buttons, brown and yarn

I've become to like the color brown, cocoa brown, bread brown, milkshake brown, dark chocolate brown. since i recently brought some new chucks that incorporate and prettify the color brown their paisley art deco-ish patterned with bronze eyelets .though it is a brown with a clay red color, i think their wonderful.

i decided to find out a little more about this color, so i went to wikipedia, heres what i found

"As a color of low intensity, brown is a tertiary color: a mix of the three subtractive Primary colors is brown if the cyan content is low. Brown exists as a color perception only in the presence of a brighter color contrast: yellow, orange, red, or rose objects are still perceived as such if the general illumination level is low, despite reflecting the same amount of red or orange light as a brown object would in normal lighting conditions."

As for other brown things in my wardrobe.

from pink to green to brown, what next?

Beloved

For Art school i was required to visit the art gallery here in Dunedin and blog about the beloved exhibition.

but what is it?

from the Dunedin art gallery website this is what they say:

"The Dunedin Public Art Gallery, established in 1884, was New Zealand’s first public art gallery.

To commemorate its 125th year, Beloved will showcase a selection of the historical and contemporary gems from the gallery's collection.
The exhibition and lavish accompanying publication celebrate the history of the collection, paying particular attention to some of the better known and favorite works.

Spanning a time frame of more than 600 years, this rich body of work is both diverse in its content and in the range of media it brings together including painting, sculpture, photography, works on paper, installation and the decorative arts."

first thing i noticed was the red doors through from the foyer to the beloved exhibition, and the fact they don’t close tightly, you can see through the gaps like an invitation to see the “whole picture” so with that in mind i was eager open the doors and enter.

the first room you enter is red, i associate it with mc Donald's red, or any fast food really, more with food than anything else, and when i think that i think, eck red is the color that sets off appetite,so i was hoping i wouldn't be interrupted by my subliminal mind to leave and eat. i was there, almost shackled to my notepad until i considered myself to have a sufficient amount of blurbs.

after that i never noticed the color of any the other rooms as i walked through, it was more about how i must try and decipher my note taking later on.i was worried i was writing too fast but i had so many ideas about the pieces i did like, that sometimes i found it hard to word. and people often would look over at me in slight interest.

i started off writing down the names of the artworks, then thought the artist would be good to add, then considered a few dates, and mediums, but wanted to keep them brief and just stuck to artist and piece and my utterly truthful opinion and written admiration.

most the time i found the works more interesting or informative on closer inspection.brush strokes, patterns and all the finer details enchanted me more than large installations that were there which are seen as their seen kinda thing.i like to know how a nose is painted,or a cuff on a sleeve, one can look at it and admire it from 3 or 4 meters, but, from 20cm away you really learn about what its made of, and the skill, its like looking at particles under a microscope, you really learn about what its made off. its then that i really admire the piece or pieces as whole.

After walking through the doors the first painting to capture my attention was not of large size like that of Charles Frederick Goldie by Margaret hay. maybe because it is such a big in your face, full of character painting.you can not really avoid the large piece (715 x 595 mm) with its smile.

I guess maybe due to a systematic approach i skipped it.

So which piece first captured my eye, and why?

Madonna and child with pomegranate.
By Master of San Miniato

The frame it was presented in was rather chunky in comparison to the delicate painting.i liked that. the gold in the frame and the painting brought both opposites together. but what really grabbed my attention was the detail.


next piece on the other side of r side of Charles Frederick Goldie was a piece, self portrait by Rita Angus, and i know that even before i read the information plate.
nor did i know this because i am an art buff, because I'm far from it. but because my style of painting is close to hers, i feel i can relate to and understand her images.though like most painters i've taken a shine to or appreciate use oil paints. where as i use acrylic with watercolor.

I like how she uses complimentary colors, earthy and near to natural.

Next piece, or set that i really cant walk by without noticing was the artwork titled "black carnival" by christine webster.
this piece is a series of photographic images.



what out first was that they were all bigger than life size and emotions shown are all different, the textures in the images are all original and different to the next image.
there were 6 images all up on display.
I then thought what would they belike on canvas, of course the texture in the images would be compromised, but then they would appear more like a painting, with an over all flatness, unlike that of the photograph.


next up
“construction on red” by Milan mrkusich



To me this piece looks like scrap, or a prop or some tool used in geometry because of the angles because of the slight depth of the cut in it that spans around.
I love the colors used, the drawing on it is sharply drawn and precise.I think one would either like it or love it.for me it is much the later.




"Maybe tomorrow" by Alvin Pankhurst,1974.

"The room illustrated here is typical of those found victorian house in New zealand.
The old man's image reflected in the mantle morror is reproduced in the oval mirror above it, but he is seen from behind and in shadow.
-A reference to reminiscence or nostalgia for the past. The painting's perspectival inconsistencies quite possibly translate as the distortion occurs when events are revisited from memory; the rambling vines are also indicative of the passing of time.The mildly erotic wallpaper intimates various realities, but perhaps in this case concerns th continuation of the generations." quoted from the exhibition piece description.

This next piece is far better in real life, by far.this image kinda flattens it and doesn't show the tone as well as the lighting in the gallery did.
The detail is exquisite and is hard to miss.it inspired me the moment i saw it.so much so that the first time i went to the gallery and saw it i went home that day and worked on a painting of my own for a day and half.
The use of the mirror gives it multiple dimensions, along with the pattern in the wallpaper, the objects and its lighting pulls one in to observe all the smaller details, i would describe it like an image from Animalia.the over all tone is kinda peachy and warm, considering it seems like a “sad” old man in what could be a cold Victorian house.

In a flurry of ideas

Image my own, used as pattern research

ok so i know i said i hated blogging, but i feel an urge to.i've had creative ideas left right and center.but no energy or time to start or finish or anyhting in between.

so i was looking online the other night, as i do most nights, when study gets a bit tedious.and came across an artist that by observation draws in biro and felt pen only in red, blue,yellow black and with the clever use of white space. creates images that have a contrast of detail and basic structure all in one, with a bit of pattern thrown in there.

carinebrancowitz.com

I cant seem to find much about this artist, because anything i find is in another language....darn it.

Yet...one must gaze upon these illustrations and feel the inspiration i do:)

In responce to these images i was lead to draw, so i pulled out my biro and printed off an image i had taken of myself to grid up as a start.did that and my blank peice of paper and i was set.

Here are some various versions of my exploration.

I went and scanned clothing of mine that were patterned, so i had something to work with.

This is an image i took mid 2008 on the topic of isolation.

i like it for its texture and perspective, the mood in the clouds.

i plan on doing an illustration from this but at the moment i only have an outlined drawing. think it has potential for usage of patterns.

Now the image ive really explored with at the moment is this one.

this one was done with felt pen.

Then i scanned it into photoshop and really played around with blend modes and colors layers of the orignal drawn version of the image and photographic combined

I re-assessed my tool of choice and the manner of stroke.

so i used biro and got a finner detailing on the hair.

I then finished off the rest of the outlining of the image,and printed off an a4 size image of a floral pattern i scanned earlier.

chopped it into shape, and pasted it on as the sweater pattern, instead of drawing it in the meantime.

i plan to experiment with drawing patterns, floral, tartan textured later.

I then wished to add some color, and so didn't want to go overboard, picked my favorite combo, Cyan, magenta yellow.

I sectioned my image into three, then printed off the three images, and used one of those three colors to color each subtly. until i decided where to go next,which will be working on an idea for background of the image, rendering the eyes, and maybe adding some shadow, to make it pop.

A tad of color

As part of an assignment at art school, a lead on from my photographic experimentation.

I had a few ideas sprout, and felt inspired, not by anyone but by my un-used water colors.

I dont use water colors often and when i do its always on top of acrylics, never by themselves.

I took images from the digital collection for my "room" assignment that i had posted about previously, and edited them to show basic outlines, with a bit of texture. printed them out then attacked them with watercolor paint.Their just the beginnings, or more simply the experimentation of what i might do, as these are just A4 size.

Would also like to see if i can portray different fabrics just using water color.

so in the meantime, here are my working images.

Brought to you by the color green, feat the word adore

Recently i decided to clean out anything i dont wear or use anymore or at all in some cases.

and i decided that i love this green hello kitty necklace i've had for a while, brought from some cheap dollar store, the green color of it attracted me instantly, tacky as it is, sometimes ya just love things no matter how bad they kinda are.

now im not into big loud necklaces but i couldn't resist it.

since buying it, i have then never worn it, just adored it.kinda defeats the purpose of buying it in the first place.

so in effort to wear or use everything i decided it was to stay in my inhabitancewhere i will love it enough to wear it.As my orignal plan saw.i can sense my obsession for green re-emerging.

so on that note here are a couple pairs of earrings i want to make more use of, or just adore to get the use out of having them.usually they hang off my roughly 40cm tall fabric mannequin torso.

love butterflies, had these for years, their fimo earrings, so tiny, too delicate to wear as my excuse, but they have the cutest white

box i keep them in, like specimens.

these earings are delicate also, like shell, brought from the same place as hello kitty.

never worn them, never been into big earrings.

back in the day, gosh that sounds so old of me, as i was saying, back in the day, i used to be rather fanatic of green, apple green, mint green and lime green to be more precise.

which is why i named my blog "Mintmannequin".

ive only just started up my blog, but ive used Mintmannequin for 4 years as an alias.

back then when i came up with it i had green in my hair which i miss.

but so many people do it now days i feel i cant.

My wonderland in black and white

Two weeks ago i was given the task at art school to choose a room in my house/flat, i am to investigate it by drawing, documentation, take photos silhouette, frottage, writing ect, any form that allows me to explore the rooms "character".so my room, i guess on obsevation it is filled with many textures, clowns, masks and fabrics, butterflies and books.

kinda has the 'wonderland' feel to it, so i now call it my wonderland, for project reasons.

i took a set of photos in digital form first to see what works and what doesnt, and i think what works best for this is the macro, or closer than that portrait format, to really zoom in on the pieces in my room really breaks it down to what its all about.

Then i tried black and white film, fomapan, so i could get the raw light that film captures and digital lacks.

Though the light isn't even in my room, so when i did do full room shots they tend to come out dark in some corners and mysterious, which unknowingly added to the character i was trying to emphasis.

Its still very much work in progress.

This set are all digital

The next few are from my black and white film, images i processed and scanned.

this one is a photogram

i get more satisfaction from black and white film than bright and colorful digital, although digital is useful, im no prude, but nothing compares to developing film and turning out your own images.

Photography is defiantly my outlet.

comments and opinions on my images are welcome:)

Next time i hope to have some drawings worthy of sharing.