Form of Travel -Acrylic SeascapeExhibition Text:
"Memories of Passed Beginnings" is a conceptual piece that visualizes Contemporary Architecture to the roots of previous design movements and varying styles. This piece was created by applying acrylic paint onto canvas, with inspiration coming from Michiel Schrijver original "house-ness" structures and Rob Gonsalves inner child mentality with magical realism. Imaginary and dream-like worlds are emphasized through the identification of reflective, classic ideas of form. Text: Memories of Passed Beginnings
Size: 60.69 x 76.20 cm Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Completion: September 2023 |
Inspiration
Memories of a Spring by Michiel Schrijver
For the following artwork being examined in my Comparative Study, Memories of a Spring by Michiel Schrijver is one of the substantial amount of acrylic painting he has produced over the years towards the end of the Surrealist Art movement that embodies painting being his "Form of Travel" and what that actually entails. The setting that Schrijver depicts is a tranquil, Mediterranean environment that not only allows his imaginary and original worlds to be reflected, but makes the distinction with his structural concept called "house-ness". His fascination in architecture translated into an idea of structures that indicate a type of house but lack the characteristics of a residence. I identified that the concept closely resembled contemporary architecture, as classic ideas of form are utilized and can expand across many architectural movements. I had explored Modernist and Brutalist architecture in depth in the past, and thought it would be interesting to implement a new movement that is much less distinct with its definition. Emphasizing "house-ness" as a method to introduce an audience into contemporary architecture can be very effective while pertaining to the seascape that is derived from "memories" as distant locals.
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Tower of Knowledge by Rob Gonsalves
"House-ness" was an idea that Schrijver hadn't directly outlined all the inspirational and conceptual qualities when looking at his background, interviews, and articles that instead had to be analyzed and essentially pieced together. The mention of magical realism and influences from fables was an idea I wanted to expand upon and make more evident in my own artwork, so I began searching supporting artists that can make this idea a reality. Rob Gonsalves caught my eye with all of his artworks having a transitional tone that makes it subtle and difficult to notice the first time around. I specifically selected Tower of Knowledge for the way that in a literal sense a book or past knowledge is shown to be the foundation of a society through the use of perspective and clever lighting. I believed that with contemporary architecture being much more varied rather than definitive with it's movement of inspiration, I thought that utilizing books to create the form of the "house-ness" concept can not only identify to the viewer it's diverse roots, but actually compliment Schrijver's original idea of a home lacking certain characteristics of one.
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Planning
From the start I knew that I wanted my artwork to follow a structure where I had my main focus being the compositional choices and concepts from Michiel Schrijver, and then having those ideas further supported and projected by Rob Gonsalves work and ideology. Schrijver's figurative painting not only encapsulates a visualization of his own world, but a surrealist dream that becomes evident with his compelling architecture of "house-ness". I associated this idea of a dream with having past experiences, images, or knowledge being retold but not being able to decipher specific details and vague senses. The inner child mentality that motivated Gonsalves complimented the shared qualities between both artists, primarily surrealism, magical realism, and architecture interests. I would dive deeper into research and understanding how imaginative fables and their use of characteristics had been used as inspiration, simplistic structures with lighting being vital for transitions/connection, and the consistent color palettes reflected through the works.
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To begin drawing out more ideas to implement in my own work I used kinetic writing where I had taken the most prominent ideas of "Home" and "Form of Travel", then continuously branched off from the umbrella term. At first I was focused on the inner frame composition of Memories of a Spring, and found from the thought bubbles that were worth pursuing was reflection/values of architectural/routine differences. If travel was the specific word used for how Schrijver would describe his work, then could it or rather should it be showcased in my own work? From the emerging questions I had written and identification of characteristics of contemporary architecture, I believed that I wanted to begin sketching out the actual conversation between frames and corridors that was occurring. Both inspirational works have this, they're just presented in either a literal sense through framing or more subtly through transitions. It was vital to understand what form of conversation I was looking for in my artwork to know the proper steps to carry out the ideal composition and concepts.
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This idea and planning became clearer as I outlined the visualization I had in mind. The scale of the composition consisted of an open door that showed a small portion of the outer framing, that being the viewer's perspective. From there I began illustrating the inner frame that took inspiration from photos taken in Tennessee from a recent trip for the general mountainside look and would contain the "house-ness" spread along. The moment I started drawing one of these structures with the pedestal beneath it I had an idea that I thought would further emphasize the contemporary concept I was working with and the conversation tone. As shown with the planning page furthest to the right by moving back the perspective to expose more of the outer framing, I could show a library-like setting with one of the "house-ness" structures on top of a book cart. From there I could then direct that form towards the inner frame that transitions into the seascape with a more recognizable style to Schrijver.
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Process
From my planning I could begin outlining the outer framing on my canvas, where I would have the doorway being the main focus with minor objects like the door, book cart, and books being included to serve an important role for creating the conversation between the two frames. With the basic lines, perspective, and proportions figured out I could then begin detailing out these minor objects, with the book cart being the most challenging. This is because I wanted to steer away from relying on projected images and using a two-point perspective, so I had to make horizontal lines be at a consistent angle throughout the canvas which took a good chunk of time to understand.
Moving onto transitioning towards my inner frame, that required developing the "house-ness" concept where we would have one of these structures in the outer frame comprised of books that progressed into the traditional form as it's replicated towards the background. I would adapt the proportions and minor characteristics based on where each "house-ness" structure was placed. Podiums, mountains, and the seascape would then be developed around the contemporary architecture concept before I would move onto applying acrylic paint.
I would layer the walls with a primary blue that was illuminated by the joint world. In Memories of a Spring, one of the standout components in the outer framing was the bright blue doors that overshadowed the much darker valued surroundings. In order to help direct the viewer towards noticing the "house-ness" structure in the foreground, I had used a crimson red colored book cart as it's stand that contrasts the color scheme that will be implemented. It was also important to capture the reflective material of the metal shelves through lighting to further this distinction from the whole composition.
Since the door would be less significant in my own artwork, I went with a neutral and common brown tones when painting it. I had followed a vertical technique with my paintbrush to help with bringing out the organic wood quality. Angling and layering had become more of an importance as advanced further into this piece, as it was the method of how I could distinguish materials and sense of movement. Such as with the water, a bold amount of paint is applied with a consistent hue throughout the horizon that would be prepped to have subtle shading for complimenting a tranquil environment.
The "house-ness" concept had 3 values used for the base that differed based on it's positioning on the artwork that worked well for the transitional aspect, even with only 3 subjects visible. Utilizing acrylic's quick drying time made it ideal for using the medium for layering, so once I reached the ending stages of process it meant that I would value painting all the components in the composition with at least their base colors. With this understanding, when I finished wrapping up my artwork with lighting, shadows, and reflective surfaces, I went back to the first component I painted being the bright blue wall in the outer frame and changed it to a more subtle blue-ish grey that better matched the material and brought more attention to the key concepts.
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Experimentation
Since I've been exposed to many digital applications when it comes to previous projects, I thought it might be worth while to check out in the planning stages some of the possible applications in this artwork. Starting off with PhotoPea, I wanted to better visualize the photos from my recent Tennessee trip that I was using as inspiration for the mountain hills that would normally start off with a visual sketch that's seen on the left. However I could as easily use an open door that's cropped and layered on top of one of these Tennessee photos that was really helpful to at least have an understanding of how much of that photograph would actually fit in the artwork.
SketchUp was a program that I was optimistic about potentially using to 3D model the entire composition as in my planning I had gotten a bit of interest into looking at Landscape Architecture. SketchUp does actually have a specific program that allows you to create and modify terrain but is locked behind a paywall. One of the workarounds I wanted to attempt was importing a landscape model into the free version of SketchUp I've been using and then use the scaling feature to modify the terrain that way. However this option wasn't quite as flexible with creating organic compositions and I thought it would be more worthwhile to pursue traditional sketching methods.
Although it may have seen that I hit a dead end for using these digital applications in this project, I had remembered about the materials feature that SketchUp had where you could applying an image of your choose or from their library onto any object. While it was difficult implementing the 3D modeling onto the inner frame, I could instead implement the material feature onto the outer frame that was much more geometric. On the bottom right was the color choice that I had found best suited to what I was looking for, and it was really easy to modify the color efficiently. From there I could then use the various acrylic paints I had to basically reverse engineer the color and material texture based on what I had created on SketchUp.
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Critique
Similarities
- Dream-like Imagery: Following Surrealism and Magical Realism principles was vital in developing a composition that not only explored outer worlds but embraced the inner child mentality to best compliment conceptual significance.
- Framing: All of the artworks incorporate a form of sectioning, whether that's inner against outer or transitional that causes a distinction to be made in the setting between the foreground towards the background with form developing.
- Conceptual Implementation: Speaking of form, "House-ness" was the concept of interest for understanding and interpreting contemporary architecture for an audience, which was further enhanced through showcasing the varying source origin through book configuration of the concept.
Differences
- Color Distinction: Memories of Past Beginnings incorporates a color pallet that makes the foreground, mid ground, and background each unique where a neutral tones with a dominant crimson red goes to a sap green nature hillside and ends on a scenic blue instead of a consistent color choice throughout the composition.
- Negative Space Transitioning (Left): Tower of Knowledge not only has transitional properties with it's structures, but with every component and specifically the empty space around foreground that transitions into the horizon and sky, where in contrast my artwork solely has the structural concept contain these transitional properties.
- Extending Viewer Perspective (Right): Memories of a Spring contains a bird-eye perspective that through positioning and lighting makes it clear that the inner framing is the primary focus, but my artwork instead pushes the perspective back to allow more elements to be visible in the outer frame that allows a more meaningful conversation to occur with concepts.
- Dream-like Imagery: Following Surrealism and Magical Realism principles was vital in developing a composition that not only explored outer worlds but embraced the inner child mentality to best compliment conceptual significance.
- Framing: All of the artworks incorporate a form of sectioning, whether that's inner against outer or transitional that causes a distinction to be made in the setting between the foreground towards the background with form developing.
- Conceptual Implementation: Speaking of form, "House-ness" was the concept of interest for understanding and interpreting contemporary architecture for an audience, which was further enhanced through showcasing the varying source origin through book configuration of the concept.
Differences
- Color Distinction: Memories of Past Beginnings incorporates a color pallet that makes the foreground, mid ground, and background each unique where a neutral tones with a dominant crimson red goes to a sap green nature hillside and ends on a scenic blue instead of a consistent color choice throughout the composition.
- Negative Space Transitioning (Left): Tower of Knowledge not only has transitional properties with it's structures, but with every component and specifically the empty space around foreground that transitions into the horizon and sky, where in contrast my artwork solely has the structural concept contain these transitional properties.
- Extending Viewer Perspective (Right): Memories of a Spring contains a bird-eye perspective that through positioning and lighting makes it clear that the inner framing is the primary focus, but my artwork instead pushes the perspective back to allow more elements to be visible in the outer frame that allows a more meaningful conversation to occur with concepts.
Reflection
Moving into exploring other architectural movements was something I was excited to do with all of my upcoming Senior artworks, but I knew that contemporary architecture would be a very interesting one to explore in a project. Layering with the fast drying times of acrylic paint with varying application techniques used for materials made it worth while to revisit the medium after doing oil paint for so long to have a better understanding of it's application beyond the couple studies I've done in the past. Memories of Past Beginnings was meant to refine the conceptual significance I've incorporated in my body of work, but on an architectural movement that becomes difficult to initially define and outline it's style origin. Surrealist and Magical Realism artists who had interests in architecture was a huge help when it came to identify "house-ness" as a structural choice that would be great to build upon.
The biggest challenge was definitely finding the composition I was looking for behind solely having the structural concept occupy a seascape, but it was a great moment through the end of my planning once I discovered the direction I wanted to the take it with the extended outer frame perspective. I wanted to return back to my landscape work like the Tequila Trail painting I did Junior year and develop further the architectural aspects and how it connected with the particular environment illustrated. My favorite part was definitely expanding my work onto the second largest canvas I've worked on so far, but it was frustrating having to research and explore various sources to compile a good understanding of the "house-ness" concept. Overall I hope that other people are able to enjoy this transitional incorporation of contemporary architecture and the connection to it's beginnings from various past architecture movements and classic ideas.
Connecting to ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Michiel Schrijver and the conceptual significance of "house-ness" being his unique structural idea was the prime focus of my artwork to present contemporary architecture qualities in a new light, with support coming from Rob Gonsalves and the transitional properties of his work that allows a connection to the origin of books/various knowledge being part of the inspiration of the movement.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach of Michiel Schrijver was bringing his own original and imaginary worlds to a visual construct as a "Form of Travel" with Rob Gonsalves embracing a inner child mentality when it came to creating his work, all falling under Surrealism and Magical Realism movements.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While I researched my inspiration, I had found the "house-ness" concept had relations to contemporary architecture qualities that wasn't specifically called out by Schrijver but instead had to be interpreted through looking at various architectural movements to find the proper connection.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme of my inspirational research was finding an understanding of how to visualize contemporary architecture with the movement's origin and inspiration coming from various other sources and styles.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Conceptual significance is an important idea that demonstrates a conversation that can occur between the viewer and the artwork that allows meaningful connections to be made for particular design purposes.
Michiel Schrijver and the conceptual significance of "house-ness" being his unique structural idea was the prime focus of my artwork to present contemporary architecture qualities in a new light, with support coming from Rob Gonsalves and the transitional properties of his work that allows a connection to the origin of books/various knowledge being part of the inspiration of the movement.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach of Michiel Schrijver was bringing his own original and imaginary worlds to a visual construct as a "Form of Travel" with Rob Gonsalves embracing a inner child mentality when it came to creating his work, all falling under Surrealism and Magical Realism movements.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While I researched my inspiration, I had found the "house-ness" concept had relations to contemporary architecture qualities that wasn't specifically called out by Schrijver but instead had to be interpreted through looking at various architectural movements to find the proper connection.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme of my inspirational research was finding an understanding of how to visualize contemporary architecture with the movement's origin and inspiration coming from various other sources and styles.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Conceptual significance is an important idea that demonstrates a conversation that can occur between the viewer and the artwork that allows meaningful connections to be made for particular design purposes.
Citations
HovBlog. “Modern vs. Contemporary Architecture: What’s the Difference?” The K. Hovnanian® Homes Blog, December 7, 2020. https://www.khov.com/blog/modern-vs-contemporary-architecture-design/.
Smithe, Amelia. “Artwork of the Week: Towers of Knowledge.” The 8 Percent, April 27, 2018. https://the8percent.com/artwork-of-the-week-towers-of-knowledge/.
Taylor-Johnson, Hannah. “Paintings.” RobGonsalves.live, 2017. https://www.robgonsalves.live/gallery.
Smithe, Amelia. “Artwork of the Week: Towers of Knowledge.” The 8 Percent, April 27, 2018. https://the8percent.com/artwork-of-the-week-towers-of-knowledge/.
Taylor-Johnson, Hannah. “Paintings.” RobGonsalves.live, 2017. https://www.robgonsalves.live/gallery.