Part of the work I wish to develop further for the project is some oil or pastel paintings that focus on parenting. I am therefore looking at artists that are historic and more contemporary who depict children and families. I plan to consider their styles, techniques in the application of the mediums and also their colour palette’s and composition. Although I am considering these I will also make use of any suitable photos including those from the internet to create the important narrative in the images around positive bonding and parenting. I want to use colour and vibrancy as this will create the warmth in the images.
The first artist I consider is Mary Cassatt.
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was American artist born in 1844 and died in 1926. She is known more for her women and child paintings in both oil and pastel.
The image above has been taken from Philadelphia’s Museum of Art website. I accessed this on 7/1/25. The work is titled Maternal Caress and is an oil painting on canvas 15×21.5 ins
This gaze between mother and child is so important in child rearing. Eye contact between mother and child in early infancy helps the child to bond with the mother or care giver and also helps promote the child’s sense of safety, security and comfort. I am trying to reflect this in the sculpture I’m doing and I do want to create a similar work to Cassatt’s but in a more contemporary style.
The next image by Cassatt is done in pastel. I’m not sure what the background is meant to depict as there seems to be ferociously drawn horizontal green marks against the white verticals so maybe a curtain, What I love however as I look deeper into the drawing are the vast array of vibrant colours. From greens, reds, oranges and browns in her hair and the vibrant different tones of blues and greens in her garment. It looks like she has made good use of the brown paper in regard to the brown colours in the dress. This is titled and details are below. The work was also accessed from the Philadelphia’s Museum of Fine Art.
A Goodnight Hug, 1880. Pastel on brown paper laid down on board, 16 9/16 x 24 3/4 in. (42 x 62.8 cm)
I met with my tutor yesterday and she made some great suggestions about different artists to consider in relation to my project. The first one I followed up today was the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester and a project that was titled Still Parents. https://www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk/whatson/exhibitions/pastexhibitions/stillparents/
The project is about parents who lost a child during pregnancy or just after birth. I was able to access a youtube video from the website and it provided details of how the parents were supported in being able to express their feelings and emotions about their losses. The main theme running through the project and a lot of the participants found comfort in not being alone and knowing how others were experiencing similar feelings and pain. Art and allowing the participants to be creative in their own way permitted them to talk and share experiences.
I copied this link below from my tutors report and I’ve started to listen to the podcasts. The period covered is from the 1970-1990’s. It is absolutely fascinating how these artists quite a few I haven’t heard of have been great pioneers. I listened to the first one so far and involved Margaret Harrison. As I keep listening some of what she mentions helps remind me that I was present in those times and experienced some of the issues first hand. Margaret raised such a lot of issues around how difficult it was to be in any kind of job as a woman and how women had such difficulty in some roles. Being a successful teacher or artist wasn’t heard of and there were lots of inequalities and the derogatory use of language used to describe women was commonplace. As time went on lots of different groups began to arise for women began to have a platform to voice their opinions. One of the other speakers on the podcast mentioned how several women in one of the groups were all divorced as they became unhappy with their lives. Feminism and activism was really good at challenging the issues in those days. I do believe that social media is so influential and destroys our core abilities to treat each other respectfully in so many ways. I keep asking myself about why some websites that are clearly very destructive and dangerous are allowed to exist. We now know such a lot about the way men can be quite coercive and controlling and some sites encourage this. Project 2 will be in the making!!
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/f/feminist-art/women-in-revolt-podcast
Art for the power of good 