Section 3: TOWNSCAPES. Research point: Urban Environment

John Virtue.

Having grown up with the happy, pastel-colored paintings of Gregoire Boonzaaier, I still love the playful and sunny nature of his townscapes. They are as part of the Cape as Table Mountain is.

Gregoire Boonzaier, Kaapstraat. 1982
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Gregoire Boonzaaier, Distrikses,

Then there's my dear friend, Sewyn Pekeur whose work is not only accurate of the township vibe in the Cape but also allegorical and often times, politically satirical.

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Selwyn Pekeur, Lovers in a Township. 2002

I guess the more adversity we face as human beings the deeper our need is for fun, laughter and colour. His townscapes are always reflective of this need.

Similarly are the works of Kandinski;
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Wassily Kandinsky, Grungasse in Murnau. 1909

John Virtue's works are very dark in contrast, yet, I love the dark and moody feeling:

A painting by John Virtue called 'Landscape No. 87', part of the Bowie Collection on display at Sotheby's. AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth

A painting by John Virtue called 'Landscape No. 87', part of the Bowie Collection on display at Sotheby's. AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth

John Virtue, Landscape no 87,

This work was part of David Bowie's collection. I enjoy the angular marks and the very vague and suggested images that the work conjures up.

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Section 3: COMPOSITION. Research Point.

Contemporary Artists working with landscape and a range of viewpoints. Georges Seurat, Landscape with houses. 1881. Conte Crayon Tacita Dean, Fatigues. 2012. Chalk on Blackboard Mark Tansy, Reveler, 2012. Oil on canvas. The subjects of Mark Tansey's work is set in, for the most part, landscapes and he uses and manipulates these to serve the purpose of the allegory that he wishes to convey through the use of images which are paradoxical and at times absurdly but never, randomly placed on the canvas. I love his work and have included it here to compare the three works as they all monochromatic and unusual to their approach in viewpoint. In all three works there is a strong sense of division in the picture plane. The first two the space is divided horizontally and in the last vertically - Tansey's work has a strong sense of symmetry, both vertically and horizontally and this further emphasised by the repetition of this element in the mirror. Tonally the works are also...

Section 3: PERSPECTIVE. Exercise 2

As the weather continued to be rainy and wet, and as I did not want to work from a photo, I did a drawing of the buildings below my flat as seen from the 29th floor. This obviously changed the angle on the perspective and the horizon line. Using my pencil as a guide I checked the angles and proportions against those that I drew. As you can perhaps see, the horizon line was probably higher than what I thought it was .. some of the orthogonal lines were off...

Section 2: STILL LIFE: Exercise 2: Still life using Tone and Color

I did 2 completed studies for this exercise. The first is in chalk pastels on a dark ground. I thought that the dark ground was useful in contrasting the light areas but that the medium is more difficult to control. I also felt that the composition was successful and I enjoy the contrasting rectangular spaces which off-set the round shapes of the bottles and fruit. The second work was rendered in watercolour pencils and I felt that the medium was far more conducive to accurately capturing the variations in tone and colour. Overall I was more pleased with the first composition as it seemed a bit more interesting and dramatic in a sense.

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