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MOVEMENT: Reflection

Theme

Upon reflection of semester 1, I realised that I made some poor choices in choosing my theme for exploration. I chose something very broad which I didn’t know much about, and when it came to assessment time, I couldn’t clearly talk about what I had actually done.

My aim for this project was to turn that around and instead explore something that I already have a flare for. This lead to me exploring the theme of Movement Through Collective Effervescence in Irish Culture. (Ref. movement post 1 for definition).

To fully explore this theme, I made use of my three disciplines: Painting, Photography and Sculpture.

Sculpture began with much trial and error as I was still figuring out the message of my project. My attempts ultimately lead to my piece “Armóin”. This features a small trad session composed of wire sculptures and clay instruments. I chose these media because I wanted to convey the transience of Irish music and how it never focuses on one particular musician; each person plays an important role in unison with the group and while the musicians themselves vary and change throughout the generations, the music will always remain the same.

“Armóin” Completed Sculpture Piece

Painting began with a workshop with Sylvia. In this workshop, we completed a life painting and I learned many techniques about colour theory and composition. After a lengthy discussion with Michael about removing the “illustrative” element in my work, I was now working had to convey my theme through means other than detail. I had a brief tutorial with Eoin where I learned about mark making techniques and this inspired my method for my next painting “The Kesh”. I used only acrylic paint and a ruler to complete this painting. The composition of this piece was inspired by a line of Irish dancers but in my attempts to remove the illustrative element, I managed to reduce all shapes in the piece to simple triangles. I was really happy with this result as it helped portray the Irish tricolour with even more depth.

“The Kesh” completed painting

Photography was a difficult discipline for me, because of the nature of my coursework as a B.ed student, I was unable to attend the morning workshops for the final 2 weeks of the project. However, I wanted to make the most of the time I had and I referred back to previous seminars from semester 1 as well as the content published on Moodle. I also did my own research of tutorials centred around iPhone Videography which was my chosen medium. From these videos, I learned many new techniques for producing high quality clips with a phone. I created a series of clips that portray movement but not necessarily “music”. I came to a conclusion of naming it “anti-music”. I approached each of my instruments with a new perspective as if i had no pre-existing knowledge of the object. This approach was similar to how I began to interpret all artworks after my eye-opening tutorial with Michael. (More depth on this in original photography x sculpture post). If i was to further my investigation of these objects with the benefit of hindsight and experience, I would definitely employ a more thorough approach in planning, production and editing to create a more clean and professional result.

‘Anti Music” completed Videography

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Movement: Photography Reflection

Anti-Music Improvements

Reflection

The above images include:

1- camera angle improvement for flute shot.

2- Collage of videography stills and Olivia Furey’s work.

3- Typewriter sketch to compare to accordion clips.

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M0vement: Photography x Sculpture

This performance piece was inspired by my previous sculpture: Armóin. As well as performance artist: Olivia Furey.

Sculptural Influences and Inspiration

I knew that I wanted to create something cantered around traditional irish music and knowing I was entering photography, I decided to make use of the instruments that I had myself (flute, tin whistle, accordion, concertina).

Unfortunately, because of the nature of my coursework as a B.Ed student, I was unable to attend any photography workshops so I made the decision to do my own research alongside my education coursework. I referred back to previous learning from semester 1; seminars, old workshops etc.. I also did my own secondary research and watched multiple YouTube videos centred around videography on an iPhone. From these, i learned about camera angles, editing, lighting and much more.

As previously stated, i was inspired by my most recent sculpture; Armóin. This piece illustrates the movement of a trad band during a session. After a one on one tutorial with Michael and much reflection, he helped me to understand how my work often leans on the side of over-illustration. Meaning I put too much emphasis on detail and precision and I tend to not leave much room for interpretation in my work.

This tutorial prompted what can only be described as a cultural reset within my art. I changed the way I interpreted my own art after this and it also opened up my eyes to analysing the work of others. This also helped in a later tutorial with Yvonne when I paired up with Dylan as we critiqued each other’s work.

Process

I wanted to create a series of clips that portray movement but not necessarily “music”. I came to a conclusion of calling it “anti-music”. I approached each of my instruments with a new perspective, similar to how I began to interpret all artworks after my tutorial wit Michael.

The clips here are just a few out of almost 50 videos. I chose these particular clips not only for their sound but also for their almost comedic affect. Olivia Furey aims to provoke emotion during her performances using homemade instruments. I wished to create something to this effect with my anti-music.

Reflection

If i was to recreate this in future or something similar, I would like to put more emphasis on the planning of the piece. This would include; location, lighting, instruments, camera angles, camera orientation (portrait/landscape). The clips you see in this video are simply the result of experimentation with instruments seen as foreign objects or sculptures. I think that this is a good place to start from but if I was to further my investigation of this, I would definitely employ a more thorough approach in planning, production and editing to create a more clean and professional result.

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Movement: Painting

The Kesh

This completed piece was inspired by a line of irish dancers, dancing in perfect unison. I have included an image of my thumbnail sketch for this piece in a previous post where i used tools to explore texture and values for the background of this piece.

I then used a palette knife to mix a Virginian green shade for the dancers dresses. I chose green not only because it is a traditionally Irish colour, but i want the viewers to make the connection of the irish tricolour here, with orange tones in the foreground and white strokes throughout the background.

I really wanted to convey symmetry in this piece so there is a number of connected elements involved

1. Entire composition consists of triangles only, a 3 sides shape, linked to the three colour in the Irish flag

2. 6 dancers are lined up signify the 6 quaver beats in a bar of a single jig, hence the name “The Kesh” after one of my favourite jigs (the kesh jig).

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Movement: Artist Research

Georg Douglas (painter)

The West Wind

This oil on canvas painting is inspired by Irish dance, the often melancholy weather of the country and the mysticism - the fairy tree.

Background

“Originally educated as a geologist (PhD), I have been painting for the past 12 years and have held several solo and joint exhibitions. Although living in Iceland for most of my life, I was born and raised in Co. Derry, N. Ireland which explains the interest in Irish subject matter.”

Feis

The feis is an important competition event for Irish dancing and other cultural events in Ireland. This applies to local and all Ireland events. The excitement and stress is often very strong and the standards high. The painting tries to convey that feeling.

Relevance

I really enjoy Georg Douglas’ work, particularly his work exploring Irish culture and Irish dancing. His use of colour and shapes works so well to convey the emotion and movement of his paintings without being over-illustrative.

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Movement: Artist Research

Frank Auerbach

Background

He attended St Martin's School of Art, London, from 1948 to 1952, and studied with David Bomberg in night classes at Borough Polytechnic. It was during this period that he developed a friendship with fellow student Leon Kossoff. Auerbach studied at the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955. He has used three principal models throughout his career: his wife Julia, who first posed for him in 1959; Juliet Yardley Mills ('J.Y.M.'), a professional model whom he met in 1957; and his close friend Estella (Stella) West ('E.O.W.'), the model for most of his nudes and female heads prior to 1973.

Relevance

I chose to look at Frank Auerbach’s work in relation to my project because I particularly enjoy his use of colour and impasto technique. Using thick layers along with vibrant strokes that attract the eye but don’t overstimulate it entirely.

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Movement: Painting

Exploring tools & texture

Process

Today I experimented with using different tools and painting techniques on a Canvas.

I was inspired by a plan for a painting in my sketchbook but I was eager to make it as least illustrative as possible. To do this, I took my original thumbnail sketch an reduced it to simple shapes and forms. The most common shape turned out to be a triangle so I challenged myself to create the entire piece using simple triangles.

I began this process by mixing brown and white paint. I knew that I wanted a more impressionist or abstract effect. This is something that I have been struggling with recently so i tried to tackle it by not allowing myself to create detail and illustration. The most effective way of doing this was actually replacing my paintbrush with solid tools.

This was my first time doing an experiment like this and i really enjoyed it. I felt no fear or pressure when i was applying paint because i knew that there could be no mistakes. I would love to take this technique further in my work.

I plan to add some more shapes to this piece using greens and oranges in the future.

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Movement: Critical Analysis

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Movement: Painting

Life Painting

I wasn’t able to attend college today so I decided to try develop my project from home. I am lucky to have all the materials and equipment to recreate Sylvia’s workshop from yesterday so I chose to work on my mistakes with Sylvia’s feedback in mind.

I used my wooden model as the subject of my paintings and applied all of the new techniques that I learned yesterday.

I began each piece by mixing primary colours with white acrylic to create three tones that would determine the balance and value in my painting. I then went on to assign a tone to the wall, floor and subject as an under painting before continuing to add more value to each of these features.

Once again similar to yesterday’s workshop, I began painting the torso first with minimal brush strokes and an impasto effect (as seen on the third painting in the video above).

I am happy with my progress overall, I think that there is clear improvement between my first and final painting. This exercise also helped me to be more loose with my paint strokes and to work faster. This helped in making more suggestive work rather than detailed, boring work.

I can understand now why the basics are most important in any painting and detail comes second. Sylvia helped me comprehend background and foreground in a painting and how it can affect the viewers interpretation of the piece. Balance is also relevant here as a really busy painting can be easily overstimulating for a viewer.

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Movement:Painting

Sylvia’s workshop

Process:

The workshop began with colour mixing. Sylvia gave everyone acrylic paints in the primary colours and white (red, yellow blue). She then explained that we would be mixing these colours to make three tones that we would use in painting the figure.

I decided to use just red and blue paints to create purple tones. I have included an image of my pallet above.

Sylvia then carefully explained how to begin a piece composition wise, starting with a rough gesture drawing of the figure before adding a horizon line behind.

I then completed an entire underpainting in an attempt to prime to paper and create an even surface to work on.

Finally, I used my three mixed tones to add value and detail to my background, foreground and figure.

I learned a lot about composition and particularly balance during this workshop. Working in monotone helped me to understand the importance of the sequence of steps ( painting background first and working toward foreground).

Overall, I’m happy with the lessons I learned in todays workshop, while I wasn’t particularly pleased with the result of my painting, I now know where I went wrong and how I can improve moving forward.

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Movement: Material Study

The above image is a material study that I did in my project sketchbook based on the wire material that I used for my last sculpture collection “Armóin”.

I drew the medium in three different ways (oil pastel, soft pastel & Fabre castell polychromos).

I also used wire to draw the title and stuck it in with purple tape.

Finally, I created a small Celtic design using different wire thickness and techniques.

After completing this exercise, I am confident that I have fully explored this medium to an extent that has helped me develop my project.

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Movement: Sculpture 1

Armóin

(Harmony)

Creation

This piece was lightly inspired by Glenn Gibson’s wire sculptures.

I wanted to create an intimate trad session that suggested movement even when it lay perfectly still. As most people know, the nature of a traditional Irish music session is almost always inherently lively and animated.

I chose wire as a medium because of its beautiful form and convenient malleability. It is also very useful in creating a scene with minimal illustration or suggestion from the artist, which is what I was aiming for here.

I decided to make the instruments from clay as i wanted them to be distinctive from the figures. I made this decision because I wanted to convey the transience of Irish Music and how it never focuses on one particular musician; each person plays an important role in unison with the rest and while the musicians themselves vary and change throughout the generations, the music will always remain the same.

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Movement: Artist Research

Glenn Gibson

🔗Background

Glenn Gibson is a professional Irish artist creating & teaching wire sculpture in Galway. Renowned for his Connemara hawthorn sculptures, Glenn’s work explores themes of interconnectedness and Celtic Lore.

Glenn is the Creative Director for Art in Mind. Art in Mind is Galway’s artist led non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting wellbeing and mental health through creative practice

Glenn Gibson - Movement

I became interested in Gibsons work after briefly exploring wire sculpture myself in the workshop on Monday. I was really excited to find an Irish artist, particularly one that is exploring Celtic lore, similar to my project.

I think wire sculpture is an incredible medium for sculpture as it tells a story with the suggestion of movement without the necessity for any sort of description or illustration.

After studying Gibson’s work, i decided to try out wire sculpture myself and then worked on this for the remainder of the week.

Observer & Observed (2020)

The title piece for the exhibition explores this connection literally showing two forms staring at each other from above and below and combining into a single form.

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Movement: Sculpture

Apple Harp

I carved this apple harp from memory after Michael requested that we gather materials around the school to make a sculpture on Monday.

I used nails to represent the strings of the harp.

After talking with Sarah about this piece, she suggested that I don’t continue with this approach to sculpture as it was too illustrative. I really struggled with this for a while as I prefer to make a piece of art rather than random artefacts but I tried to explore it with less guidelines in another sculpture that day (video in last post.)

Stacked Sculpture

For my second sculpture, I made a stacked piece using wood and cardboard. Using the approach of stacking objects rather than bonding or glueing them allowed me to be more lenient in the aesthetic side as I was more focused on getting the piece to stand alone rather than look pretty.

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Movement: Sculpture

Actions & Activities

Workshop

The workshop began with a brief explanation from Michael Canning about the movement brief and the sculpture and combined media discipline itself. He explained that we were going to start off the workshop by exploring actions and activities that can be done with 3D materials. As a group, all students collaborated on a large sheet writing actions and counter activities that can be done with your hands.

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Movement: Primary Research

Photography

These are a couple of photos that I took in September 2021 as references for a painting that I was doing at the time. I was trying to capture elements of my personality (music,art etc). I wanted to include these as a base for research in this project

I am excited to see how my skills will improve between now and then as I had no photography experience when I took these images.

I am hoping to make a few drawings from these images in order to inspire and develop my project further.