Material sketches

These are quick 5 minute sketches using charcoal. They're based on different baroque artists that include a heavy use of material, this is crucial for me to understand and value the shape and flow of the material before moving onto paint.

Paints by Michael Harding

The greater the pigment content of a paint the greater the resistance it has to fading, therefore the

pigment must have the following qualities:  

• it must have be light-fast to a reasonable level (fade resistant to light) 
• it must not be soluble in oil or in thinners like turpentine 
• it must have the right pH balance, with the linseed oil or other oil into which it is ground  

It is invaluable now to have high quality pigment paints such as these, as for me it is important for me to develop my personal and professional practice. 

Yves Klein

Yves Klein's famous use of blue monochrome in his paintings, massively influenced me with my use of colour in my work. I have decided to take on board Klein's use of monochrome and transfer this using old masters works i have been studying. The uniqueness of Klein's paint doesn't derive from his ultramarine pigment, but rather from the matte, synthetic resin binder in the colour is suspended. This then allows the pigment to maintain as much of its original qualities and intensity of colour as possible, resulting in high quality colour like Klein's paintings.

Alison Watt

Alison Watt bases her work around the suggestive movement of fabric, her ideas suggest that the fabrics movement act independent from the specific person in the painting. She became Associate Artist at The National Gallery in 2006 and instantly requested independent personal access to traditional painting of which she would study relentlessly for ideas and inspiration.
Watt herself has been a huge influence to me, as her ideas and concepts are similar to mine, in the way that I am similarly looking at traditional artists and the movement and energy of fabric.

 

A contemporary perspective of Caravaggio paintings

Pouring paint

Paul Jenkins uses mainly acrylic paint and water to create his paintings, firstly he places the acrylic paint using an ivory knife on his unstretched canvas, then pour water over the acrylic to create an uncontrollable effect. Jenkins called his series 'Phenomena', as his painting appeared to have happened like a phenomena.

Here is Helen Frankenthaler physically getting herself onto the canvas and again pouring the paint onto the unstretched canvas. She's letting the paint do the work as she only guides the flow of the paint with a brush. Frankenthaler's main aim is to produce a piece of work that will be found a beautiful picture, not to produce that perfect landscape or sunset.

Screen Printing Workshop - December 2014

My screen has been cleaned and prepared ready for printing. 

Here the ink has been laid onto the screen and the appropriate sized squeegee is ready to be pulled across the image to create the print. 

 

Material drawings.

Drawings made using charcoal and rubbings. I gave myself a time limit of five minutes per drawing, as I didn't want to over draw the lines and lose sense of the material I was looking at.

 

Mark making.

Here I am beginning to make quick drawings using oil paint, graphite pencil and charcoal. To create this drawing I am looking at Caravaggio's painting, 'The Entombment', translating the lines from the fabric and the people into impulsive mark marking.

 

Paul Jenkins at the John Moores painting prize.

Past winner, Paul Jenkins with his 'Phenomena Votive', was my favourite piece of the whole exhibition. The American artist created his paintings without using brushes. Instead, he poured the paint directly onto the un-stretched and let chance play the role of production of the finished image.

Group show at Old Blind school.

Judith Hopf, Flock of sheep.

Liverpool Biennial 2014 - Old Blind School

Along side the John Moores Prize, I also visited Liverpools Old Blind School. This was an impressive building allowing a range of international art to unfold. Varying from painting, media and sculpture.

Liverpool Biennial 2014.

Visiting Liverpool's 8th annual Biennial exhibitions was highly influencial for my current practice. The main focus of the visit was the John Moores painting prize, which is the UK's best known and longest running painting competition. This years winner was, Rose Wylie with her huge 'PV Windows and Floorboards'.

Rose stated; "Usually I paint something I’ve seen, but I may fiddle with the scale, context, and rules of gravity. I draw from observation, memory and with ‘conceptual projection’ - how a stereotype would look from the un-stereotypical view, or if made from a written list of observed particulars, then that list illustrated. The paintings often start from my drawings, but anything can change, depending on the way I feel about how it is, or if I know what that should be. The drawings can come from the excitement of anything I’ve seen, but particularly from film (the swapping of one artform from another), newspapers, and memory of personal events." 

Second Year transition.

Following on from semester two of first year, my work is still focusing on transforming old masters work into my implusive mark making. Moving on from the smaller scale of last years work,  I want to use scale to build on the aesthetics of my paintings, this allows for more room to manoeuvre the paint freely around the canvas. Below is my final piece from last year. At this time I was heavily influenced by Julie Mehretu, her use of line was influencial as a way to translate the emotions of Caravaggio's paintings. To move on from this, for semester one I'm going to build on scale and focus on capturing the main movement of the image I'm looking at.