EXAM: Rich Pellegrino (Possible Artist)

Rich Pellegrino 

Rich Pellegrino is an artist currently working in Boston, MA. He is a graduate of the Rhode Island School for Design and has been exhibiting nationally since 2006. (http://www.richpellegrino.com/bio.php)

Pellegrino's portrait paintings and illustrations of film and television characters, in my opinion are very colourful, aesthetically pleasing and they certainly catch your eye. I hope to produce similar pieces that include mark-making techniques, which incorporate my exam question of Adventure. I hope to do this as I want to include portraits of characters from familiar adventure films.

Paintings

 Second Coming of Shaun (Simon Pegg as Shaun in Shaun of the Dead portrait)
(http://www.richpellegrino.com/index.php?sec=1&id=191&page=1)

Scorcese's De Niro (Robert De Niro portraits)
(http://www.richpellegrino.com/index.php?sec=1&id=191&page=1)

 (portrait of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) (http://www.richpellegrino.com/index.php?sec=1&id=191&page=1)

 Vader (Darth Vader from Star Wars film franchise) (http://www.richpellegrino.com/index.php?sec=1&id=191&page=1)

 Good Housekeeping. No Quest (portrait of Will Ferrell) (http://www.richpellegrino.com/index.php?sec=1&id=191&page=1)

 Marty (Marty McFly from Back To The Future) (http://www.richpellegrino.com/index.php?sec=1&id=191&page=1)

 Ed (Nick Frost as Ed in Shaun Of The Dead) (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/ed-shaun-of-the-dead-original-painting)

 Doc Brown (from Back To The Future) (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/doc-brown)

Illustrations

Darth Vader ink drawing (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/darth-vader-original-drawing)

Yoda (Star Wars) Ink Drawing (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/yoda-original-drawing)

 Mr. Blume (from the film Rushmore) ink drawing (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/mr-blume-drawing)

Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver) ink drawing (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/travis-bickle-taxi-driver-original-drawing)

Pellegrino also paints and illustrates television stars and here are a few as an example. I hope to eventually incorporate adventure television characters in my pieces, as well as film stars.

 Jesse (Breaking Bad) ink drawing (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/breaking-jesse-drawing)

 Heisenberg (Breaking Bad) ink drawing (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/heisenberg-drawing)

 Jesse (Breaking Bad) painting (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/breaking-jesse-original)

Heisenberg (Breaking Bad) painting (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/heisenberg-walter-white-breaking-bad)

 The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith in Doctor Who) painting (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/the-11th-doctor-dr-who)

Bazinga (Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory) (http://richpellegrino.com/index.php?sec=1&id=192&page=1)

Lastly, featured in Pellegrino's work are portraits of famous musicians. If I wanted to consider looking more into pop culture, I would certainly begin to consider paintings inspired by these.

All Together Now (The Beatles) (http://richpellegrino.com/index.php?sec=1&id=182&page=1)

The Beatles (#2) (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/the-beatles)

 James Brown (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/james-brown-original-painting)

 Ray Charles (http://richpellegrino.bigcartel.com/product/ray-charles-original-painting)

COURSEWORK: Formal Analysis: Cy Twombly

http://www.cytwombly.info/twombly_gallery.htm

This piece of work was created by the American artist, Cy Twombly. He was born in Virginia, United States on April 25, 1928. Twombly was a painter of large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic and graffiti-like works. At age 12, Twombly began to take private art lessons with the Spanish modern master Pierre Daura. After graduating from Lexington High School in 1946, Twombly attended Darlington School in Rome, Georgia, and studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1948–49), and at Washington and Lee University (1949–50) in Lexington, Virginia. Twombly studied at the Art Students League of New York, where he met Robert Rauschenberg, who encouraged him to attend Black Mountain College near Asheville where he studied with artists such as Franz Kline and Ben Shahn. When Twombly moved to Rome in 1957, he met Italian artist Baroness Tatiana Franchetti. whom he married at City Hall in New York in 1959. Twombly, who had suffered from cancer for many years, unfortunately died in Rome in 2011 on the 5th July. Twombly soon developed a technique of gestural drawing that was characterized by thin white lines on a dark canvas that appear to be scratched onto the surface. Erotic and corporeal symbols became more prominent, whilst a greater lyricism developed in his 'Blackboard paintings'. In the mid-1970s, in paintings such as Untitled (1976), Twombly began to evoke landscape through colour (favouring brown, green and light blue), written inscriptions and collage elements. Together with Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, Twombly is regarded as the most important representative of a generation of artists who distanced themselves from abstract expressionism.

Twombly was well known for using oil paint and using a combination of oil and collage to build up layers in his pieces. The piece of work that I am going to analyse is Victory, created in 1984, made from oil stick, oil paint, pencil and collage. When looking at this piece, you immediately notice the feature shape in the centre, which is made up of a piece of paper that has been folded in an imprecise manner. The end result of this way of folding the paper, produces two triangle shapes which are adjacent to each other. There are marks that have been made on the paper, which looks like pencil and ink. The paper looks old, and this could refer to an old document. This then allowed the piece to relate to my theme of divorce and marriage as I thought the 'document style' piece of paper could represent an old divorce paper. Next you may notice the tonal background, which is an off-white. This is commonly used in Twombly's pieces so it's no surprise that this colour background is featured in this piece. This piece also features pastel blue lettering, which is also something regularly seen in his work. The lettering, which looks as if it has been done with Twombly's irregular writing hand, makes up the name of the piece. This has also been done in many of Twombly's pieces such as, Proteus (1984) and Apollo (1975). Featured in this piece is also small pencil marks located at the top and bottom of the piece. The marks look like they could resemble small letters however, without seeing the piece up close, it is difficult to tell. 

I am unsure about the form of this piece of work because I haven't seen it up close, therefore I cannot tell whether it is 2D or 3D. There is no shadow on the lower triangle, which does lead me to think that the piece is 2D, however I cannot be sure. The piece measures up to roughly 168 x 119cm, so the size of the folded paper must have been quite big, as it takes up the majority of the piece. There are no real obvious tonal differences in this piece, as all the colours which have been used are either pastel or tonal. 
The immediate component of the piece which you are drawn to look at first is the folded centre piece, this then leads you to look at the lettering as it is the next object in order in terms of size. The viewers eyes are then leaded to the rest of the piece, e.g. the small pencil marks. 

The term victory, means a success or a win at something against an opponent. In November 1984, in the USA, there was the 50th quadrennial presidential election between President Ronald Reagan, who was victorious, and Vice President Walter Mondale. Reagan's 525 electoral votes (out of 538) is the highest total ever received by a presidential candidate, which is considered a huge accomplishment. If Victory was created after this election, this may be the answer as to why the piece was created. The large piece of folded paper in the centre of the piece may resemble a voting form, which was used to vote for Ronald Reagan. As Twombly was American, this could be the reason behind this piece, despite him living with his wife in Rome at the time.
Another victory which almost took place in 1984 was in May and this was at the European World Cup match between England and Italy. As Twombly lived in Italy, he may have supported Italy during this time. This piece may have been produced before the match, with Twombly expecting a win. Unfortunately, Italy lost to 4-3 to penalties, after drawing 1-1 in the match.

I find all of Twombly's work very interesting to look at and to attempt to work in the style of an this piece was not exception. I attempted to put in my theme and change the word Victory to Divorce and make the folded piece of paper look like an old divorce paper. 

COURSEWORK: Experimental Art Work (in the style of Cy Twombly and Antonio Tapies)

COURSEWORK: Observational Photographs

Markings made from wallpaper that was previously there on a wall in my house.

 Graffiti on a small building near a restaurant on the A444, Nuneaton.

Graffiti on a door that I found in London, near the River Thames.

Close up of graffiti that I found near The London Eye, London

Olympic-rejecting graffiti in an empty alleyway near the River Thames

Broken wood with markings on it in my garage

Paint marks on my kitchen wall

Paint marks on my kitchen wall

 Marks on a door frame in my living room

A crack near my bathroom which has a few marks near it.

A paint mark on the wallpaper in my kitchen.

A face that has been drawn on my bathroom door frame by somebody with a permanent marker. 

Worn away paint on some wood.

Black crayon mark.

Mark on my Mum's bedroom door.

Writing on my Mum's bedroom door, which has been painted over.

Marks on my Mum's bedroom door.

 Mark on my Mum's bedroom door.

Mark on my Mum's bedroom door.

Pen marks and old drawings in mine and my sister's room from when we were younger.

 Pen marks and old drawings in mine and my sister's room from when we were younger.

 Pen marks and old drawings in mine and my sister's room from when we were younger.

 White paint splat on the wooden door in the living room.

Old wood flooring that is beginning to wear away