Born 1970 in Ontario, Storm Tharp is a Canadian artist currently working out of Portland USA. His education consisted of the Roberto Einaudi architecture program, in Rome, Italy, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Cornell university, NY. Transitioning from an education into a successful career, he has exhibited his work across the world for the past 23 years.
Tharp delicately combines mediums, often gauche and ink, juxtaposing their pale and dark qualities to create visually pleasing yet jarring abstract images. Storm Tharp explores identity and character through distorting facial features, usually with ghostly effects, creating more representational works. Inspired by pop culture and Japanese art, especially involving ink, Tharp’s combination of mediums has created his own style that he still masterfully explores to this day. His portraits blurring features together, inspired ideas of how I could combine mediums to achieve distinct and interesting effects, and explore identity through my own work.
Luc Tuymans
Born 1958, Luc Tuymans is a Belgian artist currently working out of Antwerp. Born close by in a town called Mortsel, he had first hand experience of world war 2 with his mother working with the Dutch resistance to hide refuges and two of his brothers contradictorily being part of the Hitler youth. Beginning his studies at the Sint-Lukasinstituut in Brussels, and later at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels de la Cambre in Brussels, Belgium, Luc Tuymans eventually gave up on the fine arts and began to study art history at the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, and then eventually spent a further three years exploring the medium of film.
Tuymans uses a sparse colour palette, and flat textures to create dark and gloomy atmospheric works. Luc Tuymans tendency to work from photographs, translates to his art, with many of his works lacking depth, in a calculated and purposeful fashion. Utilizing a technique where he uses uniform brush strokes, tuyman does however create the idea of depth in a more unique way. Inspired by the urban environments he can create using these techniques, and the melancholy atmospheres within these spaces, I have become more interested in what I can say through the environment I create within my art, and how that effects my more figurative work.
Ian Hodgson
Born in Withernsea, North Humberside, Hodgson studied in Bradford graduating with a first-class honour’s degree in 2000. Ian Hodgson is quickly becoming an accomplished artist, exhibiting his work all over the UK and more recently had a few exhibitions in America.
Ian Hodgson creates an eerie, serene atmosphere in his work, working high contrast using predominantly graphite and other monochrome mediums. Exploring faces, often without resembling anyone in particular, his figurative works combine soft and harsh lines to achieve minimalist balanced compositions. Although his works are minimal and rely heavily on negative space, they are no less impactful, and can often have more impact than a canvas covered in paint. Inspired by the emotional effect these minimal works evoke, I would like to explore how I can juxtapose light and dark mediums, and how I could more effectively use negative space. Working from a dark background may also help me to find new and more interesting approaches and effects.
Matthias Weischer
Born 1973 in Elte Germany, Matthias Weischer studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, studying in the master class of Professor Sighard Gille. He is now still stationed in Leibzig and is represented by the König and Grimm Galleries, situated one in Berlin and the other in Amsterdam.
Wiescher’s use of the building up of mediums on his canvas (or surface he is painting on), is almost collage like in technique. He depicts depth and atmosphere within three-dimensional spaces, playing with perspective and viewpoint to transport the viewers of his art into the worlds he is depicting. The air of expectancy to his work is enthralling, as you can almost feel whatever is about to come around the corner in that room. This is achieved by the soft edges to his work, alongside his compositional techniques. I am inspired to work in building up materials more, creating works with more depth and realism, also to explore the power a non-figurative piece can have.
Daniel Scotland CAP 