Contextual Influences in Art and Design : March 2014

Edouard Manet
Portrait by: Nadar
Year: 1874

Impressionism started in the late 1860s in France, it began by a group of friends – Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Sisley and Degas. When they used to meet, they used to talk about situations that were happening in that time. These kind of artists were more interested in the effect of light than the real scene, that’s why they used to paint outside. They also used to leave strokes visible by which they used to get criticized for their unfinished work.

During that time Edouard Manet and friends brought up another revolution, that included the rendering of colours which is compared to the revolution about representation of forms, which was brought up by the Greeks. That time the artist didn't want to exhibit there but they were forced by the jury, people that time went in a rush to see their work and people laughed at the artist. Because of that Manet got really annoyed so he went looking for inspiration from the Pre-Raphaelites to the great Venetians Giorgione to titan and towards the nineteenth century by Goya.

Some painters in that time joined to help Manet, among them was a poor young man Claude Monet from Le Havre. Monet`s idea was that all paintings of nature had to be done on the spot. He used to paint as the older painters by first applying a brown base and then continued working with rapid strokes.

Name: The balcony Name: Group on a balcony
Year: 1868-1869 Year: 1810-1815 Artist: Edouard Manet Artist: Francisco Goya

This painting is a challenge that he did through inspiration from a painting that Goya did. There are lots of differences between one drawing and another the heads are not modelled in any manner, solid bodies and flat heads. All he wanted to do is to express the shadow and light.

Name: The Races at Longchamp
Year: 1865
Artist: Edouard Manet

In this drawing Manet wanted to give out the impression of light, speed and movement by giving out forms emerging out of the confusion.

Name: Monet working in his boat
Year: 1874
Artist Edourd Manet

He visited Monet and he was impressed by the youngs man method so he paintied this as a tribute, by showing Monet while working in his open-air studio

Name: Gare St-Lazre
Year: 1877
Artist: Claude Monet

Here in this painting Monet wasn't interested in the railway station but he was amazed from the effects that were coming through the glass roof .

2000-2014. HeilBrunn TimeLine of Art History [online] Available at: <http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm> [accessed on 28th march,2014]

The second exhibition that I went to was held at the St. James Cavalier, From the 21^st February till the 30^th March. The exhibition was called “Xebgha Nies” which included these various artists; Debbie Caruana Dingli, Andrew Diacono, Marisa Attard, Steve Bonello, Moira Zahra, Mark Scicluana, Paul Scerri, Saviour Baldacchino and Kenneth Zammit Tabona.

This is the work of Debbie Caruana Dingli, as you can see here she uses a lot of dark colours such as Black, Brown and Blue. When she needs to gives a focal point to something in her drawings, she uses the colour yellow or she made the colours lighter. Her themes of the drawings are showing real life stories that are happening all around the world.

Name: Nightmare
Medium: Oil Paint

Name: Dying to meet you Minister
Medium: Oil Paint

Name: Race against Time
Medium: Oil Paint

Name: Scouting for a Portrait Head
Medium: Oil Paint

Name: Coffee Break
Medium: Oil Paint

Name: Thirteen O'clock
Medium: Oil Paint

This is the work of Mark Scicluna, as you can see here he drew in an illustration the way where you can change anything you wanted and to which size you like - big or small. He didn’t fill all the paper with colour but only some parts which he thought it was important in the scene.

Name: Cerva Maltija Name: Ir-Ragel Pastizz Name: La Tiznix
Medium: Indian Ink, Medium: Indian Ink, Medium: Indian Ink,
Gouache and watercolour Gouache and watercolour Gouche and watercolour
on aged paper on aged paper on aged paper.

Name: Wahdi fl-ispazju Name: It-Tewmin tal-Muzew Name: L-Immigrant Abjad
Medium: Indian Ink and Medium: Indian Ink and Medium: Indian Ink
Gouache on aged paper Gouache on aged paper on aged paper.

Name: Il-Maduma Name: L-Ewwel Malti fl-ispazju Name: Harry Houdini
Medium: Indian Ink, Medium: Indian Ink, Medium: Indian Ink
Gouache on aged paper Gouache and watercolour on aged paper.

on aged paper

This is the work of Andrew Diacono, his works are based on paintings and sculptures. His paintings are not painted on a normal canvas but on a piece of wood where some are 2D and some are 3D. As for the sculptures, they are made from materials which were recycled like metal and bronze.

Name: Clown
Medium: Mixed media

Name: Musician
Medium: Bronze

Name: Man on penny farthing
Medium: Mixed media

Name: Mother and child
Medium: Mixed media relief

Name: Family
Medium: Relief on wood

Name: Guitarist
Medium: Oils on wood

This is the work of Paul Scerri, his work consists from ceramics or stone. He does his work by working with figures and for every one of them are the quotes that describes them. In every figure he used the colour gold, to indicate that that’s the most important part of it.

Name: The braggart
Quote: Open your mind before your mouth

Name: The Skeleton key
Quote: That key for that cupboard

Name: Cat's cradle
Quote: No damn cat no damn cradle

Name: A taxidermist's dream
Quote: Stuff them all before extinction

Name: Eva
Quote: Might as well

Name: Who am i
Quote: Anon

Name: The entrepreneur
Quote: Deep pockets and shallow

This is the work of Kenneth Zammit Tabona, his work signifies a day which in every year has to be done. In some of his work he lets the colour of the paper as part of the drawing, while the other colour is all bright.

Name: The adoration of the cross
Medium: Watercolour

Name: The Bach Chaconne
Medium: Watercolour

Name: The piano Lesson
Medium: Watercolour

This is the work of Saviour Baldacchino, some of his works are relative stories in our religion but painted in a modern way. The colours that he uses are warm colours like black, browns and reds.

Name: Aim at seb
Medium: Oil Paint

Name: Torment of Anthony
Medium: Oil Paint

Name: Last dinner
Medium: Oil Paint

Name: Breast of Agatha
Medium: Oil Paint

Name: The good and the evil
Medium: Oil Paint

Name: Pride of George
Medium: Mixed media on board

This is the work of Steve Bonello, his work looks like a vintage drawing. He is also showing some things that have to do with Malta. The colours that he uses in his drawings are really light and retro; he uses a lot of browns and yellows.

Name: The citadel Madonna
Medium: Technical pens, coloured inks and
polychrome pencils

Name: Cecilia and Herbert
Medium: Technical pens and coloured inks

Name: In-Nemmiesa
Medium: Technical pens, Coloured inks and
polychrome pencils

Name: Il-poeta tan-Natura
Medium: Technical pens and coloured inks

Name: Imbeciles sans Frontiers
Medium: Technical pens and coloured inks

Name: Arena
Medium: Technical pens, coloured inks and
polychrome pencils

This is the work of Moira Zahra, in her work she is describing the world of woman showing elegance and beauty. In the background of the drawing she is using cold colours but then she is identifying the most important one with a red vibrant colour and some of them are only done with black colour ink. If you look closely, in every drawing she always added an insect in the scene.

Name: Down town
Medium: Pencil, Indian Ink and watercolour

Name: Weekend with the Grandma
Medium: Pencil, Indian Ink and watercolour

Name: Backstage
Medium: Pencil, Indian Ink and watercolour

Name: Encounters
Medium: Pencil and Indian Ink

Name: 5 pm
Medium: Pencil and Indian Ink

This is the work of Marisa Attard, here she is showing different scenes of life that real people do in their routine. They are done in an illustrative way so the scene can be changed and manipulated; the colours are really bright and colourful.