10 favourite artists, part one
Or 10 artists I wanted to be like.
The nice thing about being an artist is finding people you like and then stealing something from them to add to you style.
There are lots of artists I have looked closely at over the last 50 years and stolen something from. This is a list of 10 who spring to mind.
10
William Heath Robinson
Robinson was best known for his drawings bizarre mechanical works. He was also the creator of some wonderfully delicate illustration for the wonderful book The Water Babies among other classic tomes
His pen and ink work holds a delicacy of line that enthralled me and continues to do so.
9
Vincent Van Gogh.
If all you know of Van Gogh are his sunflowers and self portraits you are missing a whole lot of wonderful work.
There are truly evocative landscapes like this one where you can feel the heat of the sun. There's his japoaiserie period, heavily influenced by the woodcut prints coming out of Japan,
And then there are a host of character filled portraits like those of the local postman.
Take a look beyond the sunflowers and the starry nights.
8
Jackson Pollock
It took Ed Harris in the movie biography Pollock to make me appreciate this artist.
Not everyone is going to get past the “looks like a kid dripped paint everywhere” view of Pollock's work and that's fine. Some artists require a guide to help you get it and the Harris movie is the best guide you can get in this case.
7
Charles Schulz
Yes Charles Schulz, creator of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. If art is about conveying emotion then Schulz is possibly one of the greatest artists ever.
Take this cartoon for example, where Charlie Brown finally has a taste of success. His face and body just radiate joy and ecstasy in a handful of squiggly lines.
Or this one where he moves through so many emotions, mostly demonstrated with minimal lines used for his face.
Every change of emotion is recognisable and relatable. It takes real skill to portray something, especially human emotion in a handful of pen lines.
6
Dave McKee
For those of us who are around the 60 mark Dave McKee was a childhood landmark. He was the creator of Mr Benn which took a colourful blocky style that was popular in the late 60s and early 70s and breathed life and colour into it. McKees handling of colour to enhance mood had few rivals
The costume shop was a riot of colour drawing attention to its place out beyond the boundaries of society. Mr Benn's walk along his home street, though more muted, offers a bright and optimistic view of a British city. The black and white steadiness of Mr Benn’s day wear stands in stark contrast to the more extravagant costume of the Shopkeeper looking like Sydney Greenstreet in Casablanca.
McKee could do muted too. This picture, I think, was from a story about big game hunters. The picture is in tones of gray and and a yellowy brown and conveys a sense of the bleakness of the elephants situation. A masterful artist.
GG that's part 1. Part 2 follows iin a few days.