Artist research - Andy Chen

Andy Chen is a artist from China, several times Chen has a Master of Arts from Guang Zhou Academy of Fine Art. He has also had exhibitions in the academy.Chen does contemporary art, printmaking, painting and other type of art. In his various work Chen uses a wide range of media, such as; oil, acrylic paint, watermark paper, charcoal, wax, wood, sometimes even glass etc.
Chen isn't really a well known artist, I found his artwork on his personal blog, there is really vague information relating to him or his work. Also on his art blog where he uploads his artwork, I have noticed that he doesn't always write down the media, year or the name of his work, however here are some images of his work bellow; 

(Inspection 2, painting on paper)

(Quest, wood, acrylic paint, oil, paper)

(Unnamed painting, 2012 - 2013, mixed media on paper was used, such as tea, coffee, mud, plants and other organic materials)

Maybe it isn't the best decision to research and look into a not so well known artist, who's work information is hard to find, but there is something about his style of work that I really enjoy observing, and it kind of amazes me, so it would be a shame not to try to analyse his work or work in his style, as I like it a lot.

I think the reason why I like his work, is because he uses a huge variety of media and creates textured 2D and 3D pieces, and they aren't too complicated either, this just shows how something can look good and impressive, without the need to overdo the artwork.

Out of all his work my favorite work is a painting called Melancholy 01, and it is made using Acrylic paint, Glass, Wood, hessian etc. Personally I find glass and wood quite unusual for a painting. 

Although it is considered a painting, to me it looks a lot like a mixture of a collage and assemblage, as individual parts, like the wooden frame and the use of hessian, seem to make the art piece appear more 3 dimensional, as it just doesn't seem flat surfaced. Also the way the pieces of material/media are closely layered on each other etc. make it appear more collage like, rather than a painting. The curvy, freehand lines and the curved and somewhat linear shapes, compose the piece to emerge more soft edged and unpolished.  i really like how Chen has made the painting look rustic and old, maybe slightly retro as well. I think it also comes down to the well organised composition of this piece, the way he balances out the eye with the human body image on the painting, helps, as it doesn't create the feeling that there is too much going on in the same place.  

Through out his work, Chen never uses artificial or bright colours, instead he uses more earthy and natural looking colours , that make his work appear more organic, tarnished and  rustic. Mostly he chooses between secondary colours, such as medium brown and dark brown colours, such as raw umber, fallow brown and hints of burnt umber, as well as white and black tones, to darken and lighten areas of the painting. I think the concept of his work being so "natural" looking, can relate to my work, as my environmental theme is suppose to be more natural and organic looking, as it is suppose to relate to nature. And Brown does have an associations with the earth and the natural world.

Not only does he choose the right paint colours, Chen also chooses fairly natural looking materials, that are also quite brown toned (e.g. hessian,wood). These materials also help to create texture and depth.  Like the hessian seems to look quite bold, rough and scratched on the painting, especially when there has been dark brown paint applied. This gives both the effect of gradual tonal change, that blends well with the image, and enables the painting to look more rough,uneven and coarse.

It's hard to explain or even know the reason and meaning of the piece. For some reason when I observe this painting, I see and imagine a person(being the human figure) looking up to the sun (round eye) which is shinning bright (with the light being the whiter and lighter section of the painting), the hessian as the sky and the white/grey paint part as mountains.
This may be completely wrong, but then again, everyone sees something different when they look at a piece of art.
Here I have done a quick annotation to sort of show what I mean.

I did also look up the meaning of the name of the painting " Melancholy" and I found a few meanings; A constitutional tendency to gloominess or depression. A sad thoughtful state of mind; pensiveness. So possibly the artist was trying to express what he was feeling at the time, or maybe it was just that the painting was suppose to represent that state of sadness or depression. Even so I still see the painting as something more positive than negative.  

I have already began working in the style of chen in my sketch book, tyring to use similar media, that the artist would use. Here are some images

source of artist images; http://www.saatchionline.com/andychen1001