Norfolk No. 2, 2009, Acrylic, black ink and shellac on canvas, 149.9 x 200.3 cm
John Virtue’s work I found quite interesting to look at compared to my own work this is because he mostly works with landscapes, I chose to look at his work due to the material and the process. The way that you can tell it is a landscape even though there is not much there I find quite interesting and how the paint and ink have been used in a loose way. In Norfolk No.2 the white looks like there was some planning on how it was going to go on the work but it has been placed with loose marks and you can see this because you can see the marks that have been made in the work as the brush marks are visible. It makes the work more fluid and helps the viewers eye travel across the work.
“Virtue’s blacks and whites aren’t polarised absolutes: they drip and smear each other with gleeful impurity, much of the white flecked with a kind of metropolitan ashiness that gives the paint guts and substance, much of the black, streaky and loose, like road tar that refuses to set,” the acclaimed art historian Simon Schama said of the artist’s depictions of London – http://www.artnet.com/artists/john-virtue/
Alysha Fisk Research 