So todays post is a little different. A couple months back my best friend, Kimberley Stone, asked me to photograph her university art work. I am always blown away by her work and she is extremely talented so I was really pleased that she asked me to do it. With her permission I am sharing her work with quotes and information from the artist herself.
The two pieces above represent global issues and how small communities have to face them. They were also paired with a four jar installation in which each jar represented one of the four elements. This is what Kim had to say on these pieces.
"These studies formed part of an installation for my self-written project (2015). Prior to this, I watched Human Planet's documentary series and became largely fascinated by the small communities who participate in the tradition known as 'Gerewol'. These communities suffer severe isolation and drought, as well as the effects of living with these extreme conditions. However, when the short rainy season arrives these people travel hundreds of miles to meet all in one location to celebrate. One of the main advantages of this festival is the opportunity to ignite true love by sparking new flames or reigniting old ones. They dress in bright colours and show off their tribes hand-crafted jewellery and decorative clothing. The installation took me a couple of weeks to complete and was the final outcome for this unit. The book on the left shows an elderly couple reigniting their love at the festival and the book on the right displays the idea of these extreme isolated living conditions. This piece combines the widest range of materials than any other piece of work I have ever created. It consists of acrylic, pencil, graphite, watercolour, fineliner, decorative red feathers, charcoal, collage of Isolation and Gerewol articles and sand on two individual sketchbook double pages".
This acrylic painting was given to me by Kim for my birthday last year and is extremely special to me. Here is what Kim had to say on the piece.
"She (Sophie) always used to create me these wonderful birthday cards using her skills as a talented photographer and I thought it was about time I did the same, using my own talents, especially now that my portraiture skills had drastically improved. I wanted to create something that wasn’t transient, something that hopefully she would keep for a long time, something that showed how wonderful I think she is. I took into consideration the use of whitespace for effect, the contrast it creates and the connotations of the colours used".
Here is what Kim had to say about the piece above and below.
"I am a huge fan of Disney, like most, and so often in my free time I find myself drawing the characters. These studies below are simply media explorations I did for fun and form a break from the fine art side of things, with its in-depth study of contexts, connotations and effect on the viewer. Here I have played with slightly abstracting the image, creating contrast, using space for effect, colour and its connotations, among other considerations. The first double page is a stencil print of Snow White using paint and a stencil, I obviously created and drew myself, and next is a quick study of Pooh bear and Christopher Robin created using pencil, ink and coloured inks. These were very quick studies and did not take long".
This is one of my favourite pieces that Kim has created as it really transports you to an autumnal scene. It is something I could see being framed and put on a wall for all to see. Here are Kim's reasons and inspiration for the piece.
"This piece formed part of my style exploration and artist influenced study; after seeing Modern Impressionist Leonid Afremov's work I was inspired to create a piece, in this style, of my own. Using the similar theme of forests I created my own 'Forest Road'. I am inspired by the vivid use of colour and how it achieves a positive reaction in the viewer. The piece aims to not create a complex range of connotations and contexts, but to simply to please, calm and be aesthetically and visually pleasing to all who look upon it. This piece cannot be missed, immediately catching your attention and holding your gaze with its array of upbeat colours and range of textures. This work can be associated with that within art therapy, aiming to relax the patient and place them in a happier frame of mind. I was fascinated by this strong effect on the audience and have been using colour and its connotations ever since. This piece is created with acrylic paint and is displayed within a sketchbook".
This piece was created in 2014 and was Kim's first portraiture piece. I feel that the level of detail and depth in this piece is phenomenal, here is what Kim had to say about it.
"This was a final outcome for a project surrounding the topic of 'Conflict'. The painting combines the representational and the abstract, in order to achieve the desired effect and show the story behind the piece. The imagery shows clearly, a retired war veteran in the present being haunted by the horrific memories of war that he previously endured. The most horrific and prominent, the screaming child, jumps out at the viewer, being the most abstracted and vibrant image on the canvas. The piece aims to show the audience the horrors and futility of war and its effects on the individual, also it allows the viewer to relate. War having ended within the older generation's lifetime, still affects us today and so the viewers all have their own histories and stories to relate to in this context. The piece also shows my exploration with materials and also depicts the idea of fading memory. Memory is transient, but is that a good thing or not? I have additionally, used colours to create certain associations within the viewers mind, i.e. blue we associate with sadness, depression, red with danger, war and bloodshed, green, with war and the army etcetera. This piece, alike the social issues installation, has too many connotations to note, but I have stated the key ones here. These images were inspired by photos, accounts and documents I myself collected from those who are close to me. This piece was also an exploration of the human condition and marked the beginning of a continuing exploration of this theme. This was a timed piece and took me 15 hours to complete and was created using coloured ink and ink wash, acrylic paint, pencil, graphite, ink and fine liner on canvas".
The acrylic paintings above and below are part of a project Kim created called "Repetition and multiples in nature". Kim says that "the pieces aim to catch the eye of the viewer and express ideas of natural beauty". The one above was created in 2013 and is inspired by Georgia O'Keeffe's use of colour and Fauvism. The second painting was created in 2014 and follows on from the first. It is inspired by Afremov's style. Kim says that because the top piece was her first time using acrylic on such a large scale is took her a whopping 40 hours however the second piece only took a quarter of that time.
This pencil study was Kim's first self portrait and took about an hour to draw. This is part of a four part series which shows different emotions using different medias and the one above focuses on the emotion happy.
Finally I want to include a piece that Kim recently showed me and that I am amazed by. As you can see the likeness is uncanny. She said it took her only 20 minutes! As someone far from naturally talented at drawing I couldn't believe she could do it in such a quick amount of time.
To contact Kimberley you can email her at kymmjart@gmail.com and she is currently taking commissions.
Until next time, Sophie x
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