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Inspired by my research of Lirika Matoshi, I decided to recreate her What’s In my Bag work. Eoin suggested doing a T-shirt like she did but I opted for a tote bag - the idea of putting the inside of the bag and the little things I carry and collect on the outside for people to see.

I started off by arranging the items on the bag itself to try and fit everything in, it felt like a very weird game of Tetris. I then sketched everything on the bag and painted each item one by one. The texture of the bag made me wish that I had doused in in gesso or opted for a T-shirt as getting straight lines on the bumps was nearly impossible. I started to ask my paint of it was mad at me, I like painting very very smooth surfaces so this was quite difficult for me.

I also missed the mark on some of the sizes because I was trying to make certain objects stand out as bigger than they are (or I had to do ten layers, bigger each time to get a smooth edge.) I had some very murky paint water which I used to create shadows.

In the end, I left some of the bottom ones out just for the sake of time. Even though the lines aren’t as clean as I’d like and it’s not polished, I still really like how it turned out. I’m also excited I got to paint on fabric as whenever I see the second or third year students studios I see them painting on so many different materials and this is something I would like to experiment with more in the future!

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Flipthru of the mess book, making the cover, glopping in the paint scraps I collected throughout the project and making the slime page

Side note: VERY annoyed I missed the opportunity to call it the book of ruth- the one time a bible name could come in handy for me

Here are all the pages in better quality- the coins and the 9th/10th page are stamped on- with a ten cent coin and one of my odd little rocks slathered in watercolour paint

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My Book of Mess

To wrap up the project after speaking with Eoin I decided putting together a sketchbook to have work all in one place would be a good idea, to show progression of my ideas. Some pages being things I’ve collected during the project (paint scraps inspired by Angel Otero) and some being some newer experimentations and explorations of the items I collected and used. I wanted this to be full of really quick sketches and studies but it soon started telling me a story about every trinket I own so I told one back. Of course I had to get a little but dramatic with it.

I included my painting of the magpie at the end- the book is almost their (and my) story of collecting memories and keepsakes, a museum of memories. The book is messy, the glue on the paint scraps took years to dry and things bled through but I quite like the whole concept- nothing is very polished and it still conveys my idea using so many different materials and experiments

The music is The Flower Garden by Joe Hisaishi as I really love the song, it felt fitting and it’s in the movie Howl’s Moving Castle- Howl’s room is absolutely filled with gizmos and trinkets and I see myself in it.

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Artist’s statement - Why do we make art / a self portrait

My art is so often inspired by the small things around me that either create a new memory or remind me of another- I collect and carry as a result of this, I always have. I wanted this project to be an “actually, that receipt in my bag means something to me emotionally” moment, a self portrait of the museum of my life as a representation of me.

I absolutely adore the theme and I made some of my favourite work this project- that being said, I definitely could have done more and have ideas I would like to carry forward; collages of paint scraps, more work in chalk pastel, even larger scale paintings and more sketches and experimentations. I also wish I did more paintings of singular objects like the perfume bottle, perhaps receipts, vapes (I do not encourage but there are so many dead ones in my bag whew) and other mundane objects. I also really enjoy the idea of painting in lipstick like I did in the very beginning, but I don’t own any that I’m willing to ruin (but I may in the future!)

Artists I researched-

Angel Otero

Lirika Matoshi

Diana Copperwhite

What was most successful- the magpie, perfume, my last life drawings of Jeff, The Mess Book (I like the experimanting with different materials and the narriative created, even if it could have been a little longer)

What wasn’t my favourite- the key painting, palette knife painting, earlier life drawings, the tote bag (I love the whole concept but it felt rushed and I wish I could have put more in)

Overall the project was a little difficult for me because my health hasn’t been great throughout and honestly I'm a little dissapointed with the number of works I produced but that being said, I'm happy about the quality of the ones I did make- I learned so much not just throughout this project but throughout the year as a whole and I’m so grateful for the year I have spent :)

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The magpie (finale)

The Magpie.

I did it! This was quite a long session but I really think it was worth it.

Here’s a list of all the trinkets I added from before- my room key, an eroded piece of ceramic from the beach and a shark tooth from when I was a kid. I also actually painted the other sketches from before- I think my favourite is the flying pig crystal, I got it when my mom was in for one of her appointments when I was a kid and it was my crystal loving origin story. You best believe I made it shiny!

I tried to make the trinkets light and dark evenly scattered throughout so your eyes would scan around he collection. I also added my favourite flower, purple sinuata, above and scattered around the bird. I did these quite loose to show the brushstrokes and I adore the effect.

I put some of my favourite colours reflecting in the birds feathers and I truly feel the whole piece is such a representation of me- all my memories and collections with little gifts from people I love. I see myself in the bird, the flowers and all the trinkets and clutter.

I’m genuinely really proud of this painting- it’s not as polished or perfect as I normally strive for and yet it still carries me and the message in it- I also see improvement in it from the last painting and I’m glad to see myself learning and growing in my style :’)

Also I pinky promise the paintings not crooked, it’s just the angle of the picture betraying me hah

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The magpie (part 2)

I wanted my trinkets to circle the magpie, almost like a little nest being built. I know I used my sylvanian and beanie baby in the last painting but I felt the need to use them in this one too- I’m not sure if this is because I just like them so much or because I wanted this painting to flow with the last work. I actually found both easier to paint this time in comparison to the last and worked much quicker because I was more familiar with how I wanted to portray them, and I think the cat turned out way better than before and I saw improvement in my fabrics. Having a direct comparison to see improvement is really lovely

I also had a shell, crystal my mom gave me, a chunk of labradorite (pretty crystal) from my partner, an interesting shell, a baby sylvanian cat and a pig crystal I knew I HAD to include so I sketched these in. I also got a start of the birds belly feathers!

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The magpie (part 1)

I compared myself to a bird who really likes a little shiny thing before- I went back and read this post and was like ohhhh….. I need to paint that RIGHT NOW

I’ve always heard a rumour that magpies collect shiny things- one google search told me that this isn’t true and is simply folklore but I still really enjoy this idea and see myself in it.

I sketched it out roughly using a cheap dodgy paint pen and worked the background first, I painted this way quicker than usual and it was almost like the idea was begging to get out of me, getting my usual wavy textures out in the process and this worked really well I think and gave some dynamic textures.

I wanted the outer left and right to be darker to draw the eye to the magpie and I thought about the flow of the composition quite a bit.

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Cat n co’ (part 3 FINAL YIPEEE)

Yay! Finished the painting!! The weather got really lovely so I ended up finishing the painting outside- it was actually quite difficult because the heat kept drying my palette, but there was no way I could stay inside on such a lovely day.

I painted the little seaglass jar with it in front of me directly and the lighting was fantastic to paint with from observation. For the background I found the beige table boring and close a green to compliment the pink’s presence in the painting and added the shadows (… I also really like green as a colour lol)

Safe the say the sunburn was worth it and I would really like to paint outside more!! Peeling off the tape was stressful and you can see a whoopsie in the bottom left but hopefully it doesn’t take away from the piece :D My only real gripe with this work is slow I painted as I'm trying to get faster over time- this is a big goal of mine and I feel a little sad about how long it took- I have another work kind of planned that I'm hoping to go quicker with though!

If I were to do the painting again I’d add more of my trinkets and clutter but I still like how it turned out (also shoutout to @k00299738 for the pix of me with it!!)

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Cat n co (part 2)

Fixed the cats face and did the glasses!!

I wish I got more done today but I wanted to take my time to fix the cats face- I think I rushed it too much yesterday but I pulled up the reference and tried to work more faithful to the original image and it worked out well! I had to add more to the ears and redo the actual facial features. You can see side by side before and after, whew she looked a little busted before

I also did the glasses- mostly. I still have a little more to add but I think the shape is working out well and I’m excited to see how they turn out

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My slides from my presentation on Diana Copperwhite! I think I spoke okay as I really enjoy her work and she has inspired my work- it was my first time presenting with teams so I found the technicalities a little confusing at first but I figured it out. My iPad is also acting very weird about the PowerPoint as I made it on pc so apologies for any glitches

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Cat n co (part 1)

I finally started painting what I sketched before!! I started off with a grey background and painting first in greyscale (which I’m very mad I didn’t take process pics of). I think I learned this habit from when I used to do mostly digital art, which actually works really well for learning values in my opinion.

I then added colour- the details on the cats skirt were really hard to do because they’re so small. Also I definitely got the cats face wrong with the angle so I’m going to fix that up tomorrow. I’m a little scared to do more of the glasses just because I usually find them challenging but oh well, I really want to include them so I’ll just practice lol

I really like how the beanie baby turned out though!! He looks really fluffy because of the texture and I’m proud of how I applied the paint

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Perfume 2 (the squeakquel)

When I walked into the studio the next day after painting the perfume bottle, I decided to go through with my idea of adding a background- nothing too fancy, just some colour behind it.

I decided to go with a muted pink / purple colour, colours I like to further solidify this as a representation of myself.

I also added a diluted version of this paint to where the brown peeked through the bottle to achieve the translucent effect.

I actually wish in retrospect that I went a little brighter with the colour of it-the reason I weny muted was so any bits of brown in the bottle wouldnt be so obvious but this could be solved by just painting a background first and then the glass on top, which I’ll keep in mind for the future.

I also added some extra highlights to the bottle- I don’t think it necessarily required them but I like things that are shiny, I’m like a bird that gets easily captivated by a sparkle heh

Eoin kindly cut it for me and hung it, leaving some of the brown paper visible to see the brushstrokes- I’m really glad that he introduced this idea to me as I wouldn’t normally leave blank bits but I like how it looks

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Life Drawing

For the last life drawing session with Jeff we were allowed to use whatever materials we liked- my first instinct was paints, but because I’ve been looking into the work of Degas and I love how vibrant his works done in chalk pastels are, I decided to practice with mine!

I’m so inexperienced with pastels and they’re something I think would lend well to my practice in future. I picked t three colours for each- a dark, middle and light tone (minus the one with the net)

I sketched in the lightest tone and then darkened it- I also used a contrasting colour for the highlights to pop and I really like how bright those turned out, especially the yellow as the pigment is really concentrated!

I also added backgrounds to some- to add feeling or a little movement in the poses and I really enjoy how these enhanced the drawings.

Overall I’m really happy with how the session went, I’ll definitely use more chalks in the future and I’m also glad at how much my life drawing improved compared to the very first session of the year :D

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Perfume

One thing that I haven’t experimented much with over the year is painting large scale, and I regretted this. I have always had a huge habit of working very small and detailed and I figured it was time to go big and push myself out of my teeny tiny comfort zone.

I also find glass to be quite challenging to paint so I threw myself into the deep and decided to paint it big, using my perfume bottle as reference. The bottle is quite small in person- I refill it with samples so I can always have perfume in it and I keep it on my person, thus it being a representation of me.

The brown paper was actually less intimidating to start painting on than white, weirdly, and I started laying down thin layers of paint to get a sketch before going deeper with the tones

The brown shows through in some parts and I really like that. I have a slight urge to experiment with a background for the piece but I’ll leave that for another day because honestly, I like it so much at this point and I’m a little scared to ruin it.

I really enjoy doing these wavy brushstrokes, which I’ve been doing for a hot minute but as I researched Diana Copperwhite, I felt inspired to incorporate more. I find it makes painting an object a little less precise and captures more of its essence and energy rather than perfect blocks of colour :)

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Key

The key painting is based on the room key for our house. Receiving the key is such a fond memory for me as house searching was so hard and now I get to live with my partner in a beautiful place which I never even thought was possible. It was such a defining moment for me.

I like the look of the key generally, the textures are interesting and it looks old fashioned. I use it whenever I leave for a weekend trip to lock our room and it serves as a good luck charm when I’m away from home.

It’s not my favourite painting as the composition is generally bland and its not as detailed and textured as I would like. I wish I had done it with a keyring or the envelope and chocolates we got it with, or added a shadow at the very least. I’ll keep this in mind for the future!

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Research - Lirika Matoshi

Lirika Matoshi is one of my favourite designers even though I don’t know the first thing about fashion and I really like her “What’s in my Bag” T-shirt, in which she displays all of the things she carries.

This feels really authentic and I enjoy the slightly cluttered design, which is something I'll tryto convey- it’s a self portrait of her through her fashion.

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Painting preparations!

I wanted to first focus on some of trinkets I bring around with me, as that means I place value on them and/or I need to clean out my bag REAL bad. These are all from such different periods of my life, seashells from when I was a kid, cool rocks from a beach trip in 2019, a gift from my brother who I miss, my earrings and glasses I wear almost every day and a sylvanian cat from my partner.

I arranged them, trying out a few different compositions before doing a loose sketch.

I the took the parts that I found hardest to draw- one of the more complicated seashells and fabric (something I really struggle to convey) on the cat and instead of shying away like my first instinct is, I upped the scale to do some bigger sketches of them on some newsprint.

For these, I used graphite powder, hence the bunch of smudge. For most of it I used just my finger to apply it and it was enjoyable as it almost felt like finger painting. I’m actually quite happy with these sketches and really excited to get into painting them :)