I began this week feeling a bit lost in regard to my painting, I found myself painting for paint’s sake. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing for me at the moment as I’m still at the start of my final year. When looking at my paintings I would feel uneasy, they didn’t make me feel proud or comfortable. I almost didn’t feel connected to them, they were becoming very hectic. Parts of them would intrigue me and draw me in but the overall compositions, for me, were not cohesive.
I had my one on one tutorial with my painting tutor on Thursday and I left it feeling refreshed as always. We collectively agreed that although my paintings were beginning with a starting point they were getting lost along the way, my mark making was careless in some places and wasn’t as thought out as it should have been. Which is why I may have been feeling disconnected to the work. It wasn’t what I was wanting to achieve. I was really enjoying painting the canvases as the process was intuitive, but I was not enjoying my final outcome.
Where to next? I’m currently in the process of looking at my art history a bit closer and have a few articles and books waiting to be read. But I’m a very slow reader so not much to report on that yet. I’ve always been a rather good draughtswoman and, I think, with these current paintings, I need to try and think more about my drawing when placing down my paint. In the sense that every brush stroke, it’s thickness, sensitivity and vigour all need to work together in order to create a cohesive composition.
Original Photo (Left)/ Original Sketch (Right)
2020
Original Photo (Left)/ Original Sketch (Right)
2020
Above are 4 side by side images of a sketch and a photograph of two different rock formations and patterns I found on Aberystwyth beach. I was instantly drawn to these patterns on the beach and new that I wanted to work on them, Once I’d drawn out the sketches I was really excited to try and translate them into paint. But this time, instead of acrylic paint I chose to give oil paint a go; I’ve never really worked with oil before so was a bit apprehensive. Having said that, I really enjoyed using them. The drying time was obviously a lot longer than with acrylic but I feel this gave me more time to think about my painting as I painted it. To think more about where I was going to place each mark, what colour should go where and so on.
Below is an image of a small study for a larger painting, it’s based off of the first sketch and image shown above and I’m looking forward to translating it onto a larger scale and seeing what more I can add or take away from it in order to achieve a final and resolved painting.
Study 1
Oil on Canvas
45 X 45 cm
Comments