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COLOUR, LIGHT & LOCATION
Dylan Bedford | RGSHW | A Level Investigation
Naïve Art
After resolving a piece from Stella and Knapp, and learning about their use of colour and light, I am going to move onto Naïve art to really get a feel of what makes a place.
By looking at Stephen Knapp and Frank Stella I have learnt how to portray a place, my research into them has been very much about their technical methods. However, they are not place specific and have more been about physical methods of using colour and light.
Therefore, I will be moving onto looking at Naïve art and specifically the street art in Cape Town.
Naïve art is art that is made by artists who weren’t formally trained and so the nature of the piece is not to show technical proficiency.
The purpose of the street art in Cape Town is to appeal to the many tourists, the point is to make a souvenir which is so uniquely ‘Cape Town’.
These paintings are such a good example of portraying a sense of place as that is their exact role. They concentrate down all the aspects of what visiting Cape Town is like into a small painting.
While Stella and Knapp have shown me techniques of using colour and light. If we forget about techniques, naïve art shows what makes a place.
Examples of the street art in Cape Town
From inspecting these pieces, I have concluded that there are 4 things which are common in all of them. I believe that you wouldn’t be able show what a place is like without including any of these.
• Human Surrounding • People • Natural Surrounding • Colour
Human Surrounding – Buildings and products which are in that place, i.e., certain brands, buildings etc. The inclusion of the ‘Townships’ represent that in addition with the use of metal cans from that area.
People – The community and culture are very important to someone’s experience of an area. By definition, a place is not a place without any human attachment. All the paintings depict the communities as it’s a big part of what that place is about.
Natural Surrounding – The physical landscape throughout history has always had a huge effect on humans. Settlements form based on proximity to water, fertility of the soil, ease of access and many more factors and Table Mountain is a vital part of the identity of Cape Town if not its most defining feature. Which is why it is included in the background.
Colour – As I have learnt through my whole investigation, the effects of colour cannot be ignored, the bright blue skies in the day and the rich orange sunsets are a big part of Cape Town. Even in the Townships where there is not a lot of money, people invest in painting their homes. The deep orange sunsets or the bright blue sky is shown in all the artworks.
While the naïve artists on the streets of Cape Town might not have amazing technical ability, they are able to make good souvenirs by being able to concentrate down the essence of a huge city into a small painting.
Response
Above are my media experiments, I first tried to get a feel for the technique by copying a Cape Town example. However, I then made one personal to where I live. I used the four factors to decide what contributes to Marlow’s sense of place. I decided that the green rolling hills and the Thames are the most defining natural characteristics. Additionally, I went with a colder colour palette as greens and blue are more predominant in this area as opposed to the reds in South Africa. As a small detail I tried to make the birds resemble kites more than seagulls.
Distinctive features of Marlow
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