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| Christian Ward's Original Painting |
‘Frontier Monument’
Christian Ward
For my next project in Fine Art, I have been asked to make a transcription painting from a trip to the walker art gallery I took earlier this month. The painting had to be from the John Moores competition 2010, and after a long look at all the entries, I finally decided on Christian Ward’s 'Frontier Monument'.
The painting was created by using oil paint on a 205 x 221 cm linen canvas. Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of drying oil, most commonly linseed oil. Other materials can be added to this for example a type of varnish that is used to
increase the glossiness when dried. It is a hard-wearing paint that comes in a variety of radiant colours.
Due to the oil and thickness of the paint applied, it tends
to require a lot of patience when it comes to drying time.
A lot of Christian Ward’s work has elements of Japanese art in it, this could be from the fact that he was born in Noda, Japan and likes to incorporate that in his work. A great number of Ward’s paintings are landscapes that include Technicolor Mountains, caverns and grottoes that shimmer with rainbows and cascading multicoloured waterfalls that are covered in iridescent mist. For this piece in particular, Frontier Monument, Christian Ward said, ‘I play Walt Disney with black holes or cherry blossoms with an atom bomb afterglow. Each part rhymes with another in dissonance or harmony, sometimes both, and new possibilities open up. A painting is normally finished on a climax, usually about 4am.’
Ward influences span through the sixties psychedelic graphic design to ancient Chinese paintings, as well as the latest Japanese animation techniques. ‘A teacher once told me that making a painting was like overfilling an envelope’ he said to a critic, therefore, he tends to overlay subjects, references and styles to ensure that he can fill up a canvas. One critic described his work as ‘a cross between Fantasia and The Land That Time Forgot - they are always based on the direct experience of a real place.’
In the past, Ward’s travels have taken him from the mountains of Scotland and America into the Arizona desert; but his most recent paintings have their starting point in Yakushima, an island off the southern coast of Japan. This island has a personal meaning to him because his mother and her family originally came from this area; it was also the landscape that he last visited as a child. He said, ‘These paintings are as much a mental island, an unknowable space that I can do what I want in them, but which in the end does what it wants.’
I find Christian Ward’s work fascinating; from the meanings and subjects, to the colour choices and compositions. In the Frontier Monument, the composition is particularly captivating, due to the suttle, pastel colours of light blues and purples that spread over the canvas, they contrasts well with the bright flashes of rainbow like prisms that draw your eyes to the centre image of this brilliant piece. This centre image is another cave or grotto which has a bright glow coming from within. I find this glow represents wonder, curiosity and temptation. Once you have focused on this, your eyes start to scan over the rest of the painting so you can observe the other images hidden inside. With all of the hidden images from faces and ping pong games to foosball games and strange holes and bright green ponds, it becomes not only a personal journey but a quirky, abstract piece of art. The path like layout of the painting reminds me of a maze, this makes me think the piece is based on a journey the artist has taken or a group of memories he likes most. The paint its self is laid down very flat, this is because of his application of the oil paint, but you can see a few brush and tool marks within it.
Over all, I truly love this painting, and it has inspired me more than I ever thought possible. The techniques, materials and formal elements are perfectly ideal throughout the work, as is the subject matter which intrigues me deeply. For this reason, I have really enjoyed finding and researching the facts. The painting makes me feel happy and content, as to me it is about memories and journeys. The painting has encouraged me to take a journey through my own memories and has inspired me to incorporate these ideas to my painting. The general consensus of people when they look and admire it is that it is an impressive piece of work, because it is so grand, striking and meaningful. Frontier Monument by Christian Ward, was a very successful and inspiring painting; the very reasons why I have chosen to use for my final transcription piece.
Here are photographs of my transcription.
As you can see, I have created drips, splashes and heavy brush strokes of paint across the background. This is to give more of texture.
Some of the rocks from the top of the cave float around the outer edges of my work gradually evolving in to footsteps that lead back in to the cave. As you can see from the image above and below, they where created with paint and leaf skeletons that progressively change colour in to brown, muddy, bare foot prints.
I think that the burnt parts of the map really gives my piece a different style. It changes your mind from the flowing and calm feel you may get when looking at it, to a slight sense of anger. On the other hand, these small burns of anger are calmed right back down again by the delicate feathers and leaf skeletons placed behind each burn.
