Peter Doig

Peter Doig is an English painter born in Edinburgh 1959. He was raised in Canada, it was only in 1979 he moved back to the UK to study in London. He studied at the Wimbledon School of Art (1979 - 80), St Martin’s School of Art (1980-83), and Chelsea School of Art (1989-90).

Often working from photographs and film, Doig’s paintings are a balance between figuration and abstract surface qualities.The general theme of his paintings is of the relationship between man and the environment or man and his environment. 

When asked in interviews what Doig paints and why, Doig simply replies with “What is a valid subject or valid emotion to exploit in a painting? What do i paint? I paint landscapes. Sometimes with figures in them. That is the only important information you need to know, until you actually see the paintings.” 

The majority of his paintings also tell a story. For example ‘Echo Lake’.

This large dark painting created in 1998 is of a night scene. 

To me this painting reflects a murder mystery. We are only seeing the aftermath of an event we have not witnessed. We guess the previous event by searching this scene for clues. With this painting you take several elements and connect them to conclude a story.

The painting is split horizontally by a line of white representing the shore of a lake. Above it is a band of over grown land. In the middle of this land is a parked American style police car. This is the first clue that tells me this painting could be reflecting a incident. A man wearing black trousers, a white shirt and a narrow black tie stands at the lakeshore looking out of the painting towards the viewer. Linking with the police car the man’s clothing suggests that he is most likely a policeman.  As his hands are placed on his face with his mouth shaped as an o-shape, this indicates that he is shouting out into the dark lake. Then with help of the title we guess that nothing comes back to him but his own voice. His Echo. The bottom half of the painting represents a blurry mirror image of the landscape above the shoreline. This reflection provides an echo.  

My belief is that someone has drowned in this dark lake. The policeman in the scene is shouting out over the lake looking to any signs of life. 

Combining everything i have found from this painting, the painting it’s self is very emotional. It creates a airy, cold, sad and mysterious feeling. Makes a shudder go down my spine. 

Doig’s earlier work consists of the surfaces of his paintings, appear in complex and tangles, offering frustrated and interrupted views.

For example The Architects Home in the Ravine, which is my favourite paintings by Peter Doig. 

The Architects Home in the Ravine is a oil on canvas created in 1991. Likely to be created and based on his family’s home in Canada.

When at first glance the twigs steal the show. They create a tangling wilderness, breaking the painting into many small pieces. The painting as a whole looks like frosted glass because of the twigs. It’s only when you look through the over growing twigs than your eyes connect and focus on the richness of the distant woods and the architects home, now giving meaning to the title of the painting. Then your eyes travel to other parts of the painting like the small lake and pine trees below. As the view you are looking through the distracting surface to find a full landscape and scene. 

As a viewer i feel like i’m an intruder. I’m on someone else land peering between the twigs into someone’s home. As its based in a partly over grown woods, as the viewer i feel cold. Feels like a photograph from a paparazzi. However with bright coloured blocks used on the house for windows. The house itself feels warm and as if someone is in the house at the time and living there happily.  

Other paintings similar to this also carrying the theme of mans relationship with nature are Doig’s collection of paintings from the cabin series. Specifically ‘Concrete Cabin West Side’ created in 1994 and ‘Concrete Cabin 2’ created in 1992.

These paintings give the impression that the cabin are in the middle of the woods. Middle of no where. There is a contrast of the dark woods to the bright grid like structure of the cabin. Showing the contrast between the built and the natural. Nature encroaching on modern architecture.

As ‘The Architects Home in the Ravine’ was created in 1991, the paintings from his cabin series must have evolved from that painting. They hold the same subject matter but vary in appearance. Both elements of man and nature are there however the twigs from the natural trees don’t over take the painting as much. Also there is more of an obvious contrast between man and the environment, with the environment being very dark and the manmade building being bright. 

This creates two contrasts. First between nature and man with man being the architect's home. So natural and manmade. Secondly between cold and warm. With nature as the cold element and man as the warm element.

The subjects of Doig’s painting is not the only element of his work i fine interesting. The process and construction of his paintings are also ver inspiring. 

As Doig works mainly from photographs and film. The first step he takes from going from photography to painting is to create an etching.

‘Man dressed as a bat’ has an interesting construction. It is the construction rather than the subject that i am more interested in. Created in 2007 this painting is oil on linen. A lot of the marks on the painting are from natural courses. Rain coming into the studio. Some of these marks where there before he even started. He also allowed the painting to get wet as he was painting it. He used the paint in a fluid way and didn’t want the paint to build to much. He focuses on the general atmosphere of the painting. Using the techniques to create the atmosphere. 

The conclusion and the main idea i have took from researching Peter Doig is that he has used the environment for both subject matter and construction of his paintings.

Case Study L5

Case Study

Christina Brunnock is an english illustrator currently studying illustration at Birmingham City University. Her work does vary in style quiet often according to what it is she is actually drawing and what audience it is for. With being keen to experiment with different styles and mediums she describes her work as a combination of fine art and illustration.

She started out in a fine art background doing mainly paintings inspired by Peter Rubens, a 16th century flemish painter. 

Brunnock became fascinated with creating life like portraits filled with emotion.  

Her favorite paintings of Peter Paul Rubens was not of his professional paintings for his career but of his personal paintings of his family. 

Her favorite painting is Head of a Child created in 1619. The sitter has been suggested to be of Ruben’s daughter Clara Serena, oldest of four children, who unfortunately died in 1623 at the age of 12. The disarming directness with which the child looks at the viewer expresses the intimate relationship between father and daughter. You can not help but stare into the young girls bright blue eyes. Christina found that this painting was and still is one of the most touching paintings she has seen. Rubens is also master of facial skin tones which is something that Christina has always found a challenge, especially when using paints, usually acrylics. The warm colour of the flesh tones makes an interesting impact against the grey-green background and clothing of the child. Her rosy red cheeks and the highlights on her nose and forehead brings the portrait to life. However this painting was most likely for private use only and not up for sale. This is believed because the painting looks incomplete as the clothing of the child had been hastily painted. All the detail remains in the face of the child, also keeping all attention in the portrait. 

Rubens obviously concentrated on the key aspect of the portrayal of his daughter’s face. This painting may have even been just for the purpose of Rubens practicing his painting skills.  

Christina loved this painting so much that she even made many copies of this painting experimenting with different mediums trying to create the same kind of atmosphere and also learning from it. 

Along with making copies of this painting, Christina created many of her own paintings (left) in the style of Rubens using her own resources such as photos of her family. She also kept the idea of having the backgrounds hastily painted and in a colour that had an impact on the portraits. It was here and with these paintings that Christina found that she wanted to persue a career in Art. 

From here Christina has continued to develop her work of portraiture. She found that creating was a challenge. “It takes a certain skill to make a portrait have character and personality, and this is a skill that i think i am verging on to. I still need a lot of practice but i am progressing”. From here Christina has created many portraits from young to elderly, and from happy to solemn. 

Her next step was to start researching more contemporary artists, taking inspiration to develop her own work. For example Russ Mills. She liked the grudge and explosive look of his portraits and also took an interest in his mark making. All of his work burst with energy with makes his paintings instantly eye catching, and with such a style his work is recognisable anywhere.

Russ Mills is a British illustrator who graduated from Leeds Met University in 1995 after completing a BA in Graphic Art and Design, specialising in Experimental Film and Animation. After employment in various non-creative institutions Mills went back to basics and began working with a pen, a pencil and a computer. He also spent around 20 years crafting skills, absorbing influences which has helped develop his work for today. 

He describes his work as a “clash of styles from classical to pop surrealism, focusing predominantly on the human form, though also abstracting elements from nature and the animal kingdom”.

When looking for contemporary artists, Christina always searched for detailed and realistic work, as she believed there is great skill behind them. Russ Mills has this talent displayed in his art works but has also added another element. This element is the explosive mark making. Christina too wants to add an element to her portraits that would make them recognizable as hers. 

Taking the research she had gathered about Russ Mills, Christina took her work further and started experimenting with different grudge looked mark making effects using a variety of mediums. From Charcoal to spray paints. She also figured she should be creating whole figured portraits and not just those of faces. 

It wasn’t until last year that Christina had the chance to come away from portraits altogether. It was when creating a piece for the book invisible cities that she got immersed in creating her very own world. She took different buildings from different places and combined them to create a very imaginative but still realistic place. 

One element Christina always wants in her work is detail. She left out shading and colour in this piece but replaced this with detailed outlining.

Her main inspiration for this was Mattias Adolfsson, a swedish illustrator. Like her city, Adolfsson also uses a lot of outline detail. 

She adores his creativity and imagination, which is something she thinks she is laking. And because of this she is continuing to look at his work to develop her own. 

Mattias Adolfsson is a freelance Illustrator living in Sigtuna just outside Stockholm Sweden. Originally he had odd jobs which linked to his Masters of Fine Arts in Graphic Design, at HDK, school of arts and crafts Gothenburg. This lead him to work within the computer games industry. This area didn’t stimulate Adolfsson as he worked with more technical aspects, doing jobs like programming which lead to him leaving the gaming industry in summer 2007. 

Working at home in his converted garage Adolfsson works at least 5-6 hours a day. He fits his work and family life together. 

Normal everyday activities like walking and jogging outside generate Adolfsson’s interesting ideas. He does’t have a clear image in his head when he starts and he allows his drawings to evolve. He admitted working so spontaneously can sometimes be a problem, especially when he starts drawing on a small piece of paper and he need to lead it onto another. Christina respects this as working in such a spontaneous way is something that she can relate too.

He doesn’t use photo references, only sometimes for commissioned pieces. He either used his own observational studies or allows the drawing to create itself. This fact is something that Christina finds astonishing, as she struggles to draw anything without a photo reference. Because of this Christina has given herself a new challenging hobby, which is to develop her observational drawing skills. She now takes a small sketchbook and pencil everywhere she goes. She too wants to start using her own drawings as references instead of using photos references all the time.  

Traveling is another big influence. He likes old fashioned buildings, especially with a history. Visiting any old town inspires Adolfsson to draw instantly. This is another interest Christina shares. She has currently completed a series of drawings based on architecture in France. 

Mattias Adolfsson’s drawings have an incredible amount of detail. Christina has expressed her interest in Adolfssons work. “Every time you look back at his drawings you see something different. A new window, a new button. This excites me. However it is not just the detail. I could go into a gallery and look at a detailed study of a building and i would not feel the same. His buildings are his own inventions. They feel alive and each one has it’s own personality. His architecture is allowed to physically move. He is a successful illustrator because he balances both skill and concept well together.” 

Adolfsson describes his process as “medieval”. With so many digital elements used today, Adolfsson likes to stay away from the digital world. Also working within the game industry has put him off. He uses watercolours and ink. His fountain pen is his favorite tool. This must help him to be so spontaneous as with inks you cannot remove the marks you have made with a rubber like with pencil. Christina’s tools are fairly similar. She admires handcrafted and hand drawn illustrations. She likes to stay clear of digital and minimalistic work. The tools she uses are too pens, like fine-liners, biros and permanent markers. Strangely she finds that using these tools give her a confidence? Can’t go back.

Brunnock has and still is using all three artists mentioned to develop her work. She wants a combination of Rubens’ realistic skills, Mills’ mark making and Adolfsson’s imagination in her work 

Christina wants to head into a direction which allows her to develop a style which combines both her works inspired by Rubens and Adolfsson. So fine art detail with creative illustration. Realist portraiture with creative elements. Very realistic detail with simple minimalist work. Best of both worlds.  

She want to carry on with creating portraits as all faces and expressions are different meaning that they are always challenging and this is something that she enjoys.