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.
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.
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.
“Sleeping Curse” – Installation using a live model.
“Sleeping Curse” – Installation using a live model.
“Sleeping Curse” – Installation using a live model.
“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.
A photo of my bicycle wheel sculpture with my paintings in the background.
A close-up photo of a bicycle wheel with my painting and material in the background.
Planning an installation.
Planning an installation.
Branches made by twisting Primark bags and taping artificial leaves held up against sparkly net-material.
I waved the leaves across the material while taking this photo to cast a green shadow.
I waved the leaves across the material while taking this photo to cast a green shadow.
Another close-up photo of the wheel with my painting and material in the background.
Artificial branches draped over the bicycle wheel.
A branch of leaves help up against my painting and material.
A photo of my bicycle wheel sculpture.
My abstract painting behind the net-material.
Another photo of my bicycle wheel sculpture.
A photo of my bicycle wheel sculpture.
One of my ‘crumpled paper paintings’ behind the net-material.
A photo of my bicycle wheel sculpture with some of my other work in the background.
I have started to photograph my work from different angles, combining paintings with sculpture and found objects with things I have made to explore the different ways my work could be exhibited. It’s good to see two completely different medias with different ideas behind them put together to create something new.
I recreated my flat geometric shape painting digitally on my laptop. Of the two, I prefer the digital piece to the painting for it’s precision and flatter colours.
Playing with paint!
I had a lot of fun creating this painting. This is another painting I made without the use of a paintbrush but this time on canvas. It involved mixing different acrylics and gels with PVA glue and water each to a different thickness before pouring them individually onto the canvas creating shapes and patterns. I enjoyed watching the movement of the paint as the painting took it’s form.
Moving on even further from block colour and pouring paint, I decided to go for a very abstract expressionist take on art. Made on a larger scale stretched canvas, I started by making the canvas three dimensional before applying acrylic paint. I did this by using parcel tape and made creases in the tape as I stuck it down on top of random chosen areas of my canvas. I then glued small pieces of wood and scrunched up pieces of tissue paper using PVA glue. I then applied acrylic paint on the surface of the materials and canvas before finishing it with random brushstrokes of white and burnt yellow paint. I also used a sponge and pallet knife to make some of the marks.
While researching drawing techniques in animation, I noticed that quite a lot of drawings appear rough and sketchy. When drawing, I usually put a lot of thought into my subject matter and techniques. Most of my drawings are very precise and take hours, sometimes even days to complete. While looking over the work I have produced over the duration of the last six weeks, I thought back to a project I did last year, The 100 Drawing Project, and thought about how time affected the way in which I worked and the outcome of the drawings I made themselves. I learned from my Stage One project that the more you drew a subject, the more familiar you became with it. For instance in that particular project I chose a potted flower as my subject and had to draw that flower 100 times on A5 paper in one week from different angles. Before I even got half way through the project I knew my subject so well that I could draw it without even looking at it or even think about it.
Sometimes a drawing that took minutes to create can be just as good, if not better, than a drawing that took an artist weeks to produce. From this, I decided to create some drawings using a fine-liner pen and water. I work best when I set a challenge and I therefore set myself the task of creating 3 drawings in 3 minutes (one drawing per minute). My subject choice is extremely relevant to my project and they are all drawings that I have drawn at at-least one point during the last six weeks and therefore I was somewhat familiar with what I was drawing and did not need to think much about what I was doing. Precision was not important during this small project.
My first drawing (left) took me 62 seconds when timed which was slightly over the time I aimed for but I could make up for that with my next two drawings. My second drawing (middle) took 46 seconds which is actually a lot less time than I needed which was great as I was under-target. Finally, my third and final drawing took 58 seconds which totaled 2 minutes and 46 seconds making my 3 drawings in 3 minutes mini-project slightly under-target but hugely successful as my aim was to create 3 drawings in the shortest time possible. Really this mini-project should be titled, 3 drawings in 2 minutes 46 seconds, but that title really doesn’t have that same ring to it!
This is a very rough and quick painting of the tower in my fairytale. It is painted on A2 paper using black acrylic. As I usually tend to take my time when painting, I decided to challenge myself by working at a fast pace with a looser approach.
I don’t know if it’s art, but I know I like it. 