Project 6; Exercise 3, Portrait from memory or the imagination – Meeting Joan Wisdom – An Artistic Response

Part 4; Project 6; The head, Exercise 3 – Portrait from memory or the imagination.

I have chosen to combine this exercise with some research work that I have been doing with Outside In on their Step Up Course at the Wellcome Trust looking at the Adamson Collection which is where I discovered the work of Joan Wisdom in the uncatalogued archives. I have written blog posts on my research on my website www.bluesunflower.com documenting my research and my study of her work.

Joan Wisdom – A portrait from memory or the imagination

A Portrait of Joan Wisdom – Joan’s Story

Having looked through all of the work in the Adamson Collection held at the Wellcome Trust that Joan Wisdom produced while she was a patient at Netherne Mental Hospital in the 1960’s, I really felt that I had made a connection with her.

Original ‘Self Portrait by Joan Wisdom’

and ‘A Portrait of Joan Wisdom’ by Niki Gibbs

My task was to produce an artistic response to her work, I was a little unsure about how that would actually come to fruition, but I made a conscious effort to be completely intuitive about the process and open minded about what I finally produced.

My first thought was to make a short film of Joan’s work, looking at the textures and compositions in detail and compiling them in After Effects with tracks, pans and fades between the works and put to music. I started, but after only a few image placements I decided that this was not the way forward for now, although this may be an avenue that is worth pursuing in the future.

What I actually had an overwhelming urge to do was to have a go at experiencing producing artwork in the same way that Joan would have done. I set myself up with an easel and a table and purchased the materials that would have been available to Joan in Edward Adamson’s studio at Netherne; Poster Paints, wax Crayons, a thick and thin paintbrushes and some Lining Wall Paper  folded and torn into pieces of the correct size, approximately 22 x 16 inches, which I then pinned to a wooden board set on the easel.

I looked really hard at Joan’s work, noticing which lines she drew first, what order the layers were put down in and what colours she used. I wanted to keep all my drawings faithful to the original source so I did not rough the shapes out first, I drew everything straight up having just planned and thought out the image in my head before I started. This method is quite open to mistakes and error in placement of line, colour and wax resist, but I felt that authenticity to the process was vital.

Joan Wisdom Portrait, Joan with Cat and ‘Everyone telling me what to do’

I tried to incorporate elements and patterns that I saw in Joan’s work while imagining what it must have been like for her living at Netherne derived from the clues that I found in her work.

Nrtherne Imnate, Looking inside my Head and Crying

I wanted to crate images that Joan herself might have painted, in the same style and by the same rules. The image ‘Crying’ I later realised did not conform as Joan did not draw three-quarter views of the face, she only drew them face on or in profile, she also did not draw realistic tears, she drew tears as petals in red, and in this drawing I feel that she is a little out of character.

Treatment, Treatment plan and Lost Souls of Netherne

I looked closely at Joan’s paintings and tried to apply the colours that she used for her complexion when she was feeling emotional or unwell to try and convey how she felt that she was being treated. I emulated Joan’s Lost Souls painting by giving the lost souls a Netherne makeover by turning them into flowers, I think in an effort to give them some identity.

‘They Played with my Brain’, Joan Stroking the Cat and Pills in patterns

I always thought that Joan’s patterns would make great wallpaper designs so I had a go at conveying them in that way. I wondered if the circles that she used prolifically in her designs reflected in any way the drugs that she was given, so I wanted to include this element in the design. I felt that I needed to add some more cats to the collection, so I included Joan stroking the cat together in the picture as I felt that this showed a tender side to her and her relationship with the cats. The last image reflects what she felt the doctors had done to her brain with their treatments.

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Joan in the Gardens, Doctors observing Treatment and In the Spotlight

Joan occasionally drew a full figure of herself and rarely drew scenes, the only one being her ‘Bird and Cat’ drawing. I noticed that in the images that she wore clothes she wore just a simple blue dress, and where she depicted herself naked she made herself androgynous with her hospital number emblazoned across her. She writes her hospital number on many of her works, so I applied that same rule to my drawings, it was a form of identifying herself in an impersonal manner. By placing her in a frame I am alluding to the focus and scrutiny that she must have felt. In the spotlight image I gave her breasts so as to give her her femininity back.

The Mona Lisa Series 1

Having by chance caught a glimpse of The Mona Lisa I realised that Joan had a similar mystery about her so I produced a series that I felt told her story. By this time I had realised that the images that I was painting told Joan’ story and would work well as a slide show movie. Having finished this series, I then realised that I had to do the whole series again, be more specific about the story and put her in a frame, so I did them again!

The Mona Lisa Series 2

In this second series I included the depression cloud in the second image and the screaming faces in the background of the third. I think they make a far better series with the frames included.

All eyes on Joan, Fear and Anguish and ‘Sorrow’

I wanted to explore how Joan would have felt and emulate some of her works that expressed her emotions. By now I have got better at using the wax to create texture and the amount of pigment and water to use in the paint to get the right effect.

Crying tears of Petals, A Portrait in the Spotlight and A portrait of Joan Wisdom

I re-did the crying image to make it more true to Joan’s original and finished by doing a couple of portraits of her to conclude the story that the movie slideshow would tell.

Meeting Joan Wisdom ‘Grief and  Meeting Joan Wisdom ‘Institutionalized Human Being’

I realised that for my story I would need an introductory image so I drew myself looking at her work, which would also familiarize the viewer with her style of work. The first one I drew I was looking at her grief painting, however later I realised that I should use the ‘Institutionalized Human Being’ painting as this was the one that I discovered and managed to get rightly re-attributed to her and was therefore a more pertinent addition to the story.

Imaginary portraits of Joan Wisdom

I am doing a Distance learning drawing and painting degree for which I had to produce a portrait of someone that I imagined or had only had a fleeting glance of. Taking clues from her paintings and keeping elements of her style (wax crayons and poster paint on wallpaper) I have tried to imagine what Joan Wisdom may have looked like. I drew on the delicate features that she expresses in the profile images, her long straight brown hair and slightly undernourished frame, drawn from the fact that she mentions the lack of nourishing food at Netherne in her work. Unsure as to how old she was, I have tried a couple of age ranges, possibly in her twenties and the other in her 30’s or 40’s.

A Portrait of Joan Wisdom

I have collated all the imaged that I included in the Slideshow movie in order into a single portrait of multiple images as one that tells her story in a portrait.

Additional Images

Sun, Blue Whale and Blue Sunflower

 

By Niki Gibbs

August 2018

 

Research Point; Artists’ self portraits

Research artists’ self portraits. Look at historic examples such as Rembrandt and Van Gogh as well as some self portrait styles that have emerged in contemporary art. How do contemporary artists approach tone, medium, pose, story etc. Try looking at Tracey Emin’s self portraits.

Self Portraits

Self portraits have long been a genre that artists have included in their repertoire or body of work. Self portraits can be very revealing of the artist; They can tell us what the artist looked like, the era the artist lived by their dress, sometimes the depict themselves with tools of their trade, an accessory such as a pipe.

Artists also use the Self Portrait to example a style of painting and to depict themselves at different stages and ages throughout their lives.

Artists often paint Self portraits in the style that they are best known for, but sometimes use them as an experiment to try out something new.

Contemporary artist Bryan Lewis Saunders is a Tennessee-based performance artist who has a vast collection of nearly 9000 self portraits bound in hardback sketchbooks. The series he is well known for is the series of 50 Self Portraits done on 50 different drugs done in 50 consecutive days.

Self Portraits on drugs by Bryan Lewis Saunders

The collection is a real exploration of different styles and emotions, some I think depicting how you might expect to feel on the drug, some free experimentation of actually how you actually feel on the drug and the resultant image showing how the drug affected the ability of mark making.

Bryan Lewis Saunders does not necessarily want to be known for his 50 portraits on drugs, yet this experimentation does remain one of his most notable bodies of works. A single self portrait can come to define an artist in our memories, often if you say an artist’s name, it is their self portrait that helps you put their rendition of their face to their name.

I wanted to have a look at some female artists self portraits. The selection that I have chosen all depict strong women, often face on to the viewer and all fairly colorful.

In the case of Joni Mitchell, looking at the two examples, depicting one set on a canoe in the wilderness, the other smoking; it is interesting how these two images tell us quite a lot about her ; how she dresses, her like of the outdoors, that she smokes.

Self portraits also do not even have to be drawings, Mary Ellen Croteau used bottle caps to construct her self portrait, to me this shows an interest in the environment and our social use of plastics as well as just using a recycled/found medium.

Suzanne Valadon’s piece was the only one of a female artist that has depicted herself naked, I know that Lucian Freud has done naked self portraits. This is both bold and unashamedly open about themselves. Suzanne, however being a life model, it is appropriate for her to depict herself in this way.

The colours that the artist chooses to use as well as the composition all go together to give us an impression of his or her personality. Close-up views, bright colours and extreme angles can be very dramatic as a way of conveying personality.

I also wanted to example a couple of black artist’s self portraits which here are done in distinctive styles using a fairly flat palette.

Pushing the boundaries of self portraits within a style can be seen in the following 3 self portraits, a slightly cubist, an abstract and s really sketchy style.

Pablo Picasso is also very well known for his very striking styalized work and bold use of line and colour and against Man Ray’s boxed self portrait, both present a very individualistic approach.

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Self portraits are very often done face on which creates a very intense stare, however just varying this face on with a tilt of the head, a change of focus or composition can create a very different final result.

I managed to find these three distinctly different self portraits by Tracey Emin which really example the range of her work. They have a lot of energy and do not always represent absolute reality, but she does explore many ways of producing her work from mono-prints, blind drawings, embroidery and sketches.

Looking at such a wide range of artists and the many styles that they work in is very inspiring. I would hope to have some of their ideas seep into my own work, even if it is just encouraging me to free up and experiment a bit with my own styles.

Reference sources

https://www.google.com/search?q=artists+self+portraits&client=firefox-b&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_yJfXsPncAhWKIsAKHaXnDccQ_AUICygC&biw=1366&bih=631#imgrc=eM4Ksfhxh2oMZM:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Paterson_(painter)

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=self+portraits+tracey+emin&client=firefox-b&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwichoG4hv_cAhVFT8AKHXKYA5UQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=631#imgrc=7R95Rnc5lxx1fM:

 

http://theplaidzebra.com/this-artist-drew-self-portraits-on-50-different-drugs-photos/

Part 4: Project 6; Exercise 2, Your own head

Part 4: Project 6; The Head, Exercise 2 – Your own head

Create two interesting images of your own head. Think about the pose, measuring, tonal variation, lines and marks. Don’t worry about producing an attractive or accurate likeness; the aim is to create a believable head with features in more or less the right place.

Look at yourself in the mirror and draw several 5 minute studies of your head, neck and shoulders. Slightly adjust the angle of your gaze to avoid a disconcerting straight ahead stare.

Once you have completed a full self portrait, take a break before revisiting the image and consider how it might have been better. For the second image position your self differently, and try using a different medium and approach.

In the end I had an enjoyable time experimenting so I ended up doing 5 different portraits in a few different styles.

Self Portrait 1 – On my bike

My first self portrait was done on watercolour paper (51 x 65cm) treated with gesso and with oil sticks and white spirit. I roughed out the position of the figure with a light ochre small oil pastel, the added the background using quite a lot of spirit to wash the oil sticks. I added the airplane contrails at the end. I am still experimenting with this medium and wanted to take my time with them and really consider what I was doing rather than rush and make hasty decisions as you do in a life drawing situation where you have a limited time on a pose. I did photograph myself and used a printout as reference along with wearing my helmet and posing in the mirror. I used far less spirit on the body than on the background which I think helps differentiate the two planes within the composition. I laid all the colour down first then smudged it with a rag, adding some highlights and dark shadow areas and drawing in more detail over the top. I also scratched back some of the areas to add sharp highlights and provide another layer of texture. I think I spent about 3 hours on the drawing initially, then having looked at it for a few days added a few details to the features that were niggling me once the surface had dried a bit.

I chose this composition as riding my bike is my main form of transport so this likeness portrays me doing something that I love and do often! I think over all I like the colours and composition, however I don’t think I have got the eyes and mouth right.

Self Portrait 2 – Thinking

This is A2  cartridge is collaged with articles that drew my attention from the Saturday Telegraph 18th August 2018. I sketched out some positions in my sketch book (below) and decided on this pose. I wanted to do a portrait with a prop and a hand in it, and off setting the composition I think balances the interest a little between the text in the background and the figure, I like the idea that the image suggests what is being thought about. Having sketched the figure in coloured Conte stick I added some tone wash with Quink ink, then worked over the top in mid tone and light pastel, adding the darkest areas last. I have been trying this technique a few times in Life drawing classes, but again I wanted to enjoy taking my time over it rather than rushing it. I think it took about 2 and a half hours in the end. I avoided putting a black line around all of it as I had done in the past, and tried to work over the line that I did put in so it was not too heavy. The shoulder next to the hand is a bit big, but on the whole I am happy with the outcome.

Self Portrait 3 – Looking Away

I wanted to have a go at drawing a self portrait in pen so for this self portrait I used Faber Castelle PITT pens, medium, fine and Brush tips and on A2 cartridge, adding some Dr Martins ink to the background. I am happy with the texture of the woolen fabric of the cardigan, however The eyes are a bit high on the face and the neck is a bit narrow and long. Working in a fine pen does tend to make you concentrate on detail even if I did work all over the picture as I was drawing it. I wanted to contrast the fine mark making with some bold brush strokes of ink, having looked at Elizabeth Peyton’s mark making and mixing it with a more drawn approach. I like the technique, but my proportions are not great, and I ended up with a heavy line down the profile in order to slim the face down a bit. I think this drawing took about 2 and a half hours.

Self Portrait 4 – Magnifying glass

This is A2  cartridge is collaged with articles that drew my attention from the Saturday Telegraph 18th August 2018, this time collaged in portrait. I used a similar technique as the second self poftrait, working over the Quink ink in soft pastel. I liked this pose in the sketches that I had done earlier, the magnifying glass is a bit close to the face, but I like the oddity of the left eye being much bigger. Using the yellow/orange ink in the background really livens the overall self portrait up, I tried to use lively mark making and colours, having some softer areas and some more sketchy areas.

Self Portrait 5 – Quick sketch

I looked at the sketches that I had done and really liked some of their line qualities and looseness. On A2 cartridge I roughed out the self portrait really quickly in Faber Castelle PITT Brush pen and then added ink washes in Quink and Dr Martins inks. I think that this is one of my favorite drawings in this exercise, I like the energy and contrast in the mark making as well as the composition of the pose its self. I wanted to do a quick pose as there are qualities in a sketch that I usually loose when working a drawing up. This time I had got all the other drawings out of my system and felt free enough to do a quicker more fluid drawing, this was done in about 30 mins.

Self Portraits – Rough sketches

First I sketched out my cycling pose using the mirror and a photographic reference as the view I wanted was difficult to capture in a mirror on its own.

Next I wanted to do some poses that I could do completely in the mirror. I looked at some other artists and the sort of poses that they had painted and drawn and tried to put a bit of my own personality and interest into them.

My first attempts in conte were not exactly successful, I look distorted and grumpy!

Next I tied my hair back as I was looking a bit fluffy, 80’s Goth look! I liked the contrast of pen and ink and decided that this was a technique I would like to work up further.

I tried looking at the viewer and gazing away. I think it works best when the portrait is almost looking at the viewer. not dead on, but a slight twist to the head and the addition of the hand adds interesting focuses to the composition. I enjoyed this exercise, drawing yourself is not easy, but you get to control the timing of the pose!