Barbara Rae

On Wednesday around 10 all the college students at Southdowns College, went to visit an art gallery. The place was called Pallant House.

When we arrived the place was closed as we were quite early. There were other people waiting outside which seemed to make the place crowded! As soon as the doors were opened people went in and bought tickets.

After we bought our tickets we split up in groups and went in different directions.

First I decided to go into the print room  along with a friend. The room contains Barbara Rae's works. I was really amazed when I saw them. They were incredible and very expressionist. What really got my attention were her use of vibrant colours and mixed media. Plus we were already studying about her in Print.

In the print room were her works where, I was really drawn towards a very vivid abstract piece which is called "Harbour Night"My first thought on the piece is that it has rough, random, curvy lines. It looks like a child-like painting. Some of the lines are very thick which makes it look strong while the other lines are thin. The colours within the work are quite muted while others are really gloomy, creating a mixture of mystery. But yet these colours seem to contrast against each other really well, so that the details within the piece could show clearer.  But they also seem to give a calm warming feeling towards the work. Because the yellow been brighter then the other colours, your eyes are immediately drawn to it. I found it extremely hard before to tell what the piece was but when you look closer you will notice that they are two boats or one. She drew one part bigger because of the distance and the depth.

I really like how she used colours which seem to contrast each other really well and makes it easier to see the details within the work. I like the use of random lines which seem to create movements in the work and gives an excellent depth to the piece.
However, after I wrote all these notes down about what I personally thought about her work, I decided to read what she wrote about it when she was making it.In it she discussed that this is piece of work is one of her best prints. The yellow lines of energy on light cross, the lower-middle section like straws in the wind, while the pink and purple block out the main volumes overlaid by fretwork of darker lines.It is a deeply satisfying image, uniting the skills of the technician at peacock visual arts, Mike Waight with the artists vision, in a compelling study of light and dark, line and volume rhythm and clarity of statement.

This work "Harbour Night" was done in 2006. It is a colour and Collagraph on Zerkall paper.

About the Artist

When I researched her I read that she isn't a landscape painter. What interest her is anything altered by man kind hands. She is an expressionistic painter who uses vibrant colours in her works. Printmaking was very important in her life since she was a student. Mono-prints, screen-prints, and etchings informs her approach to painting, which combines the influence of key historic "artefacts" in the landscape with painterly abstraction.