Birmingham art gallery and museum

located in central Birmingham the Birmingham art gallery is a huge and grand building built 1885 with a later extension later built in 1917 holding some of Britain's most valuable and best loved painting and art, but not only does this art gallery display old and historic art is also collects new and revolutionary art that provokes different opinions and emotions. unfortunately during my visit I was unable to explore all or of the gallery and most like only covered a small amount of the place, though in that time I was able to take some photos of the art inside and take some observational sketches of art that took my interest, one of the pieces that particular took my interest was the crow encased in a white case wearing a silver necklace, in this its wings are only partially spread, this could mean a many number of things but seems to be a representation of something/someone that was treasured, but is unable to leave peacefully on wings with only enough room to partially unfold. it is also very hard to miss all the painting displaced in the cylindrical room just above the entrance centred by a sculpture of  the archangel Lucifer, with these it is hard to know where to look as each painting is both very large with incredible levels and detail that display the artists great understanding of composition. the Birmingham art gallery and museum is by far the best art gallery I have visited because of the wide variety or art.

Paul klee

Paul Klee


Klee is a  Swiss-German painter who's work is mainly influenced by a combinations of the expressionism, cubism and surrealism movements that focus primarily on colour theory to enable his work to stand out and be visually pleasing for example he would use a combination of complementary and split complementary colours in his work, he would also use darker colours to draw attention so some of the brighter colours. during his work he extensively researched colour theory and Form and Design Theory in which he talked about during his lectures the forms and shapes he uses often vary but have a continuous theme in the particular piece ,such as the one displayed in this blog in which he uses cylinders/circles to create an image that resembles multiple spotlights aimed in all directions.. his style of work tends to be very geometric and solid often consisting of blocks of colour with a centre focus that usually is in black, though most of his work is completely abstract he does sometimes use figures of people, objects or animals in his work. personally his work does not  appeal to me because of the abstract cubistic nature of his work but does still use colour theory effectively to draw in the viewer.

Rita Bernstein and Wabi-sabi

Rita Bernstein

Rita Bernstein uses a combination of photography and weathering techniques to create a weathered effect that dulls the photo giving the appearance of an aging photo, her photos are almost always in black and white. her subjects are typically young people but does sometimes use older subjects and landscapes, the reason for her choice in subject is her attempt to explore the sorrows and sweetness of family life despite this never really being her intention to study childhood specifically, her works purpose is also to show the links between adults and children and how childish motive spill into adulthood. as many pieces of art do the artists work is created to evoke an emotion that most people can relate to at some point their life. the process of creating these images involves the careful application of silver emulsion to handmade paper in a darkroom to show best the "the imperfect, the messy, the raw, and the vulnerable", this process is long and difficult casing many failed pieces. Rita Bernstein has been taking photos since early 1990s not long after leaving her job as a civil rights lawyer so toward the beginning of her career she mainly used her two children in her pictures.

Wabi-sabi

this is the appreciation of things that are imperfect and to embrace all things as beautiful despite any damage or imperfections as people who use wabi-sabi as a guide see these things as equally beautiful due to the history displayed in the objects. wabi-sabi is also considered as a way of living as it allows the person to see all things as beautiful as it is the will of the earth to allow things to bloom before decaying to bloom again. a common example of wabi-sabi is the clay bowls that were used for everyday purposes and become cracked and worn because of this, and to emphasise the beauty in the imperfections the cracks are filled with lacquer mixed with gold/silver dust, this process is known as "kintsukuroi (金繕い)" meaning "gold mending". other means of wabi sabi can include photography of subjects that are flawed in some way, such as a cracked pavement to a worn house filled with bare brickwork, wooden beams and peeling wall paper.

Artist research

Artist research



Andrew Chase

like most sculptors Andrew chase specialises in a specific area of sculpture medium and subject, Andrew chase uses metal as his medium and wildlife as his subject. he also uses photography for his art. he has made multiple animal sculptures including the wolf visible to the left of the page, a giraffe, a gorilla , a polar bear, a tyrannosaurus rex and many other creatures with each taking at least over 50 hours to complete. the sculptor makes the animals so that their joints are articulate and allow for the subject to be posed and used in stop motion animation. most of the metals used in Chase's sculptures are recycled because the parts are cheaper and easier to obtain and also give the creatures and abandoned steampunk appearance. as visible form the image to the left the wolf is created to be as realistic and accurate as possible showing the engineering in the joints and libs of the wolf enabling it to look natural despite being made of steel, rods and car parts.

Andrew chase was born near Boston and began to become interested in art around the age of 15 he later moved to Utah and has remained there since.

Lauren dicioccio

In 2005 Lauren dicioccio began using 'fibres' in her art, this involved creating hand sewn embroidery art, in addition she has created additional effect  by leaving the loose strings as they are which in this piece give the illusion of 'blur lines' that make the horse and jockey far more animated than if the strings were cut off. the reason dicioccio  uses embroidery in her art is because she states that:


'Because hand-sewing and embroidery are techniques that themselves have somewhat obsolesced, when people recognize the preciousness in sculptural objects made in this manner, they seem to also have a secondary reaction laced with a hint of pathetic-ness- ie, they lament the time lost towards doing such a monotonous and time-consuming activity to make a non-functional thing'

though the reason she has chosen to use embroidery over paints is mainly due to the tactility of thread and the time consuming detail that draws people more than a painting would as a painting is a painting that shows little texture while with an embroidery you can feel the individual threads that allow the viewer to fully appreciate the artwork, thread also has more common appliances than paint as thread as expected is used in all textiles from the clothes you wear to the scatter cushions that wives and mums cannot live without (no matter the circumstances!)

The artist also believes strongly that the perfection of a piece is in the imperfections such as where the thread has tangled or snapped because these create sense of humanity as these are human errors that a machine would not be able to do because that are programed to create a piece that is flawless and as a result looses what makes something unique like the wrong stiches and varying length in each stich.

Frank Auerbach

born in Germany 1931, Frank Auerbach became a British citizen in 1931 living in the Camden town, London and painting there, almost all of his work feature something with a connection to the area he lives in being the landscaped he paints ion to the people he paints, what is most interesting about Auerbach is that he aims to paint every day to improve himself, he paints of the same canvass and scrapes it back to its bare state before beginning to paint again. the artists typical creates modern pieces using wide brush strokes and bright colours that almost resemble abstract art, though the best way to describe his work would probably be expressionistic.