On November 25th, our art class went on a gallery walk to some of the galleries on Main Street- specifically the Reynolds Gallery, the Brazier Gallery, and the Glave Kocen Gallery. I overall enjoyed the experience, in large part because I don't go to art galleries very much on my own, and this allowed me to see a little of what Richmond has to offer.
While at the Reynolds Gallery, there was a lot of interesting work on display, but what drew me in most was the work done by an artist named Nancy Blum. Blum created large-scale drawings of flowers and plants (very fitting for someone with that last name), some of which spanned the entire length of walls in the gallery. Blum's art is very interesting to me because while it manages to capture some of the realistic details within the flowers, they are also extremely stylized and interesting to look at. In addition to this, there are so many small details in Blum's work that one has to observe extremely closely to notice. The background of many of the pieces seem gray from afar, but are actually comprised of a tight pattern of multicolored lines. I could stare at Blum's drawings for hours and still manage to notice something new. Pretty much all of the work I've done this year has been realistic, and while I haven't aimed for hyper realism, I do know that I've tried to keep my drawings close to the actual subject material. It is work like Blum's that gets me thinking about whether or not I want to start trying to create artwork that's more stylized. But would that sacrifice the realism I've been aiming for? Another artist whose work I saw that absolutely floored me was Stanley Rayfield at the Glave Kocen Gallery. Rayfield managed to create artwork so realistic I could have sworn they were photographs instead of pencil drawings. It's amazing. Like with Blum's work, I probably could have stared at Rayfield's for a ridiculously long amount of time without getting bored. There are so many small details in his work that when together, create astounding realism in his work. This got me thinking a bit more about my work, and though I do realistic drawings, I don't aim for hyperrealism, and mainly try and get the biggest details or most defining features of the people I draw on the page. Would trying something more detailed or hyperrealistic help my work and add more depth? It was also very interesting to see the racial aspect of Rayfield's work, seeing as he mainly chose to draw or paint portraits of African Americans. Like in the picture below, Rayfield put his subjects in poses and clothing, such as the crowns, that would usually be found in works about white Americans and Europeans, and was a very nice change of pace.
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AuthorA senior at Maggie Walker taking Art IV Archives
May 2018
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