Patrick Caulfield (1936 – 2005), a British painter and printmaker. He was a formally trained artist and also taught at the Chelsea School of Art. He’s often associated with pop art, although he himself did not like the label. He combined reduced line drawings in a single colour with photorealistic elements, for example in After Lunch (1975), Tate Gallery (source: Wikipedia).
He did many screenprints, where he employed flat colours and bold contour lines and simplified the shape of objects, omitting detail. Typically there are no differentiated patterns of tonal gradations.
The ‘Fruit and bowl’ (1979) and ‘Bottle and cups’ (1965) screenprints illustrate the emphasis on simple shapes and flat colours.
Some more screenprints which I found typical in the way how Caulfield created three-dimensional space just through the intersections of objects’ contours.
A drawing in the style of Caulfield
In order to make a drawing in the style of Patrick Caulfield, I reflected on what I found characteristic for Caulfield’s works. For me, this was
- the almost complete omission of shadings
- use of flat colour with sometimes two values – one light, one dark
- black contour lines
- focus on simple shapes, omission of detail
I considered a drawing in the style of the ‘After Lunch’ screenprint, combining a graphic line drawing with a photorealistic view out of the window. I arranged some objects on a table, and I could have used the view out of my two study windows as background. But I wasn’t sure how I could make the composition work, due to the size contrast between the relatively small objects on the table and the large windows, and I decided to try something else.
I placed three objects on a small cloth on a table, with a wall corner and an open door as a background. My idea was to focus on the simple forms of the objects and use only flat colours here, and to do the background as a line drawing. I started with a pencil drawing and then used colour crayons for the coloured areas. Finally I used felt pen for the contours. I felt that the drawing “fell apart” and therefore closed the contours to give the drawing a frame.
The drawing doesn’t focus on the topic of positive/negative space, so I guess I’m a bit off track with regard to the task in the study materials. Nevertheless I enjoyed the work and like the drawing. Maybe I’ll give it another try, paying more attention to positive/negative space.
Sources
Wikipedia, Patrick Caulfield http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Caulfield