Chairs Are Great.

Acrylic paint on mdf, size unknown.

'Totem Cityscape II'. This piece relates back to my previous blog post; it’s the work I decided to create for my mid-term exhibition/review. It took what seemed forever to paint (which was only 2 very long days) and I was very relieved when it was completed. I had no idea how much chairs were a part of my life and how I take them for granted. Aren’t they just amazing? Standing on my feet for most of the day was not fun, but hey, now I love chairs. They are one of the greatest things to have been created ever! Anyway, moving on, I did enjoy painting it, it was just time consuming and thanks to the previous piece, I more or less knew what I was doing. I like the look of the ‘stars’, inspired by Van Gogh of course, they give the work the feel of having a sky. I used the silhouette of the totem pole on its side like before so it appears to be a city. For the review this was my only piece of work on show, compared to everyone else, mine looked sad and lonely. Guess I was going for the minimal look? Admittedly my studio space isn’t as big as other peoples, but ah well. Everyones spaces looked great and it was nice having loads of people around (usually there’s hardly anyone) and helping each other out to get sorted. Well done to them all! I think mine did not turn out as well as I had hoped, after it was completed I felt that the colours were still too bright, even though I had toned them down already with white paint. Yes, I had a few things to complain about, however,  I have realised it is all something to learn from.

Below are photos of stages to get to the final piece:

My Love.

Acrylic paint on acrylic paper, A4.

Just another practise piece I did whilst I tried to figure out what to create for our mid-term exhibition and review. The main inspiration for this painting is easy to see, it was from the great man himself, Van Gogh. The way I have painted this is minimal; the blending of the colours has meant that there is little excess paint. I have realised from this task that I miss high school. Well, more the fact that I was able to use as much paint as I wished and paint as large as I liked for nothing. Ah, the good ol’ days. Now everything costs money Since school, through college and into uni, my work has shrunk and why? Because I simply can’t afford to work big like I want to. Unless I find things to work on in the skip or are donated to me haha! Sorry, I’m going off on one, let me get back to the point I wanted to say in this post. What I do like is thick paint. Something that makes you want to poke it and feel the work. It’s one of the best things in life, I think, especially when you are allowed to touch it. I would like to use thicker amounts of paint again one day, maybe I will at some point, but like everything else, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Just Messing With You.

Acrylic paint on paper, A5 (All).

I’m just messin’. After ruining my tribute of little planning, to Van Gogh in my previous painting, I realised that I had enjoyed painting the background even if it did not work out. I did not have to think how it would look and whether or not paint was in the right place. It was fun not to care for once. I chose colours that I thought would work well together and added plenty of white to help blend them together. (And yes, I realise I probably should have written this in my previous post, sorry!)

While waiting for the paint to dry, I thought it would be good to try out a few different things before making anything more important and which I would matter to me. For example, using more colour than previously as well as different brushes to see what effect they would have. I like how the colours mix when I haven't cleaned the brush in between changing the colour. I have also decided that the 'star-like' circles are better using various shades of yellow instead of other colours, because then they just look like planets, which is not what I want.

Not Sure What Happened Here.

Acrylic paint on acrylic paper, A3.

I’m not sure what happened here, but it did and I apologise. After a tutorial with Alison, everything literally came to a stop and creative block hit me. I had no ideas what so ever, not a single one and I hated feeling like that. I got told my work was not contemporary enough and I had to decide if I wanted to work with a personal icon or a public one. Being told this did not help me at all. So then this painting came about.

I did not want to ditch everything I had previously created. I did not care what the tutor said anymore, I was going to do what I wanted and hope for the best. The whole point of my work had be been, well I thought, about the viewer making their own meaning from it. Although I understand it would be hard to show that unless I was being extremely obvious, which I then planned to do. I had decided to create a triptych and have written on it something along the lines of ‘make your own meaning’. I was all set to go, but had second thoughts and chose to do a practise version because I was unsure about the look I wanted to go for. This in turn became the final piece and the 3 part work was never made. I wasn't sure what to fill in the background with and used inspiration from Van Gogh and his work ‘Starry Night’ as you can probably tell. It has to be one of my favourite paintings and one day I will see it in the flesh. However, I think I may have offended anyone who likes his painting. If so, I meant no harm and am truely sorry. I know my version isn't the greatest, but I am still learning.

Below are photos of stages to get to the final piece: