Presenting Nervous.

Presenting my final piece for the warm-up project.

I'm still very behind with my blogging as you may know, but this is the last one for my previous work (final). We had to talk about the project, how we got to the exhibited piece and a bit about it. I was happy with what I had achieved, however, the talking infront of the class was not my cup of tea.

It came to be my turn and after a long day, I was tired and nervously blushing. I just went for it and tried not to sound stupid (with a few little jokes in there to lighten the mood, like how working with dead flies was a new experience for me). It went ok, no one hated it, so that's always a bonus! They were more divided about whether or not they wanted it to be completed or if it was already finished as it is and I shouldn't cut it up, which I liked. Thankfully, some of my peers had left, which meant it wasn't as bad as I imagined it would be.

Definitely one of my better moments and more like that would be great. Although I don't really know what I'm doing at the moment, hopefully, that'll sort itself out soon...

Setting Up Knees.

Setting up the Knees for our little exhibition.

This part went through a couple of stages due to trying to get it sorted before the planned time and then having to change because of circumstances I didn't think about.

I started off with my work next to Uncle Clives, on the back wall of the area. Clive then moved to be next to someone elses work as there was plenty of space and it worked better together, which meant I could move to the centre of the wall. It enabled the audience 'see' my piece better when first walking into the space. I guess it also helped that my piece was large and quite simple.

I was happy with how it ended up being presented, although it was attached to the wall only by two staples, I think it added to the look I wanted it to be like. They we part of the process when I made it and are there in the showing.

Deceased Fly.

All in the name of art...

Not only did I have the new experience of working with oil paint, I also worked with a dear little dead fly. This came about after moving my work from my studio space to the area I wanted to exhibit it in. I held the piece by the top as high as I could and walked along with it, not being the tallest person, the bottom dragged along the floor. I didn't realise the fly was there until stepping back from it after it had been stapled up.

I grew to love it over night and thought he was a welcomed addition. The next day was the time for setting up for the end of the warm up project exhibition (even though I had already set up - thanks to Uncle Clive). After helping to clear the spaces and we all started arranging where people would go, I had to move it again and unfortunately my new friend fell off. I had to have him as a part of my work, after all I have never worked with dead flies before, so I got some pva and covered the little fellow with it. I had to rest it up on the table because the fly would slip down and I didn't want him to fall off again. Eventually the glue dried and the deceased was securely in place.

Process Evidence.

The hand made touches.

Since visiting the Ashmolean Museum, in Oxford the other week and seeing Francis Bacons work in particular, I realised that I care too much about having a finished look to my work. In some of Bacons paintings it was obvious that at moments the paint had fallen and dripped onto places it wasn't meant to. Where he had then just wiped it and left it, not painting over it as if it never happened. I hadn't realised this until seeing some of his iconic pieces in the flesh (pictures on the internet never do justice).

With this final piece of work I wanted to change that. When priming my squares I did not care if it dripped, the marks from measuring were left and the excess canvas wasn't removed from the bottom. I also decided to leave a few of the squares knee-less (empty). It was difficult to decide at what point it was finished to look unfinished... If that makes sense (I know what I mean). I thought I would find it difficult to leave it how it ended, however, I guess it helped that it is able to still be 'completed' if I so wished. I can cut it up, fill in the gaps and finish my original plan sometime in the future. Although, I have grown to like it how it is. It is possible that I may continue to work on my issues with leaving things unfinished...

Knees VII - XIII.

Close ups of each of the little knee pieces.

You can see the layers of oil paint and how rough the edges are. The knees have been simplified by shape and colour. They also have little parts of my fingerprints in them.

Seenk Making.

The making of my 'final piece'.

I would like to point out that before coming to this stage, I had planned to make canvases and have that as another new thing I have achieved in doing this warm up project. However, after being sneaky and taking wood up to the studios to recycle it. Measuring how many frames I could make. Taking it back downstairs to the workshop. Waiting and asking for it to be chamfered. Leaving it to be done because we had a lecture. Then returning to find it had not been done because the cutting blade needed to be replaced. It wasn't going to be ready in time for me to complete my work for our little exhibition, so I had to change my plan or do something else... It was a draining time, I felt like the day had been wasted.

After the weekend and having had a chance to think about what to do, I armed myself with a metre of canvas and a plan. I measured out squares and primed them with a couple of layers of gesso mix. Once that had dried, I filled them with oil painted knees. They were a combination of left and right, back and front, upside down and right way up knees. That is where the title came from, "Seenk up, seenk down, seenk all around". Unbeknownst until now, it made me happy to be working in my studio space, with it actually looking like an artists work space.

Knees V & VI.

After the larger pieces that I worked on, I decided to try out a couple of other surfaces. The first being 'oil paint' paper as well as cardboard, albeit small practices. I took a piece of the paper from good old, Uncle Clive, instead of buying a pad of my own, because I wasn't sure if oil painting was something I would carry on with after this project was over. The paper gave the painting a nice shine compared the cartridge paper I used before. I tried to keep it to natural colours, even more so than my first attempts. Unfortunately, I don't like this as much, it doesn't feel like 'me'. Although, I do like the little ray of sunshine coming through and 'lighting' up my painting from the back gap between the studio walls. I could possibly do something with that idea... Then my attempt on the scrap piece of cardboard, came about simply due to an excess of paint out of the tubes. I didn't want to waste it, I just wanted to use them up and decided to keep it quite simple.

Knees III & IV.

Say hello to my back knees... Wait a minute, that sounds like a skin problem. Ok, erm... Yeah... These are the paintings I did after the more natural coloured knee paintings. I wanted to use the various colourful colours that I knew I could make. Again, I used a palette knife and it, along with the paint, has become my friend. It's so much fun! Even the clearing up is enjoyable haha! I haven't attempted painting oil paints with a brush yet and I'm not sure I want to. I like being able to be carefree with where the paint goes (unless it's on me). I expect I shall carry on with oil painting, in one way or another, I just might possibly find another 'theme' to work...

Knees I & II.

My first paintings of knees. Not too shabby, huh? I started off by putting a faint outline to get the basic shape and then I filled it. I painted them simultaneously with a palette knife; putting the paint on both pieces where I wanted it, before moving on to another colour. It was very exciting, I haven't used a knife since high school and it felt good. I'm not sure what I was expecting the result to be, but of course I feel as though I can do better and with practice that'll happen. I worked from a photo of my knees, although my painting could be seen as the front or back of them (which I don't mind).

Today, I have started on adding a background colour. I shall add those pictures to this post when it's finished and I'll let you know.

I have also painted some back knees, which will be in the next post.

New Project: SEENK.

'A painting to show colours made from cobalt blue, yellow ochre, crimson and white.'

New project called 'SEENK'.

Last Thursday, we began our journeys in a new project. We had a list of themes we could choose and then pick a medium or an aspect of a medium that we are unfamiliar with. The word I chose was 'knees'; because in my work I tend to avoid anything that is figure/body related. My chosen medium is oil paints; simply because I have never used them before - ever! I am both extremely nervous and excited about it.

That Friday, I asked good ol' Uncle Clive to teach me the wonderful world of oil painting. He gave me a list of things I would need and off I popped to the art shop. Armed with oil paint, paper and an eagerness to get going (plus a few other bits that I got given or already had) we started. Clive said I should get to know what I can get out of the colouirs I had (cobalt blue, yellow ochre, crimson and white). So I did, I mixed colours together to get new colours and mixed them together to get more colours. It went on for a while with a lunch break in between. I also learnt that mixing all the colours I had made together would then make a shade of grey, depending on which starting colour was the more dominant.

After this I stapled paper to the wall and just went for it with palette knives. I didn't necessarily think too much about where to put the colour. I occassionally look at a reference photo of a 'dinosaur' skull, but it looks nothing like that. The painting isn't meant to look like anything, it's purpose is 'to show colours made from cobalt blue, yellow ochre, crimson and white.' Which is exactly what it does. I had a lot of fun making a mess and learning something new, I definitely enjoyed myself. The next stage is to work with brushes and see how that ends up.

On another note, today, I found out I have ugly knees...