Artist Research - Foundation Project.

KURT JACKSON

Kurt Jackson, working on scene.

Kurt Jackson is one of the UK’s leading contemporary artists, throughout his work he focusses on natural landscapes often teetering the line between realism and abstract painting. His work revolves around the exploration and documenting of the rugged coastlines and countryside, especially around his home in Cornwall.

What originally drew me to look into Kurt Jackson’s artwork was his commitment to the environment and the protection of it, as a committed environmental campaigner, he often gives his paintings away to charity to help raise funding for further protection of the landscapes his work depicts. His love of the environments is both admirable and clearly evident throughout not only his vast body of work; but also, through his artistic process. Jackson prefers to work outdoors and on site for his paintings, by working in this way he can truly immerse himself in the landscape and the weather allowing him to represent all elements of his natural landscapes; Jackson also incorporates found objects from his work spaces, which lets him capture the essence of his locations even further.

Through looking at Kurt Jacksons artwork I have been inspired to work more on scene, and to immerse myself in my subject matters. I practiced this while producing sketches on the bank of the river Dart. Jacksons work also helped me to relate further to my own subject, finding a sense of home through the representation of natural river landscapes posed with elements of my life in the city.

WALDEMAR STREMPLER

Waldemar Strempler is a German artist, sculptor and graphic designer; known for his collages revolving around the human form. I chose to look at Strempler’s artwork because I’ve always enjoyed the traditional process of collaging with paper and glue, repurposing images and objects to create new artworks, and was interested to see how he created his works using computer software. It was interesting to look through his work and see similarities with my own despite a difference in process and subject matter. I would be quite interested to have a try at digital collaging in the future.

AMANDA FOSHAG

Amanda Foshag is an American sculptor; she also has a background in photography, painting, drawing and digital media.

Her work often draws from aspects of human nature, and her more recent work specifically explore human experiences; drawn from verbal exchanges and face to face interactions, both introspectively and from the observation of others. She considers her work a journey to find a resolve of her emotions around these experiences, using mixed medias; paints, ink, fibers etc, she works intuitively through her process of knotting, binding, crocheting and layering to navigate and understand the human experience, using her artwork to chronicle this journey.

I was first drawn to Foshag’s sculptures for her use of fibrous materials and mixed medias in her work. Despite her concept not being in line with my own focus on the river and finding home, when researching Foshag’s processes I found that the idea of her work as a ‘journey’ to resolve her emotions suited my own work as I too have been using this module as a way to journey to a conclusion of my work.

I've recently begun working on a sculpture of my own, inspired by Foshag's work, I've been using chicken wire as a base for the structure; then making my own felt using natural sheep wool found around my home in Devon, as well as coloured wool to add density and texture to the sculpture. I've then been weaving and binding natural woven wool around the exposed wire; this sculpture is very much a work in progress but having something so practical to work on is helping my work to progress on its journey to a resolved space.