Module 3. Assignment 4. The little house of wire.......

The next question asks us to interpret the style of any of the artists we have looked at in this module and to come up with an interpretation in our own style using any materials we like. The subject of the picture must be taken from, or relate to one of the photographs used in assignment 2.

My first Photo I chose was the Aldeburgh sunset.




I adore everything about this photograph. It was taken at the start of an idyllic weekend. The sun was bright orange, reflected here in the grass, the sky was pink and the cowslips in the foreground were luminous green.

The style I have chosen to follow with this painting is probably closest to Matisse. The vibrancy of the colours are in his style as is the fact that the composition is kept simple. I have kept the colours fairly accurate to nature but they look pretty unnatural and were a rare sight to see so I think he may well have painted them as seen as well. I have used soft pastels which I think keep the colours nice and soft and they are obviously easy to blend together.










The second piece I chose to make struck me after reading about Alexander Calder. His wind defying sculptures were wonderful to see and I especially liked his earlier work of scenes of people, circuses etc all in wire and found objects. The work by artist Lucy Casson whose work I so greatly admired at the recent Smile exhibition is very reminiscent of his work.

Alexander Calder was a great friend of Miros. I found this out today whilst listening to the excellent audio guide at the Tate Modern. In fact you could probably imagine they were friends as some of Alexanders sculptures look like 3D Miro pictures.










In fact Miro was inspired to paint Message from a friend after receiving a letter from Alexander Calder. Alexander had put an arrow on the front of the envelope pointing upwards to indicate that the letter should go by airmail.

Miro liked this imagery and painted a huge black mound with a red " tail" on his canvas. The black mound and the red tail, or point were symbolising the arrow. Miros pointed down. I wonder if that was because that was the direction the letter would have had to end up going to reach him.

After reading about Alexander Calders work I immediately was inspired to use wire work for my next piece. I was once a florist and also have done a jewellery making course so wire is something I have quite a lot of. I have attempted to make sculptures and things from wire before but not so complicated as this piece which was actually supposed to be recognisable.

The picture I chose was the seafront at Aldeburgh again. This photograph to me is so inspiring and also represents somewhere I am very happy.







These I images and Alexander Calders wire fish were to be the inspiration for my wire houses.

Here are Alexander Calders wire fish:




And here are my wire houses in all their various stages until they reach the sea shore.















The coloured areas they are sat on represent the colours of the houses in the photograph. The buttons are the muted colours of the stones on the beach. The two outside houses are made in Copper wire and the prominent. Central blue house is made from green florist wire. I like the effect of the different colours although if I did it again I would probably use a darker wire as it is easier to see in the finished article. The copper is much easier to work with though so I was thinking about wrapping masking tape around it and painting it.

I am really enjoying the way my mind is expanding in a sculptural way and I hope to use wire again very soon.