For my painting classes on Wednesday this week, I presented students with a range of postcard sized pieces of canvas, board and papers to test out and compare. I feel that finding the right surface to paint on is so important. A bad painter might well be right to blame their tools!
Apart from testing the surfaces, we looked at the brilliant ‘Art on a Postcard‘ and discussed what artists need to consider when making postcard sized work. How can an artist distill their practise onto a postcard, and in such a way that it catches the eye as people scroll through the auction website? My students made lots of really eye-catching postcard sized works on different surfaces, but I totally forgot to photograph any of them!
The lesson bought to mind an Instagram page I set up a couple of years ago called @Instant_ism, where I asked the question; ‘Has the split second judgement of art on screens led to a movement of instantly eye catching work?’ On a similar subject, I asked Google the other day why the thumbnails on Instagram grids have gone from square to portrait format. It seems that the answer might be that Instagram finds that the majority of photographs are being taken today in portrait format. How bonkers is that! Using our phones as cameras has changed the way we photograpgh the world! Will TVs be hung upright in the future?