PATRICK CAULFIELD (1936-2005)
Patrick Caulfield was a painter and printmaker known for his Pop Art canvasses, and was a contemporary of David Hockney and Allen Jones.
For many years I had a postcard of Pottery (1969) without ever finding out more about the artist, but I always liked the strong colours and at the time was working on ‘O’ level screenprints and lino cuts using a similar linear style.
There are many images of his work on the Tate website and it took me over an hour to browse through them in order to get a feel for his work. I particularly liked the breathtaking simplicity of Bathroom mirror (1968) .
Many of his pieces are screenprints, and the same image or element may be used in several ways and with different colour choices, but a large body of these are characterised by bold outlines and flat, saturated colour.
Later in his work he combined the strong linear graphic with areas of photorealism, as in After Lunch (1975) .
In certain works he breaks the tonal areas down to a minimum, typically using black, white and a third colour, and these are best seen in his series known as the “White Ware” prints (1990) of which all eight images are listed below. The links go to the Tate website images.
The strong contrast of tone is carefully balanced into positive and negative areas, with the focus being on the white areas describing the vase and the light source. The odd one out here is Large White Jug, as the backlit shape appears solid white with only the shadow thrown by the handle to describe it.
EXERCISE IN POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE SPACE IN THE STYLE OF CAULFIELD
My brief is to produce a drawing in a similar style, and as the need to define clear tonal areas calls for a drawing with plenty of contrast, I’ve selected a still life study I did some months ago to develop.
The first process was to define the shape of the light and dark areas and to decide what elements to include. I opted to use the jug and pot and leave out the china mug which seemed a bit too clean lined for inclusion. I used the marks on the background (pentimenta from old masking tape under the paper) to suggest a door which helped break up the large area of negative space in the background.
My brief is to produce a drawing in a similar style, and as the need to define clear tonal areas calls for a drawing with plenty of contrast, I’ve selected a still life study I did some months ago to develop.
The first process was to define the shape of the light and dark areas and to decide what elements to include. I opted to use the jug and pot and leave out the china mug which seemed a bit too clean lined for inclusion. I used the marks on the background (pentimenta from old masking tape under the paper) to suggest a door which helped break up the large area of negative space in the background.
I started by making a line drawing of the basic shapes through tracing paper from the original- it helped me to see the likely dividing lines between tones more easily. After I had familiarised myself with the shapes I moved on to developing a series of thumbnails in my sketchbook, using 4B and 9B pencils to give two distinct tones. The 9B has caused some light-bounce in the photograph.
Of the second two studies, I first completed a negative version to compare the relative balance of tones. I’ve learned to do this when painting- a quick black and white photograph can highlight areas with insufficient contrast and can easily be flipped into negative for an alternate view.
My first tonal sketch seemed to have too much white so I reworked it and made the table a mid-tone as well. While I was working on these I realised how dependent the image was on complete accuracy of tonal shape in order to make it readable, as I had now lost most of the linear information from the drawing. Details such as the lip of the jug and a tiny curl of light around the base became crucial to get right.
Finally I did two more versions, one in marker pen and a colour version in sepia and sanguine Indian ink. The inks bled slightly on the cartridge paper so they are not as crisp as I would like, I will have to repeat the exercise on marker pad for a clean finish.
I was rather surprised that I succeeded in producing an end drawing from this project as I was more drawn to Caulfield’s earlier linear style and could immediately see applications for it from sketches I have in development. The White Ware series was in complete contrast and I took a long time to find a way in- I’ve been working periodically on this project for nearly a month, and up to last week was still reading other student blogs to see how they had approached it.
It’s been interesting to focus on the extreme contrast of tone. The White Ware prints tend to have two relatively dark tones and the contrast of the white areas gives them a very intimate focus. Their elegant simplicity has echoes of Yin and Yang and complements the subject matter- seven of the series are titled for the Chinese pottery which is their focal point.
(10th Aug) I've now completed a final version of the still life, in marker pen. I chose a slate purple colour to echo the desaturated reds and browns which Caulfield often uses in his backgrounds as I didn't have a suitable brown.
(10th Aug) I've now completed a final version of the still life, in marker pen. I chose a slate purple colour to echo the desaturated reds and browns which Caulfield often uses in his backgrounds as I didn't have a suitable brown.
Time to put Caulfield to bed for the time being and progress to the next exercise, although I'll be using what I have discovered in other work of his to develop other pieces.
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