Choosing option 3 which is suggesting to draw floral designs and create new sketches and new material, the old thoughts about depiction and how much I was haunted from drawing, have came back in an instant! But then ,reflecting on everything I have created during my study on ATV so far, pieces in quantity beyond my imagination ,in an extend and a variety than I have never (ever) done in my life before, made me confess that this has been a fear I have mastered, a fear that is not there any more!!!

Being relatively new to the whole painting process, it was difficult to know where to start initially. My way to overcome this standstill moment,that hesitancy ,is to choose, as a starting point, a subject that means something to me: a subject that excites me and inspires me.That way I would like to get involved even more , to feel impelled to express myself and in my opinion, my work would be more authentic and heartfelt.

Considering of what the brief is asking me to do having in mind my research in my previous page , my thoughts went straight to Van Gogh’s flowers again!

Vincent’s vision and drawing perspective has been a great inspiration for me.

I share the same interest on sunflowers as he did .

I find them such unique and graceful magical blooms that follow the sun’s route on the sky during summer time where they are in their prime! How beautiful the Greek landscape looks like when you are driving through yellow fields , noticing them standing tall and proud worshiping the sun! So many sweet memories, too many beautiful pictures from the past coming in front of me thinking about them!

Having nothing planned, I’ve made my research of Vincent Van Gogh’s use of colour and drawing techniques (things utterly unknown for me initially). Then, I’ve uploaded the following piece of art as a guideline to my hand and fantasy.

Sonnenblumen Sunflowers  third version: blue green (Munich museum).
Artist
Vincent van Gogh
Dating
1888

The concept is simple: a vase, sunflowers , and lots lots of colours (shades of his favorite ones in particular)! Yellow ,ocher, mustard, piccalilli… all sorts! Wanted to be playful and experimental with pigments but also with brushes , sponges or even bubble wrap!

Here is my version of it:

Then, going forward, I’ve started asking myself questions to challenge my creativity in order to push my work even more,further down to see where this goes ,by querying : What if?

What if I make the vase longer?

What if I use grey and yellow background?

What if I make the floor the vase stands on a darker colour?

What if I change the background where the flowers displaying into black?

What if the vase is in a trapezium form?

What if I make the background colour tonal to match the sunflowers this time?

what if I zoom into the vase and have a closer look of the sunflowers?

what if I have a fern wreath around my sunflowers placed in a boat like pot?

Having a sense of fulfillment and the impression the subject is covered, I went back to a previous drawing I’ve done during my early stages on ATV, showing a single tree, using black and white only and asked myself the same question: What if I apply the technique I’ve used to draw the vases?

Setting is different this time. Portrait form instead of landscape.

Scenery is different as well. Blue sky and the tree stands on the top a hill.

Poppies and yellow fields and mountains are surrounding the tree.

What if I make the tree trunk wider?

What if I made the tree bigger?

What if the sky is darker?

What if the field where the tree stands is Van Gogh’s yellow?

What if I zoom into the tree and look into the branches?

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Another project I wanted to take forward and re work on it is my dandelions:

What if I used the same pallet as the one I’ve used for the vases as well as the same drawing technique?

Going back to trees and landscapes , always filtering through Vincent’s work I came up with my last few pieces:

The first one is loosely referred to Van Goghs olive trees under the sun series of paintings , which again brings to me a lot of memories of the glorious Greek summer . The sun is the king of the scenery and it is blessing the world under it’s warm rays.

My illustrated saplings loosely refer to olive trees (another element of a Greek landscape) but, my intention wasn’t to replicate the paintings or the olive trees themselves: I was intrigued to play with colours and to show a bit of life in ,what I think, an interesting landscape. Trees are again my focus as we were asked to work on floral elements, but having the whole scenery as a frame I think it adds more depth and detail into it and I think it will give me more components and ideas to work on my next assignments. Sun was deliberately drawn like a sunflower so it creates a straight connection to the previous work.

For for my next piece of work I had no doubt on what I wanted to focus on …

I couldn’t resist to experiment on one of his most acclaimed and famous paintings:STARRY NIGHT!

Since day one when I conceived the idea of working on Vincent Van Gogh’s genius masterpieces as a reference, looking back and forth on his paintings I couldn’t help my urge to work on this particular one:

The Starry Night is an oil on canvas painting by Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village. It has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941, acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. Widely regarded as Van Gogh’s magnum opus,The Starry Night is one of the most recognized paintings in Western art.

source: Wikipedia

There is a tree silhouette on display , a cypress, a plant where I feel in my current circumstances very close to me and it can link back to my assignment, so, I thought it would be worth to give it a try and make my own version of it with full respect on what I’m dealing with as I didn’t want to confront ,or even assault with artistic audacity this magnificent piece of work in any way but to make a study on it by (in a way) deconstructing it (so I find how it is made) and reconstructing it under my own view.

I had to go back and forth on this piece many times: I had to add more or change details , reshape the cypress many times, add more colour and depth to it ;all this work helped me understand the process a lot more, gave me more patience on the procedures , made me understand the use of gouache and allowed me to realize what trial and error is and how I’m able use it to learn more.

“Nobody is born with a style or a voice. We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes. We learn by copying.”
― Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist

There is a lot of explanation on why for my last piece I didn’t use my own voice to create something unique and why I got into the mood of following other peoples work.

In Greek mythology, Cyparissus or Kyparissos (Ancient Greek: Κυπάρισσος, “cypress”) was a boy beloved by Apollo, or in some versions by other deities. In the best-known version of the story, the favorite companion of Cyparissus was a tamed stag, which he accidentally killed with his hunting javelin as it lay sleeping in the woods. The boy’s grief was such that it transformed him into a cypress tree, a classical symbol of mourning. The myth is thus aetiological in explaining the relation of the tree to its cultural significance.

source: Wikipedia.

A cypress growing in my garden inspired me to capture my own version of it under the influence of

”Starry night”

Where I’m coming from, cypress has a great substance . It is an evergreen tree you can spot in grave yards all over the country. People plant them when they are grieving a loss, not only because of the old tradition related to the myth mentioned above, but also, because its resin weeping bark resembles human tears…In my case, I didn’t plant any cypresses at all, but, I’ve managed to use this opportunity, this painting, to draw one: I’ve lost my mother few months ago and my own Cyparissus , cypress, painted on my version of ”Starry Night”, is dedicated to her memory…

Vincent was suffering for his sanity and drawing became an escape for him ; drawing had offered to me in this occasion the same feeling.

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Concluding project 1 and reflecting on my work , I’m able to spot that there can be lot of big/small objections on my drawing style and on my paintings: I’ve never claimed to be a painter anyway.

I find the fact I got carried away with my enthusiasm and I ended up drawing multiple vases and flowers which are familiar but they have a twist in all of them a fruitful study.

Some might bring doubt and skepticism to if my work is adequate and its lacking imagination and personal voice.

But then,considering where I’ve started and where I’ve ended up to, a poem came to my mind which captures what I’m realizing when I’m looking back to my study:

The First Step

The young poet Evmenis
complained one day to Theocritus:
“I’ve been writing for two years now
and I’ve composed only one idyll.
It’s my single completed work.
I see, sadly, that the ladder
of Poetry is tall, extremely tall;
and from this first step I’m standing on now
I’ll never climb any higher.”
Theocritus retorted: “Words like that
are improper, blasphemous.
Just to be on the first step
should make you happy and proud.
To have reached this point is no small achievement:
what you’ve done already is a wonderful thing.
Even this first step
is a long way above the ordinary world.
To stand on this step
you must be in your own right
a member of the city of ideas.
And it’s a hard, unusual thing
to be enrolled as a citizen of that city.
Its councils are full of Legislators
no charlatan can fool.
To have reached this point is no small achievement:
what you’ve done already is a wonderful thing.”

CONSTANTINE P. CAVAFY (Greek poet 1863-1933)

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Someone else could also say I have turned the whole study too personal and too emotional. But in my opinion this what art is.

Depending on the circumstances helps people express their feelings, takes people journeys to the unknown(their own subconscious) becomes a safety net ,offers comfort, redemption , catharsis, support and solace.

Project 1 has offered me all the above ;

As far my learning curve is concerned,

• I can confess I have acquired drawing in my arsenal of skills and I’ve got the confidence that can I apply this (up to a certain point) expertise to express myself .

• I have the sense I’m learning in a faster pace covering a broader area of different subjects .

• I have discovered that there is a universe of brewing beliefs and objectives waiting to be created : getting in the mood of conceiving an idea and using art as a medium gives birth to them.Working on the drawings displayed above, made me realize I have just scratched the surface!

• Drawing ,as an creative art has certain procedures certain steps ,certain rules.

• Last , but not least ,by analyzing and observing(even copying), I’ve got a glimpse of Vincent Van Goghs everlasting genius !!!