Manchester Art Gallery - Pre-Raphaelite Paintings

Today I visited the Manchester Art Gallery.  There are some of the finest and most well known Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the collection there.  The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was made up of a group of rebellious students from the Royal Academy who depicted important issues of their day such as morality,  religion and emigration.  I looked at some of the Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the exhibition and had thought that I did not like them before today as I had never seen any in real life, only on the TV or computer.  When I saw them in front of me my whole view on the styles and meanings changed.   The detail and care that had obviously gone into these paintings made me start to appreciate the style.  The detail in the cloth and hair is something that you have to see before you can judge it.  The amount of work that goes into the fine detail would have taken many hours to produce.

I personally loved the following :

 Ophelia by Arthur Hues 

I loved the whimsical and haunting feel to the painting above. It made me feel as though I was watching something about to unfold in front of my eyes.  This feeling made me quite on edge and excited.  The artist created a certain amount of tension with his dark and brooding landscape.

Hylas and the Nymphs by  JW Waterhouse

The painting above produces a very soothing and calm feeling.  The peacefulness of the painting makes the viewer relax.  I think that this is caused by the use of colour and the position of the nymphs.  The nymphs are very calm and serene in the painting and that makes the viewer relaxed.  The subject matter of the painting is fantasy and is portrayed in a rather dreamlike manner. 

Not all of the paintings were well painted or pleasing to the eye in my view.  Here are some that I did not like.

The Hireling Shepherd by Holman Hunt

I am not to sure what I do not like about this painting.  I think it was the shepherd and the unrealistic positioning of the birds that prevented me from enjoying this painting as much as I had the others.  Although I do not find this painting pleasing I have to admit that there is a lot of detail and care put into it. Looking at this painting leaves me uninspired.

The Scapegoat by Holman Hunt

The rainbow in the painting above made me frown when I saw it.  It stands out and makes the painting seem as though it has been painted in a childlike and immature way by an incompetent artist. It appears that I do not like Holman Hunt's work. The way that the hills are painted and the colours used make the painting seem quite odd in my opinion because the distant landscape looks as though it belongs in a different painting.  For me the sun seems to have been painted rather hurriedly and with little thought or effort and also looks out of place in the painting. 

If you want to know more about Pre-Raphaelite paintings then the following sites will be useful and informative. 

http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/permanent-galleries/historic-galleries/pre-raphaelite/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood

http://www.pre-raphaelitesociety.org/

We Face Forward - Setting Up!

Today I went to the Whitworth Art Gallery in the hope of walking around and getting some ideas for my art work.  I hoped to find new techniques and use of colour.  Instead I found that much of the gallery was shut.  I had to be escorted to the upper level of the gallery by a worker because the We Face Forward wad being set up by the artists. I was told by my escort that they had started setting up two weeks ago and still were not ready.

There was a calm, laid back feeling in the rooms but there was still a slight hint of panic.  Workers and staff were rushing about to get everything done on time but the artists were working in a very calm and collected way.   With two days left would they have it all done in time?

When I finally reached the open section of the gallery there were about fifteen paintings and collage style drawings.  I saw some amazing watercolours that really inspired me to go and do some more watercolour painting when I got home because they were so well done and detailed I wanted to improve so that I could paint as well as the artists of these water colours.

We Face Forward information -
We Face Forward starts on the 2nd June and finishes on the 16th September 2011.
We face Forward is an event that will celebrate the links between Manchester and West Africa as part of the London 2012 cultural festival.  It will take place in the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery,  Gallery of Costume, the Manchester Museum and the National Football Museum.  The Whitworth Art Gallery will be host to art and photography.  The Manchester Art Gallery will hopefully give you a feeling of connection between West Africa. The Gallery of Costume will show West African robes and clothes.  The Manchester Museum will show a play of Anansi the spider and historical artifacts, for example, a coffin in the shape of a  cocoa pod.  Finally the National Football Museum will be showing how football can give artists a way to explore the social and political conflict in Africa.
More information can be found on the exhibition site - http://www.wefaceforward.org