Saturday, June 29, 2013

Michael Fennell Smoke Paintings


This video features the works of artist Michael Fennell, highlighting his unique smoke technique that he has perfected for the past 12 years. This medium, as scene in the video, is used primarily in the art of portraiture. 

Michael Fennell trained at Cumbria college where his preference for portraiture developed in his oil paintings. In these student works he was largely inspired by the old masters such as Van Eyck, and even the pop artist Peter Blake. Later, in developing this smoke technique, while it is as real as photography or as painterly and detailed as a 17th century Dutch painting, it takes portraiture to a dreamlike direction with the new medium. His works have also been described as “nebulous” and “luminous”, and “nostalgic”. 

Video link:
Smoke Paintings


additional information from Michael Fennell's blog:
http://www.michaelfennell.com/biography.php 

2 comments:

  1. Hey Amy!

    I really enjoyed your link! Very interesting technique Fennell is using. The contrast in his work is enhanced by the smoke and that alone produces an interesting aesthetic and tonal balance.

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  2. Good series! Just like how smoke moves, a lot of these paintings created an ongoing movement in my mind. I could picture some of the images moving. Good attention to detail.

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