Art Circle: Chuck Close, Sir William Coldstream, Leonado da Vinci and Grids...

Over the last two sessions we have been experimenting with using grids to copy images, alter scale, isolate sections and to check proportions and relationships of the shapes making up the picture. 

The points of reference below are followed by the group's work.

Self Portrait in Progress:  Chuck Close

Chuck Close, "My paintings are built incrementally, one unit at a time... I push little pieces of paint up against one another. .... and I slowly build these paintings, construct them, in the way someone might crochet or knit."

Bridget Riley:  Hesitate 1964

By altering the height of the grids across the upper middle section, Riley alters how we see a flat surface.  The different tonal values emphasise the optical distortion to create an apparently curved image.

Alberto Giacometti:  sketch book with squared pages

Anyone who knows me will not be surprised that I've included this Giacometti sketch book.  Squared paper... not only grids as guides but perfect for writing and project budgets...

Leonardo da Vinci:  use of grids

Leonardo da Vinci, artist or scientist?  Many describe him as an 'artist-engineer'. His art was scientific and based on a thorough understanding of the human body and rigorous study of the physics of light and shade:  his science was expressed through his drawings which illustrated exactly what he meant and how he understood things to work.

Sir William Coldstream:  use of grids  

Coldstream gives us beautiful examples of how grids can be used to build drawings and paintings and how they become integral to the coherence of the piece.

We will be exploring this approach next week.

Sir William Coldstream:  Reclining Nude 1974 - 76

Graham worked slightly differently:  he found laying the grid over enlarged print-outs of his photographs enabled a more theoretical understanding of what he intuitively found interesting in the composition.

Lovely work, well done everyone.