Drawing + Making Artists

LUCINDA ROGERS

The first artist I looked at for this module and probably most important to my work is Lucinda Rogers, a British Illustrator; working in London. The thing that stood out to me most about Rogers’ work is that she works on location; from eye to paper. This process gives her work a somewhat spontaneous feel, and a strong sense of familiarity. There’s a depth to her art work beyond a simple replication of her surroundings; Her illustrative style gives her audience the opportunity to step back and view more intimate and perhaps previously unseen details of the world around us.

I related to Lucida Rogers work for its city setting; I also wanted to try drawing from life more in order to develop my own illustrative style. It was her commissioned works for The House of Illustration that spoke to me the most; during these works she captures the ever-changing landscapes of London, the people and things that make up the city. I wanted to something similar through my work, but in relation to Bristol; Rogers work was especially influential to my smaller Drawing Life sketchbook. In this sketch book I tried to work only on location, using the same eye to page style as Lucinda Rogers does in her artwork. By doing this I learned a lot about my own drawing style, as well as refining it and began to notice smaller visual details of my own life that I would usually ignore.

PATRICK CAULFIELD

Caulfield was an English Painter and Printmaker known for his iconic bold and vibrant canvases. His work often used elements of photorealism hidden within simple line drawn landscapes. He was associated with the Pop-Art movement after his participation in “the new generation” exhibition at the White Chapel gallery in 1964; however, he rejected this label throughout his career, choosing to think of himself as a ‘formal artist’. Yet it’s easy to see the connections between the work of Patrick Caulfield and the big names in Pop Art especially as Keith Haring and Roy Lichenstien.

What drew me to Caulfield’s artwork was the bold colours and thick lines; and illustrative style within his work. I was especially influenced by his acrylic paintings; Tandoori Restaurant, After Lunch and Sun Lounge. These specific paintings stood out to me because of the clear representation of their place and subject, the clarity of lines within the illustration style painting and their almost flat, two-dimensional appearance. Another thing that drew me to this work was the use of colour to break up the paintings, add structure, depth and areas of light and shadow.

Colour is something I am quite uneasy to use within my own work, but Caulfield’s approach to colour within these paintings is very aesthetically pleasing to my eye, and it’s definitely something I plan on experimenting with in the future.

LAURA MCCAFFERTY

Laura McCafferty is a textiles artist, who draws her inspiration from the world around her, more current artworks focus on the abnormalities, and difference in her environments; it is also very much inter-disciplinary work, she uses photography, drawing, text, textile, costume and performance in her creations.

Yet what drew me to McCafferty for inspiration was her earlier artworks, in which she used textile, screen print and hand stitch to create realistic reportage artworks of people, focussing on the everyday and the mundane. I was inspired because of her loose and illustrative approach to textile design.

I see elements of my own drawing style in her early textile works, especially when on the subject of people. Though what appeals to me highly is how McCafferty makes the everyday feel special through her creations; making a simple scene such as hanging out the laundry or getting public transport, frozen and transformed into something special. I also find her process really interesting, and I’d like to try screen printing myself; but I also like to try incorporating more medias into a finished piece, because I’ve always seen myself as more of an interdisciplinary artist but haven’t yet worked out how to combine my preferred mediums into one working art piece.