Friday, 2 May 2014

TODAY 2 May 2014

TODAY 

Today I read a poem and found it very relevant to  situation's we come across in life...esapecialy when unkindness's are said about others...


The poet Sylvia Plath 'nailed it' in her poem Words (1963):

Words  
Axes
After whose stroke the wood rings,
And the echoes!
Echoes traveling
Off from the center like horses.

The sap
Wells like tears, like the
Water striving
To re-establish its mirror
Over the rock

That drops and turns,
A white skull,
Eaten by weedy greens.
Years later I
Encounter them on the road----

Words dry and riderless,
The indefatigable hoof-taps.
While
From the bottom of the pool, fixed stars
Govern a life. 

Thursday, 13 March 2014

A trip to the sea

A trip to the sea....
....Yvonne Forster, 'Untitled', photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'Untitled', photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A. Yvonne Forster, photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'shoreline', photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A. Yvonne Forster, photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'shoreline', photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A. Yvonne Forster, 'Shoreline Pebbles', photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'Shoreline Pebbles', photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A. Yvonne Forster, 'Shoreline Pebbles', photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'Shoreline seaweed, photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.

# 33 [13 March 2014]


"The waves of the sea help me get back to me."
— Jill Davis, Writer

It's a beautiful day!! I longed to see the sea... I took myself off to Southwold... strolling along the shore in the early morning sun renewed my sense of peace and calm... cares disappeared... it felt like the first day of spring, the warm sun ,the twinkling sea, the salty air, the sound of gentle waves,like balm... back in sync with nature...  bringing harmony and wholeness...as I leave the waves seem to say come back soon dont leave it so long next time!

"When anxious, uneasy and bad thoughts come, I go to the sea, and the sea drowns them out with its great wide sounds, cleanses me with its noise, and imposes a rhythm upon everything in me that is bewildered and confused."
— Rainer Maria Rilke. Poet

"Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war."
— Loren Eiseley, Writer
All Quotes from....http://www.seasky.org/quotes/sea-quotes.html

Friday, 7 March 2014


A continuation of exploring aspects colour, within the previous photo image and work in studio produced today.
The whole world, as we experience it visually, comes to us through the mystic realm of color.
Hans Hofmann
http://susiegadea.com/index.php/en/quotes-by-artists/on-allies-of-technique/color
Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.
Claude Monet
Todays experimenting with colour has also alerted me to ratio of sky to sea which is an aspect I need to take into consideration when working toward final work.
Also need to redefine time scales concerning outcomes
Need to start thinking about scale of canvases.







Yvonne Forster, 'image of shoreline', photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'image of shoreline', photo, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
Yvonne Forster, 'experimenting with colour', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'experimenting with colour', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
Yvonne Forster, 'experimenting with colour', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'experimenting with colour', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n. Courtesy: N/A.
Yvonne Forster, 'Exploration of horizons & colour', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'Exploration of horizons & colour', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
Yvonne Forster, 'experimenting with colour', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'experimenting with colour', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
# 19 [6 March 2014]
Color is everything. When color is right, form is right.
Marc Chagall.
http://susiegadea.com/index.php/en/quotes-by-artists/on-allies-of-technique/color


In the studio today I decided to work from a photo image taken from the shore line, that looked out toward the distant horizon.
The colour is an important aspect within the image as it is less intense than previous colours explored. my aim today is to explore more low key colour aspects.
In the previous blog I discussed and questioned how I had become aware that  the colours used within the experiments were "very busy", and that there was a need for me to address this issue through further exploration of colour and to review my original ideas and approach toward paintings that better reflect and convey a cathartic, ambient sense.
There are no lines in nature, only  areas of colour, one against another.Edouard  ManetRead more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/colour.html#w8OXRaUE6rFj3aTL.99
    




    

Wednesday, 5 March 2014


 A-N blog page  recent work and ideas



Yvonne Forster, 'experimenting with form and colour for sea/horizon', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'experimenting with form and colour for sea/horizon', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A. Yvonne Forster, 'as above', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'as above', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A. Yvonne Forster, 'as above', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'as above', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A. Yvonne Forster, 'as above', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'as above', Acrylic paint, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A. Yvonne Forster, 'as above', acrylic, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.
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Yvonne Forster, 'as above', acrylic, 2014. Photo: n/a. Courtesy: N/A.

# 25 [4 March 2014]

Transitions toward a therapeutic art that re -connects us with the natural world in order to allow time to recover, reflect, and escape the business of the everyday ..." a time to stop and stare."
Yesterday Guest speaker Maggi Hambling came into talk and answer questions concerning aspects of being an artist I was glad to have gone along, as it re-enforced and inspired me to keep moving on in experimenting with ideas emerging, concerning my project based on observations of both the near Shoreline and the far Horizon sea/sky scape. At present I am working on ideas for paintings on canvas for the horizon and more detailed works of print work lino,etching, collograph forms for shoreline along with an idea for hand sculpture see blog image last week.
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There were some aspects of the talk that resonated with me as I find my own way forward.
The first point I was encouraged by was ...
 All art is therapy - painting is a way of expressing and dealing with things...( this reminded me of Alain de Botton's ideas and theories on art as a therapeutic form... see past blogs)
Marc Rothko looked at life and death in his work ...this for me connected with my looking at the contrast of recent ending of one project and the beginning's of a new one via past childhood memories, and my present reconnecting with aspects in seascape/ nature concerning horizons where sea and sky meet.
sun rise, sun set context..beginnings and endings night/ day etc...)
What happens in life dictates What one paints ...(shifts in my project I didn't expect it to lead me into considering a different form and context ...its ok to move on if things are not working out( the timing may not be appropriate)
Being so moved by something  events, images in the media, you express it through art( its ok to respond to events that touch you...)
Be your own critic...(yes ok but be open to the opinions of others constructive critiques...they can be valuable)
Have a conversation with your work...(new terrain to work on!)
Be open to all art forms (encouraging.. as I love many forms and expressions of art and what it conveys) "Art washes away the dust of everyday life," as Picasso said!
Be true to yourself...be yourself.(be strong to believe in own capabilities.)
So from these gems of wisdom! and a realisation time is moving on, today I have been busy working with acrylic washes and concentrated acrylic mainly dealing with the horizon on small and larger scale A3 and A2 paper and sketch boo- see images
Concentrating on the effects of layering washes over one another using turquoise, pthhalo blue (not sure if this blue works with the main colours will get Robin's advise on blue ) vermilion orange, indian yellow, and yellow hue (the latter is very vibrant!)
I am attempting to incorporate a luminosity, haze, aura, to draw the eye to a focal place on the horizon at the moment. The experiments are quite visually busy, both in colour and form (too many lines) so therefore not very cathartic or therapeutic which is what I am aiming for as i also attempt to produce larger scale works on canvas..
I have been using my hands and some sponges as a method and technique of applying paint to create a smoother effect than brush recently. I also use damp clothes to take away excess paint and to create a softer effect... when the work is dry I use a scourer to create a distressed effect in the work . 

Thursday, 27 February 2014

Some initial images, thoughts, and ideas for final project


Images and ideas and aspects of art I am currently working on is a more reflective approach to looking at art... Philosopher Alain de Botton describes as Art as therapy...he describes how "Art can save your soul." Botton says in the 19th C we are no longer able to bring our fears and anxieties into the Modern Cathedral(of Culture).Going on he says..."Art is a vehicle through which we can do such things as.. recover, hope, develop empathy,laugh, and wonder. see his talk below.....on ted



 www.ted.com/.../alain_de_botton_a_kinder_gentler...‎


 I have also been researching artist Claude Monet whose large scale works (some) were given to the French Nation after the 1st world war and were considered as works to heal the nation after the traumas of the war, though I have never seen these ... works in the Gallery one hears that their scale creates a sense of  immersion, and a sense of calm and peace is evoked, taking the viewer out of the stresses and demands of modern day life.  
















Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Post also on the a-n site Journal Blog for critical Review

Today was a continuation and a pushing forward into exploring new ideas after renewing my last studio work space yesterday... feeling at a loss..so time to look at a different perspective...  Not sure where it will take me I am hoping through the exploration and constructing a form to get inspired !! . looking at a more abstract form, having acquired interesting waste material from a photo machine with the faint echoes /imprints  of images from peoples everyday lives on the waste material its self....As  can be seen from the last post I started to explore angle, shapes and colours and how they interacted when I placed the material in certain positions  in my studio, Then, having hired the white space felt it was time for a new large scale ... The work itself reminded me of "barriers," having the images on the material alerted me to the socio- political and economic structures that, although for the most part are not perceived,do shape, constrain and dictate our choices and the shaping of our social lives. We imagine we live in a free society but that freedom is exercised within very limited parameters that are constructed by one dimensional systems,  and social norms. This socialisation enables the powers that be to control.. at a distance as we internalise... ( something that Foucault had theorised over) and perform. This leads us to conform to certain structures... reminds me of Herbert Marcuse's words,"One dimensional thought is systematically promoted by the makers of politics  and their purveyors of mass information ,their universe of discourse populated by self validating hypotheses which incessantly and monopolistically repeated become definitions of dictations." Herbert Marcuse 1991,p14 One Dimensional man . London:Routledge.



scale of image
'Yvonne Forster'. Exploration of ideas
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'Yvonne Forster'. A time to look at reviewing and explore
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' A time to look at reviewing and explore

Yvonne Forster
# 5 [5 February 2014]
I have just reread my last two posts in an attempt to give myself a  boost and a belief that what my work has dealt with and what I am attempting to communicate is something I can continue to address...Today we had a group studio crit which went really well alot of positive encouragement helpful suggestions and feed back .Talking in a group doesn't come naturely to me but I feel I have grown more in my confidence as time has gone on. The thing I am finding difficult at the moment is where or more so what I am trying to address  say and communicate through my work. Through the summer of 2013 I read a book called the Abu Gharib effect which was a powerful portryal of the images that broke out,from the Iraqi prison 2004 not an easy subject matter to handle- which made me realise how artists that do deal with and respond to difficult subject matter probably do so from an informed and sober perspective Susan Crile is an artist who has researched on Abu Gharib and went onto produce powerful pastel images. Crile talking about her work said" First you are drawn to something akin to beauty and then to you feel the despair, the cruelty."  http://www.artnewsnviews.com/view-article.php?article.
I have a real sense of unease at present into how to communicate issues that affect me and go on to produce art round my chosen subject in someway. I find a real sense of searching and questioning of this subject matter going on within me ... this sense has culminated over the last month or so, I am not sure of the way forward though having the student crit today was helpful in one way  as it has confronted me with my growing deep sense of unease..(about what I was hoping to produce for my end of year show) I know I now have to confront these issues and make some decisions about a way forward. Having researched and produced my dissertation looking at art with social meaning in the context of Golub and Roslers work emerging from the Vietnam war, I have found by doing the dissertation I had a  passion for the subject matter and found it impacted my understanding immensely beneficial toward my understanding of art with social meaning in the context from which the artists I chose  works emerged the dissertation has greatly impacted and informed my understanding of state and media portrayal of issues that arise concerning state policies through  researching sociologists such as Judith Butler and Herbert Marcus (also a philosopher) along with writers Dora Apel, Suzi Gablick, John Bird,I have learnt a great deal this will stay with me but I do need to take stock and plan a way forward, I probably need to have a chat with tutors. I am going to explore a more abstract perspective. see studio space work before. exploring new ideas from an abstract perspective