jlavivm3

[jlavivm3]

General Evaluation

This term and this project has been a very strange one for everyone on the course, and it is difficult to reflect on it the way I normally would with a university term, because we weren’t at university for any of it!  A global pandemic, something not experienced in full motion for many years, caused the machine of life to stop, and that included our access to facilities in the university.  We, and many other educational courses, had to adapt to what was now the way we were living, isolated in different situations with only ourselves and the limited resources we could access.   Seeing the work on the crit gave such a positive feeling to me, as we all had pushed through and made work reflective of ourselves, and the world around us.  Without this project, I would have suffered a lot more in total boredom, and this project I felt has kept me sane and the struggles and emotions can be seen on the canvases I have created.  

It is difficult to feel satisfied after the final term, of the final year, of university has ended without us being all together, but the morale has stayed high and I was overwhelmed with the amount of great work I saw in the crit.  I feel these challenges are what inspires and drives us as artists, we are problem solvers and there is a problem facing us all which we will all solve in our small, different ways.

I am happy with the work I have created throughout this time, and in the smaller projects before.   I feel like I am starting to cement the vision that I have been pining after for so long.  The way I make is now becoming a much more natural process, utlising the different ways of working I have specialised in.  I can not wait to get back printing again, and my plan now is to create a makeshift mono printing studio, I do not need many resources to create these so hopefully I can make something functioning.  I have found I have become much more methodalogical with how I work now,  each layer, each mark feels much more thought over and purposeful, which at the start of this year was definitely not the case.  This has developed from commitment and being pushed and pushed by Leigh.  Thanks Leigh!

There are many things I could’ve done differently in these projects, and some of which I have mentioned in the previous notes.   But, this final project did not feel like it could’ve gone another way for me,  it feels like an honest reaction and reflection of the times that we are in now, and my response to that.  LCC has brought me to this point, and many different tests and trials have helped me develop a style I am happy to own.

[jlavivm3]

Project evaluation

On reflection of this project, I am happy with how it progressed and ended. It is a very challenging time for everyone to live and stay positive, and to create work can be an added strain, but it has really helped me stay sane over this time.  I feel the work I made has been completely different to what I would have created, and I have been forced away from print making into painting, which I actually really enjoyed having time to focus and progress in.   The areas of adapting the mundane, and bridging the gap of figurative and abstraction will be areas that I will continue to explore for time after this.  I feel I have really pushed them to fit into my vision and the work throughout has got more refined and has taken on a journey of its own.  I think building up my way of working has been successful and new ways are coming in.  I think I could bring printmaking into my painting even more, by using rollers, and other presses on canvas I could combine the two mediums.

[jlavivm3]

This piece I created at the same time as my final piece, so I consider it paired with the final piece in some way.  I decided what I needed for these pieces was more texture.  Some chaotic marks to juxtapose the organised, pre meditated marks that I made.  I needed something that was created freely and naturally, and I thought utilising loose watery paint, while using thicker areas and creating bleeds would be a good way to do this.  I often use this technique in watercolours, but it has completely different outcomes with acrylic paints. There are some process photographs showing the different stages of these paintings.   I think I really pushed myself with these works into a different stage. I have found one way of working which sits alongside my prints and I think there is much more potential in this style of working that I will push and push.  The next element is bigger scale.  The black/red canvas was the biggest work of the project, but I think the strongest and most together so I think going bigger is no bad thing.  Also I think pushing the works more and more abstract, while retaining a bit of figurative will be an interesting way to go.

[jlavivm3]

FINAL PIECE

This piece is what I plan to display in the show.  It is a bigger canvas than the previous show, at 61x91cm it is a much more ambitious piece.  I created it in the same way as the previous work, with masking fluid over the red and then painting over the top.  However, in this piece I decided to go back into it as I feel it needed that extra push and I added in the mars/mountain painted area.  This took it away from being a polished, safe piece and gave it more life.  It is the chaos balancing the order in the line work which I think is very important and works effectively.  This piece is reflecting on the stage of life.  I drew red open curtains, as if at a cinema or theatre.  Inside it is a strange, surreal landscape reminscent of a mountain which feels ominous in this picture.   The straight lines on the ‘floor’ area lead down to the bottom of the piece and draw the eye to a strange array of figures, in an underworld. There are many shapes in this section which could of could not be figures, and each viewer may see something different which I find very interesting.  

This piece too draws on the subjects of my topic.  Here not only the figure, but the landscape is subject to abstraction, with the line work hinting at what each are could be, but never stating it obviously.  This mystery is what my work needed, and I think with time I  will grow to understand and execute this sort of painting professionally.  The mundane also comes into play, with a sort of literal theatre of the absurd being displayed in the image.  I am taking ordinary aspects of life and skewing them beyond recognition and into a dark, abstracted world.

[jlavivm3]

These paintings feel like an accumulation of a lot of the ideas and visual experimentations that I have explored in this third year of study, and previously.  The wire/pipe like structures that consume these paintings have evolved from my SIP works where I created them almost by accident; I feel I now have control over these marks and am learning the different ways in which I can position them to create different effects.  The series each contains a figure, which verges on not being a figure.  I tried to balance the shapes so they could be a figurative aspect, or just another shape in the mixed array of marks.  Each figure is surrounded by flowing marks, which I drew to resemble a web, and being ‘Caught in a Web’ is a reflection of the stagnancy that a lot of us face in this time.  This is emphasised by the very static drawings of the figures surrounded by such energetic marks which make the figures feel as if they are stuck in this place.  I also reflected on the mundane, and made strange of it.  Each situation I was drawing upon (two figures in front of a door, a man bowing, a woman opening a curtain) are very ordinary scenes in themselves, but taken out of the usual view and placed into the world I have created through painting, they become otherworldly and surreal, and almost beyond recognition.  This matches both aspects of my brief, making strange of the mundane and balancing abstraction and figurative art.  Although these focusses are quite broad, I feel I have owned them in my own way of working, and they to me, are where my work has ended up.  These subject matters have influenced me throughout my time at the course, and I have always had a tough time solidifying the balance between abstraction and figurative work, but here I feel it is beginning to be achieved.

[jlavivm3]

The paintings showed in my previous post ended up being duds, I will probably re paint them.  I think I thought I was more lost for time than I was and didn’t push myself as much as I could.  To fix these I created paintings I was proud of and which summed up what I was trying to achieve.

[jlavivm3]

The next stage to creation is to use masking fluid to draw the design.  I am coming up with new designs, as well as choosing some of my favourite that I have drawn to create these works.  The main theme is to bridge abstraction and figurative works, so the shapes will all be reminiscent of the human figure, but surreal.  

[jlavivm3]

Initial layers to final piece

As discussed with Leigh, I will stick to my colour scheme that I have developed throughout this final year, of black, white, grey and red/orange.  These are the base layers for the final piece, which will make up the background that I will mask off to become the foreground.  I use thick layers of acrylic paint, a mix of bright red and raw sienna.  From this I then use a printmaking roller to blend the colours, resulting in different areas of brighter colours and a texture that rises out from the canvas, almost a scale like texture.  These backgrounds will be the main focus of the piece, the other areas will be dark and more textural, but these will make up the strange figures that I will paint, so the brightness will attract attention to them.

[jlavivm3]

This painting is my final experiment before commencing my final pieces.  It went through many many layers before reaching this point, in which it is at it’s simplest.  There were figures present, winding patterns across the canvas, print roller marks all there previously, and even though I have now covered them up they are still visible in the texture of the canvas.  The pink shade in the centre was previously much wider and covered in masking fluid which is the initial layer.  It seems to sink, while also stand out amongst the deep black that surrounds it.  The shape is influenced by the tree that Alberto Giacometti designed for Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”.  I have previously researched this play but it struck me as especially relevant now, where humans are struggling with the helplessness, and monotonous feeling of existence.  The meanings in all our lives and what surrounds us are now in question, and this is exactly what the play discusses. 

This piece is very simple in comparison to some previously made, and compositionally it is one shape winding through, resembling some sort of tree of character. This ambiguity is what will shape my final pieces.  I aim to create six canvas paintings all depicting strange forms, in this simple but complex manner of making.  I aim to make them texturally heavy, while simple compositions make the subject clear to the viewer.  Each image will be a balance between an abstract shape, and a figurative drawing.  This causes the viewer to question and seek what is in front of them, exploring the potential of the two different types of art when brought together.   It also affects the mundane, with the images hopefully effecting the subconscious of the viewer and bringing in different associations which will be adapted to resemble new areas.  The natural/normal of our lives because un-natural and strange, much like the situation that we are now in because of the current pandemic.

[jlavivm3]

10x10cm plans of final pieces

These are quick sketches planning out the way I will display and create my final pieces, six strange forms that create an image as a whole.  Different pathways which merge and disperse to form a world of their own.

[jlavivm3]

Further investigation

Here I used PVA to create marks.  Initially I planned on peeling the PVA off, but I liked the elevated areas of the work so I decided to paint over it.  

[jlavivm3]

Further Experimentation - Portrait of a Stag

This I created to try and match the image previously shown on the blog of the same subject.  I was initially attempting to create the same effect as shown previously when keeping the masking fluid on, but I did not achieve the same effect so I got rid of all of the fluid to reveal the background. This is a more subtle version of the effect, I used layers of liquid acrylic for the darker areas, using the violet that I had previously used and this does not create as much of a contrast between the two areas.  I think the roots/pipes in this image work effectively because they have motion to them in this image, they wind and interact in more interesting ways than some of my previous works in this style. Compositionally, this image is simpler than some previous, but I think that is effective, and I have borrowed from portraiture to create this image.

I think a further way to develop this style is to have differing textures happening in the same image, which also interact as the pipe/root structures do, and this is something I will try in my next experiment.

[jlavivm3]

Tests on board

These images are again based off previously created collages, I again projected them onto board which was painted in orange/red as a base layer and painted the masking paste over the top of the markings I had made digitally.  Leigh pointed out this combination of orange/red/black/white is a colour scheme that I have explored throughout this final year, and therefore have learnt how to use well so I should pursue it further.   The image on the right I used white spirit with oil paints as the first layer over the masking fluid, and the white spirit deteriorated areas of the fluid.  Therefore, when the layers were complete and I removed the paste, some bits were left and others had paint seep under.  This created a less organised image than the one on the left where I used only acrylic paints which I actually think worked quite well. The messiness contrasts the organised lines seeping through, and I think this is something I could use in certain areas of works.   

I used the grid sort of arrangement for this image, and I don’t think this is what I will pursue for my final images, I think bigger areas of stop out varnish, as well as more flowing lines will create more effective pieces and be more in line with my previous experimentation.  This does however draw back on the aerial view images that I researched into, and I think this could help form the final images I create.

[jlavivm3]

I like the subtlety in this image, the root/pipe marks created what feels like a fully composed image, but it does not stand out, it blends and mixes with the foreground marks.  Spraying the white paint and flicking it on creates a softer mark, and when these are layered continuously a sort of cloud forms on the canvas, and it is more unclear how it is made.  I am happy with this image, but feel like it is sidestepping from my project a bit.  Going forward I need to create a group of images that work as a series, this use of projecting collages works, but pushing it forward is essential.

[jlavivm3]

This is an area of a painting that got covered up, but caught my eye so I captured it on camera.  It has a thick layer of latex on the surface with a strong orange background and a thin layer of watery acrylic paint over the top.  This created an interesting highlighted, supernatural effect that doesn’t look painted but interacts with clearly painted parts.  I think this could be an interesting technique to pursue; using the stop out mask but not peeling it off so an effect like this is created.

[jlavivm3]

I constructed this image using the same adaption of collages, and used the shapes to create a formed composition; you can see in the 2nd image the effect of using the printmaking roller with acrylic paints.  Unpredictable textures which stand out from the canvas and form unplanned patterns are created, and I used this to form the background of this piece, the area that would be masked off with the fluid.

[jlavivm3]

I developed this image directly from a collage I created.  I took it into photoshop and used the quick select tool to delete the image in different sections; this leaves the image in a selection of lines, much like the sort of pipe/root marks I usually make.  I found this was a great way to combine a more graphic element into my painting.  I masked off the elements that I wanted to remain orange.  Also- a side note - I bought a printing roller which I used for the background surface on this image which is not visible in these images.   I went through many different layers in the foreground of this painting, but eventually ended up in a simple black, which of course contrasts the orange in a great way.  I then used a soft, dry brush to create airy textures which highlight different areas in the image.  There are two figures on the left and right, both are edging on the fantastical,  i used the human figure for both, but then a stags head appears on the right and butterfly wings are on the figure to the left.  This could be interpreted in different ways, but this is how I created it.  The middle area acts as a sort of mirror to me, the white marks creating a steamed up effect.  

I was not incredibly happy with this image, but it is growing on me, and as Leigh pointed out, this is the colour scheme that I have explored the longest and know how to use best, and it shows in this image.  For this reason I will explore these colours for now on, and create in a similar way to this.