An update on my latest painting…

I started this painting not long before my Art 246 assessment and since then have gone on to add more detail. I started this painting with the intention to think more about the marks I made with my brush and the painting itself rather than the narrative behind it. I have continued to work this way and used a range of different sized brushes and pallet knives to achieve the marks I would like to make.

My reason behind the forest setting is that I do not want to stray too far away from the fairy tale theme but also do not intend to make the subject as obvious as I have done in my previous works. The forest scene is very common in many fairy tales such as Snow White, Rapunzel, Rumpelstiltskin and many others. For the ground at the bottom of my painting I used different sized brush strokes; some heavily loaded with paint and others rather dry. I applied the paint horizontally using different shades of brown and red. For the trees I used more jagged vertical brushstrokes with with very little paint on my brush to create a rough looking surface. For the plants and leaves I used a dabbing technique with less controlled marks.

This painting was hugely inspired by a photograph of a forest landscape I took when visiting Disneyland Paris. I referenced the composition from this photograph and also a lot of the marks.

I added the spinning wheel from my previous project in front of the painting and discovered that they work well together as one installation piece. The ready-mades in my sculpture and the the painting compliment each other alongside the dead tree branches and hand-made branches created from brown bags.

Overall I have learnt a lot from this painting which I can use for future paintings such as brush techniques and colour mixing. I have learnt that a painting can also the part of an installation alongside my sculpture work. I personally believe that this painting/installation is hugely successful mainly because of the discovery I made of the painting and sculpture collaboration.

Art 246 Assessment

So this week was my Art 246 assessment. Here are a few photographs of my studio filled with the work I have produced during the module. I have very much enjoyed this module and have learnt a lot of new valuable skills that I can apply to my practice and benefit my artwork.

More digital editing…

Following the success of the last photographs that I combined and edited in Photoshop, I decided to play around with other effects and edit and blend more photographs of my work together.

Playing around with Photoshop…

I started to play around with photographs of my work in Adobe Photoshop by merging them together and adjusting the hue and contrast along with changing the opacity of the photos to fade one into another. In the first image I chose to add a colour tint to both layers where as the second I only adjusted to brightness and saturation of the two layers in order to get the result I desired. I also played around a little with the size composition to make one painting overpower the other.

A new painting in progress.

So I started another large painting this week, however I would like to think more about the marks I make in the painting rather than the narrative behind it. Not straying too far from my fairy tale theme, I have chosen to paint a woods/forest-like painting. I am building up layers of paint slowly and using larger brushes than I usually would. Even though this painting has a long way to go before I can say it’s finished, at this point I think it works pretty well as a backdrop for my spinning wheel sculpture.

Sketch-booking!

The Eiffel Tower

Disneyland Paris – Orbitron

Disneyland Paris – Windmill

Disneyland Paris – Big Thunder Mountain Mine Cart

My Spinning Wheel Sculpture

A Branch From My Sculpture

My Spinning Wheel Sculpture

Arch De Triumph

Tree

The Eiffel Tower

Disneyland Paris – Sleeping Beauty Castle

Disneyland Paris – Phantom Manor

Disneyland Paris – The Disneyland Hotel

Disneyland Paris – Aladdin’s Cave

Disneyland Paris – Railroad

Disneyland Paris – Horse and Cart

Disneyland Paris – Snow White’s Miniature Cottage

Disneyland Paris – Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

My Spinning Wheel Sculpture

Here is a selection of quick and also some detailed observational drawings from my sketchbook created using a fine-liner, a range of pencils and charcoal. Some drawings were made in Paris and Disneyland while others were made in my studio.

Painting on a much larger scale…

Thinking more ambitious, I have now moved on to producing paintings on a larger scale as to me a larger painting is more attractive than a smaller one. The size of a painting is a powerful quality and can also have a huge impact on the painting itself. To me, the large size of a dark painting can feel rather intimidating to it’s viewer, where as a larger bright and happy painting can increase the happiness of it’s viewer. I guess what I’m trying to say is in some cases, the bigger the painting the bigger the impact.

This painting is the size of my studio wall (around 7-8 foot) and is painted on creased wallpaper to give it a more 3D quality. The subject is a never ending forest that’s purpose is to make it’s viewer feel as though they can walk into the painting itself. I used pastel greens and browns combined with darker browns and greys. The size and composition were very important in this painting along with the marks I made using a thick wide brush and sponge. I chose to add little detail and leave the painting as some could say “unfinished” to give it more of an edge and a sense of mystery.

Developing “Cartwheel Art”

Moving on with my “Cartwheel Art” piece, I decided to develop it by looking carefully and identifying shapes that resembled animals and inanimate objects and then drew around them using a permanent marker.

A looser approach to architectural painting…

Rather than drawing out the painting I desired to create, I started painting freely using sponges and a range of colours. The marks I made reminded me of a church or cathedral and my painting slowly developed into a painting of Notre Dame Cathedral. From making this painting I have learned that an architectural painting does not need to be accurately proportioned or symmetrical to be a success. Sometimes looser painting is just as good, if not better than a painting of precision and delicacy.

Illusion: My “Sleeping Curse” installation piece and “Enchanted Storm” painting in the Exhibition Space (sps).

“Sleeping Curse” – Installation using a live model.

“Enchanted Storm” – Acrylic painting.

Here are some photographs taken during my art crit in the exhibition space from yesterday. To sum up my work, the installation takes place inside of the tower in the painting. To put a modern-day twist to this combined fairy tale representing Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin and Rapunzel, the “sleeping beauty” in the installation is actually a male coma patient. The installation includes both scenery from the fairy tale and a hospital. I intend to compare situations from stories with situations people face in every day life; for example, a coma is basically like a sleeping curse, a lot like the sleeping curse that the princess falls under in the fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty. The victim is unable to awake from the tragedy making them the vulnerable ‘damsel in distress’. Another way of looking at this is that the coma patient is hallucinating and dreaming up this whole other fantasy dimension, and that’s all that fairy tales are really, a person’s dreams and wishes. This makes the viewer feel as though they are looking at what’s not really there and they are trapped between two realities with the hospital scenery trying to break through the fairy tale dimension through the means of the lighting and a hospital gown. The branches in the installation are part of the overgrown forest viewed in the painting and the ripped curtains represent the alternate reality trying to break through.

I enjoyed using many different medias in one piece of work. I used ready-mades combined with my own creations and delicate branches from trees and straw with man-made mechanical objects such as springs and wheels from cars and bicycles. Adding the live model to the installation was a risky move but payed off in the end and almost ‘set the scene’ making my installation piece, Sleeping Curse, more effective and successful. My painting, Enchanted Storm, added to the success alongside my installation as feedback from my audience was positive and some viewers managed to relate to two works together figuring out their connection without being told first.