Fear of the dark

Posted: April 13, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Contextualisation | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

For the painting I am working on at the moment, I am focusing on the fear of the dark and how we often feel and see things that are not there. Below, are some pictures that I have been looking at to help me personify the darkness in my painting. Having a fear of the dark is quite a common thing, and as I child I was terrified of it, thinking that something was lurking in it. Even now, although I do not have a ‘fear’ as such anymore, I still feel a presence whenever I switch the lights off, particularly when I am about to go up the stairs. I often find myself sprinting up them as fast as I can to escape the evil lurking in the dark. I get the feeling that something is chasing or watching me. Personally, I think that it is an irrational feeling, I know very well that there is nothing there, but I cannot stop thinking that there is. Perhaps it is the fear of the unknown or something that has been hardwired into us from our ancestors, either way, I find it interesting and am looking forward to finishing my painting.

Hanging cut-out life drawings

Posted: April 27, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Year 2 - Term 1 | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

As I thought that my cut-out life drawings looked more effective when on their own, I decided to make more to do just that. I made some more but this time I just cut the silhouette out of newspaper rather than using lots of different cut-out pieces to build up the layers of the body. I think that making my cut-outs more simplistic looks more engaging. I decided to hang my new cut-outs up on a line of string so that shadows can be cast behind them. I think that this looks effective as it makes the figures have a presence.

Ideas for futher development

Posted: November 30, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Year 2 - Term 1 | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

I had a really good tutorial this week with David Ferry. On the whole it was positive and lots of possible ideas for further development were discussed. We mainly spoke about the wire sculptures that I had made and how they were a starting point for a multitude of possibilities. One idea that I liked in particular was of spraying/flicking paint through them and hence capturing the negative space of the object and ‘drawing’ it in a different way. I think that this is an interesting idea and one that I am definitely going to explore.

Another idea that was mentioned was embossing the wire sculptures into thick paper. I did go down to the printmaking studio to find out more about this but just my luck, the machine was broken and was unlikely to be fixed soon!! However, on Monday, Tom the technician is going to show me how to use an alternative machine that will give a similar effect. Hopefully this will work as I was looking forward to trying this out!

Lastly, it was said about projecting large scale shadows of my wire sculptures onto the walls and ceiling to try and give them some sort of presence. Casting shadows is something that I had tried before with the glue gun drawings that I made but on a much smaller scale. I did like the effects that this created but I think that this is something that I will have to consider later on this year as the formative assessment is looming!

Drawing/painting from glue gun drawings!

Posted: November 6, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Year 2 - Term 1 | Tags: , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Last week I started to draw and paint from the shadows created from my hanging glue gun drawings. I have found this really fun to do! I am quite excited at the moment as before this, I had not done much abstract art work. I love all of the shapes and patterns that the shadows cast and how the different shades of the shadows create depth.

 

Hanging glue gun drawings!

Posted: October 31, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Year 2 - Term 1 | Tags: , | Leave a comment

As you can see from the images below, I have tried out my idea of hanging my glue gun life drawings to cast shadows from them. I like how the shadows are completely abstract. There are only small parts in that you can tell that they are figurative shadows. I think that this will be a good start for some drawings and paintings.

Week 2: Inside the White Cube – 18th October 2013

Posted: October 31, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Constellation | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

This week’s lecture focused on Modern art and minimalism and the general function of the gallery space. I was particularly interested in the ideas raised about the optical third dimension. The Jules Olitski spray painting ‘Instant Loveland’ has this quality. When viewing, it is like looking into some sort of void. This piece appears to have a depth, even though it is quite obviously painted onto a flat surface. This idea is something that I could think about in my own practice. I have previously written on my blog about considering drawing/painting the shadows cast from my glue gun drawings. Although they will look abstract, I would like for there to be some sort of depth to them.