrylic paints quite a lot since the start of the year. This is likely because I have been practicing with them a lot more. As I use them more, I find myself becoming more confident and sure when I paint, which I never used to in past years. There are acrylic studies in the beginning of this book which aren't great, but I suddenly improved and have since produced some good work.
I think in hindsight it is much easier to paint from existing artwork than from real life, or photographs. This is because when copying a painting, all the hard work such as composition, tones, colours have all been decided for you; you are just copying these onto another piece of paper. The problem arising with drawing from real life (for me at least) is that I have to make decisions on these components of the painting which will inevitably decide whether the painting is good or not. Also, it is harder for me to translate 3D objects in a 3D world into 2D when I draw them, as it is harder to recreate the same sense of depth, and the distance between objects that a photograph gives us.