Painting without a brush!

Amy Shackleton is an artist who creates magnificent work of art without using a brush. She has a unique way of working. Enjoy the video!

A 10 month drawing

The majority of paintings and drawings take a long time to be completed. However American artist Joe Fenton truly took his time, by taking 10 months to complete one drawing, named Solitude. 

The artist used a mechanical pencil (0.5 mm). He worked daily for 10 hours in order to complete his work. The interesting fact is that he drew each component separately and then joined them as a puzzle to form the final result. 

What is easily evident is the religious factor, despite Joe Fenton not being s religious person.  

Digital Art

Since everything is digitalised, then why not art? Monnet Laurent an eighteen year old from France has created some work of art digitally. Some of her paintings are demonstrated here. 

Personal Sculpture

Recently I went to a friend's house and talked about art and future exhibitions. He is Alexis Kapraras, who is a painter, sculptor and icon painter. He is going to have an exhibition soon and he told me that he wanted to make a man's sculpture.

I offered to help him, although I think he helped me more in many ways. 

I saw this as an opportunity of being a 'model' for an artist. I mainly wanted to see how art is created, what the artist goes through in order to achieve his goal, how long this process takes. It was a life experience for me.

Here I will post various pictures from this personal experience in order to show the progress of this sculpture. 

Alexis, our sculptor, is originally from Cyprus. He currently lives in London with his family. The whole process took place at his house.

Alexis began using wood, clay, a stand, nails, plaster, water, soap and measuring tools (used for thousands of years). He had to be really precise with his measurements. He used simple materials which get the job done and which have been tried and used since the beginning of art!

It is interesting to point out that the whole process took about 25 hours, including the breaks we took, meaning having a cider, some ice cream, crepes, bits and bobs and a chat with Alexi, his wife Athena who is also an artist, Poly (their son) and various friends. 

Of course the interesting part was when I helped with the plaster. It was a long but fantastic process. This part took place in the garden shed whilst listening to classical music. 

Alexis told me that when he is in the shed finalising the sculptures he can only listen to classical music, which you have to be there to understand why. In the mess of the materials there is a calming motion and a sense of creativity.  

Before finalising with the plaster, the clay was inevitably destroyed, reminding me of the Mandala, the Buddhist art which when created is quickly destroyed. However in this case we retain the form through the plaster. 

Using two types of plaster, Alexis slowly chipped of the outer layer of the cast. Slowly but gradually we had the final apocalypse of my head. Whilst it was still clay, I have to confess, I wanted to punch it. This of course changed when I saw the plaster sculpture appear. 

The end result, I am sure everyone will agree, is great and is an exact copy of my head. The details are magnificent and evident. Now all I can do is wait for the coming exhibition and see how Alexis will use this sculpture.

I would just like to thank Alexi for this great experience he gave me and hope that all goes well with the coming exhibition. 

Art and sick

I might not be the best critic of  art and its weird movements. However this form of art is quite eccentric. Art might not have boundaries but producing a painting from sick is, I believe, going over the top. 

The Aesthetic Movement, 1860-1900

Visiting recently the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London, I was intrigued by the exhibition titled "The Cult of Beauty, The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900". This exhibition showed the clear and revolutionary ideal which emerged from the cacophony of styles and theories that bedevilled the world of art and design in the middle years of the 19th century in Britain, i.e. the desire to escape the ugliness and materialism of the era and find a new beauty.

The artists associated with the Aesthetic Movement sought nothing less than the creation of a new kind of art, freed from outworn cultural ideas and moral codes. This gave birth to the idea emphasising "Art for Art's Sake"; art that existed only in order to be beautiful - pictures that did not tell stories or points of morals; sculptures that simply offered visual and tactile delight and dared to hint at sensual pleasures. 

The same daring spirit motivated innovation in design. Avant-garde designers, adopting the new Aesthetic sensibility, transformed the banal and pretentious furnishings of the Victorian middle-class home. Their aim was to make tables,chairs and cabinets worthy of the name 'Art Furniture', to create ceramics, textiles, wallpapers and other manufactures exquisite enough for the houses of Aesthetes.

The Cult of Beauty united romantic bohemians such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his followers; the fresh from Paris and full of dangerous French ideas and the Olympians. They usually chose women whose looks and lifestyles were at odds with conventional Victorian ideals of demure femininity, these painters created new types of beauty. 

In the 1870s besides the fact that it had become a movement that transformed art and design in Victorian Britain, and despite the increased knowledge of Aesthetic ideas and taste, many observers still saw the movement as the preserve of self-regarding and possibly immoral cliques. However, later in the decade the movement began to make  more positive progress.

Aesthetic painting became the fashionable enthusiasm of a circle that was grand, wealthy and intellectual. As well as commissioning paintings and portraits, its followers were keen to redecorate their homes in the Aesthetic manner and even to wear Aesthetic dress. This movement serenely passed from its early phase as the recherché enthusiasm of the few to become the artistic and lifestyle choice of the many. 

Previous accounts of Aestheticism have suggested that satire and parody overwhelmed the credibility of the movement: painting and poetry lost momentum, artistic furnishings were scaled down for the suburbs, the pursuit of beauty faltered. But a contrary view can be advanced, for in the later 1880s and even well in to the 1890s many of the great figures were still active. The next, rising generation of artists sought to continue many of the Aesthetic ideals, albeit in a daringly modern way. 

Art on a car!

Many times we see on the street people driving very dirty cars, although this applies more to vans and lorries. A certain artist though it appropreate to "paint" on a car by using its dust and dirt in order to copy masterpieces or merely draw certain popular figures. Enjoy his work!

Rihanna

Birth Name : Robyn Rihanna Fenty

Nickname : RiRi, Caribbean Queen, The Barbados Babe

Height : 5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

Rihanna was born in a county in Barbados called St. Michael. She lived the life of a normal island girl going to Combermere, a top sixth form school. Rihanna won numerous beauty pageants and performed Mariah Carey "Hero" in a school talent show. Her life changed forever when one of her friends introduced her to Evan Rodgers, a producer from New York who was in Barbados for a vacation with his wife, who is a native. Rodgers arranged for her to go to New York to meet Jay-Z, CEO of Def Jam Records. He heard her sing and knew she was going to be incredibly successful. She was 16 when she was signed to Def Jam. Since then, she's amassed phenomenal success.

Trade Mark

Leather outfits

Ever changing hairstyles

Bright red hair

Silky tone of voice

Bajan accent

Trivia

Was signed to Def Jam Records

Her musical inspirations include Alicia Keys, Beyoncé Knowles, and Mariah Carey.

Attended Combermere which is a sixth form school similar to technical school in America.

Performed Mariah Carey's "Hero" at her school's talent show.

Won a beauty pageant at her school.

Born to a black Barbadian father Ronald Fenty and a black Guyanese mother Monica Fenty.

She has two younger brothers Rorrey and Rajad.

Stated in an interview that her friend and former Island Def Jam record label artistFefe Dobson was someone that she admired and looked up to. Having a fellow black artist writing, singing, and performing the music she truly loves.

Ranked #8 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2007 list.

Sampled "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' " by Michael Jackson from his "Thriller" album in her song "Please Don't Stop the Music".

Ranked #15 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2008 list.

According to Fashion Lifestyle she's had over 150 hairstyles since her music career took off in 2005. Her trademarks are her Long Straight Brown (2006), Medium Length Black Bob (2007) and Short Cropped look (2008).

Made an estimated $15,000,000 in 2008. (Source) - Forbes Magazine.

Was tagged "The Digital Download Queen" due to her songs being downloaded over 75,000,000 times combined.

Has sold over 12 million albums worldwide in under 4 years. [September 2009].

Her 3rd studio album 'Good Girl Gone Bad' (2007) was the 3rd highest selling album in the world in 2007 and was the 8th highest 2008. It has sold just under 8 million copies worldwide and has spawned 3 number one Hot 100 hits and 2 worldwide number ones.

Appeared on the cover of Italian Vogue for there "Extreme Couture" edition. [September 2009].

Her ex-boyfriend, Chris Brown, was sentenced to five years of probation, six months of community service and one year of domestic violence counseling as a result of his attack on her in February, 2009 [August 29, 2009].

Is good friends with Katy Perry.

Her 3rd single 'Rude Boy', from her 4th studio album 'Rated R', became her sixth US number one single. This makes her the most successful female artist of the last 10 years.

She and then-boyfriend Chris Brown canceled their performance at the Grammys in February 2009 just hours before the show started after Brown was caught up in a late-night domestic dispute, which later turned out to be a physical attack on Rihanna.

She's the highest paid female celebrity to sit front row at fashion shows. She's paid an estimated $100,000, followed by Beyoncé Knowles, who is estimated at $80,000.

Is a big fan of The Prodigy and Chase & Status. She worked with Chase & Status on her album "Rated R" after calling member Saul Milton up at 3 AM.

Selling 62 million records since 2005, she's the most successful artist over the last decade. She also is the first ever artist ever to have 5, 3X platinum selling digital singles.

Broke her own record by scoring her 7th US number one. "Love The Way You Lie" with Eminem became her 7th number one single in 5 years. This gives her the most number ones from an artist in the last 10 years.

Has attained nine number one Hot 100 singles. Three of them were achieved in 2010. She become the only female in American history to have her first single to go number one after the second. [February 2011].

In the UK, she became the only female; and the only artist in 52 years to have three top ten songs at once on the 'UK Official Chart'. She also became the first female artist; in the history of the chart, to have a number one in five consecutive years.

She has Seven number one singles in Australia as of Febuary 2011, making her the only non Australian artist to do so in the last 20 years.

Her 5th studio album 'Loud', sold 2.8 million copies worldwide in 3 months. The album also marks the launch of her business "Rihanna Entertainment"[Febuary 2011].

Billboard named Rihanna the Digital Songs Artist of the 2000s decade.

Is worth an estimated $143 million. [Forbes Febuary 2011].

Her controversial music video for "S&M", was banned in 11 countries within a day of it's release. This is Rihanna's second video to cause controversy as "Te Amo" was banned in many countries due to its same-sex nature.

As of March 1st, she's reached over 1.2 billion YouTube views on her official Vevo page.

Q Magazine named her one of the top 100 acts of the last century. [November 2009].

Became the youngest black female to grace the cover of American-Vogue [March 2011].