BRICE MARDEN

Study for the Muses (Hydra Version)

"A web of curved lines, painted with long, thin brushes and twigs, fills the picture plane. The subtle, deliberate rhythms of the grey and black lines evoke the idea of organic growth, alluding to the natural world."

I just listened to a interview with the artist by Gary Garrels, curator of Brice Marden: A Retrospective of Paintings and Drawings, discussing the artist's work and exhibition. Although it was rather long winded it helped me to understand his way of working and thought process a little better. The interview can be found here.

THE DARK KNIGHT - JOHN CAGLIONE

MUA John Caglione created the make-up look for Heath's character The Joker in film The Dark Knight. He took a huge influence from Francis Bacon in his designs. He used a technique which he refers to as 'dance', "Heath would lead by contouring his face, scrunching his eyes, and raising his forehead. I would follow, brushing the colours over his expressions." Seeing the outcome that can be achieved with this technique has given me inspiration to explore it further in my designs.

This this the Bacon image that Caglione says he took most inspiration from


Heath Ledger as The Joker

EXPERIMENTS IN THE STUDIO

These make-up experiments where inspired by the work of artists Matisse and Pollock.

What appeals to me about Matisse's work is the heavy texture he works with. The distinctive marks look as though they have been created by applying the paint with a spatula.

Pollocks work is really spontaneous and also layered with heavy texture, I worked this look over the previous experiments.

Thanks to Ted Park for the photography and my POOR little sister Ely for letting me encase her face in paper then chuck paint and all sorts all over her!!

CHUCK CLOSE

Chuck Close uses finger prints to create entire portraits!

PICASSO INSPIRED SHOOT

Design idea

"God is really another artist. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things." Pablo Picasso

BANCON INSPIRED MAKE-UP VIDEO

"Bacon carries forward the traditional format of portraiture to produce simultaneously brutal and beautiful images"

CLICK here TO WATCH IT

In this short video piece I look at ways of distorting the face using make-up and other materials.