These three pieces stuck out the most to me from my work last year with different elements in each that I find successful.
The portrait was a really enjoyable piece to paint as my idea was to paint a face in mid conversation; an active expression. I also thought the top layer of transparent rough paint disguising parts of the portrait achieved the foggy, mystery confusing feel I wanted to give. The quality/ accuracy of painting the face wasn’t as high as I would have liked, however I could develop this by repeating the same composition but with multiple stills of the same person or different ones. Also I could try using a different method of blurring/covering the painting with a layer on top; so using spray/tape/scratching or collage and I could use terps or some form of acid to scrub away the painting in parts.
The blurred landscape scene with the solid background was another piece I thought was successful last year, mostly because of the abstract/ emotional feeling to it. I liked how it was painted straight from life, a process I definitely want to use more but will have to work out what materials are easily transportable.
The last painting I did at the end of last year went in a different direction to the others as it was inspired by the visual cultures essay I wrote about the Anthropocene. I was inspired by relationships to nature and understanding our perception of the earth as human beings, as individuals or within a community. To create this piece I had a life drawing and a photograph I had taken of a hillside and drew them out into a new image then painted it. I’m really interested in the relationships between spirituality and nature like Gaia theory. I also think that in current corona times as the world is changing the environment has been greatly affected and so has peoples perceptions of its condition. I want to carry on down this train of thought and explore these ideas this semester.
This semester I want to make a collection of works that could be shown as a set that narrow in on a certain concept/idea.
I would like to build some canvass frames and learn some skills to make them good quality this semester. I also want to develop better use of oil paints and develop my own style further or decidedly try to change my style. Other ways of making like sculpture and printing I’m really keen to try but will have to find ways around not having the normal access to ECA.
Long term my hopes are to find my own area of expertise of a certain concept/theory that I can explore in different methods of creating. I would like to develop particular personal interest in a subject while also creating my own unique painting style that I’m comfortable with.
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