I am writing this blog in order to create my own moving and developing online version of a visual Journal. The sketchbook for me is the highlight of a project, from the research and the links forged, through to the journey of an idea, I am happily filled with a sense of excitement and purpose, I revel in the unravelling of information and in the development and articulation of the idea and spend hours filtering through sources in order to explain my intentions and let others know the map I have created in my own mind. The sketchbook process allows me to absorb my environment and contemplate my world, it allows me to grow and changes my path every time. To challenge myself in this final year I am endeavoring to try a new way of sharing and archiving my journey, putting aside the pritstick and Scissors, pulling up my chair and putting on my glasses this will now be my Sketchbook.
So here it begins a diary of the idea, growing and moving as I go forward with the project. It is what it is. What it will become ... I have no idea and to you the viewer I make no apologies.

Joseph Derby

Joseph Derby
Cottage on Fire at Night, oil on canvas, ca. 1785-1793

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Apocalypse

Apocalypse
Moving forward with my project I am returning to the landscape in its dramatic form, looking at the negative sublime and apocalyptic imagery. My dissertation theme is placed with in the historical notion of the gothic landscape and its reinterpretation into contemporary art, looking at the hyper-real. My studies will be centered in Apocalyptic landscape and I will be looking at literature, film, photography and painting.  The following artists create fantastical, post apocalyptic, and fear invoking environments, covering a range of mediums.
Emily Nelligan American Draughtsman, born 1924    
 Each drawing is a testimony of what she breathed that day.
I love the atmospheric style of Emily Nelligan's drawings, the minimal detail and vast tonal range creates deep and turbulent landscapes. The sense of scale is dependent on the viewers imagination as there is nothing to compare it too, however the depth created tonally gives me the impression of a huge void and therefore creates a negative sublime - the notion of the last days, the end even.
Adam Hancher Illustrator
Adam Hancher's illustration style lends itself to the idea of fantastical make believe lands with a negative twist. I love the limited palette that adds to the gloomy dystopia, the tree stumps litter the foreground as the rain pours down.

Hisaharu Motoda's Neo Ruins
A series of lithographs depicting the cityscape of a post apocalyptic tokyo. The graphic quality of this work is what has drawn me in,  The fine detail adds to the chaos and turmoil, yet the emptiness allows the eye freedom to roam over the destruction peacefully and quietly. The antique look of the lithographic medium effectively amps up the eeriness of the futuristic setting. "In Neo-Ruins I wanted to capture both a sense of the world's past and of the world's future," says Motoda on his website.
Goya El Coloso
This image was described by Baudelaire as 'giving the monstrosity the ring of truth'.