Starting somewhere

Despite feeling miserable and uninspired now due to a nasty cough and cold, I feel like it's been a productive week in the studio. I had my last tutorial on 11th October, and when asked what I would like to get out of this first term of third year, I said I wanted to break out of my comfort zone. 

For me, "breaking out of my comfort zone" at the moment means allowing myself to paint in a looser, more intuitive way. I know that usually people have more of an issue bringing out their "formal" side, and I'm always being told by fellow students that they envy my patience and ability to work in such a systematic way. However, for me, working like this comes naturally, and it is the "abstract expressionist" side of me that is holding back! I don't want to get to the degree show without having made work that has challenged me and in some ways scared me to make. Even if I somehow managed to get a First without changing the way I work, I would be disappointed in myself for not pushing my abilities as a painter. 

I said this in more concise terms to my tutor, and we joked that next time we had a tutorial my space would be filled with big, energetic paintings. I'm pleased to say that this is on its way to coming true! I'm working on four small paintings and three larger ones, and though they're still in progress, I feel like I am making an effort to challenge myself. Readers of this blog might look at the pictures and think they are as controlled as ever, but I can feel the difference in the way I'm approaching them... and I have to start somewhere!

It's turps time!

...and, translated, that means: back to uni!

I'm continuing to look at mapping, systems, and multiple perspectives through painting and drawing. I've done quite a few new experiments since going back, but here are the most successful (and the ones Blogger will let me upload without rotating them of its own accord!):

The two images above are drawings on tracing paper overlaid onto oil paintings on MDF. I've been trying to focus on varying the "pace" of mark-making across the surface of my paintings, so to make these drawings I traced over elements of maps, satellite photographs, and my own drawings to create compositions. I'm currently in the process of translating these experiments into larger paintings.

Another aspect of my painting I want to improve is the illusion of depth and an increase in "painterly" marks. As the image above demonstrates, I'm beginning to build up layered backgrounds by dripping paint and using thin washes... more on this as it develops (and hopefully as Blogger lets me upload the pictures properly!)

In the meantime, I'd like to share a couple of images from an artist I have recently discovered and fallen in love with- Matthew Ritchie. Enjoy!

Dead Man's Hand

Day One, 2008

The Fast Set, 2000

Fancy a dip?

Today I went on a day out to Plymouth. I planned to do some sketching on The Hoe but it was far too misty to see anything :(
Instead I went with my sister to the lido and took lots of photos. I will probably donate most of them to her art project, that's why we were there, but I'm sure I can use them in my work somehow too...

The little book of maps

One of the little projects I set myself in the last few weeks of second year was to make my own sketchbook. Falmouth has a brilliant little maritime bookshop which I investigated one rainy Saturday, and discovered a treasure trove of old maps and sea charts. I bought one and chopped it up to make pages for 2 of these little sketchbooks. I don't think it's bad for a first attempt, it hasn't fallen apart yet anyway!

Examples of sketches will come in a future post.

Horrendously neglected

The title says it all. Islands and Cities has indeed been horrendously neglected... and I have no excuse. 

However, we have kissed and made up, and I have made lots of promises of being better in the future, which I hope I can keep. In keeping with this new spirit, I will fill the gap of the last 5 months with some pictures of what I've been up to artistically since then. Admittedly it isn't much, but please take into account that 2 of those months have been spent working in a "proper job"!

The four drawings above are tracings of satellite photographs. I won't go into detail about what or where they depict, because personally I'm more drawn to the shapes and forms they make. I made several of these tracings, which informed my paintings towards the end of second year.

This piece was something I did absent-mindedly while stuck for ideas- just glueing an old drawing on tracing paper to a half-finished painting! However, my tutor really liked it, and it fit nicely with my investigations into the layering of paintings and drawings.

These two paintings were in progress in my previous post. As you can (hopefully) see, some of the satellite tracings made their way into these pieces.

I made a pair of larger paintings after this series, but due to my laptop dying, I will have to wait to go back to uni to re-photograph them!

Waiting...

Islands and Cities has been neglected for a while because there hasn't been that much to say! I had an eye ulcer that kept me at home for a week, and other than that the map paintings are coming along slooowly because I'm experimenting with different layering techniques and each one takes up to 3 days to dry :( it's rather frustrating!
However, here's how they look at the moment:

The original 8 paintings has been diminished to 4, just so that it's quicker and I can use the other 4 boards for the next set of paintings. The top two on here have one more layer of imagery on them than the bottom two, which is why they look denser. I'm not massively enthusiastic about these- there are bits I like and bits I don't, but the main aim of doing them is just to try out different painting, drawing and layering techniques so I can take the best ideas forward into larger pieces of work.

Tutorial tomorrow so we'll see what Virginia says! 

Only dead paintings are executed

At the moment I'm working on a series of 8 paintings based on the squares of a map. It's not the map above, though drawings made from that one will be used later on in the process. The one I'm using is one of the shipping route maps I mentioned in a previous post.

I'm trying to step out of my comfort zone by not planning the paintings too much, as is my habit. I've been working and reworking them, and trying to be more experimental with paint handling. I think it's too early to judge yet how they're turning out, but I hope that by challenging myself I'll grow in confidence with my oil painting!

I also had my mid-year assessment last week with my tutor, Virginia Verran (Winner of the 2010 Jerwood Drawing Prize, don't you know!) which went well. She suggested that I start a "quotes book" to keep a track of things that interest me that may not necessarily be to do with my studio practice, but that inspire me. I only have two so far, but I'll share the first one because it's the one I keep repeating to myself...

"Only dead paintings are executed. Living ones come into being. They are a record of decisions; the sum of actions taken and reactions to them, of judgements made and of the reconsiderations and revisions that those initial judgements prompt. Painting is process; painting is doubt; painting is the suspension of disbelief and the physical affirmation of formal and material intuitions for which there is no prior justification. Painting is what painters do while others argue about painting."


- Robert Storr, Cage- Six Paintings by Gerhard Richter