[Stan]

I was delighted to hear that my Visual Arts Fellowship application has recently been successful (November 2012).
For all those who are interested in such things, my panel has now been published on my web site at www.stanfarrow.com/frps

best wishes

Stan

[jmuffat]

Congratulations !
I can totally relate to this panel, love the subject, the shots and the panel as a whole "from afar".
I love the way painting techniques come&go, mix and interact with colour!
I expected to find stencil represented in the set, somewhere. Not disappointed, just saying.
I hoped for some pure texture (why not a Soulage?) interacting with light, but that'd would be enough topic for another panel, wouldn't it?

I have two strong memories of looking at a painting from up close. One in Florence, when I was maybe 12, at the Uffizi, realizing that the delicate lace pattern I was seeing from a distance really was a mess of quick brush strokes ; it was a revelation. The second time was a few year back, here in Paris, at Musée d'Orsay, when I realized how much the Self Portrait in Blue by Van Gogh really is in volume, it is a stormy sea, it is nothing like the quiet moment in time you might call it when seeing a reproduction!

So, well done again, and thank you for this delicious work !

[Stan]

jmuffat, on 23 November 2012 - 01:05 PM, said:

Congratulations !
I can totally relate to this panel, love the subject, the shots and the panel as a whole "from afar".
I love the way painting techniques come&go, mix and interact with colour!
I expected to find stencil represented in the set, somewhere. Not disappointed, just saying.
I hoped for some pure texture (why not a Soulage?) interacting with light, but that'd would be enough topic for another panel, wouldn't it?

I have two strong memories of looking at a painting from up close. One in Florence, when I was maybe 12, at the Uffizi, realizing that the delicate lace pattern I was seeing from a distance really was a mess of quick brush strokes ; it was a revelation. The second time was a few year back, here in Paris, at Musée d'Orsay, when I realized how much the Self Portrait in Blue by Van Gogh really is in volume, it is a stormy sea, it is nothing like the quiet moment in time you might call it when seeing a reproduction!

So, well done again, and thank you for this delicious work !

[Stan]

Thank you.

There were two reasons for no stencils being included.

Firstly I didn't find any that I thought were strong enough in close-up to be included. I confess that I was lazy, and worked mainly from one very long wall. I really didn't need to go looking for other walls. (Some places posh Nikons and urban grafitti don't mix too well).

Secondly, I did photograph some stencils, as well as some other pure textures that might perhaps have worked well as single images. However when I was selecting the final cut for my panel my main consideration was how the panel would look "from afar" as you put it. Unfortunately this meant that some very good images had to be omitted. If I were to exhibit this work in a gallery then I might include a few different images instead. I have a couple of hundred to choose from.

Yours

Stan

[paula-d]

Many congratulations Stan. What a superb panel! I have long been an admirer of your work having seen it in many exhibitions. I will now add your website to my favourites lists so I can return and have a good look at the galleries.

[Stan]

Thanks Paula. And there was me admiring your work too! What a pair!

[Gypsy]

Congratulations Stan. I'm looking forward to seeing your wonderful panel of prints in Edinburgh tomorrow

Helena

[Mike Rowe]

Well done indeed, Stan. I think your panel is gorgeous and quite an inspiration.

Mike

[Stan]

Thanks Helena and Mike.

I am planning to be in Edinburgh myself tomorrow Helena, so if you have any questions I will be happy to answer them.

Stan

[Paul Dunning]

Congratulations Stan,

A very interesting and original panel, thanks for sharing.

Paul.

[Fox2006]

Congrats Stan

[PAW]

I really like this panel. I have loads of very similar photos taken over the years. However I had not considered them for a panel as I would have thought that they were more record shots of found art , in other words not really my own original work. In fact I was told this at the time that I was putting my ARPS panel together, so I didn't use them. Seems like the Society's opinion has changed over the years.

[Stan]

Good evening PAW. Thanks for looking at my panel.

In response, it did take me quite a while to summon up the courage to submit this panel and it did cross my mind at one point that there might be some people who could consider it to be a record of another person's art. I chose not to ask advice about this from the RPS, but I did seek advice from others. In the end I decided that none of it was just a copy of other people's art, but that I was doing something original that probably hadn't been done before. If I had stood back and photographed the grafitti from 6 ft away then, yes, it would be a straight copy. By moving in to just an inch or two, and sometimes even less (stacking macro lens and extension tubes), I was concentrating on very tiny bits of pattern and texture. Some of did not originate wholly with the original spray paint, but were due to weathering of the fence or wall and its underlying texture.

As my statement said. "When viewed closely I perceived that there were parallels between the shapes, colours and textures of very small details of graffiti on a local wall with those of abstract expressionist art. Interactions of the paint with the textures of the wall, with the underlying paint layers, and with the elements, all contributed to the final effect. Placing my camera just a few centimetres from the surface has allowed me to isolate these abstract details and create the final images".

I suppose it helped that I wasn't just trying to create pretty pictures of grafitti, but trying instead to draw a parallel between these macro details and some work by abstract expessionist painters. Again, my statement referred to this by saying that "This project developed from my interest in the abstract art of the late 20th Century. Artists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, André Masson, and Jóan Miró produced work that depended heavily on colour, form and texture, but which had little recognisable subject matter.
My intention was to create a series of abstract photographic images inspired by this 20th Century art".

When I was working on this panel, I had just finished photographing the wall one day when I met another photographer who had also been photographing grafitti in a more traditional way. I have to confess that I didn't show him what I had in my camera, largely because I didn't want others emulating my approach before I was ready to submit my FRPS panel.

I suppose that in the end, everyone may have a different view on this one. I am just very grateful that the RPS liked what I had submitted and thought it worthy of a Fellowship.


All the best

Stan