Gareth McCormack is similar to Enda Cavanagh as they're both Irish and both share a love for the natural Irish environment.  Gareth, however isn't architectural based but sells his photographs to top commercial customers such as National Geographic, Tourism Ireland etc.  His photographs are stunning and I was drawn to his work for the same reason I was interested in Enda's work.  I admire the peacefulness and beauty that Gareth can achieve in his images.  Like him, I'm interested in the natural Irish environment, although I'm approaching it from a symbolic point of view.

Here's some of his work.

 

The three main artists I took inspiration from in this project are three photography based artists who I came across in my first year of college.  Their names are Enda Cavanagh, Gareth McCormack and Andy Goldsworthy. 

Enda Cavanagh is a professional architectural and landscape photographer who takes breath taking photographs of the rural Irish environment.  Most of the images he takes have been affected by man to some extent.  However I was drawn to his work by his appreciation of the natural world and his photographs convey a strong sense of peace.  Like him, two of the four I've taken were shot in the Irish rural environment.

Here's some of his work.

 

 

We have a photography project consisting of 4 photographs dealing with line, tone, texture and pattern.  The project I set for myself this year deals with the symbols of the natural environment, in particular, things and places I grew up with.  I'm fascinated by how you can take an object (be it a stone or a piece of wood) and make it look like something completely different through different lighting settings in the photo studio and with a few small tweaks in photoshop.

Here they are.

(Texture)

Looks a bit like mountains from above.

(Tone)

Reminds me of the moon.

(Line)

Tree of life-small vines growing around the tree kind of remind me of the veins on someones hand.

(Pattern/Line)

Your eye is guided from the first telephone post along the wire to look out at the city in the distance.

The cows in the corner give it a quiet, serene scene kind of like we're looking out at all the noisy, busy and often stressful life of living in a city from this calm, relaxing place.

Earlier on in the year, I went on a college trip to Venice for a week.  While I was over there I went to the Biennale they were holding which was basically two full days of looking at art.  It was great and in this Biennale, I came across one of my favourite artists so far!  His name is Moosa Al Halyan and he's based in Dubai.  His subject matter is based on drawing different kinds of horses in order to evoke emotion from the viewer.  His subject matter has little to do with my own however I love his drawing style!  It's intricate, detailed and looks stunning!  I want to mention him as I will be taking inspiration from him as time goes on.  His style is similar to what I aspire to be like in the future.

Here's a picture I took of one of his pieces while I was over there.

These are better (found them on google!)

I found Jean Jullien's and David Shrigley's websites a great tool to fall back on when my creativity tank was running out!  I've explained why these two artists have been a big inspiration to me already so here's the link to their websites.

http://davidshrigley.com/

http://www.jeanjullien.com/work.html

Here's Jean Jullien's online portfolio too.  I found it to be both helpful and entertaining!

http://www.jeanjullien.com/work-137-allo-.html

The link below is also an interview of Jean Jullien about the Paris peace symbol that he did.  He talks about how it was a reaction to the attacks on Paris and completely unplanned.  Its a very powerful image and I use this way of working on occasion.  Jean Jullien showed me that everything I do doesn't need piles of research or has to be very deep and meaningful.  My etchings are very direct about what I'm talking about and most of those images were just my reactions to how I feel on technology.

http://www.wired.com/2015/11/jean-jullien-peace-for-paris/

This is the part of the interview I'm talking about.

Did you sit down with this image in mind?
No, to be honest. I didn’t do any sketches. It was a reaction. The first thing that came to me was the idea of peace, that we needed peace. I was trying to look for a symbol of Paris, and obviously the Eiffel Tower was the first thing that sprang to my mind. I just connected both of them. You know, there wasn’t much work process behind that. It was more an instinctive, human reaction than an illustrator’s reaction.

Much of your work tends to hinge on visual puns and visual creativity. The simple combination of these two iconic symbols is incredibly powerful. What advantages do you think illustration has over the written word in conveying information at times like this?

Images are universal. Let me put it this way: In my opinion, the strongest images are the ones that don’t require any deep background in culture or art history to decipher. It needs to be instinctive. It needs to be something that people from different backgrounds can recognize automatically, and it’s this notion of identification more than reading. You understand before you decipher the image, and I think with words, sometimes, the barrier is higher. Images existed before words, and they do convey a sense of universality.

I mentioned earlier about Vince Low's drawing approach to scribbles which inspired the scribble drawing of Gollum a while back.  I simply applied his philosophy of drawing to an already existing subject matter which is the comment on people's dependency on technology.

  

http://coolerlifestyle.com/style/mia-meets-katie-scott.html#xXG5zqTKyXIf8XHk.97 

This link brings you to the first interview I read with Katie Scott.  She has a great quote in here which I'll apply to most of my work in the future.

"I particularly enjoyed drawing from imagination rather than reference, which is probably what lead me down the style of work I do now".