Matisse

'His constant concern is with space and how you can create it out of objects or simple colours. His continuous ambition was to keep trying different ways to achieve balance.'

See the rest of the article at The Independent.

Look at paintings of Matisse on Youtube here and see his use of colour and light here.

Make your own creation based on your feelings about Matisse's work.

David Hockney's trees

'Bright oil paintings of wheat fields and tree-lined country lanes ... multi-canvas vistas of woodland seen in different seasons ... watercolours of hedgerows and haystacks, charcoal sketches of copses and logs, and more than 50 colourful 'drawings', created using an iPad and printed on to paper, documenting the onset of spring along an old Roman road that runs out of Bridlington'.

Visit here and read the article; also watch the video at the Telegraph newspaper site.

What do you think about Hockney's pictures? Do you like the colours and shapes?

You could also scroll down the pictures here at the Daily Mail site. Photographs show the scenes painted by the artist matched against photographs of the site. Any comments? Does an artist have a responsibility to prettify a landscape? Do they have a responsibility to represent it as it is? What would you choose to do?

It's all in the angles

Look at David Stephenson's 24 images on his portfolio, taken from Heavenly Vaults.

What would have happened if the architects mixed up 90 degrees with 60 degrees? Disaster.

Now check out Vi Hart's Origami Proof on Youtube. Try it out!

At the very least, you'll have folded your paper with wonderful creases; they give you a working space for your next task.

Use your folded paper to create a design for a space that you'd like to see when you look upward. Imagine it painted on a ceiling. If you were to do that, you'd need to divide your space carefully, check your measurements (twice) and then begin painting.

Oh, and visit a chapel, or somewhere with a big roof space. Ladies, did you look upwards at King's?

And while we're wandering about here, you should know about this.

Damien Hirst

Julian Spalding on Damien Hirst:

'Damien Hirst isn't an artist. His works ... have no artistic content and are worthless as works of art. They are, therefore, worthless financially. [...]

'I've coined the term Con Art, short for contemporary conceptual art and for art that cons people. Contemporary conceptual art? All art is a concept in the sense that it's the product of thought. But all art must also be a creation. You have to be able to see art; it can't just be a projected thought. That's how the emperor got dressed; his expensive robes were all in the minds of people around him, when in reality he had nothing on. [...]

'The trouble with found objects is that you can't tell just by looking at them what the person who put them in front of you is trying to tell you unless he or she has altered them in some meaningful way. Nor does the act of placing something in an art gallery, whether it's a stack of bricks, a bin bag or an unmade bed, automatically make it a work of art, any more than framing a canvas with paint on it automatically makes it a painting.'

See Hirst here and here. Read Julian Spalding here. What's your opinion?