Artist- Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. His work defined the premise of pop art through parody. Inspired by the comic strip, Lichtenstein produced precise compositions that documented while they parodied, often in a tongue-in-cheek manner. His work was influenced by popular advertising and the comic book style. He described pop art as "not 'American' painting but actually industrial painting". His paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City.
I explored the works of Lichtenstein to get inspiration for my billboard campaign. The first piece is a screen print on stainless steel made on the subject of waterlilies. The bright and colourful flowers contrast against the solid steel creating an interesting texture. The swirling patterns of the steel is from an automobile, they were a long term interest of Lichtenstein. Different textures and patterns are used to build up the surface of the pond. The thick black lines around the lilies give the illusion that the flowers are floating on the top of the water. The painting is made up of blue, yellow and green which are colours associated with summer and nature. The second piece is called 'Moonscape', it is a screen print on plastic. It looks as if this piece is the sky at night reflected in water. Various shades of blue create the ripples and give depth to the water. The white in the ripples make it look as if the water is glistening. I looked at Lichtenstein's works to get inspiration for my own photoshoot. I found his use of textures and colours interesting as he used them to create different atmospheres. I was particularly interested in water lilies as I wanted to see the composition as well as how they were placed on top of the water. I really liked the lighting in 'Moonscape' as you can see the water glistening that's how I want my background to look in my own photoshoot.
Water Lily Pond with Reflections, 1992 and Moonscape, 1965
