Patrick Caulfield...

The tate describe some of Paul Caulfield's work by saying it 'was characterised by flat images of objects paired with angular geometric devices or isolated against unmodulated areas of colour'. In the Guardians obituary for Paul Caulfeild, they describe his work as 'Middle-management office equipment and character restaurant décor were inspiration for him and not simply as prompts and props. The paintings absorbed banalities. The painter rendered them worthy, memorable, cherishable even, as emblems of modern life.' His work is similar to that of  Michael Craig-Martin and my own in it's style and the idea of it capturing the everyday, mundane parts of life.

'In Patrick Caulfield's earliest prints he seems intent upon radical simplification of the key themes of his painting at the time, a paring down to essentials, and an isolation of motif that demands of the viewer contemplation without distraction. In each case the baldness of presentation begs the question: what is the meaning of these jugs? Patrick Caulfield, print, signed 'Two Jugs'. This window? Patrick Caulfield, print, signed 'Small Window'. This coal fire? Patrick Caulfield, print, signed 'Coal Fire'. Our response may begin in the eye's delight at the brilliance of colour, the magical realisation of space, the immediate readability of image; it quickly complicates, as the mind engages with associations and allusions, with ironies, with references to life and to art, and whatever may lie between.'

 

 In quite a few of Caulfield's work he has focused on glasses, which was a prominent feature of some of my drawings in the first half of this year. What makes them interesting is that they are an object that we use all the time yet are the main focus of the work, “Caulfield was a hero of the everyday,” says Tate Liverpool’s head of exhibitions, Simon Groom'. I like the simplicity and the focus on what the work is about along with the focus being items that are normally left in the background, I suppose this makes sense as to why the detail needs to be minimal as these everyday items might be seen as simple decoration rather than the context of the whole work.

 

Other works by Caulfield are more detailed and zoomed out to center around the room, this changes the context completely as rather than the focus being about the individual items it is more about the environment and the activities that gone on inside it. These remind me more of my past drawings as I tend to include a lot of the room so it might be interesting to zone in on the focus only.