Using my own photography from earlier in the year I used oil pastels and drew on top of these pictures. This is because one of my artists, Alexa Meade, not only paints on people but also still life objects including fruit.
I used similar colours to the original fruits so to experiment further I tried using different colours to those used in the original.
Here I used oil pastels again, in the secondary colours purple and orange and to further add detail I used the primary colour yellow and pink.
I really liked the way this turned out as it brings more interest in due to the contrast in colours, compared to the original which was simply green and darker green.
After these initial experiments I wanted to refine my work but using macro photography and focusing on detailed texture, lines, and tone, rather than general drawings.
Here are the images I took:
I chose the following overall as these had the most contrast with colour and I felt would create the most exciting pieces.
René François Ghislain Magritte (French: [ʁəne fʁɑ̃swa ɡilɛ̃ maɡʁit]; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgiansurrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images. Often depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality. His imagery has influenced pop, minimalist and conceptual art.
Magritte's work frequently displays a collection of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. The use of objects as other than what they seem is typified in his painting, The Treachery of Images (La trahison des images), which shows a pipe that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advertisement. Magritte painted below the pipe "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" ("This is not a pipe"), which seems a contradiction, but is actually true: the painting is not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe. It does not "satisfy emotionally"—when Magritte was once asked about this image, he replied that of course it was not a pipe, just try to fill it with tobacco.[16]
Magritte used the same approach in a painting of an apple: he painted the fruit and then used an internal caption or framing device to deny that the item was an apple. In these "Ceci n'est pas" works, Magritte points out that no matter how naturalistically we depict an object, we never do catch the item itself.
Among Magritte's works are a number of surrealist versions of other famous paintings. Elsewhere, Magritte challenges the difficulty of artwork to convey meaning with a recurring motif of an easel, as in his The Human Condition series (1933, 1935) or The Promenades of Euclid (1955) (wherein the spires of a castle are "painted" upon the ordinary streets which the canvas overlooks). In a letter to André Breton, he wrote of The Human Condition that it was irrelevant if the scene behind the easel differed from what was depicted upon it, "but the main thing was to eliminate the difference between a view seen from outside and from inside a room."[17] The windows in some of these pictures are framed with heavy drapes, suggesting a theatrical motif.[18]
Magritte's style of surrealism is more representational than the "automatic" style of artists such as Joan Miró. Magritte's use of ordinary objects in unfamiliar spaces is joined to his desire to create poetic imagery. He described the act of painting as "the art of putting colors side by side in such a way that their real aspect is effaced, so that familiar objects—the sky, people, trees, mountains, furniture, the stars, solid structures, graffiti—become united in a single poetically disciplined image. The poetry of this image dispenses with any symbolic significance, old or new."[19]
René Magritte described his paintings as "visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, 'What does that mean?'. It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable."[20]
Magritte's constant play with reality and illusion has been attributed to the early death of his mother. Psychoanalysts who have examined bereaved children have hypothesized that Magritte's back and forth play with reality and illusion reflects his "constant shifting back and forth from what he wishes—'mother is alive'—to what he knows—'mother is dead' ".[
Alexa Meade
Alexa Meade (born 1986)[1] is an Americaninstallation artist best known for her portraits painted directly onto the human body and inanimate objects in a way that collapses depth and makes her models appear two-dimensional when photographed. What remains is "a photo of a painting of a person, and the real person hidden somewhere underneath."[2] She takes a classical concept — trompe l'oeil, the art of making a two-dimensional representational painting look like a real three-dimensional space — and turns it on its head by doing the opposite, making real life appear to be a painting.[
Meade's Living Paintings series is a collection of portraits painted directly onto models, using acrylic paints to make the three-dimensional subjects appear two-dimensional.[5] Only the unpainted parts – typically the hair and eyes – reveal “an optical illusion that blurs the lines of where reality ends and art begins.” The work combines painting, photography, art installations and performance art.[8]
In April 2009, at Vassar College, Meade began to experiment with the idea of putting paint on top of shadows. She then realized while painting the shadows and highlights on the body of her friend Bernie, she could make the three-dimensional space appear two-dimensional.[7][9][10][11] After graduation, she honed her painting technique in her parent's Washington, D.C. basement by practicing painting on inanimate objects like grapefruits, fried eggs and sausage.[8] She has credited her lack of formal art training with allowing her to come up with unique ideas of surfaces she could paint on, since she didn't think of painting as something that necessarily had to be done on a canvas.[5]
Meade first gained public recognition in March 2010, when her living paintings went viral following a short post about her work on Jason Kottke's blog kottke.org.[5][8] She soon received coverage on CNN and elsewhere.[3] Her website went from having negligible views to an estimated 30,000 page views the next day.[12] Her most famous artwork at the time, "Transit," features an older man Meade painted on in her basement studio, and then photographed riding the Washington, D.C. metro, looking "as if a painting from the National Portrait Gallery has leapt off its wall to go walking through the flesh-and-blood world."[8][13] Her speech at the 2013 TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, "Your Body is my Canvas," offers a behind the scenes look at her work, and details her career beginnings.[8][11] She has named installation artist Robert Irwin as an inspiration, citing his biography, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees, as an influence on how she thinks about the perception of space.[14]
Alexa Meade's perspective-bending artwork makes the 3D world look like a 2D painting. In her latest project collaboration, Alexa Meade's art is the medium for the visual storytelling of Color of Reality, a short film written, directed, and choreographed by Jon Boogz. Movement artists Jon Boogz and Lil Buck deliver emotional performances that speak powerfully to our frustrations with the gun violence that is haunting American society today.
Alexa Meade takes an innovative approach to art. Not for her a life of sketching and stretching canvases. Instead, she selects a topic and then paints it—literally. She covers everything in a scene—people, chairs, food, you name it—in a mask of paint that mimics what's below it. In this eye-opening talk Meade shows off photographs of some of the more outlandish results, and shares a new project involving people, paint and milk.
Meade isn't like any other artist...she literally paints human beings, turning them into living, breathing portraits. Alexa creates the illusion of a world where 2D and 3D have become one. - Business Insider
Alexa Meade's perspective-bending artwork makes the 3D world look like a 2D painting. In her latest project collaboration, Alexa Meade's art is the medium for the visual storytelling of Color of Reality, a short film written, directed, and choreographed by Jon Boogz. Movement artists Jon Boogz and Lil Buck deliver emotional performances that speak powerfully to our frustrations with the gun violence that is haunting American society today. Produced by Kalie Acheson of Animi.Design
In the lushly hypnotic video 'Color of Reality,' a quick tale told through movement and visual art, these men are dancers and their message is not just about social justice. It’s also about their art...Think of it as a van Gogh — that is, if one of his paintings were brought to life as a performative protest...used to inspire positive change and empower.
Alexa Meade takes an innovative approach to art. Not for her a life of sketching and stretching canvases. Instead, she selects a topic and then paints it—literally. She covers everything in a scene—people, chairs, food, you name it—in a mask of paint that mimics what's below it. In this eye-opening talk Meade shows off photographs of some of the more outlandish results, and shares a new project involving people, paint and milk.
PAINTED INSTALLATIONS
BLUE PRINT, 2010 24"x18" Edition of 7
BLUE PRINT INSTALLATION 8'x8'x4' Installation
NATURA MORTA, 2009 24"x18" Edition of 7
NATURA MORTA INSTALLATION
JAIMIE, 2010 16"x20" Edition of 7
JAIMIE WITH ALEXA
SPECTACLE, 2010 24"x18" Edition of 7
SPECTACLE INSTALLATION 8'x8'x4' Installation
TRANSIT, 2009 24"x18" Edition of 7
TRANSIT 3, 2009 Performance on the DC Metro
ALIGNED WITH ALEXA, 2010 16"x16" Edition of 7
TIMMY TOURIST 2010, 30'' x 45'' Edition of 7
Limited edition prints and commissioned portraits available. Pricing upon request: pricing@alexameade.com.
ALEXA // SHEILA
Hesitate // Activate in process Photo by David Branson
HESITATE, 2012 160x80 cm, Edition of 3 | 50x100 cm, Edition of 5 | 75x37.5 cm, Edition of 7
ACTIVATE, 2012 100x100 cm, Edition of 3 | 75x75 cm, Edition of 5 | 50x50 cm, Edition of 7
Hesitate // Activate in process Photo by David Branson
UNSEEN, 2012 160x106 cm, Edition of 3 | 100x66 cm, Edition of 5 | 75x50 cm, Edition of 7
SHAPE, 2012 160x106 cm, Edition of 3 | 100x66 cm, Edition of 5 | 75x50 cm, Edition of 7
Unseen // Shape in process
SHIFT, 2012 160x106 cm, Edition of 3 | 100x66 cm, Edition of 5 | 75x50 cm, Edition of 7
HEAD TRIP, 2012 100x100 cm, Edition of 3 | 75x75 cm, Edition of 5 | 50x50 cm, Edition of 7
Head Trip in process
MANGO LASSI, 2012 160x106 cm, Edition of 3 | 100x66 cm, Edition of 5 | 75x50 cm, Edition of 7
Mango Lassi in process
WHITE OUT, 2012 160x106 cm, Edition of 3 | 100x66 cm, Edition of 5 | 75x50 cm, Edition of 7
REVOLVER, 2012 160x106 cm, Edition of 3 | 100x66 cm, Edition of 5 | 75x50 cm, Edition of 7
