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COLOUR, LIGHT & LOCATION
Dylan Bedford | RGSHW | A Level Investigation
FRANK STELLA
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Frank Stella is a American painter, sculptor and printmaker. I am very interested in his abstract prints which can be seen on the page.
The angular patterns and triangles strongly resemble the shards of Knapp and the shadows on the wall from my light installation. However Stella combines these patterns with a very interesting colour selection which also brings me back to my previous work on colour theory.
Over the decades Stella has worked in many styles and even within his abstract period there is a lot of variation. For example the piece to the right seems much more ordered and uniform than some of the pieces at the top of the page and I find it intriguing, the effect these patterns can have.
Moving on, I would like to try using Stella's style to inform my own work, I want to see if I can replicate this effect whether it be in his style or my own informed style.
Response
MY ATTEMPTS
After looking at Stella's work I wanted to have a go for myself. His work is very clean-cut and uses bright, vibrant colours so I decided to use Adobe Illustrator. This way I could make perfect shapes and arcs.
These are my first attempts, I am not very familiar adobe illustrator and so there was a lot of experimenting involved and there are definitely more efficient ways to do this in the future. However, I am pleased with the result and while the complexity of Stella's work may not be present I think it was a good start. Additionally to play around with colour and what works best I rendered a few versions.
Response 2
Second Response
Stella has produced multiple pieces in this style above, so I tried to do the same but with a different shape. Stella's pieces have an air of perplexity and I think that he achieves this by overlapping things in weird ways so that you cannot get a proper sense of perspective, additionally, he changes the colours of the circle in each square. You can see where I have tried this as a colour may carry into the next box but then changes after that.
This experiment was mainly conducted so that, by producing it myself, I can see how he adds the complexity and how he builds the piece up to his final version.
From Primary Source
From Primary Source
While Stella's designs came from his imagination, I wanted to try and represents an actual place using his style. I did this one digitally too as I think it is the best way to achieve the bright colours and straight lines. Below are the results and below that is the picture of the art room I based it off.
To simplify I removed the perspective so that I could represent the outline of the spiral stairs with two sinusoidal curves. I then heavily stylized the rails of the stairs and the patterns that appear. Additionally I experimented with using different colour palettes, the piece on the left has a limited colour palette of a few colours while I used a wider range for the piece on the right. I really liked this style and the challenge of simplifying down a more complex picture to produce this.
I then decided to make a 3D piece using my digital representation. I did this by printing out both versions twice, flipping it on the second time. I did this to add a sense of perspective and depth. The time lapse shows it from all angles.
Here you can see how I have added a light from underneath, this links back to how Stephen Knapp uses light to make his pieces more dynamic. Additionally, below I made a rudimental experiment using the acetate to add more colour and more of a glow. Although it's very rough I like the combination of 'Stella-style' patterns with the light and acetate.
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