Traditional Artists:

As well as all of these photographers and naturalists, I am influenced by a number of artists. Some of the ‘greats’ have to be mentioned, at the head of the list has to be Leonardo da Vinci, who could almost be in the list above as he was as much a scientist as he was an artist. I like all of his work from drawings of the body, to town plans, inventions, frescos and paintings; where I find myself growing fonder of the Mona Lisa by the day. As well as Da Vinci, the work of Rembrandt van Rijn, J.M.W. Turner and John Everett Millais. They were all very different artists but I still find their work inspirational, if just for the skill level involved. I know that this is no substitute for going to see the actual paintings (and part of me does not like promoting a multinational company) but I have to admit to finding Google’s new ‘Google Arts & Culture’ really great at locating some of your favourite paintings and seeing them in detail and within the museum that they are housed in; this is very useful if you live in West Wales.
To the list above I would also add the Impressionist movement, which I have looked at time and again since being a boy, particularly Claude Monet and of course Vincent van Gogh (although he is almost certainly at the other end of the movement from Monet perhaps almost outside of the movement – he would probably think so).

Contemporary Artists:

Finally, we get to contemporary art. The list is not that long, although please do not think that this is because I do not like contemporary art (I do, a lot) but rather I have not made up my mind about most contemporary artists. The list here was longer but I find myself taking names off. I think that part of the issue these days is that over an artist’s lifetime we can expect their art to change to a greater degree than was perhaps true 100 years ago and certainly a century before that, and so it is perhaps natural that we will like some of their work but not all?

Just making the list is Jean Tinguely and his sculptures of movement and destruction; and at the opposite end of the sculpture scale is the calm and reflective land art of Richard Long. However, much of my preferred contemporary art breaks away from traditional media and becomes conceptual art. I very much like the staged photographs of Jeff Wall, and the amazing video installation that was ‘Hole in Space’ by Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz. More recently (as part of my visual culture module) I was introduced to the world of new media art through artist Maurice Benayoun on whom I had to do a presentation. I still have many questions I want to ask Benayoun about his work but I cannot deny his influence on me over the last year. As part of my exploration of new media art came across the art of Golan Levin whose work I found interesting, intelligent and fun. And last but not least Katie Paterson whose work is closest thing I have to someone who is directly inspiring me within the art world. Predictably perhaps her work is a mixture of art and science, I have been surprised by the variety and quality of her projects; to date have always found her work interesting, exciting, as well as setting a standard for me to work towards.