----- JAMES GUPPY -----

JAMES GUPPY'S WORKS















Some Information about James Guppy...

James Guppy is a contemporary Australian artist living in the small coastal town of Byron Bay in northern NSW. His medium of choice varies from painting to assemblage. His narratives use the traditions of western figurative painting to explore contemporary issues with a surreal and absurdist twist. These dramatic paintings and art works examine social issues through the lens of western art history. The paintings reference artists and traditions such as J.M. Turner, Piero della Francesca, Dutch Baroque painting and the Pre-Raphaelites. James Guppy is intent on examining our secret inner lives. His relentless gaze will fix on the domestic, love and power, the body and our physical identity, gender, sexuality and taboos. His art ranges widely across the private dreams and nightmares of life in the twenty first century. The artwork of James Guppy does not fit easily into the categories of western art. He is a figurative painter, a flower painter, a magic realist, but his paintings are postmodern and fetishistic. He is a surrealist and an absurdist, who deconstructs the traditions of western art to create intelligent engaging artwork that can haunt and transform the way we subsequently see the world around us.



MY thoughts on James Guppy...

James Guppy seems like strange person. His artworks are very impressive and I like his works. His meanings for his pieces, however, are a bit scary. His intentions are to make art that will stay with us and haunt us. I like his pieces but I dont feel this sensation. Guppy is very talented and challenges the society's views and expectations through art. His paintings are post-modern but he intends to embrace old meanings and motivations.

TYPES OF VANITAS

THIS IS THE VANITAS PAINTING THAT I AM GOING TO USE FOR MY PIECE.














There are no requirements in Vanitas paintings. Every Vanitas painting is different and they each include different objects. Many vanitas paintings use skulls. The skull represents both life and death. The life being that once thst skull was a living person, and the death meaning that that person has dies and all that is left is their skull. Vanitas represent time and how it passes, thats why a lot of symbols, like living objects and clocks, are used commonly.

^^^^`^^^^ VANITAS ^^^^^`^^^^^

Vanitas - Latin for vanity, refers to a type of still life consisting of a collection of objects that symbolize death — the brevity of human life and the transience of earthly pleasures and achievements.

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/uv/vanitas.html



VANITAS

Vanitas is a type of Symbolic still life painting commonly used by Northern European painters in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The term Vanitas refers to the arts, learning and time. the word originates from latin and means emptiness. It is loosly translates to the meaningless of earthly life and the transient nature of vanity. Paintings executed in the vanitas style are meant as a reminder of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death, encouraging a sombre world view.

Common vanitas symbols include skulls, which are a reminder of the certainty of death
rotten fruit, which symbolizes decay like ageing
bubbles, which symbolize the brevity of life and suddenness of death
smoke, watches, and hourglasses, which symbolize how time passes quickly
and musical instruments, which symbolize brevity and the ephemeral nature of life.

VANITAS ######

This term we have started a new topic which is Vanitas paintings.

Coooooooooool :)

Andy Warhol:::::::::

** Imagine **

Coral, before pollution destroyed it.

Animals living in their natural environment

Animals before they became endangered
A wonder of the world before it was touched


Imagine a world without people in it... I imagine peace


i imagine that there would be no pollution
i imagine that there would be no extinct animals
i imaging there would be lands of fresh grass and animals


Humans have brought to the world chaos... they have brought the world to an end. Because of humans the world will never be at peace. We have brought destruction and violence. If the world only had animals living on it then the earth wouldn't have a doom day.


Back in history, before Christ, the earth had few civilisations. Slowly as humans have revolusionised the world became more busy. With new technology being invented all the time, and people dying all the time was all caused because of us. If animals ruled the earth there would be no poverty, no war and pollution. Animals only kill to eat, not for the sake of it. People kill for the sake of killing.

If the world was living, we killed it a long time ago. We have destroyed its surface, nature and, I believe, it's soul. If it breathed, it breathes in pollution.


Humans leave footprints, on the earth we have left a hole. People who die, have left behind destruction, except for those few people out there that believe in preserving the earth in it's natural state, not in a new and improved one. I speak as someone who is causing the earth death, I sit here on my computer, drive to school and live in a house. These things have all caused problems to the world. I regret what I cause, but it's the way I live, if I had lived back in the stone age then I would be happy then, living in a natural world. People adapt to their surroundings, if things hadn't changed then everyone would live in natural world.


An image that explains how our world has changed



Really what i'm trying to say is that without people the world would be a better place.

Watch - Andy Goldsworthy

Andy Goldsworthy, a very unique artist. Watching this movie showed me the diversity in art. The art he creates is connected and based around time. His movie Time and Tides was about the works he has created, I found this movie very interesting and imaginative. What he portrays of art is all connected and intertwined with the environment. He uses no resources except his hands and the environment. I thought this idea was very intrigueing, I also believe that every aspect of what he does is very creative and unique. I have never seen someone use the environment and the selves to create such outrageous art. I loved it!.



The first piece of art that I really understood, was when he used ice to create a swirl effect on a piece of rock. Because the air was so cold the ice froze easliy to each other. the end product was really magnificent. The light from the sun shined through the ice to give it the effect that it was yellow.



Goldsworthy's art doesn't last, so the only way he is able to capture his art is through photography. Another piece of his artwork I found fascinating, was the stone eggs. They were so well built that when the tide came, and washed over the egg, it stood solid.

`` Mandalas ``

Contemporary


Traditional


Contemporary


Contemporary



Traditional


Traditional


Contemporary


Traditional

--- Serendipity---

Inking, I never thought it would be so meaningful. My art had so much depth and so many explanations. I really enjoyed working with ink and water, with so little resources I really appreciated what I was doing.

For my artworks I had many different combinations of colours, and a different theme for all of them as well. Watching the colours collide with each other was amazing. the ink mixing with the water and spilling out onto the page looked so graceful. Then adding the squirty bottle of inks to add more colour and refinement. Then to add more shape to my art I used sticks to shape and design more intricately. Then once the ink was dry we could add more to the piece, I added washed out backgrounds to a couple of mine, just to give it more colour. Then as a bit of a challenge to me I had to find the focal point of my art. When making the art I didnt really consider this, but after me analysing the painting I found it, then added to it and made it a significant part of my art.

I really enjoyed creating this type of art. I loved the fact that we had to limit our resources and were able to stand back and watch the ink create shapes. Then being able to manipulate the ink into what I wanted my art to look like.

Watch - Baraka~...

Baraka, a movie that invoked many emotions in me in such a short time. The selection of scenes showed me how some parts of the world is so revolutionised and how some of it is so untouched.

I did enjoy watching Baraka and plotting my emotions for scenes I felt strongly about. The scene that really spiked my interest was the ritual performed in indonesia. I have never seen a ritual like this before. I sat in amazement as they repeated the same movement many times over. I personally didnt understand the ritual but enjoyed watching it, as for the tribe it most probably had great meaning and depth.

Another scene that I felt intrigued about was the aborigional body art. There was two aboriginal men performing a historic ritual, but with a twist. They used modern technology to improve the way they painted the art on their bodies. They used a comb, something I couldn't understand. Such an ancient ritual performed by men who probably have normal jobs.

The two scenes in the whole movie I really couldn't stand watching, was the baby chickens scene and the donkeys pulling the huge crate. The baby chickens scene I ranked number ten. Not out of appreciation but out of sympathy. Watching the sorting of the baby chickens made me so mad. I hated the people who worked there and could actually do that to poor little defenceless chickens. Even though it was their job it was still extremely cruel. The second scene I actually couldn't bring myself to watch, was when the donkeys had to pull extreme amounts of weight that their legs crippled under them. I felt such sympathy for those animals. Being forced to do something against their will.

A scene that I was so amazed about in Baraka was towards the end, it showed us inside a foreign temple that was covered in glittering glass and diamonds. I loved the design, high temple walls and curvey shaped doorways covered completely, in what looke like diamonds. I found it so extravagent that people would do that.

Overall I loved exploring places in the world. I felt like, in some points, that I was there, looking around at the natural and man-made pieces of art. I had no idea how most cultures worked, they are all so different. I feel so sheltered in life, not knowing what is really out in the world. I would one day like to explore the places the video showed me. I learnt a lot about the world in such a short space of time. I also really appreciated the fact that the whole movie had no dialogue, just music that made the scenes have more depth.

Hey`

This is my first blog
I love art and can't wait to start CREATING!!! ~

Here is a good link-->
Arti link