Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery Visit

Today was the first day of work on the FAD course. We were to go and visit Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery and choose a piece of work that inspired us and we had to interpret it in any way and use it to create another piece of work. We could choose one piece of work or multiple and combine them in our own work. We could re-draw the work or interpret in to a different art form e.g. photography, moving image, fine drawing etc. We could use out emotions and interpret the work from them. There were many pieces of work  to choose from.

I took photos of my favorite pieces of artwork;

Grey Poem 1 (1985)
Peter Cunliffe

Grey Poem 2 (1985)
Peter Cunliffe

Laying the Foundation Stone to the cotton exchange, Blackburn
Vladimir Ossipovithc Sherwood

This painting wouldn't normally interest me, I tend to avoid paintings with people in them. However when looking at the painting, it looked almost 3D. The people in the foreground really stand out because of the vivid colours. further back the colours become duller. There's still the attention to detail, but the figures become almost blurry. This piece of work reminds me of history and looks like an event of the local area. 

 This Painting brought out emotions in me. To me it looks like a raging day at sea, with the sun trying to shine through. When looking at it I imagined someone going through hard times then just a little bit of sun shining through. This painting made me want to jump though the painting to the see. The use of colours made the painting almost real like. It also reminded me of past personal times, when I was a child, when I would spend family days by the sea. Even though this is a painting I really love the idea of what I term water photography. I like the idea that no matter how hard you try with water no two pictures will be the same. 

Turned Back At Gull Rock
Madeleine Dinkel, c. 1985
Numerous single sheets unbound in folder

This piece of Calligraphy work reminded me of something I had seen in a sketch book. The foreground colour is black whilst the background colours were a pink and turquoise. It instantly gave me an idea of what I could do. 

I could write the same negative word over a sheet of paper, or maybe multiple negative words in a pattern. Then I could place a piece of acetate on top an write positive words in bigger letters. The positive words are meant to override the negative words, making them seem smaller, which in reality they are. This piece of work would also convey a message, that you shouldn't listen to the negative unless its constructive and concentrate more on the positive. 

'Fear no more th' heat o' the sun'
Ann Hechle 1987
Ink and gold leaf on a parchment. single sheet, mounted.

Even though the text is taken from a Shakespeare's 'Cymbeline' this piece of parchment had the same effect on me as the previous art work, Turned Back At Gull Rock. I had the idea of using words to empower people, maybe mixing them with negative words, but making the positive words override the negative.   

The Minamoto warrior Katoka Hachire Xylotane
Kuniyoshi 1843-6


This Japanese painting is relatively simple. This piece of work attracted me because it reminded me of the country side and beautiful views.I love landscape work because of the space they convey. This is one of two pieces that are similar to each other but done by different artists. They both use bright colours and simplistic shapes.

After looking through all the pictures I took I decided to use three of the art pieces; both of the 'Grey poem' Pieces and the raging sea piece. All three of these Artworks brought out emotions in me. They Also have personal meanings to me. I might still experiment with the other pieces of work, but my final piece will be based on three art works from the museum.