Dennis Creffield

Dennis Creffield is a fine artist from Brighton (Britain) who was born in January 1931 and died in June 2018 and studied at the Borough Polytechnic College from 1948 to 1951. Creffield primarily uses charcoal and Acrylics in his work, which is evident in the above artworks. The above two charcoal studies are part of a series of cathedral studies Creffield created when travelling across the UK. Creffield uses a lot of bold, dashed lines to add detail on top of the smudged background; I like his charcoal work as although it is not immensely detailed, he manages to capture the essence of each building he draws with his bold stokes when outlining certain areas of each study. Furthermore, Creffields use of bold, definitive lines is very daring and makes each of his artworks into its own statement piece.

Creffield, D., 2020. Dennis Creffield 1931–2018 | Tate. [online] Tate. Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/dennis-creffield-2262> [Accessed 19 October 2020].

William Roberts

William Roberts is a British-born Australian artist whose work was prominent in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Roberts was born in London in 1895 and died in 1980. At the age of 14 he left school and attended St. Martin’s School of Art where he learned of his love for post-impressionism and cubism, you can see this in his work and how it developed over the years, as his early works follow an abstract/post-impressionistic style and over time his work developed into cubism, where he is known for his large scale, colourful compositions as well as his charcoal/graphite sketches. After serving in WW1 he was officially recognised as a war artist in 1918.

Like Dennis Creffield, Roberts likes to use bold, thick lines to outline certain aspects of his work when using charcoal/graphite, this is evident in his work entitled ‘by the sea’ 1925 (Top Left) is a charcoal and graphite on paper that depicts a beachside scene using harsh bold lines that are very eye catching and unapologetic. I like this piece as despite its lack of colour and close details there is an unnerving depth to it. Compared to Robert’s ‘by the beach’, his graphite on paper study titles ‘Beach Fun’ (middle) has a lot more emotion to it. This piece depicts six figures who appear to be consumed in their own version of turmoil, each figure expressing this in different ways.

Roberts, W., 2020. ‘By The Sea’, William Roberts, C.1925 | Tate. [online] Tate. Available at: <https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/roberts-by-the-sea-t12671> [Accessed 19 October 2020].

Georgeta Blanaru

Georgeta Blanaru is a self-taught artist who works with a wide range or mediums including watercolour, acrylic, oils and coffee. I like Blanaru’s use of bright, contrasting colours in each of her paintings as it highlights certain aspects of each painting; I also like the painting techniques Blanaru uses in her work as she applies the paint in such a thick manner that it results in a textured surface, something which appeals to me as an artist as I like working in a 3D form. This technique is very evident in the painting entitled ‘Autumn Beauty’ (Top Left), which It is painted using acrylic and palette knife.

The second painting entitled ‘Wailing Wall’ is the Western wall in Jerusalem. The painting is of a synagogue that can hold tens of thousands of worshippers and does so throughout the year. People come to write messages and place them within the lower cracks of the blocks. Which we can see on the lower right-hand side of Blanarus’s painting. The colours in this painting are very vibrant as Branaru predominantly uses yellows, oranges and blues in this piece with hints of green in some of the brickwork.

The third painting is entitled ‘First Kiss on The Bridge’. Although her other paintings are in an impressionistic style, I think that this artwork represents this style of art most of all because of the romanticism within the piece. The painting depicts a couple kissing in the center of a bridge surrounded by trees, only one of which has an evident trunk, the rest are very much so in the background and depicted only by the leaves and their bright colours. The use of repetitive colours when painting the leaves makes them quite lyrical and rhythmic.

Overall, I find Georgeta Blanaru paintings nothing short of spectacular and her use of colour fills me with an overwhelming sense joy.

Blanaru, G., 2020. Georgeta Blanaru – Palette Knife Paintings Wall Art. [online] Georgeta Blanaru – Website. Available at: <https://georgeta-blanaru.pixels.com/collections/palette+knife+paintings> [Accessed 19 October 2020].