Second Year, Term 1, part II

So, to pick up where I left off... I started using oil paint this term, in combination with negative space drawings in black pen. There's no particular conceptual element to my work at the moment. I just find outlines, flat shapes and silhouettes absurdly attractive and get a kick out of drawing, painting, layering and generally messing around with them. But that isn't how I discuss it with my tutors! ;)

I wanted to move onto (relatively) larger-scale work, and so after finding and priming a lovely MDF board- I love its smoothness in comparison to canvas or wood- I started making this painting.

In hindsight, the making-it-up-as-I-go-along approach didn't really pay off. There isn't much I like about this, and the composition (or lack of it) is what I dislike the most. However, my tutor liked it and said I was being too hard on myself, so that cheered me up slightly! Despite this negativity, this painting was a useful stepping-stone between the smaller-scale work I was making before and what I'm working on now, so all was not lost.

I took pictures of the different stages of this work, and I actually really like the first one I took, consisting of just the painted MDF board and black pen drawing. Hmm.

Anyway, after this painting I went back to the drawing board and started to consider composition more carefully. It was then that I came up with a little study on canvas board, which I have annoyingly lost the photograph of. I was much more pleased with this and it became a basis for one of my current works in progress.

Another factor which restored my optimism was buying new artist-quality oil paints (Winsor and Newton, to be precise). From the first brush stroke I knew it was £70 well spent, and I spent the next week in a love-induced haze. I'd recommend these paints to any student who thinks they'll be spending a substantial amount of time oil-painting; I bought mine from www.jacksonsart.co.uk.

Here are the two paintings I'm currently working on (I know they're mounted wonkily on the wall!):

At the moment it's the end of the Christmas holidays, but when I get back to uni I'll have 3 weeks to finish these (and possibly create a third to work as a triptych) and then they will be displayed in my second year exhibition... eek.

Ok, this is the final post in which I'm catching up with posting past work. Hopefully from now on things will start to get more interesting and this might start to properly look like a blog!