Ideas and Michael Borremans work

Previously before this project I have always painting animal portraits and even though I have decided to not only give myself a challenge of painting a person (which is completely different from painting an animal which I find a lot easier) I also want to keep an element of my original studies this year with animals but I want to now start thinking a lot more about their meaning and what they portray before painting an image of them. So I began to think about my project idea and how do I want to portray my feelings to the viewer? My original ideas were of porcilin doll faces with cracks on them with something hidden under the surface, vomiting demons from the mouth, showing emotions of fighting with ones self, face being taken over by deformity or scales and a serpant being the symbol of a devil,  but I began to realise that my ideas where too obvious and I was very littoral with what I was trying to express. I have had a brief look at Michael Borreman's 'Eating the Beard' as it wasnt availiable in the liberary so I now have it on order, but for the meanwhile I have been looking at his work on Zeno X Gallery and I have realised that subility and suggestion is so much more powerful to create something with a lot of meaning and the title of the piece has a large role to play as I found myself questioning his work and looking into it deeper rather than having the image telling me everything.

MICHAËL BORREMANS ° 1963, Geraardsbergen (Belgium) Lives and works in Gent (Belgium)

	Dominance 2011 105 x 80 cm oil on canvas
	The Loan 2011 310 x 205 cm oil on canvas
	ZENO X GALLERY Eating the Beard October 22 - November 27, 2010 virtual visit
	The Pendant 2009 60 x 40 cm oil on canvas
	The Case 2009 50 x 42 cm oil on canvas
	Taking Turns 2009 dimensions variable 35 mm film, 8 min. 35 sec., continuous loop
	Automat (I) 2008 80 x 60 cm oil on canvas
	Sleeper 2008 40 x 50 cm oil on canvas
	The Gift 2008 36 x 30 cm oil on canvas
	ZENO X GALLERY Painted Fruit April 26 - May 31, 2008 virtual visit
	Crazy Fingers 2007 24 x 18 cm oil on cardboard, varnish
	The Same Fool 2007 21,8 x 29 cm oil on wood, varnish
	The Painting 2006 40 x 50 cm oil on canvas
	Thunder 2006 36 x 34,5 cm oil on canvas
	The Filling 2005 33 x 28,4 cm pencil, watercolor and gouache on paper
	The House of Opportunity - Voodoo! 2005 17,3 x 23,3 cm pencil and watercolour on cardboard
	Square of Despair 2005 24,6 x 35,6 cm pencil on cardboard
	First Design for a Square of Despair 2005 29,7 x 21 cm pencil and gouache on paper
	Blue 2005 31 x 49 cm oil on canvas
	The Skirt 2005 70 x 60 cm oil on canvas
	A2 2004 40 x 35 cm oil on canvas
	ZENO X STORAGE Fisherman's Luck March 27 - May 1, 2004 virtual visit
	In the Louvre - The House of Opportunity 2003 26,6 x 27,6 cm pencil, watercolor and white ink on paper
	A Mae West Experience 2002 16,3 x 20,3 cm pencil, watercolor and white ink on paper
	The (Courmajeur) Conducinator 2002 16,7 x 24,1 cm pencil, watercolor and white ink on cardboard
	The Journey 2002 17,0 x 24,7 cm pencil, watercolor, white and black ink, varnish on book cover
	Trickland 2002 38 x 55 cm oil on canvas
	The German 2002 50 x 42 cm oil on canvas
	The German (part two) 2002 24,8 x 31 cm pencil, watercolor, white and black ink, mica foil and transparent tape on cardboard
	Drawing 2002 16 x 10,5 cm pencil, watercolor and white ink on cardboard
	ZENO X GALLERY Young and Innocent January 25 - March 2, 2002 virtual visit
	The Table 2001 50 x 65 cm oil on canvas
	The Preservation 2001 70 x 60 cm oil on canvas
	The Examination 2001 50 x 65 cm oil on canvas
	The Pupils 2001 70 x 60 cm oil on canvas
	Slight Modifications 2001 34,9 x 54 cm pencil, watercolor, white ink and ballpoint on paper
	Canardines 2001 22,8 x 53,4 cm pencil, watercolor, white ink and ballpoint on paper
	Manufacturers of Constellation 2001 24,5 x 30,4 cm pencil, watercolor and white ink on paper
	The Swimming Pool 2001 34 x 28,2 cm pencil, watercolor and white ink on cardboard
	The Constellation 2000 100 x 120 cm oil on canvas

I am fascinated how Borremans use of imagery is not only interesting but the piece becomes so much more interesting when I read the name of the piece because sometimes I have realisation with what the piece is about for example with his piece 'The Preservation', whereas his piece 'Sleeper' it makes me have a million questions and find myself studying every detail of the painting questioning its layout and meaning as I find it could mean so many things. What I also enjoy about Borremans work is the talent and skill behind his paint work and how beautifully and carefully it is painting and it really is a skill I admire and strive the become a similar artist.

After becoming so inspired by Borreman and his use of layout, suggestion and titles of paintings I began thinking of more less litural ideas to be able to express myself, and I remember seeing Borreman's 'Girl with feathers' in his book 'Eating the beard' 

I found that I really connected with this image, and his use of faint lines fadeing were very similar to Holbeins that I had been previously been looking at so I found that the two artists from very different times linked really well together. Borremans use of feathers in his painting made me question the meaning of it a lot and I found I couldn't quite figure it, I saw the feathers which I know a bird is a symbol of freedom but did the feathers mean that the bird had gone and that's why the girl was sad? These were my interpretations of the painting.

So with this inspiration I already knew I wanted to paint someone female as my condition is linked to that as it is very rare for men to get it. My idea is to paint a woman with birds in her hair, but the birds cannot fly away from her because they arn't free and are bound to the woman, which is symbolising that it is actually the woman that is trapped within her own head therefore that is why the birds are specifically placed there but I also what the woman to look normal as in a way I do on the outside but on the inside my feelings are completely different.

So with this idea I had a few things to think about, who did I want to paint, how would they be posed, how would the image be composed and did I want every feature to be symbolic

• I want to find a woman I don't know which I have no physical or emotional connection with, the reason for this is because when I am getting anxious or down I tend to turn into a person I don't really know and turn the opposite and loose a lot of confidence
• I want her to be looking down and the reason for this is because I don't want her to be looking at her viewer because a classic example of when people are lieing you generally cannot look them in the eye and I want the view to be symbolic of lieing as on the outside she is looking completely the opposite of what she feels inside and I tend to tell people a lot of the time I am ok when in fact it is completely the opposite and I lie to them telling them what I want them to hear.
• I want to keep the layout very simplistic similar to Holbein's chalk drawings and Borreman's 'Girl with feathers' or 'Sleeper', I want my main focus to be what is in front of the viewer and to have a plain browned background.

The bird in the hair is probably one of the most important aspects of the painting, as that is what is confining her, as I don't want to do demons or serpants or use something as littural I thought what is the complete opposite of that, as I tend the feel imprisoned a lot and the opposite of that is freedom and the bird symbolises freedom, so I thought if I bound the bird it symbolise imprisionment. I began to look on how to bind a bird and I didn't want to get ropes and confine the bird like that as again I was becoming too obvious and littural again, so I have began thinking of things that could be more subtle such as clipping the birds wings, a very minor detail that the viewer would have to look at the painting more carefully at, I am still debating on tieing the birds mouth so the bird cannot sing or speak as a small ribbon tieing the beak may be slightly too obvious but may also be a bit more explanitory, but I am still undecided at this current moment in time. But the main thing that the bird is going to be bound to is the woman.

I now have a few ideas on how I want to display the bird and the woman, do I want the completly visiable or not? When seeing the exhibition of Raqib Shaw's work he explained he put gems on the aspects of the painting that had importance, I find this to be a really interesting idea that I would also like to use in my paint work but not with gems and use something different, maybe a colour, a technique or maybe a different medium or material. These are all ideas that keep cropping up and I find them so exciting the possibilities of so many ideas and suggestions.

I have also been thinking I can't just have any bird and I wanted to specifically pick one out, after some research on the meanings and symbols of the different birds I think I have come across the right one for my subject matter, the nightingale.

Nightingale

Connotes

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Good Omen

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Cry for help from a poor soul from purgatory

Everyone is awake that the nightingale's song refers to love and longing, what it could also mean is a sign or warning of an impending death. With its natural ability to sing, it symbolizes a creative individual who is unearthing his/her potential. It could also refer to someone who has taken up the responsibility to bring about a transformation or reformation.

(the meaning for purgatory is below)

Noun (in Roman Catholic doctrine) A place or state of suffering inhabited by the souls of sinners who are expiating their sins before going...

Adjective Having the quality of cleansing or purifying. I have highlighted in blue the words from the meaning of the nightingale which I think give this bird the most importance in relevance to myself. Firstly the idea  connotes of the bird being a 'good omen' I feel I relate to because I am still a good person and the connote of 'cry for help' is what I am trying to do with the painting but also the word 'purgatory' I also feel that some of the thoughts I have are bad and wanting to also cleanse myself from them to be able to reform into who I felt I was before a person who was always happy and smiling and I find it very difficult to get over my anxiety at times.

Hans Holbein Reading and Research

I have been reading these books about Hans Holbein a 15th Century Artist. It has been interesting to see how artists back then were almost like a photographer as Holbein was used by King Henry Vlll  to go over to other countries to paint women whom Henry had an interest to marry.

This painting by Holbein was a portrait painted of a woman called Anne Lovell, the squirrel and the starling may have been intended to allude her family name, squirrels were also popular pets as early as the 14th century but the image of the starling and the squirrel were likely to have been added into the painting later on as separate studies of them in drawings and is unlikely that the woman would have posed with the animals.

This painting is an example of how Holbein was sent to another country to  paint an accurate portrait of Anne of Cleves in 1538 for the King to decide if he wanted to marry her, when Henry saw the painting he was deceived by the effective and impressive painting and arranged to marry her, however when she arrived in England for the wedding ceremony he was deeply dissapointed by her appearance and called her a 'fat flanders mare'. After this Holbein seemed to have lost the favour of the King.

I really like these chalk drawings done by Holbein, I think the browned paper works well with the simplicity of the chalk with the little detail I think it actually pulls it together and works in harmony together. After reading the book Hans Holbein Oskar Batschmann and Pascall Griener I have become to understand that Holbein may have learnt this choice of medium of chalks from when he was travelling through France, it has been thought that Holbein learnt this technique from Jean Clouet however it is difficult to prove this as Clouet's drawings are made in black and red chalks and very rarely include colours.

These are some of Jean Clouet's drawings:

 Here I can see a big difference in use of colour in contrast to Holbeins drawings as you cannot see the brownness of the paper and there is little use of other colours apart from the red alike that it said in the Holbein book however I found another of Clouet's drawings where I can see a strong similarity in style and colours......

 In both Holbein and Clouet's drawings I love the simplicity of them by using a lot of outlines adding a minimal amount of colour to create such a beautiful image. I like the idea of simplicity being a key and with my style of oil painting I have always struggled with applying a small amount of paint and applied it quite thickly. I want to be able to create something similar with my own medium and see if firstly I would be able to succeed and challenge myself but also learn the effects of applying paint more delicately. I think the delicacy of applying the paint also would be representational of personal emotions as I can physically can feel delicate but by doing this through the paint it isn't being as obvious as it would be if I were to paint cracks on the surface of my skin.

Raqib Shaw's exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery

This was an exhibition I went to see at the Manchester Art Gallery which I found really exciting!!

Firstly because of the materials used such as hardware style paint instead of oil paints as the artist couldn't originally afford it, but by doing this he said he was able to be able to create really exciting effects and textures with the paint and use it to his advantage which he said in a video he presented too him 13 years altogether to get where he is now. In these paintings from the exhibition he has started working with enamel and also adding in gems where he wants to create different focal points depending on the importance of that area. I found also this artist was a help to my developing work, I know he isn't doing people portraits however he is portraying people as animals and has twisted and created ideas, some of his pieces also look mythical and also quite bizarre at times, but it was really interesting listening on the video to Shaw's ideas behind the work and I really understood it a lot more when re walking round again.

 

The two images below :

I have been so inspired on how Shaw was inspired by 18th Century paintings and recreate them in his own interpretations  and he has also taken items such as the pickle in the painting below from another painting. I love the idea of recreating and reinterperating it and for example if I recreated the same painting I may have a completely different view and create something completely in contrast to either Shaw's or the original painting!

The Beginning of Reading and Research

I have found Painting People by Charlotte Mullins to be a great insight into different styles of portrait paintings, heres a few artists I picked out that really caught my eye and found they had an aspect within their work that I also want to create aswell!!

 Mika Kato

Marlene Dumas

Yan Pei- Ming

Kaye Donachie

Michael Borremans

Richard Wathen

I am going to start researching these current artists more in depth but I also want to start looking at the older 18th Century artists to compare and contrast styles and also what the paintings mean.

I have also been reading a novel from Charlotte Perkins Giman's book The Yellow Wallpaper which was really interesting in connection to my own depression  even though it is not exactly the same situation it was really interesting to see how someone else's mind worked and how people on the outside were also constricting her mentally and physically making her fight her way free concluding in her going insane.

Project proposal

I have been very lost with my work so far and wanted to create something quite personal and I have never really planned my paintings too much or thought that I could add meaning to my work, I suffer from a disease which not only physically can make me ill but many don't realise it also affects me psychologically at times I can suffer from depression, anxiety, frustration and isolation. However wanting to overcome these I tend to always put on a front in front of people and try and act as though everything is normal and talk as I normally do where as I am suffering inside. For me the idea of telling the world how I am really feeling inside foe me is a very bold and brave thing to do as I worry about being rejected or even people feeling differently about me and whenever I have talked about how I have felt before I seem to always be dismissed but I have now found a new way to talk via art work which tends to have a form of release without question or dismissal, however before deciding what I want paint exactly I researched other artists work to see their taken on depression or anxiety.

This painting by Emanuele Ronco which is one of ten of an exhibition called Battling Inner Demons that I found on My Modern Net  I find is too literal and gives too much information to the viewer rather than the viewer digging deeper into painting to figure out its true meaning.

However this painting by Michael Borreman has such a powerful take on anxiety, so beautifully painted and so delicate, I find also the title of the piece, 'the nude' is so important to the success of the painting too. This style of painting I am more drawn to because I question Borreman's work a lot more, from the way its lay out to the portrait he has in front of me as well.

With Borreman as my starting point of my project I propose my paintings to be a basis of human portraiture which is a big hurdle for me as I have never painted a person before but I also want the project to run away with me and find out things along the way and maybe even not end up with the desired image and maybe even come out with a completely new take on the project, I find these elements to be really exciting as not only the fact I haven't painted a person before this a chance to be able to create a new style of paint technique  as I learn how to paint skill, will it be light appliance  heavy appliance  I have no idea, the whole idea of painting a person is so alien to me which is so exciting because not only is the new imagery going to be alien the experience I am going through everyday is also very alien to me as I have been diagnosed less than a year now.