Art Movements – Wednesday 29th July 2015 Summer Day Course

Today we looked at three different art movements: fantasy art, which is not time or place limited, The Norwich School of Painters, which was time and place limited, and Abstract art, again an art movement not time or place related.

Fantasy, or fantastic art, represents work that is truly imaginative. As a reference we used The Spirit of the Night by John Atkinson Grimshaw. One learner used pastels, and all others watercolours. The small figure of the spirit hovered over the landscape, with a translucent aura. To give this type of art representation a go … imagine a fairy, a location, and a few other props. Now think of design principles and placement of the fairy on the paper. Consider using The Rule of Thirds for perfect placement. Make a line drawing of your thoughts. Then decide on your palette.

We again used Artists Trading Cards as a starting block for preliminary sketches. These cards are 2.5 x 3.5” a very good size to make a sketch of your work. You can easily make your own out of a sheet of good quality paper.

For The Norwich School of Painters we used as a reference a John Sell Cotman painting, A Boat on the Beach. A truly superb painting. This was a comfort zone for the class, as we have oft times painted boats and marine art, but like all of these skills, the more of these you paint the better you become. Boats are a fantastic way to practice perspectives.

We did not have enough time to complete our abstract art which we are going to complete under the guise of Fauvist Artists, using a strong bright palette, painting a scene of an interior of one or our own rooms at home.