London's Calling!

For me there is only ever one 4 oclock in the day, and its not in the morning! But for once I made an exception in order to go visit our countries capital and see some amazing pieces of artwork, as well as visit a UCAS fair in order to sort out my future.

After four hours cramped on a coach with a ton of other creative types we finally made it to the UCAS fair. Being there made me realise just how much I want to pursue a future in Set, Prop and Costume design. All the different courses with their different takes on how the course is run, the one thing I really can't wait to give a go is puppetry, which has always been an interest of mine.

An hour or so of traffic later and we made it to the tate modern, and boy was I impressed! Getting to see my first Picasso in person was amazing.

There are elements of his work which I would like to incorporate into my own lives drawings, one of which is his used of colour. As I am still fairly new to the world of life drawing all my pieces have still been in black and white, however the use of bold colour has always interested me and is something I would like to give a go. Also his used of abstract shape to show form is something else I'm keen on exploring further in my own work, this is why it was so important to me to see my first Picasso in person.








Another piece that interested me was one from the tate modern also. It was a jungle net made entirely from wire wool. This was as the artist liked to explore the use of household products outside of their usual usage. It also highlighted the differences between the western world and other cultures from less developed countries.





Not only this but my visit to the tate modern opened my eyes to the value of video based art. There were multiple pieces of work that were sequences of film and I found that this interactivity between the artwork itself and those viewing it really added another dimension to the piece and gave it more emotional influence for me.

In the V and A Museum there was an entire exhibit decorated to the stage and artefacts they had collected from productions. This was obviously going to be my favourite part of the entire museum. Getting to see the scale models of sets up close made me realise that I am definetly taking the right path by going into set, prop and costume design at university. I could have spent hours walking around that one small section of the museum, if only there had been more time and less things to see. Then I could've had time to wander round at my leisure and take in all the different pieces available.

Plus I got to see a massive tree stump. That was pretty cool. . .

The Frank Bobbins Institute Exhibition

Worksop is not a place I would consider as being over run with artistic influence. So finding so much expressive work in one tiny renovated stable block lead to an overwhelming experience to say the least. The first thing that caught my eye was the abundance of colour, drawing my eye to an elongated piece of work across the back wall. The painting was of a woman, which not clear to me at first glance; although on further inspection the form of the woman became so apparent I couldn't understand how I had managed to overlook it in the first place. However; the artwork that really captured my imagination was in the upstairs section of the Exhibition. 

"After a while," They'll change your style" By Rosie B

The remnants of the performance from the previous Saturday was still obvious to see. The performance was around an hour long and consisted of the performance artist covering herself in poppy seeds. This was a statement of our use and abuse of prescription drugs, and posed the question of where general use of drugs ends and dependence begins. I liked this piece as a thought the symbolism of poppys for opium or heroin clearly linked to the intention of the piece.

If there is one thing that I love to see in a piece of artwork, its an abundance of colour. That is what I really crave. I was not disappointed with the artwork that was displayed on the mezzanine level in the centre of the building. Abstract figures with garish colours which created stark contrasts with the thick black outlines. I believe the intention of the piece was to question celebrity influence; whether this was correct or not i'm not sure, but that's how I interpreted it at least. 

The figure in the painting above bears quite a lot of resemblance to Miley Cyrus in my opinion. Whether that is intentional or not is unclear, if not I see it as quite a coincidence that the piece just happens to look like what would be considered a 'controversial pop star' at present. Although this is besides the point. This piece was centre of the wall as you reached the top of the stairs and really drew attention. I would consider it my favorite of all the artwork on display. I especially like the feet, the contrast between the skin colour and the blue painted toe nails really gains focus. As well as the dashes of red throughout the work which keep your eyes moving over the piece.

All in all, I think the visit to the Frank Bobbins institute was a real success. The artwork was like nothing I have ever seen whilst studying art and design at A-level; and really opened my eyes to all the different kinds of art there can be. Would definitely  recommend to anyone wanting to see something with a little more 'oomph' that your bog standard exhibition.