Davide was born in 1938 and passed away the beginning of
2017 in East Sussex. She was born in London but due to the war she stayed with
her Grandparents in Cornwall. She later moved to East Sussex. While in east
Sussex she had a studio near the sea yet she kept her work solely to drawing
animals. She was described as a shy person which could explain why her
surroundings didn’t influence her much; however, her home was adorned in her
art and different abstract objects, she expressed herself within her home1
which is also something I do as I am much more comfortable working at home.
Davide used to be a councillor and used art therapy often which is something
that I aspire to do in later life which is another reason that I was drawn to
her work. She has work up in a small gallery in Devon which I would like to
visit if I have the chance.
Unlike
Caron and Yip’s work, Davide doesn’t create series and instead names individual
pieces of work like this piece named Alfie, its 41cm x 29cm. Davide drew this
with just charcoal which is a medium that I don’t have much experience with but
would like to use. I’m drawn to her work because it’s so expressive, the other
artists I have chosen are very figurative so I want to look at Davide’s work
for her loose marks. Davide seems to name her work after the animal’s name
rather than making up her own name for the work. This makes the work feel more
personal to the animal
In this
piece above, the focus is on the dog’s face. Davide has created more shading
and more defined features whereas the rest of the body looks more like a
sketch. She also leaves the background white which means that you only focus on
the drawing and keeps the drawing looking more like a loose sketch. Davide
retrained herself to draw with her left hand which is how she gets such loose,
expressive marks. I could do some drawings with my opposite hand to get the
same expressive marks that she uses.
Davide mostly draws dogs but she also draws other animals
like in this piece of work to the left named
‘Amadeus’. It is 27.5” x 21.5”. She has used charcoal again but this time has
used less contrast than in ‘Alfie’. The focal point of the drawing in the eye
as she has created more detail in the eye than the rest of the drawing. Davide
has also used sharper marks on the horse’s face as opposed to the smudged marks
in the rest of the drawing to draw your eyes to the face. There is no colour in
the composition like ‘Alfie’, however, ‘Amadeus’ feels darker in meaning as she
has only used dark grey and black tones, there is not much white, negative
space as there is in ‘Alfie’.
This piece to the right is called ‘Spot’
its 24” x 30” This is one of her few pieces in which Davide has used oil
pastels to add colour to her piece. As with her other compositions the face of
the animal is the focus point, with the rest of the body looking more like a
sketch.
A lot of Davide’s pieces including ‘Spot’ are clearly drawn
from a photo instead of real life. She uses depth of field to distort the
animal’s face and cause the noses of the animals to appear much larger than
they are in real life, making the animal look out of proportion and less
realistic. It looks as though they have been taken with a fish eye lens so this
could be something I experiment with. In addition to the unreal proportions of
the dog in ‘Spot’, Davide uses unrealistic colours in the composition. Along
with the loose marks, the bright colours suggest a more childish and innocent
drawing in contrast to the dark charcoal she normally uses. Despite this, she
still uses charcoal to draw an outline and also uses solely charcoal for the
nose to emphasise the dark tones of a dog’s nose.
I don’t think any of
her work has a particular meaning and is instead made by her to express her
true self and just for fun. She seems to enjoy making loose, abstract marks and
I think she uses charcoal as it’s easy to create quick contrast but also easy
to smudge for mid tones and therefore easier for her to make a more abstract looking
piece. Her abstract marks is the main reason for me looking at her work as the
other two artists I have chosen are more figurative and their work is more
complex. Furthermore, unlike my other artists, Davide draws mostly domesticated
animals which is more accessible for me to take pictures of.
References:
1-
https://www.maycontainmutts.com/gallery/about-us
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