In Year 10 Art, students were given paintings by two different artists to compare and contrast. This involved researching the artists’ backgrounds, philosophies, and styles. Macayle Tan’s response was excellent scoring 100% on the task.
The Life of Adrian Feint and Commentary
“Flowers in Hand vase No. 2 1950” by Adrian Feint
Adrian Feint born on June 28th, 1894, as the youngest of three children to his native Australian parents, Samuel Feint and Catherine Charlotte in Narranderra, New South Wales. Feint’s humble beginnings in Narradarra did not deter his interest in art as he started decorating his exercise books in childhood, this interest continued into young adulthood where he enlisted into Sydney Art School in 1912. During his time here he studied under Elioth Gruner, a popular artist at the time, and Julian Ashton. Feint’s Journey was hindered in 1914 by World War One where he was enlisted on the 21st January 1916, but Feint was not just an aspiring artist he was also a soldier who displayed a show of courage and bravery on the battle fields near Peronne, France; this feat granted him a three month leave in 1919 to study at the French art academy – Academie Julien. After being discharged from military on 12th of October 1919 he returned to Sydney Art School where he became renowned for his teaching in “black and white” often working with the advertisement agency Sydney Ure Smith. Feint made many cover designs and decorations for the agency; his works being called Art in Australia and Home. Due to public exposure from his cover pages, he was regarded to have “impeccable” taste and directed the Grosvenor Gallery between 1924 and 1928. In the late 1920s, Feint painted himself surrounded by objets d’art in his painting “The collector” dubbing himself as a “connoisseur” of art.
Feint was highly regarded in many areas of art from his wood engraving in 1927 with Thea Procotor; his bookplates made for Olive King, John Cullins, Doreathea Mackellar, Frank Clune and the Duke and Duchess of York at the time and his decorative penwork and designs for private press books. Feint also had an exhibition in the Library of Congress, Washington in 1930 while he painted tropical fish and parrots on a glass panel for Australian Pavilion for the New York world’s fair the year before. Despite Feint’s massive success in many areas of art he still wanted to be recognised as an oil painter and in 1928 he gave up commercial art to focus solely on oil paintings. This is where Feint developed his unique art style and his sense of surrealism. Feint’s hard work paid off in the 1948 where the Ure Smith published Adrein Feint Flower Painting, this work saw massive amounts of praise in which critics said it was “meticulously designed, superbly painted, and set in a related environment of time and space”.
Adrian Feint has a quote in which he says “It is the endeavour of all art to widen and make richer of our comprehension of man and of the world around us. An art which draws inspiration from the oasis, from a garden, that garden where a man composes his soul and is at one with his world, must surely draw close to that dream of perfection, closer perhaps than others are able.” Clearly, Feints artistic nature is not only in his art, but is also evident in his words. In this quote Feint talks about how it is the mission of all art to try make sense of the imagination and how artists view the world. Feint talks about how art must “draw inspiration form the Oasis” or a garden and that in this oasis is where a man composes his souls. Feint uses the word oasis as another word for the human mind and that if you are able to clearly paint the human imagination your art takes a step closer to perfection. However, the human mind isn’t fixed and is full of many think that are considered fantasy, but it’s still not completely separate from reality. This is directly reflected in Feints Artwork where he paints scenes and objects that are tangible, but he paints them in way which many would see as unusual and almost dreamlike; this is where Feint’s sense of surrealism in his artwork comes from.
Charles Blackman and Commentary
“Alice at the Table” by Charles Blackman
Charles Blackman one of the most celebrated artists in the 20th century becoming prominent after World War II and was a part of the Hiede Circle as well as founding member of “The Antipodeans” art movement. Blackman experienced a life full of success, travel, and hard work. Blackman’s story begins is Sydney where he was born, however, shortly afterwards he moved to Queensland where he spent his childhood before returning back to Sydney to work as an illustrator for Sydney Sun newspaper. Like many artists, Blackman started his journey being self-taught, but he did attend the East Sydney Technical College, now called the National Art school, from 1943 to 1946. Blackman’s Journey continued when he moved to Melbourne in 1951 and become an artist affiliated with the Heide Circle. In his first year in Melbourne Blackman visited Luna Park which involved a tram and a swim to get there; this led to his drawing “Luna Park with Griffin Light” which would lead to subsequent paintings being made on the same theme. Blackman first experienced his major taste of success with his series “Schoolgirl” between 1952 and 1955. The series was popular among the public for the depiction of schoolgirls being placed in eerie, empty, and dreary landscapes which represented loneliness and alienation. Famous paintings from this collection include “schoolgirls with a dog” and “Girl dreaming”. Blackman started his next series, Alice, in 1956 which lasted a year ending in 1967. He used his wife Barbara Blackman as is muse in his depiction of Alice. At the time Barbara was experiencing a loss in sight and Charles’ paintings depicts this. Despite the short amount of time that this series lasted, Blackman painted 40 paintings of vivid and surreal images. In 1959 Blackman was one of the seven artists who signed “The Antipodean Manifesto” which was a paper that took a stand against abstract art that, in the signatories’ opinion, was becoming too dominant in Australia. In 1960 Blackman received the Helena Rubenstein Travelling scholarship and moved to London for six years; Blackman exhibited at the White Chapel Gallery and Tate Gallery during his time in London. In 1970 Blackman was awarded the Cite des Artes and spent a year in Paris where he visited often in his later years. Blackman passed away in August 2018 a week after his 90th birthday.
Blackman painted in a simplistic and investigated issues “central to the human condition – love, loss, anger, happiness – in a simple and readily accessible way. I do agree with this statement as I do believe that compared to many other artists Blackman’s painting style is simplistic; this is evident throughout many of his paintings specifically his series “Alice”. Blackman’s fairly simplistic art style can be seen through his depictions of Alice, in which he used his wife Barbara as a model. Blackman often exaggerates Alice’s neck and eyes while keeping the face expressionless and making the surface of the face seem smooth due to the lack of detail. The objects and rabbit surrounding Alice is painted in a comparable way making the objects seem much smoother than they would be in real life. In other paintings such as “The Blue Alice” Blackman uses many small objects – in this painting flowers that are still painted in a very simplistic style to crowd the painting making it overwhelming to look at. Blackman mains medium is acrylic which easily accessible to the main public; Blackman’s simplistic art style opens up painting to people who are less experienced and since Blackman’s main medium is acrylic it allows people to start with an easier medium compared to others.
Comparing the two Artists
Adrian Feint and Charles Blackman were two different people, and this is clearly displayed in their artwork. In the two paintings above both have flowers as a focal point, however, Feint’s painting has a much larger emphasis on them compared to Blackman’s. Both paintings have a sense of melancholy but achieve this by using two very different techniques. Feint uses very muted colours and relies heavily on the slight surreal aspect of his painting – in this case the vase holding the flowers is shaped as a hand. Feint replacing the vase with a hand gives the painting a slightly eerie feeling. The flowers in the painting is also very realistic and detailed, but the colour of the flowers clash with the background and vase making them seem as though they are popping out of the canvas. The assortment of shells around the hand vase gives a sense of mystery as flowers and shells are not often seen together. Both the shells and flowers have a rather round shape overall which clashes with the harsh edge of the table and arch. The foreground of Feint’s painting is rather crowded with the assortment of the flowers, vase and shells. The background, however, is empty and depicts a large mass of water with a few pieces of land surrounding it. Blackman on the other hand uses very bright colours, but to achieve the same sense of melancholy in his painting he relies on Alice’s expression and harsh shadows. Blackman’s bright colours clash will each other and this is further emphasized with his use of black to create shadows that aren’t proportionate to the lighting. Objects in Blackman’s painting, such as the yellow chair, are also exaggerated making the perspective of the painting seem warped giving the painting a slight surreal feel. Alice’s expression is rather depressive and it emphasized through the dark shadows under her eyes. Blackman’s painting is rather crowded, with the majority of the objects being in the foreground, but this affect may have been exaggerated through the art style and the many different colours. The lines and shapes in Blackman’s painting aren’t rigid and are slightly curved further warping the perspective of the art piece. The overall shape of the bouquet of the flowers in the top right of the painting is round, but it looks slightly wild or unkept. Both artists, Feint and Blackman, achieve a similar feel through very different techniques, but both are talented artists in their own respects.
