CS3 - Landscape No:664 - John Virtue

John Virtue is an English artist who is well known for his specialism of monochrome landscapes. Virtue only works in black and white because he sees colour as an unnecessary distraction. The Medias that he works with are white paint and shellac black ink; which dries waterproof and has a glossy appearance, and is made with the shells of the crushed homes of Iac bugs.

Virtue is well known for a series of work London Paintings that focus on the London skyline; using the more easily distinguishable landmarks to familiarise the audience with the ambiguous, hazy and smoggy drawings he produces. Some of the landmarks seen in his works are the Gherkin and St Paul’s Cathedral.

Landscape No:664 (2003)

white paint, black ink, shellac and emulsion on canvas, 183.3 x 183.5 cm

The content of this piece is shown in the central thirds of the composition where the audience can see Blackfriars Bridge and the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral as the main area of central focus. At a first glance not much is seen in way of details and aspects of the cityscape, but then as you look at the piece with more attention you begin to see the facades of the riverside houses emerging from the hazy textures and tones created by the ink; highlighted by the white paint across the left, and central, third.

A number of techniques and methods went in to the production of Landscape No:664 regardless of only using two materials (paint and shellac ink) to create it. When producing this piece, John Virtue uses a variety of methods and tools to apply the paint such as rollers, brushes, spray guns, calligraphy pens, basting syringes and occasionally his fingers and toes. you can see how the different methods of applying the medium has affected the overall piece, such as; the spray guns show the ink and paint dripping down the canvas, the brushes and rollers combined create the ‘hazy’ and ‘smoggy’ effects that portray the smog and pollution that is well known for being in the city. Due to the way in which Virtue applied the numerous layers of each media, the audience are able to admire the works vast amount of detail shown through texture, tone and contrast.

To conclude, the piece of work Landscape No:664 by John Virtue teaches us that when producing work, you can make highly detailed and in-depth pieces only using a limited amount of medias and palette just by making the most of the available techniques and tools. Because of the ‘hazy’ and ‘messy’ effects shown in the work, it doesn’t seem to hold a great amount of significance unless a person’s aim is to show how it is possible to create a painting using only black and white, yet still successfully incorporate so much detail of the original landscape throughout the ways in which the use of texture, tone and contrast are applied throughout different layers, just as John Virtue has done in his work.