The Brief

After reading the brief online, I began starting to vaguely think of ideas that I could do for each of the topics. They all seem quite inspiring and I thoroughly enjoy the freedom of this particular assignment.

Task One: Landscape
I was very passionate about Art and Design at A Level whilst studying at my previous Sixth Form and so was quite excited about the idea of incorporating artists' work into my own photography. Although the artists mentioned in the brief are of course very inspiring, I have in fact lived in London my whole life, never really having the need to travel out of London. I would therefore really like to push myself and travel somewhere completely different to city life. I recently purchased a Rail Card (a rival to my faithful Oyster card!) and luckily for me, an opportunity has arisen for me to travel to York next week. This is when I began research into famous paintings of landmarks within York and it is safe to say that some of the sights within the city and suberbs look truely inspirational; completely different to city life in London. The painting below caught my attention for some reason. I thought it just looked so peaceful and tranquil, and the building in the distance reminded me of Westminster Abbey in London.

(Title: Towards York Minster, Artist: K Melling, oil on canvas)

http://www.kmelling.com/www.kmelling.coms/info.php?p=4&pno=0)

After researching the Minster more, I found many paintings and interpretations of this particular gothic cathedral. This one in particular I thought was rather interesting:

It is a painting by Russell Platt and I feel it is an interesting interpretation of the Yokr Minster. The shapes have been reduced to a geometric form and the colours implified to simply yellows and browns. This painting is the opposite to the one below, which is a realistic view of the Minster. It stands tall in the centre of the painting, and clearly quite some time ago taking into account the horse and carriage. Although not much information is available on this painting, I do know that the artist is named Pat Bell and this painting has now been produced onto postcards and sold within the York city centre.

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/castlekay/2056820619/)

It will be interesting to see the York Minster in real life next week, as I have only ever seen it on paintings and photos published on the Internet.