WILLIAM “BILL” ALEXANDER

 

 

 

 I was impressed by William Alexander’s artwork. Through his artwork, the author is trying to express good emotions, happiness, calm, peace, etc. The mood that

his artwork inspires me is calming, in a way it makes the viewer leave out any negative feelings and picture him/ her in the actual painting. His artwork is mostly about nature, but his technique extends to buildings, floral, people, still life as well as wild life and many more.

  William “Bill” Alexander, paints in oil and he usually uses big brushes, giving the fact that his paintings are done on big canvases. The technique that he uses is “wet-on-wet”, which is mainly in oil paints, where the layers of wet paint are applied onto the previous layer of wet paint. The consistency of the paint is oily, giving the painting that “gloomy” look. I saw depth in the paintings that he did. The detail isn’t at an extended level, but looking at the painting, it doesn’t really need anything else. The colours that he uses resemble to the actual colours of the nature, which I find interesting. Depending on the mood, the colours are chosen carefully. Usually the colours are “lively”, expressing a good mood.

  The tonal range of the artwork doesn’t suddenly change. Most of the times is light, for the landscape paintings, and dark, for the flowers paintings. The texture of his paintings is smooth. The paintings are made to be viewed at regular eye level.

  William Bill Alexander (02.04.1915 – 24.01.1997) was a German painter, art instructor and a television host, born in Prussia, German Empire. His family escaped Prussia during World War 1 to Berlin, where he apprenticed as a carriage maker; Alexander was drafted into the Wehrmacht, during the World War 2. He was later captured by Allied troops, but he made himself notable by painting the portraits of Allied officers’ wife and soon he made his way into the United States. Some of Bob Ross’ techniques were learned from William Alexander.

  I first started researching about this artist’s work, because I found his technique easy to do and the results quite interesting. I would like to learn from this artist the “Wet-on-wet” technique. The reason for which I chose to research about this artist is because “landscapes” are a common subject.

  “After studying with Bill Alexander, Bob Ross discovered that he was soon able to earn more from selling his artwork that from his Air Force position. Ross then left the Air Force and became famous worldwide, hosting television program, “The Joy of painting””.

  “I took one class and I went crazy, I knew this was what I wanted to do” – Bob Ross about William Bill Alexander’s classes.

  Some of Bill Alexander’s famous paintings: “Fall River”, “North to Alaska”, “Autumn colours”, “Canadian Canyon”, and many others.

Roy Lang

 

 

  Through his work, Roy Lang, is trying to express the beauty of the sea, exactly as it is, unique, dangerous but beautiful at the same time. The atmosphere is hard to decide, is somewhere in between calm (the feeling that is expressed when one is walking down the beach and is listening to the sound that the waves make when they hit the shores, and the breeze that blows slowly) and scary (the way one feels when he/she is looking at a boat in the middle of the ocean, during a storm). The feelings that his art convoy are restleness, but at the same time calm, both passion and melancholy. Roy’s artwork explores nature, sea, to be more exact, in all of it’s beauty – moods, movement, and different lights of the ocean.

  The artwork is painted in oil, on canvas. He uses mainly small brushes, as his artwork is paying attention to close detail. The consistency of the paint is thin and oily. The artwork has a clear depth in it. There is clearly an illusion created that some objects there further than others. The colours used in his painting resemble with the actual colours of the waves or the sea, most of the times. In other cases, from my point of view, the colours are slowly exaggerated. Givind the fact that Roy Lang in painting the moods of the ocean/sea, his choice of colours resides in cold ones. Usually the lower part of the painting is darker, and then it becomes lighter, as it goes to the top of the painting. The texture is smooth, as there are no brush marks on the painting, everything is carefully blended.

   Roy Lang opted out of art school at the edge of thirteen, and started painting again in his late thirties while out of work. His understanding of the sea, mainly gleaned from angling in his youth, made up for his lack of any formal training in art.

  “It was the love of the sea that inspire Roy to start painting, capturing the water’s movement, light and moods, which is certainly reflected in his work”

  “I do not consider myself to be an artist; rather than someone who has learnt to portray the sea’s moods, colours and movements with paint on canvas”.

  He was voted artist of the year in 200 and 2002 by the Society of all Artists, and has had his work exhibited in the Mall Galleries, the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust Slimbridge, the Flavel Darthmouth and various other Galleries in UK.

Joseph Mallord William Turner

 

  In my opinion, the artist is trying to communicate through his work the power of nature. In some of the paintings, the atmosphere is dark; in those kind of paintings, the power of man is equal to zero and the power of nature is shown in it’s full beauty. He placed human beings in many of his paintings to show his affection towards humanity (scenes of people drinking and merry-making or working in the foreground), but his vulnerability was the “Savage grandeur” of nature of the world. Through his work he tried to show a world unmastered by man and the evidence of God.

 

  Turner mainly used oil, but he used prints as well. Giving the fact that the paintings are immense, I think that he used big brushes, as well as small brushes for details. In his early paintings the paint looks carefully blended, but as we come to his late paintings the brush marks look like they were scratched. The paint also looks thin. As he aged more, his paintings become more and more simplified. In his early work, there is a clear depth, but in his late work, there isn’t a clear depth, although there is one. The colours he used resemble to the natural ones, although, in some of his painting the colours are slightly exaggerated. There is a wide range of colours used in his paintings, depending, of course, on the subject. For example in the famous “House Portraits” there are dark (cold) colours as, brown, black, but there are also light colours like yellow. The main colour used in this painting in green. In the painting “Dutch Boats in a Gale”, the main colour used is black, which makes this painting, from my point of view, a masterpiece. Usually the dark colours are at the bottom of the painting, at the top at lighter colours and in the middle are the really “fiery” ones. The texture seems rough. The subject is being viewed at eye level.

  I researched about this artist for my exam subject which referred to “Catastrophic events”. I was looking for some ideas about the sea or volcanos.

  Joseph Mallord William Turner (late April – early May 1775 – 19.12.1851) was an English painter, a British Romantic landscape painter, water – colourist and printmaker. He is considered the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Although he was well known for his artistic touch with the oil paints, he becomes one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is regarded as “the painter of light” and his work is known as a Romantic preface to Impressionism.

  As a result from a “fit of illness” in his family, he was sent to stay with his uncle. That’s when the first signs of the artistic touch occurred, being a series of simple colourings of engraved plates from Henry Boswell’s picturesque view of the Antiquities of England and Wales.

  Many sketches of Turner were architectural studies and/or exercises in perspective and it is known that as a young man he worked with several architects, including Thomas Hardwick Junior, James Wyatt and Joseph Bonomi the Elder. He also studied with Thomas Malton, whom Turner would later call “My real master”. In 1789 he entered the Royal Academy of Art, at the age of 14, and was accepted one year later, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the president of Royal Academy. His first watercolour painting – “A view of the Archbishop’s Palace, Lambeth” was accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1790, when turner was 15.

  Turner exhibited his first oil painting in 1796 – Fisherman at Sea (which is a painting of the moonlit scene off “The Needles, Isle of Wight”). Wilton said that the image”Is a summary of all that had been said about the sea by artists of the eighteen century”. The painting shows strong influence from artist such as Horace Vernet, Philip James de Loutherbourg, Peter Monamy and also Francis Swaine.

  As Turner grew old he became more sceptics: he had a few close friends except for his father, who lived with him for 30 years and worked as a studio assistant. His father’s death in 1892 had a profound effect on him, and therefore he was subject to bouts of depression. He never married but had a relationship with an older widow – Sarah Danby. He is believed to have been the father of her two daughters born in 1801 and 1811.

  Turner died in the house of his mistress. He is said to have uttered the last words “The Sun is God”. He was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral, at his requests, where he lies next to Sir Joshua Reynolds. His last exhibition was at the Royal Academy in 1850.

John Martin

  Through his artwork, John Martin is trying to communicate the power of God. Most of his paintings are Biblical scenes or scenes that are about a higher power. His art convoys fear, horror and thrill as well. I think that the ideas explored in his work are both society and biblical, I think that his paintings reflect the work of humanity and the biblical consequences.

  The artwork was painted on large scales, with oil paints. Giving the fact that the canvases are immense, the brush marks are not easily seen. For a canvas that big, I think that the brushes that he used are both small – for detail and big – for background. The marks were carefully applied, through blending. The consistency of the paint looks this. There is clearly a depth in his artwork. There are elements of the painting that give the viewer the feeling of looking into an actual picture, not a painting. Depending on the theme of the work, John Martin used mostly hot colours, for example, in the “The day of His great wrath” painting; he used hot colours to paint, what I think it is, the way to inferno. The tonal range is curious: it’s dark in the middle but as it goes to the edges it becomes more and lighter. The texture looks rough, the mountains are cracking, and everything is falling apart. The subject is being viewed from eye level.

  John Martin (19.07.1789 – 17.02.1854) was an English romantic painter, engraver and illustrator, born in Haydon Bridge. He first started to paint with sepia watercolours. His first oil painting was sent to the Royal Academy in 1810. He produced a succession of large paintings, some landscapes but most of the grand biblical themes inspired from the Old Testament. His promising career was interrupted by the deaths of his father, mother, grandmother and young son in one year. Another distraction was William, who frequently asked him to draw up plans for his inventions and whom he always indulged with help and money. He was heavily influenced by the works of John Milton. From about 1827-28 turned away from painting and became involved with many plans and inventions. Another expensive burden was his brother’s, Jonathan, trail for setting fire to York Minster. He exhibited many works, but culminating was his last trilogy of paintings – “Last Judgement” (Hung in Tate Britain, London) which were completed just before the stroke paralysed his right side. He was never to recover and died on 17 February 1854 on the Isle of Man. He is buried in Kirk Braddan cemetery. Major exhibition of his works are still mounted.

  I choose to research about this artist, as his work helped me during my Art exam, and he gave me a new perspective about landscape paintings.