rebeka lord

2012-01-08T14:12:00.000Z

CONQUER ART GROUP - EXHIBITION

CONQUER ARTISTS
1st -14th FEBRUARY 2012!
FREE ADMISSION

Wednesday 01 February 2012 PREVIEW 17:30-19:30
Drinks and shizz and snacks plus YOU! :)

02-14th February
Monday to Friday 09:30-17:30 ALL WELCOME

A group of creative minds have come together ranging from students, graduates and independent artists to showcase this exhibition. The collection of works includes current projects from each artists consisting of drawings, paintings, video, photography and installation pieces

FREE ADMISSION
Venue:
Friese-Greene House Gallery15-17 Middle StreetBN1 1AL Brighton

Artists & websites:
KP HEIL
www.kpheil.com

MARTA QUERO
www.oakero.com

REBEKA LORD
www.rebekalord.com
ELENA SAN ROMAN
www.epidemiah.deviantart.com
ED HAL
http://edholmanphotographer.tumblr.com/

ANTHONY PUJOL
http://www.facebook.com/sleepybox

See you there muffins!

life drawing - 22/10/2011

2011-10-25T18:33:00.001Z

First time life drawing in a very long time. It took me a while to relax into it... but finally created a painting that I liked (see above).

Painting Swap - 20/10/2011

2011-10-20T12:44:00.003Z

I got bored of painting my last painting... which gave me a bit of painters block. So I swapped the half finished painting with Robert Meldrum and one of his half finished paintings to see what happened..

But alas I feel like I have painted a Disney Cartoon clearing!

Plus, I completely forgot to take a photograph of the 'before' painting.

Feeling glum now!

But hopefully can rectify it tomorrow....

Still in progress...

2011-10-10T16:51:00.000Z

This is starting to bore me now!!

Not sure if its just because I wasn't in the mood for painting... or whether I need to take a break from it.

Just finding it hard to paint with speed, because I like it and don't want to spoil it. So am painting at a snails pace...

08/10/11 - Much of the process of painting is staring?

2011-10-08T14:35:00.000Z

Still working on this one... though today I felt like I stared at it for longer than I painted on it.

But much of the process of painting is staring... right?

What I did last weekend...

2011-10-06T12:58:00.000Z

These amuse me so... The stuffed animal photographs were taken by my friend Lesley as my camera battery went flat. The live squirrel is my photo.

03/10/11 - current work in progress

2011-10-03T17:05:00.002Z

conte, oil and liquin on paper mounted on canvas

A1 (I'm getting bigger again!)

Robert Meldrum - Technical Assault

2011-09-27T18:01:00.001Z

I have been meaning to blog about Robert's new show 'Technical Assault' currently on at the Greenstede Gallery in East Grinstead.

In many ways his work reminds me of Hernan Bas. Not only because both artists use landscape to examine themes of alienation. (Hernan Bas paints lone figures isolated in vast landscapes; whilst Meldrum's paintings are a 'meditation on the landscape with its barriers and bridges, both real and physiological'.)

And there aint no DayOil on canvas, 2010, 130x180cm

But their work is also similar as both use both domestic and spray paints. Thus, layers of crinkled gloss paint lie next to thin layers of spray paint. But whilst Hernan Bas retains a strong representational image, Robert's paintings have started to really loosen up, both with his mark making and his use of colours, with his work becoming more abstract.

Park
Oil on Canvas 171x197cm

Robert creates washes with the paint using both water and white spirit, slowly building the paintings up. He 're-check[s] the works progress by a series of photos at each stage, making adjustments to how it looks on the screen creating a forwards and backwards process'. When the painting is finished there are so many layers to his work that it is hard to figure out exactly what order the paint was laid.

Storm
Oil on Canvas 139x210cm

I love Robert's landscapes... especially his newest works that are on show here. I have been to his exhibition three times now and each time I come away just wanting to paint with wild abandon!

The show is on until October 4th here

and his website is here: http://robertmeldrumart.com/

All the quotes used are from Robert's exhibition blurb.

newest painting - pretty well finished... i think!

2011-09-25T12:22:00.000Z

current work in progress - 19/09/2011

2011-09-19T17:04:00.001Z

Feeling a bit pffft!

2011-09-15T10:07:00.001Z

Going through another slump painting wise.

Well... mental health wise too!

Had another bad bout of depression last week which led me to create some awful, overworked art! But then when the depression lifted I had no urge to paint whatsoever.

I can't win.

And whilst I do like to be disciplined in my painting - usually I will force myself into my studio even if I'm not in the mood. A new patio is being laid outside my studio window... so I have decided to take the past couple of painting days off.

Sometimes its good to take a break. It gives a chance to think about how to develop... instead of just plowing on with the same-old same-old... which may be what I was doing with these works.

And I have had some people asking about buying prints of my work... so I am looking into that too.

So, if you are interested in buying originals or prints of my work, please email me on mail@rebekalord.com.

Thank you x

28th August 2011

2011-08-28T13:46:00.000Z

Llandudno - work in progress

What I painted today - 25th August 2011

2011-08-25T19:42:00.000Z

More trees! Similar style... still experimenting...

My father likes this one!

This is an awful photograph... the paint was still quite wet... and thicker in places than I usually use...

What I painted on the 20th August

2011-08-23T17:24:00.000Z

TREES UPDATED

Felt something was missing from this painting yesterday... so played with it more. I like it better now... but a friend says they prefer it in its original form!

What I painted today - 19th August

2011-08-19T18:41:00.000Z

TREES

What I painted today - 15th August 2011

2011-08-15T16:23:00.000Z

Continuing with my attempts to abstract just by painting the bits of landscapes that interest me... and then turning the painting around.. this is what I painted today.

Am mostly happy that these new works seem to work as finished paintings in their own right... but am hoping that they will develop into something more...

What I painted today - 12th August 2011

2011-08-12T13:29:00.000Z

I am much happier now the black angry lines are back!

It's not as abstract as I would like... but by omitting most of the landscape it has become more of an amorphous blob.

This is the first painting in ages that I have painted that I would like to hang on my wall. Though, probably this time tomorrow I will hate it! Ah! The joys of being fickle...

My art identity

2011-08-11T18:09:00.000Z

Huzzah!

Am back in the studio. Still feel a little unsure as to what I want to do... what I want to create. But for once I am actually relaxing into just playing and experimenting.

Though it took me a while to get going.

I am trying to become more abstract and loosen up my style. So for once, I didn't start the painting with a conte pastel drawing. Instead I started painting straight away.

But wowzers! It was hard to do.

The conte under-drawing is such a large part of my artistic 'style' that I felt strangely uncomfortable painting without it.

Black angry lines under my paint is such a large part of my art identity I am not sure I can paint without them! But as soon as I took them away my work did become more abstract...

But I am not sure how long I can keep away from the linear drawings!

Damn these creative blocks...

2011-08-07T12:43:00.000Z

So... my college course seemed to have ended a life-time ago. As does my exhibition.

As does the last time that I updated this blog.

I seem to have gotten a touch of the painters block. Which is a bit sucky!

I know how to pull myself out of if... as I started to manage a few weeks ago. But work has recently been sapping me of motivation.

I used to enjoy having a 'day job' to support my art... but recently the stress there has actually stopped me from painting. So job hunting has started this week. But what do I want to do? Having the course finish and starting to hate my job has given me a bit of a mid life crisis! Especially with the painters block going on.

Do I want to be an professional artist. Or would I be happier with a full time job and just paint on the weekends? Do I want to work in mental health or with art in some way? Or maybe combine the two? Or something completely new? Do I want to stay in the countryside or move?

Recently I have been having a really strong urge to write. So... what... do I want to be a writer now! Seems very fickle - even for me. Though thinking about it, it's what I enjoyed about my degree and masters.... essays! I used to love researching too...

Ha ha! This blog is becoming some sort of self life-coaching session! And you are here for art... well actually... you are probably here for porn. But I'm not that Rebecca Lord... try www.rebeccalord.com!

So what am I going to do art wise?

Good question.

Am going to wallow in this crises for a few days longer. Then on Thursday I am back in the studio - to paint anything and everything for a set period of time. As that, my friend, is how I find it best to break creative blocks.... pretend you aren't blocked!

Just spend a set period of time each day doing the activity that you are having trouble with and just do it. The outcome isn't important. I am not in there to make great art. I am in the studio to put paint on paper and experiment and play.

I will post photographs of my creations, however awful, on Thursday. See you then!

CERTAINTY OF FATE

2011-06-04T08:21:00.002Z

I am having a solo exhibition! Do say you will come? I have worked very hard towards it and have even written a very poncey artist statement.. see below....

CERTAINTY OF FATE
EXHIBITION EXTENDED!
Open to public: Tuesday 14 June - Saturday 25 June 2011
Opening hours:

Tuesday-Friday 10am - 5pm.

Saturday 11am - 5pm.

Venue: platform 272 gallery, 272 High Holborn, London, WC1V 7EY

Exhibition of contemporary landscape paintings: all oil and conté pastel on paper.

Like a memory fading, the layers of translucent paint in Rebeka Lord’s work seem to be melting away, exposing the rough lines of the preliminary sketches beneath. As if, as the memory fades the process of painting is reversing.

Sections of the paper are often left blank and sometimes the figure is just a smear of paint, where the memory is almost gone or has faded completely.

Rebeka lives and works in West Sussex, and it is the landscape of that county that makes up her recent work. Although she paints from her own staged photographs, the paintings are greatly influenced by her memory and perception. Objects that stick most strongly in her mind are painted in greater detail. The peripheral landscape is then described with more gestural mark making, often just capturing movement and light.

The title of the show comes from an old bank receipt found by the Stone Farm Rocks seen in many of the paintings. The receipt describes the ‘certainty of fate’ of cheques paid into the bank.

www.rebekalord.com

fmp... the aftermath

2011-04-03T15:51:00.000Z

My final major project has been handed in... but I am now in the limbo between all my work being finished and receiving my marks.

I was supposed to be taking things easy art wise to recover! But... here I am...

I just still have this feeling that I should be doing something... so today I have:

ordered business cards to give out at the foundation show and just generally. I haven't ordered many... but think it is useful to have them... though slightly embarrassing... but I guess I just have to get passed that. I have ordered those cute little ones with segments of my paintings on.
updated my website... trying to make it more professional looking and just generally updating... I have been really slack with it.
i have written some pretentious guff about my paintings... see my profile. I wrote it in third person as it somehow seemed less embarrassing... however my family really laughed at it!

Next I have to:

update my proposal to secure exhibition space in June
spread the word about my foundation show

then I can watch battlestar galactica from beginning to end!

FMP - FInal Evaluation - the final yawn more like!

2011-03-31T09:00:00.000Z

The aim of this project was to increase the sense of narrative in my paintings. I hoped to evoke a sense of estrangement and disquiet by using a lone figure in the landscape. I originally intended using both paintings and installation pieces, and researched exhibitions by Paula Rego (2010) and Kim Dorland (artdaily.org, 2010). However, I felt narrative would come from the viewer questioning mysteries within the painting and adding objects would give too much away.

My research started with Peter Doig (2003) and Hernan Bas (2010; 2011) and through researching them I discovered Dorland. Like the areas that I photographed, Dorland’s landscape is the ‘borderland’ (Dorland, 2011) between civilisation and wilderness. In one of my paintings this closeness of the countryside to civilisation is expressed with the large industrial conveyor belt leading away from the figure.

I also visited exhibitions and the library. Both the Watercolour and Romantics exhibitions left me cold. (Though I was intrigued to see how Turner expresses light, as light is important to my work). However, the abstract mark-making used by Lucy Jones gave me more confidence to use loose lines in my paintings. As did Susanne Kuhn’s very precisely painted interiors mixed with quite crudely painted, monochromatic landscapes. I was also inspired by David Hockney’s (2006) mark making and the movement expressed in Bridget Riley’s (2010-2011) work (I try to create movement within my paintings).

I was originally planning to use collage as the basis of my paintings. Doig (2003) works from collage which he paints on (a method also suggested by a tutor). I experimented with working this way but the outcomes weren’t satisfactory. Therefore, I worked mostly from my own, staged photographs.

I explored a variety of materials, methods and processes. I researched methods of framing/displaying my pieces, ways to mount paper onto wood, methods of protecting paper from oil paint (I experimented with GAC 100) and I also tried painting on paper, wood and canvas. I did not like the effect of the GAC 100 and so will continue to paint directly onto paper. However, in the future I plan to mount my paper onto wood before painting and frame the work.

I had hoped to create more panoramic paintings, but this did not happen to the extent that I hoped. I deliberately chose to crop the landscape close to the figure, however this limited the painting size. This is the main way in which I could improve my future performance - plan more! I was so focused on cropping close to the figure I didn’t consider taking the painting out further in the other direction, to create a more panoramic feel.

Both my time management and action plan were effective, so I was able to work to the deadline whilst working part-time. I enjoyed having longer to experiment and to see how my work progressed. I used to hide my rough drawings underneath thick paint. However, now I like to keep the drawings visible and part of the painting. So I have been experimenting with controlling the oil paint in thin, translucent layers whilst still being loose with my mark making.

I also feel I have been successful in developing narrative in my paintings. Feedback from peers, tutors and friends suggests that viewers of my work do try to figure out what is going on in the painting.

Bibliography

artdaily.org: Article on Kim Dorland (2010). [Online, accessed March 2011]
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=42366&int_modo=1

Riley, Bridget: Paintings and Related Work. (2010 - 2011). The National Gallery. 14.12.2010. Artist: Bridget Riley.

The Hallucinations of Poets. (2010). Victoria Miro Gallery 07.10.2010. Artist: Hernan Bas

Bas, Hernan: Exhibitions/Biography/Press (2011). [Online, accessed March 2011] http://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/_3/

Charley’s Space (2003). Peter Doig. Ostfildern-Ruit & Hatje Cantz.

Dorland, Kim: Exhibitions/Biography/Press (2011). [Online, accessed March 2011]

http://www.markmooregallery.com/artists/kim-dorland/bio/

Garden of Eden (2011). Haunch of Venison. 18.03.2011. Artist: Susanne Kuhn.

Hockney, David. (2006). David Hockney: A Year in Yorkshire. Annely Juda Fine Art.

Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin & Paula Rego: At the Foundling. (2010) The Foundling Museum 13.03.2010. Artists: Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin & Paula Rego.

Moorhouse, Paul. (2003). Bridget Riley. London:Tate Publishing.

Reflections in a Landscape (2011). Flowers gallery. 18.03.2011. Artist: Lucy Jones.

Romantics. (2011). Tate Britain 18.02.2011. Various Artists.

Watercolour (2011). Tate Britain 18.02.2011. Various artists.

FMP - Research - Steve Kim and my final pieces of work

2011-03-30T13:30:00.001Z

So after my final tutorial I started thinking about what MCT had said about leaving the scribbles of the bush unpainted.

I had already decided that I wanted to paint it in a bit... but it started me thinking about leaving other spaces paint free... but completely paint free.

This is something I considered when I was researching Mamma Andersson, but hadn't executed as the picture framer had put the fear of the gods in me about unpainted paper needing protection...

But talking to John made me realise that I would like to try to make my work a little bit more abstract. He suggested that I make the figure just a smudge of colour.

And then I saw work by Steve Kim and realised that not filling in all the space makes the work more abstract too.

Steve Kim (2009) Horses

Steve Kim (2009) Epic

So, I have made two more paintings which are trying to develop narrative and questions in the viewers minds by increasing abstraction...

ta da!

me quite likey!

So now my painting is complete... all I must do is write a gorram 500 word evaluation...

FMP - Final Feedback

2011-03-25T15:02:00.000Z

Oh my gosh! It's all coming to an end!

Can't believe that this time next week the course will be pretty much over.

Can't believe that I stuck it out!!

But, despite hating college, I will really miss the feedback and the direction the course gave me. Am going to be a little bit lost without it... am so jealous of my peers all applying to do a BA... curse you world for making BA's so expensive!

Plus, I am obviously not cut out for a formal art education...

So today I went in for my final FMP feedback.

I showed my newest work to John and to MCT (who, yet again, somehow managed to find himself in the exact room where I was having my tutorial!)

The feedback was positive from both of them - yay! Though John says my face was a picture whilst MCT was giving me feedback! I really am the most awful student - I just don't actually like tutors commenting on my work!!

Actually - that's not true... at the time of the comments I hate it... which is why I get so argumentative over it.... but I do listen, and eventually what I'm told does filter through. Which is probably why John tolerates giving me feedback - he has seen the slow assimilation in action, whilst the other tutors haven't.

Even positive feedback takes a while to get through!

Both tutors liked my painting based on the collage... which does look a whole lot better in real life than in this photograph. Both loved the pinkish box on the cement conveyor belt.... really liked it!

John felt the cement conveyor was a little odd... but in a good way... and that it was a bit out of place, but maybe could be painted completely differently to the rest of the painting (even tighter) so that it was even more odd.

And MCT felt that the painting was finished... that I didn't need to paint the bush in... (this is apparently where I pulled grumpy faces!). I kind of agree. The bigger patch of blue is quite interesting. But I think the balance of having the bush in conte crayon only will make the painting too odd... especially since the area is quite central... but maybe a smidge of a smudge of green will work... to keep a lot of blue there... but to match the rest of the painting...

They both really liked my smaller studies too... though I am still not sure. Though, they seemed to work really well when placed next to the larger work. So maybe they will be used in the final exhibition.

So what is next? I was thinking about taking a break and enjoying the weather and writing my evaluation in a nice leisurely fashion...

John suggests I do some more smaller studies in preparation for another larger painting... maybe of Nikki in the woods. He feels the trees would suit my gestural style.

Plus, I need to experiment with the collage painting to see if I want to paint my bush in...

And I have to write my evaluation...

FMP - Thomas Lamb

2011-03-24T21:20:00.001Z

Writing about mystery in art reminded me of the work I saw by Thomas Lamb last week on my little art outing.

I didn't particularly like his paintings! I found most of them a little bland and a little too obvious. But some did really appeal to me... and I realised that I like them because there was a mystery to them... something unexplained.

Like this painting of these Japanese pine trees near a froze lake... apart from the fact that I am a sucker for a reflection! I love these red lines down the trees... what the frack are they? Are they lights? Are they holding up the boughs of the tree?

Japanese Pine Trees Near Frozen Lake (2009)

Ooh... looking at Lamb's website... I love his earlier work. I really need more pink in my paintings! And such a lovely use of light... maybe I can lure someone to the rocks at night to take some more photographs....

Cherry Tree at Night (2007)

Blossom Trees in Spring at night (2008)

http://www.thomaslamb.com/index.html

FMP - Installation?

2011-03-24T19:17:00.051Z

So in my original proposal I had contemplated creating an installation consisting of paintings and found objects to plant the seed of a narrative into the viewers mind.

I still like this idea... but I just don't think it is going to happen.

Firstly, I still don't have a firm narrative for my paintings. My original idea of stalking Nikki kind of fell to the wayside once I had taken photographs of Damien by the rocks. I love rocks! They are so satisfying to paint.

So instead I am using the stereotype of the lone figure in landscape as a mysterious, lonely figure. And I have been trying to increase the mystery with the composition of the work....

The figure is looking off somewhere that we the viewer cannot see. In most of my rock paintings he is on the edge of a precipice, head down slightly like he is being beaten by the wind and dominated by the landscape....

The story of why is filled in by the viewer.

To give anymore clues would spoil this mystery. So it's a 'no' to the installation... for this piece of work at least.

I still like the painting/installation combination that Dorland has previously used. For example, his 'New Material' exhibition at the Mike Weiss Gallery consisted of paintings, watercolours, assemblage on paper and taxidermy animals.

Installation view at Mike Weiss Gallery

But for now I think it's the technique of painting that has held my attention the most during my FMP and I think it's this that will continue to be my main priority.

I'm just trying to find a way to control the oil paint so that it's translucent, whilst still being loose with my mark making... and if possible... finding a way to get more abstract... but that too may not happen within this project deadline... but at some point in the future...

http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=42366&int_modo=1

FMP - is anyone else getting a little bit bored of painting??!

2011-03-23T19:48:00.000Z

Seriously... I am really not enjoying painting to a deadline...

my current work in progress...

I just really feel like it's taking all the joy out of the experience... which in turn is making my work tighten up... just when I was just starting to loosen up! Grrr...

*sigh*

When will all this be over?

Oh yeah... in 8 days!

Though I start back at work tomorrow... I have never looked forward to doing my job so much!

And at least it's making my decision not to apply to art college easier... I can't work in a classroom and I can't to a deadline... I really don't think college is for me! Though I am enjoying collage!

See what I did there?!

FMP - SKETCHBOOK!!!!!

2011-03-21T19:17:00.028Z

Another student told me today that apparently the tutors and examiners will be looking particularly closely at our sketchbooks....

oops...

I don't have a sketchbook!

I have never found one useful. As I said in a previous post - I don't really have a particularly strong visual imagination. And I really don't have any inclination or the skills for planning! I like to do.. not plan...

Plus, I am so gorram neat when I work small...

So I like to just go straight into the work... if it goes well - YAY! But if it goes wrong - I've still learned a lot... and if the composition is what when wrong then I just whack some paper around it to plan the composition for my next painting.

Same with photographs and collages... I either play with the composition on my computer... or else just fold the ruddy thing in real life...

It's long winded - but it's just how I do things....

...currently!

FMP - Experimenting after JC

2011-03-20T17:05:00.015Z

So John suggested that I experiment with painting on my photographs and experiment with painting small sections of my paintings.

I'm not sure if it's just because this sort of thing is something that I always struggle with... I paint from life and from photographs for a reason... I have a very poor visual imagination...

Or if it's particularly bad at the moment because I am so stressed over the FMP deadline that I am just particularly finding being creative a bit tricky at the moment...

But... presently, this is not going so good!

Just not enjoying the process, nor the outcome!

But I know how fickle I am so no doubt next week I shall be proclaiming this way of working to be the only way for me... but for now, it's back to the collage...

FMP - 2nd meeting with John Crossley

2011-03-18T12:50:00.036Z

Just a short appointment with John today... just to check I am going in the right direction.

Again John didn't say a huge amount... I mostly just babbled!

His suggestions are:

experiment by painting small sections from my larger paintings - these may be more abstract and can hang alongside the larger paintings... he has said this to me before... maybe I will finally get around to trying it!
start thinking more! think more carefully about placement, quality of space and continue to focus on looseness... this will be the hardest thing for me to do... when it comes to art, I'm not a big thinker...
maybe examine what is happening on the other side of the rocks to get a more panoramic feel - but he agrees a close crop to the model works... and he suggests maybe cropping even closer... this one I may not have time to play too much with.. I only have 10 more working days left and so many other ideas...
trying collage is a good idea... maybe even paint on them... I plan to continue the collage painting that I started... but will also maybe try painting on the photographs...

This and the small section idea may help with my motivation... am starting to get so stressed and a little bored with painting in a similar style which is stopping me from thinking about what I'm doing. Trying new things may snap me out of that and may even move my work forward - yay!

MCT also came and had a peer at my work... and afterwards actually said, in conversation to another student, that whilst her work would be the star of our show... he would be more likely to think about mine when he went home that night...

Cor this blog is boring... I actually hope no-one is reading this!

But I feel I need to make up for the fact that I don't use a sketch book... so I need to get the things I am thinking down somewhere... once my course is over I think I will stick to photographs and no writing...

FMP - Gallery Visits

2011-03-16T19:59:00.045Z

Today I mostly dragged my lovely friend lelly around galleries in Green Park. Not sure lelly is the keenest art enthusiast! But we had a grand time!

My highlights were (apart from lelly having a compulsion to touch all the art that she liked) were:

Lucy Jones - Reflections in a Landscape

@ 'Flowers' at 21 Cork Street:

Gorgeous, gorgeous paintings!

Gorgeous use of colour.

Gorgeous expressionist mark making... I love angry lines!

And despite being quite 'busy', there is a certain calm to her work. I think because she has areas of space with very little going on... something that I think I have finally gotten the hang off.

I also saw Susanne Kuhn's - Garden of Eden

@ Haunch of Venison at 6 Burlington Gardens

But her work I didn't like so much. Well... I partly didn't like so much... I really liked her monochromatic landscapes... but the rooms and the people were too realist and neat for my liking.

Which is a worry.... because my work is kind of neat...

FMP - Reflection

2011-03-16T19:43:00.020Z

Being in my studio so much is sending me stir crazy!

I'm so fickle... for an age I have been complaining about work getting in the way of my painting, and then when I take time off to paint... IT SENDS ME MAD!

I think though, part of the problem is the fact that I am sending myself demented stressing over the deadline.

Having had a break from my original artwork, I realise that I quite like it. But I definitely made the right decision to stop painting when I did.

I think I need to start taking that gap with my paintings, maybe just before I think they are finished. Because I have a habit of over-working them anyways.

And I need to listen to my body clock more. I have never been very good at working all day. When I was studying for my BSc and MSc I figured out that I work best getting up early, working in the morning... then taking the afternoon off and then sometimes carrying on in the evening.

I hate painting at night - as I prefer working in natural light... but I just need to accept that most of the time I cannot paint all day. And that is fine...

FMP - collages what i made

2011-03-16T10:31:00.005Z

So as planned this morning I made some collages. It was actually harder to make an interesting picture from my rock photographs than I anticipated.

In the end I raided some cut outs I made for my previous scale and illusion project and used a cement powder conveyor that I love... though it may be tricky to paint as I'm not too hot at painting straight lines... hmmm....

I felt a little like goldilocks making these....

The first one was too unbalanced... it had too much blue...

the next one was too crowded... and unbalanced...

the next one was balanced... and worked as a collage... but will be too crowded as a painting...

But the next one was just right... ish!

This is one of the main things I have learned doing this course... I don't like to plan with little doodles in a sketchbook... I much prefer to actually handle things and move them around, which is probably why I favour collage or photographs to work from.

Once I had made this collage, I realised it was reminiscent of a Hernan Bas painting...

...which really wasn't deliberate.... shucks... there really is nothing left that hasn't already been done!

Though, to be honest, this Bas painting was probably somewhere in my subconscious when I was making the collage...

I'm like a thief in the night....

FMP - a teeny reflection

2011-03-15T20:02:00.000Z

I haven't had a good couple of days painting wise.

I feel like I have made really big strides with my actual painting technique - woot! But the finished paintings have done nothing for me.

At first I wondered if it was because the colours were quite muted. So I painted one with a stronger use of colour.

But I didn't like that one either! (Despite making the boy in the picture be just about to step on a bird). So I thought maybe it's because my paintings are too neat. So today I painted a looser one.

But I don't like this one either. And finally I realise why....

Although the technique is getting better.. the paintings themselves are fracking boring!

So I am having a bit of a reflect... I had originally said I was going to work from collages of my photographs... but then I really liked the photographs.. so I started to work directly from them. But I think it's time that I try making some collages.

There is a painting by Mamma Andersson called 'On Tenterhooks' which has a repeated picture in it that I like the idea of.

Ooh! I have found a copy of it online... so you can take a look see!

I like that the repeat isn't immediately obvious. Though I do find this painting a little boring too! *sigh*

But with collage I can create more fantastical worlds like Hernan Bas:

So my next step is to make a collage... or collages and then get painting again. Except that I also really need to take a day off from painting... so tomorrow I am going to feast my eyes on other people's art. Then on Thursday paint like a dervish... because I have another appointment with John on Friday....

Shittox! The time is going so quickly and I am back at work next week...

Ooooh... and on Thursday a young man is coming to take his clothes off for me... so maybe my figures in landscape are going to start wearing a lot less clothes! ;)

FMP - end of 6th bank working day

2011-03-11T17:23:00.000Z

*sigh*

been working on this painting for 3 days now....

and I kind of like it and kind of hate it.

I just feel like it's something that wouldn't look out of place on a ken bromley art supplies catalogue. Like a very nice water colour that some old boy has painted. Nothing against that (nor against lovely ken bromley - they are very fast at posting my supplies)

But... I am a young gal.

Think its partly my use of chiaroscuro and partly the colours I have used.

I think I may just paint in his wellies and add a little more darker yellow by his feet... and then leave it....

See how I feel about it in a few days..

FMP - in my opinion chelsea tutors don't have a clue what they are tutoring.

2011-03-09T18:38:00.000Z

Week of 7 March – presentation of work in progress to tutors and peers in your area. Take in to consideration work thus far, tutors' and peers' input, and decide on final piece/pieces. Begin work on final piece/s.

This is what it says on our student website. So I dutifully took in all my figure in landscape work to get feedback and all I got was snide comments from tutors.

They wondered why I felt I needed to hear other people's opinions?

Why? Why? Because the fucking website told me I needed fucking peer feedback!

TWATS!

I personally do not need a great deal of feedback. I can quite happily paint away in my studio and create work that I like. Though it is always really interesting to hear what other people think of your work...

So I got some peer feedback. And, as per usual, it was conflicting! So as per usual I just took on board the information that I found useful or that validates what I was thinking! Though there were some useful comments from students and tutors.

One of the tutors felt my australian paintings were trying too hard to be painterly, whilst the paintings where I was trying hard to be painterly were painterly!

And one of the students found the men in the woods paintings to be quite friendly - which was completely the opposite of what I was going for!

But the most surprising thing I found from the experience was how hard I found it to just put my paintings on the wall.

Not literally - I had loads of masking tape! But emotionally it was quite tough putting my work 'out there'. I wondered if it's because I am not used to working in the studio... but thinking about it I think I was just waiting for the first snide or inane comment from the tutors... and they didn't disappoint.

In fact... I really hate calling them tutors because that suggests that they actually tutor.... when mostly all they do is bitch

Except John Crossley! Yay!

I suspected that I would not have the best response from the 'tutors' so I booked an appointment with John.

These appointments are so useful - not just because of his feedback... because he is actually quite quiet... but he gives really good technical information.

And actually I think his quietness helps as he let's you just talk things through yourself.

What John says:

stick to paper - don't bother with canvas. good - because I had already give up using canvas!
don't bother with acrylic polymer - it just makes the paper shiney and paper takes years to rot. Yay! I asked him about this as I was not completely happy with the effect of the polymer.
don't need to frame the paintings - I can just hand it with clips. oooh! that's good. though I am not sure I would feel safe doing that for my actual exhibition...
he likes the borders made by the masking tape. me too! which is what is so good about the framing.
try smaller studies - but can use same size marks. okay! MCT actually suggested this too - but he is a moron so I ignored it! ha ha! i guess i'm not the best tutee!
he liked my abstract painting - could be the base for a painting. not so sure about it being the base as i like my paintings to be a bit more translucent - but will give it a go.
when sanding away paint use very soft sand paper or I will just be furring up the paper. okay!
don't sign the paintings. le boo!... I like signing my paintings!

So to reflect... I hate the tutors and massively bum lick John Crossley...

FMP - Research -More Mamma Andersson

2011-03-06T20:19:00.000Z

Having been discussing painting titles with my friend today... I have just read an article about Mamma Andersson and how she comes up with the titles for her paintings:

At times I just make something up. A title can come from a word that lives in my head while I’m painting, but it can also come from a song or film. For instance, I came up with Rooms Under the Influence (2006) after seeing Cassavetes’ Women Under the Influence. Whenever I feel short on imagination, I always read poetry. I can pinch a meaningful or beautiful phrase, even if the poem I’m reading is awful. I feel right away whether a title works or not. A bad title can kill a painting, and a good title can lift the painting up. But a great title can’t save a fiasco, no matter how brilliant it is.

The quote is from the BOMB magazine website.

The article is a series of emails between the artist and Christian Hawkey. I love reading interviews with artists. I love to know how artists go about creating their work...

Every time I try to figure out what’s going on in my pictures, I get lost in strange sidetracks. That’s probably why I don’t actually understand how or why I paint. When I work, I try to have the confidence to follow an inner voice—to take away things that bother me, even if they are beautiful or technically good. I paint and repaint, and try to surprise myself without losing course, balancing with one foot in madness and the other in a sensible shoe. What upsets me most is when figures in the paintings sabotage the vibrations. Also when I work too long on the same painting, and the nitpicking gets me stuck.

Snug (2008)

I often use black spray paint as a sign of bad atmosphere or unspecified threat. In the paintings, time flows together. It is at the same moment both now and then and in the future. Even the subject can be both the observer and one of the elements in the picture at the same time. This is probably because when I’m working, I am everything and everyone at the same time, just as when I was a child playing by myself, I played the parts of all the dolls and their mothers at the same time. I find it easy to slip into other people’s identities. If someone tells a good story, I start fantasizing and find myself right in the middle of it. The same thing happens when I see a good movie: I believe I’m the main character until I find myself back out on the street again. Likewise, when a painting is done, I leave it, even emotionally. I find it difficult to recall what I thought then, at the time I was making a painting, if I think about it now.

My clearest thoughts are mostly around pure painterly formulations, for example, am I going to paint with a thick or thin transparent yellow, or yellow in combination with gray-lilac, or should I work with contours or use a black covering, and so on. My themes come and go, but I don’t believe I control them any more than a psychiatrist controls a patient.

What I love even more is when artists talk about how their style has developed:

For the first years, materials and technique were the great problems I had to solve. When I looked at art, I always tried to understand how the artist constructed the piece. I painted models, sketched from life, and painted landscapes. Whatever I painted was subordinate to technique. But when I began art school, the conversation was about other things. It was about pretty much everything: the devil and his auntie (another Swedish expression). And the psychological aspect in my paintings became the most important thing, and the artists who appealed to me also set great store by the psyche. The years have gone by and I have tried to find my own language. I want everything to be direct, spontaneous and not planned, not dressed up in the least. It’s difficult and maybe even impossible.

Hangover (2008)

I like her idea of using black spray paint to represent an unspecified threat... This is the sort of thing I need to be thinking about doing... But I am still caught up in just expressing the landscape...

I also like her use of mirror paintings... is this something I can steal?!

http://bombsite.com/issues/100/articles/2905

FMP - the certainty of fate

2011-03-06T19:36:00.005Z

I took more photographs today - yay!

My lovely friend Damien came out with me this time to some rather large rocks about 10 minutes drive from my house.

Alas - there seems to be a problem uploading pictures onto her at the moment so I will have to do it some other time.

But I am excited to say that I have found an ideal title for one of my paintings or maybe even my art exhibition: the certainty of fate.

Whilst taking the photographs in the middle of nowhere I found a Halifax bank slip belonging to a RJ and CL Archer. And on the back of the slip is a table of processing times for deposited cheques... and the final column is entitled 'certainty of fate'.... isn't that beautiful?

And I feel that in someway my paintings are about death... so that fits too!

I now want to find someway to use the bank slip too...

FMP - Research - Mamma Andersson

2011-03-05T17:11:00.000Z

To make up for the fact that I have taken off the only afternoon I have free for painting until Wednesday... I am doing some more research.

Have been reading about Mamma Andersson and been listening to the Mamas and the Papas (see what I did there - gosh I'm funny!)

Ripped the words below from Art News website:

Karin Mamma Andersson's paintings seem to be filled with familiar everyday things, interiors, landscapes and human figures, but their atmosphere is strange, inexplicable, even unnerving. The original choice of subjects in her works arises from the world of dreams, myths and art. "Snares and mines - in the midst of the familiar," writes the Director of the Moderna Museet Lars Nittve in the exhibition catalogue.

Many of the works on show at the Kunsthalle portray spaces, people and frozen moments, as if they were psychologically charged scenes from some chamber play. Karin Mamma Andersson's characters are often lost in their thoughts and turned away from the viewer, whereas allusions in the works to other paintings and art history imbue them with a throbbing presence. The scenes in the paintings seem arrested, caught in an intermediate stage between waiting, achieving and forgetting. The images live in their own curious universe.

Little Red Riding Hood in the Garden of the Painter (1998)

Looking at these makes me feel like I am going in the right direction. I think maybe I just need to move away from such naturalistic colours and let my work be more abstract... the poor buggers start off abstract and I just drag them into being more representational.

Though maybe these are naturalistic colours in Sweden!

Maybe the problem is with the colour of the English countryside!

Hell! The problem is with the English countryside itself...

It's just so cliched now....

It's been painted to death.

FMP - 'the duck pond by king's'

2011-03-05T16:45:00.000Z

Having a bad day painting wise.

Just feel so rushed by having a FMP deadline.

And having to work too.

I really need space to be creative. Both physically and mentally. I need time between paintings to recover and consider where to go next.

I will pass the course... but am just not completely happy with what I am producing. And I am supposed to be getting feedback on it all in college on Monday. Grr!

I finished my most recent painting 'the duck pond by king's' And I kind of like it! But it just seems a bit too... pastoral... too traditional.

I feel like I am going to make another leap soon to a slightly different, hopefully darker style... but alas I don't think the leap will come in time for the FMP.

But painting cannot be forced to develop within term times...

FMP - experiment in painting on acrylic polymer

2011-03-04T14:11:00.000Z

So this is my current masterpiece!

It was actually supposed to be just a quick test of the oil on the GAC100 and on acrylic gesso (which I randomly rolled on some areas of the paper!)

ButI kinda like is to it is slowly becoming an actually prospect for my FMP.

So I hope it keeps going well. It would be great to have at least one piece that I like before I even start properly! It would really take the pressure off!

I have been struggling with how to express naked trees. I am so much happier with naked people. So for this painting I have tried using lots of lines....

Which is why I feel like I am channeling Hockney to a certain extent. But I think that there is still a lot more Lord in the painting than Hockney... so I am not too worried.

I don't like the actual composition though. It wasn't really a planned painting. I just started painting the first photograph I had close to hand.

So I am considering cropping it....

I just don't know how much to lop off...

But it's still not finished yet - I may go over the lines a little in the top right hand corner. And certainly in these photographs, the painting looks a little unbalanced... maybe it's too dark on the right hand side?

*sigh* this painting marlarky is a bit tricky!

FMP - David Hockney

2011-03-04T13:44:00.000Z

I feel like today I have been channeling David Hockney.

Not that he is dead or ought!

But over the past couple of days I have been looking at his paintings online and I think this has had an effect on my painting.

Not sure if that is a good or bad thing!

Today I found some really interesting photographs of a place near Warter in Yorkshire where he had been painting seasonal plein air landscapes.

Unfortunately the trees were cut down before he could finish and this made the newspapers... which meant some photographs of where he was painting were published. Which pleases me!

It is rare to see the inspiration for an artists work. It's interesting to see how an artist interprets the objects before them.

And the final photograph makes me so sad. I have been looking at trees so much recently... this photograph looks naked without them!

FMP - First shoot for my FMP!

2011-02-28T21:25:00.000Z

Forgot to post these on Saturday!

But here are some of the photographs I took of my friend Nikki in the woods near my house.

It was such a tiring shoot. It had rained the night before so the mud was thick and slippery.

Poor Nikki had her back to me, but kept hearing me squeak each time I nearly slipped over as I took her photo. And there are a couple of photographs of her nearly going arse over tit...

And then it started raining. But Nikki modelled on....

THANK YOU NIKKI!

Final Major Project - Research - a bit of painting

2011-02-28T17:07:00.000Z

a little light music for today's post:

*sigh*

am really not a happy bunny...

to unhappy to even use capitals!

just feel a bit broken from jumping through hoops for art college... which then leaves me no time to paint...

it's all very silly.

this weekend I watched and wrote about the long goodbye. and then this morning i travelled all the way up to london to just hand in a hard copy of the review and then all the way home again...

so that is pretty much 2 days wasted on a film review...

and i didn't even like the film...

and i forgot to buy white paint whilst i was in college...

lol! it's pitiful ain't it?

to be honest i have pms, so i could win the lottery and still wouldn't be happy!

came home and did i tiny bit of painting though. the gac100 size has given the paper a bit of a sheen. though in some parts i have painted over it a bit with acrylic gesso.

a few more layers to go.

i really need to get my arse in gear and prep more paper and have a few paintings on the go at the same time. am such an organised person... why am i being so disorganised?

i am very disappointed in myself....

The Long Goodbye - The Long Yawn More Like

2011-02-28T07:00:00.001Z

This is a review of Robert Altman’s 1973 film ‘The Long Goodbye’, which will also look at the connections between this film and the film noir Double Indemnity.

The Long Goodbye was based on Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel of the same name. Chandler’s ‘hard-boiled’ style of writing was often the basis for film noir (Schwartz, 2001), with Double Indemnity (1944) also co-written by Chandler.

Both films are based around a protagonist being duped into abetting/committing a murder, but despite the same ‘hard-boiled’ roots, the Long Goodbye is actually a critique of film noir.

Film noir tends to involve complex plots, usually narrated by voice-over in ‘flashback’ (Schwartz, 2001). This is the case in Double Indemnity, where Neff tells his story via a dictaphone which becomes the narration to the flashback. The film is plot led, with the characters themselves little more than stereotypes.

However, The Long Goodbye’s linear plot comes second to the characters. Much of the first 10 minutes follows Marlowe’s visit to the supermarket to pick up Coury brand cat food for his fickle cat and brownie mix for his neighbours. And the voice-over narration of film noir is replaced with dialogue-heavy scenes and Marlowe mumbling to himself.

According to our CCW cinema reviewer (CCW, 2011) it’s this ‘slow burn’ that Altman does so well. But I found the film excruciatingly boring! I wondered if I found it slow because I am comparing it to contemporary films, but one reviewer wrote on it’s release: ‘Altman is no friend of fleet dialogue, especially when it can be replaced by a stumbling, windswept improvisation’ (Cocks, 1973).

Film noir is also associated with a visual style using light and dark contrast as a form of visual symbolism. Thus, the shadow from a blind in Double Indemnity acts as symbolic prison bars across Neff’s face.

This contrast of light and dark is not used in the Long Goodbye. Instead, cinematographer Zsigmond used a technique of post ‘flashing’ to give the film the soft, pastel look of postcards from the 1940’s (Donohue, 2009). According to CCW the result is a palette that it is equally mesmerizing in sunlight as it is in darkness. However, I found the cinematography as bland as the film.

Interestingly both styles were created to give a naturalistic feel. Altman used lighting, framing and movement to give the audience the feeling of being a voyeur (Donohue, 2009). Whilst the visual style of Double Indemnity was created to make the film look like newsreel footage (Gilby, 2010).

CCW (2001) argues that whilst The Long Goodbye is a critique on film noir, it is not a contemptuous one. That Altman doesn’t change the staple ingredients, just places them in another era.

This proposal sits well with Altman’s nickname for Marlow: ‘Rip Van Marlowe’. Altman saw him as a man that had slept for 20 years and now wandered around 1970’s Los Angeles ‘trying to invoke the morals of a previous era’ (Donohue, 2009). Thus, Marlowe won’t rat on his friend and is never out of a suit and tie. But those values, Altman implies, just don't fit in with the neurotic, self-obsessed lifestyle in 1970’s Hollywood.

I wouldn’t recommend this film to anyone. Though there are some amusing parts that make it tolerable.

And it’s almost worth watching just to see Gould seemingly corpsing at a mustachioed Arnold Schwarzenegger in yellow pants.

Bibliography:

CCW Cinema Notes (2011). Author Unknown. January 12, 2011. [Online’ accessed 27th February, 2011]. http://blackboard.arts.ac.uk/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/ common/course.pl?course_id=_487695_1

Cocks, Jay. (1973). ‘Cinema: A Curious Spectable’ Time Magazine. Monday April 9th, 1973. [Online, accessed 27th February 2011]. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,903961,00.html

Donohue, Walter. (2009). Rip Van Marlow: Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye. Film in Focus Website/ Faber Library October 28, 2009. [Online, accessed on 27th February 2011]. http://www.focusfeatures.com/article/ rip_van_marlowe__robert_altman_s__em_the_long_goodbye__em_

Gilbey, Ryan. (2001).Double Indemnity: No 6 best crime film of all time. The Observer, Sunday 17 October 2010. [Online, accessed 27th February 2011]. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/oct/17/double-indemnity-crime

Schwartz, Ronald. (2001). Noir, Now and Then: Film Noir Originals and Remakes, (1944-1999). Greenwood Press: Westport, CT.

FMP - Research - More Research

2011-02-25T10:42:00.000Z

I am still contextualising my artwork.

This is the bit of art that I find a bit pretentious. I don't mean to cause any offence by saying that. It's just that I am more of an intuitive artist. Planning what I'm gonna paint is hard enough... but considering where I 'belong' in the art world is even worse.

My counsellor would laugh at me even trying.... as we are always discussing the fact that I don't care if I 'belong' anywhere. I will always just do my own thing regardless...

But apparently I need to be able to talk about where my work fits in to sell it... and I don't mean that financially...

So this morning I am looking at Hernan Bas again and how his work is described.

Hernan Bas - From the Considering Henry Exhibition

Artslant described Bas's Considering Henry exhibition thus:

The ethereal characters in the Hernan Bas’ paintings, drawings and films are often melancholy and solitary. They belong to the romantic and decadent literature of the 19th century, Lautréamont, Huysmans…They evolve in Fauvist landscapes, provoking a suggestive eroticism as the nude males of Hippolyte Flandrin or Thomas Eakins. Like Elisabeth Peyton or Karen Kilimnik, Hernan Bas reinterprets classical painting and draws particular inspiration from the myths and history of art.
The title of the show, Considering Henry, is referring to the life and works of author Henry David Thoreau, poet and writer of the 19th century, one of the forerunners of the American Transcendentalists’ movement with Emerson, Alcott and Whitman. Henry David Thoreau was also a political activist, abolitionnist and founder of the notion of Civil Disobedience. Nature-lover, he wrote his novel Walden,or Life in the woods (1854) in an isolated cabin in the middle of the Walden Pond forest in Massachussetts. Hernan Bas is fascinated by this atypical character whose life symbolizes the quintesence of rebellion and fusion with nature. These artworks almost exclusively deal with the lone figure in a landscape, either reading alone or whispering to tree as if it was a sole friend in the world (Don’t tell it on the Mountain, 2009)

See - I can relate to much of that. I read Walden after watching Dead Poets Society! I have always had a yearning to live alone in the woods. I love being alone in nature... which is why I think I like painting people alone in the landscape.

But I live in Sussex... not Canada. There are always people close by. My painting of Jonathan by the Water was taken in Melbourne. Jonathan is melancholy and solitary, looking downwards in a pose of introversion, the world is weighing too heavily on his shoulders for him to enjoy the landscape.

Jonathan by the Water
Except that Jonathan is hungover. And is he is not alone. Out of shot is Charlotte and Jayne... and behind the camera is me!

And behind all of us is about 20 other visitors!

And really - as long as a scene is being painted the lone figure is never really alone!

I think that is why I like Kim Dorland's paintings... the burnt out cars and graffiti on the trees shows that the rest of the world isn't too far away.

Fixer Upper (2008) Kim Dorland

So what does Dorland's biography say about his work:
Kim Dorland's paintings depict the real space of his hometown suburbia; free of romantic delusions, but perfectly accepting of quiet, unexpected beauty. His refusal to remain faithful to one medium or approach plays into the symbiotic nature of his work, the deadness of acrylic, the sheen of spray paint, the density of oil paint all convene to engage the viewer. The loose yet identifiable scenes are interjected with areas of heavy abstract impasto, adding to the raw, fleeting quality of his canvases. Dorland is by no means trying to entice his audience with a nostalgic vision of utopia, but rather he cultivates reflection, upon a quiet moment, a party ended, the fleeting beauty within the often ugly and mundane.

I think Dorland's work is the closest so far of what I think I am trying to achieve with my final major project.... actually this entire process has helped me put my finger on what I want to express... Ruddy hell! Maybe it's not all pretentious guff afterall.

I have just read an article (written by Natalie Hegert) about one of his recent exhibitions 'Shack in the Woods'... and it's so close to what I was hoping to create...
It happens when they least expect it, and when we, watching, have come to expect it the most. A group of teenagers enters a wilderness of some sort, far from supervision, and far from safety. Amped on hormones, liquor and laughter they engage in licentious behaviour; they separate, coupling. That's when the monster strikes - enrages by their behaviour, he targets and kills each person, one after the other, in successively horrifying ways. Usually only one survives to tell the tale.
It's a common fable that we've come to know as the modern horror film, warning of the dangers of the wilderness both physical and metaphysical. It's this landscape, at turns inviting and terrifying, that Kim Dorland depicts in his new show at Mike Weiss gallery. His paintings explore those liminal spaces of the wilderness, a space free of the constrictions of adult civilisation. But along with that freedom comes the ever-present possibility of a hockey-masked freak coming to slice your neck.
Dorland's enormous canvases, piled with and positively gushing with paint, explore the borderlands between civilisation and wilderness. Not deep wilderness, but wild areas easily reached by suburban teens seeking a refuge from the watchful eyes of authority. You know the spots - landmarks riddled with evidence of late-night drinnking sessions and adolescent graffiti.
Shack (2010) Kim Dorland
The centerpiece of the show perhaps is Shack, an enormous mixed media painting, bordering on sculpture, built out with screws and wooden slats to form an actual shack, marked with the warning 'keep the fuck out'.
This borderlands is the area that I am interested.

Man in the Woods (2011) Rebeka Lord
This is what I originally wrote in my FMP project proposal - but had to cut it out to keep to the word count:

There are woods near my house which somehow have a sinister aura. Whenever I go into them I feel like a thousand eyes are upon me. The wind in the trees is a poltergeist. And every dog walker is a potential murderer!
I intend to continue my figure and context work by painting a lone figure in the woods. I hope to evoke a sense of estrangement and disquiet and the feeling that something sinister is afoot.

In my paintings the figure is alone in the frame... but I want to express an uneasiness, a fear, that something out of shot is watching... waiting... A feeling that perhaps exists because in the borderlands you are so alone whilst being so close other people.

I think this is what I was hoping to express by having a painting and a mixed media/photographic piece too. I think I hope the painting will be a more romantic, melancholic, wilderness painting - but the second piece would somehow hint to the presence of a 'watcher'.

Or maybe with the 'Man in the Woods' the second piece would show his intent.

*sigh*

Do I want to paint an innocent in the woods unaware of their fate... a fate that is hinted at by the second piece.

Or the latter...

hmm.. the former is most appealing...

partly because I have a young friend who has agreed to model for me tomorrow...

but what will the second piece be?

FMP - Research - More Peter Doig

2011-02-24T20:59:00.001Z

Reading about Peter Doig again... intrigued where the reading will meander...

Making notes as the book has to go back to the library two weeks before the FMP is due in... because Chelsea, in its wisdom, have decided that is the best time to cancel our library membership! Can you sense that I'm a little annoyed?!

So... reading the Charley's Space book again.... still the essay by Paula van den Bosch...

I am really interested in the fact that she feels that in Doig's staged landscapes we can clearly discern the melancholy rhetoric of distant horizons, unfathomable depths, the reflecting surfaces of water, ominously bare tree trunks, and not to be forgotten, miniscule figures that give the landscape its superlative scale.

She goes on to say that such a romantic landscape is a nineteenth-century invention. In the centuries prior to that, the landscape had often functioned as a setting and as atmospheric support for mythological, religious and significant historical events. It was not until the age of Romanticism that the empty, sublime landscape emerged as a sounding board for the godforsaken, wandering soul - as succinctly portrayed by the German romantic Casper David Friedrich.

Monk by the Sea - Friedrich

She then contradicts herself and say that with Doig the landscape functions again in the old fashioned way... as a background and support... but now as a setting for somewhat ambiguous scenes.

But I feel, with Doig's paintings, it is more about the godforsaken wandering soul alone in the melancholic landscape... than about the landscape as a support for mythological events.

What do you think?

I think I am too tired to think again!

I just think the landscape is a metaphor... innit!

Final Major Project - Research - sizing up my paper

2011-02-23T12:35:00.000Z

OMG!

How ruddy stressful is this fmp marlarky?!

I had been so calm recently. So happy.

And now I am just plain stressed.

So here is some calming, but incredibly moving, music whilst I have a rant!

I think it's partly that I am having to do lots of practical things... I am not the most practical person. I hate measuring. I hate prepping. I hate having to be organised... well at least with art.

I just like hiding away in my studio and playing around with paint.

But - alas - no can do on the playing front at the moment. Instead I have spent the morning rolling GAC 100 (a acrylic polymer) onto sheets of paper and a piece of 6mm MDF. (I am using a sponge roller as, apparently, its difficult to apply the GAC evenly with a brush).

Unfortunately, due to the wetness, this also means finding a way to allow the paper to stretch flat... just in case I don't have a chance to mount the paper onto wood (before sizing in future - I still don't know if my painting technique will work on paper with size on it!)

Grrr! Every solution just has a new problem with it... and then the solution to that has a new problem! And everything takes so long. To mount and size the paper - two separate actions - need a couple of days drying time at least! Then framing at the end will need at least a week!

And every thing costs so ruddy much....

I really wonder if I have made a mistake in using paper! But, can I really compromise on my work, just because it's hard going?

... Not quite yet! But give me a week and I may be using acrylic on canvas!

FMP - Research - Peter Doig

2011-02-22T20:20:00.000Z

In an attempt to contextualise my work and in an attempt to value process as much as outcome... Tonight I am reading about Peter Doig.... from an article by Paula van den Bosch in the book Charley's Space.

Apparently Doig is a collector of images. His visual archive contains pictures from magazines, newspapers, travel brochures, postcards, album covers, snapshots from his family album and slides taken on trips.

Doig frequently revises existing images by partly painting it in, photocopying a photocopy or making a collage of many fragments. This gives rise to a new image, estranged from its original source and now serving as a guideline in the construction of his fictitious landscapes. Doig does not paint 'en plein air'.

Pond Life (1993) Peter Doig

van den Bosch discusses Doig's painting Pond Life and argues that Doig's figuration owes its existence to abstraction, but the image will alway remain recognisable. She suggests that the atmospheric density of the pictorial surface, together with the somewhat mysterious image of the empty house and the three figures on the ice, transforms the painting of what could be a gay scene into a melancholy film still.

So all I need to do to create a melancholic painting is have a mysterious image and then pile on the atmospheric density on the pictorial surface. Easy!

Doig himself is an admirer of Tom Thomson, a pioneer and painter. And also Patterson Ewen and Edward Hopper.

In the northland - Tom Thomson

See... now I have been distracted by the paintings! I love the colours in Tom Thomson's paintings.

Thomson's work has be described as expressionistic, plein air, direct experience painting.

Though these do seem to lack the melancholy of Doig's work.

Looking for Tom Thomson images led me to me Kim Dorland...

I love these! They reminds me of Hernan Bas - I think because of his use of colours.

Am getting tired! So have lifted the next two paragraphs from an article by Seth Curcio from a website called Daily Serving.

Dorland has continued exploring elements of suburbia in connection to the northern wilderness from which he lived. Many of the works contain odd juxtapositions such as abandon cars floating in a murky yet seemingly untouched landscape or the density of a forest, littered with graffiti on the trees. Other works depict the boredom of suburban youth, lounging on the curbs of extended lawns, creating a scene that is rather ubiquitous in much of the United States and Canada.
Formally, the artist renders these images with a hyper-colored palate, which helps to activate the rather mundane scenes. The artist applies paint with an exaggerated stroke, with volume often sitting well off of the canvas and very loosely rendered. In addition, much of the surface is also blurred through the mixed use of spray paint, oil and acrylics, creating a surface that is both luscious and seductive.

Final Major Project - Research - Protective Bunnies

2011-02-21T12:04:00.003Z

Technically this is the first day of my final major project and I'm already so stressed I could paint myself green and go on some sort of art based rampage.

For why?

As I said previously.. I love painting on paper....

But... alas... from what I can make out from t'internet... when oil paint dries the linseed oil within it creates an acid that literally rots the paper. How rude!

Asking around for advice the main advice is not to use paper! But since many 17th and 18th century artists (such as Rembrant and John Constable) used oil on paper and their work has survived I suspect this is an over-reaction! So I have been researching what I can use to protect the paper.

The videos on here are the songs I have listened to as I research... music soothes the savage beast dontcha know!

What to do:

Basically the paper (and canvas - canvas rots too!.. just more slowly)... the paper needs to be sealed to protect it from the acid.

Rabbit skin size is the traditionally used size. But it can warp the paper as it is mixed with water. So you may need to stretch the paper first. A guy called Colin on Wetcanvas recommends using rabbit glue or technical gelatin size in a slightly thinner water to glue mix than you would use in making gesso - say 15 to one. He says it takes a bit of experimentation to keep it non-absorbant and still not have too slick a surface. But he says you can preserve tooth by adding some yellow ochre or powered glass. Can absorb atmospheric moisture and swell and shrink, which may cause cracking. However, with rigid supports such as wood panels, the chance of swelling is much lower, and this glue size is more appropriate.

Another suggestion is to size the paper with shellac. There is no water involved with shellac, so it shouldn't warp, and it dries fast. Colin on Wetcanvas again gives a recipe: very thinned shellac to 10 or 15 to one of alcohol to a 5lb cut shellac. Which apparently is easier to control with a couple of thin coats than with one thick one.

Golden's GAC 100 - is ideal as sizing, protection against Support Induced Discoloration (can occur when using acrylic paint), linseed oil blocking, extending Heavy Body paints and paint-making with dry pigment. Though apparently this can feel a bit more slick and uneven.

Thinned PVA (poly vinyl acetate) works too - though can leave the paper surface too slippery. According to Celest Bergin on Wetcanvas conservation scientists recommend painters use neutral pH PVA size instead of rabbit skin glue. PVA provides a good size layer that seals but does not re-absorb atmospheric moisture, swell and shrink like rabbit skin glue does. When using PVA Trisha H recommends using a thin coat on before a layer of acrylic primer. But others say it is not necessary to lay down a prime coat if the paper is primed first. And using many layers of primer will just eliminate the feel of the paper surface - which would make it pointless to use paper in the first place.

Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC). This is apparently used in the textile industry and is available as a whitish powder or granulate that dissolves in water to make a glue or size solution.

So which to use?

As a vegetarian I am reluctant to use bunny glue! But as someone pointed out... PVA is made with petroleum products and they kill people to get that!

I want to try at least two so I have something to compare with.

But PVA is easiest to buy and, to be honest, I think it might be a good idea if us humans kill each other and give the bunnies a chance to run the planet! So I plan to try PVA and also Golden GAC 100... partly because the name sound futuristic! And, if I have time, I will also try the bunny glue... poor bunnies!

FMP - Research

2011-02-16T14:21:00.000Z

So I have started researching for my final major project.

I think it's a week early! But having written my proposal I am just keen to get going.

My main concern with my project is the fact that I favour using oil paint on paper... actually I love using oil paint on paper! I love the looseness of oil and I love using gallons of liquin to make the oil really wet... unfortunately paint this wet on canvas just slides all over the place.

But on paper... ooh... wet paint on paper is a different matter.

Much of the first layer of paint sinks in. I often wipe the first layer of paint off with a wet wipe leaving a stain on the paper, which I paint over again. I like to use lots of thin layers, usually leaving a day drying time in between, slowly building up the painting.

So I love paper! But it has it's downsides. Alas, if I overwork the painting, it's really hard to get all the paint off without damaging the paper.

And my main issue - it doesn't look very professional sticking a painting on paper just up on the wall in the gallery. It needs to be mounted or framed.

So I went to a picture framers to find out how much it would cost to frame one of my current paintings... apparently £73.20!

Bugger!

A chunk of that - £13.20 - is the cost to mount the paper onto foam board in a hot press. Which is a scary prospect in itself - without the steep price. The hot press is 80 or 90 degrees hot! The painting is only in there for about 30 seconds... but it needs to be quite dry or the press can flatten the paint. I may phone around to see if there is another way.. because I am not sure how I feel about putting one of my babies through that!

The framing costs £60. And thats if I take the frame home first and paint it myself! And framing normally takes two weeks - but if I take in the measurements of a work in progress he can start making it before the painting is finished.

I can reduce costs slightly by either mounting paper onto 6mm mdf before I start or by painting directly onto mdf (after priming it). The framer suggested wallpaper paste or watered down pva glue. But I think I will look around for another glue - because my intuition is telling me that that will be too wet and will change the paper. But I could be wrong!

I can also reduce costs by painting to a standard size and buy a ready made picture frame. This appeals to me the least. But it will be the cheapest way. So I guess I will look into costs of picture frames too.

The picture framer told me some really interesting things. For example, paintings on deeper bar canvases sell better than paintings on narrow bar canvases. Paintings are more likely to sell on canvas if it's neatly finished around the edge.

I found this really interesting to know... most art students aren't going to make it into prestigious dealer galleries where a roughly finished canvas may accepted as part of the artists' trademark... and where art is bought as an investment.

Most artists sell in smaller galleries where art is sold partly because the buyer likes it... but also because it will fit in with the rug in the lounge or match the decor in the dining. As sad as that is.

I'm not saying that if rough edges are you thing that you should change it. Or that if you favour narrow bar canvases over deeper ones you won't ever sell them. Likewise, if you work on paper and just stick the work up on the wall - good for you.

But if you can make your artwork saleable to all markets possible without compromising your art - then why not?

Final Major Project - Project Proposal

2011-02-13T20:00:00.029Z

This is my very boring project proposal! It's boring as it had to be 500 words long and I think I cut out all the interesting bits! Am just posting it to show a friend and to try and get into the habit of posting again!

PROJECT PROPOSAL - disquiet in the bushes

Progress and Achievement

I have realised how important the process of painting is to me. I paint to achieve a state that Csikszentmihalyi called flow or complete absorption in a challenging activity. Knowing this has helped me focus less on the outcome and just enjoy the experience of painting. This new approach seems to have relaxed my painting style.

(1) Paula Rego Oratorio at the Foundling Museum 2010

Context

I have consistently experimented with technique. Paula Rego’s work (1) inspired me to experiment with pastels on paper, which led me to try oil paint on paper. I like to work with very ‘wet’ paint which can become slippery on canvas - but I can control the paint for longer on paper. Also, for the Scale and Illusion project I was inspired by Francis Bacon, Eric Fishl and Dexter Dalwood to use collage (2). I now regularly use collage to create an image to paint from.

(2) Scale and Illusion Collage

Although I have experimented with techniques, I favour landscapes and the figure as my subject matter. So, unsurprisingly, my favourite brief has been the Figure and Context brief. The work I created (3) for this was greatly influenced by Peter Doig (4) and Hernan Bas (5).

(3) Jonathan by the Water (2011)

Although I currently favour painting the figure, having read how Bridget Riley’s work developed from life drawing to very abstract work, I am excited to see how my work develops in the future.

(4) 100 Years Ago - Peter Doig

Project Proposal Aims, Methods and Realization

I feel that my artwork sometimes lacks depth of meaning. I have tried to include a narrative in my recent work and the main purpose of this project is to try to develop this further.

(5) The Hallucination of Poets (Dandelion) - Hernan Bas

This project is a continuation of my figure and context work. I hope to evoke a sense of estrangement and disquiet by using a lone figure in the landscape. I plan to look at the work of both Doig and Bas, both of whom create work with alienated figures in landscapes.

Inspired by Paula Rego I am interested in creating an installation consisting of paintings and found objects to plant the seed of a narrative into the viewers mind. However, this may not be feasible due to space constraints in the exhibition.

I plan to paint from collages of my own photographs, using friends as models. This way not only can I manipulate the photographs to get the image I want. I can also break away from the traditional A1 rectangle to create a more panoramic or vertiginous feel to the landscape.

In addition, so far I have never mounted my paper nor had my work on paper framed. I plan to research both processes during this project. However, I would also like to experiment with painting on wood. I can then reflect upon the limitations and benefits of each before commencing my actual final piece.

Evaluation

I plan to record my ideas and research in a sketchbook. I will record any changes to my proposal and reflect on my progress via my blog. I hope to gain peer feedback via informal discussions and questionnaires. I also intend to get regular feedback from my tutors. All feedback will be recorded.

Health and Safety

There are unlikely to be any health and safety implications from this project. The wood I use to paint on will be cut to size at the wood yard when I buy it.

Working Bibliography

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York, NY: Harper and Row.

Bridget Riley: Paintings and Related Work. (2010 - 2011). The National Gallery. 14.12.2010. Artist: Bridget Riley.

Paul Moorhouse. (2003). Bridget Riley. London:Tate Publishing.

Eric Fischl. (2003). Eric Fischl : paintings and drawings 1979-2001. Ostfildern-Ruit:Hatje Cantz.

The Hallucinations of Poets. (2010). Victoria Miro Gallery 07.10.2010. Artist: Hernan Bas

In the Company of Alice. (2010) Victoria Miro Gallery date.... Artists: Hernan Bas, John Currin, Verne Dawson, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, David Harrison, NS Harsha, Boscoe Holder, Chantal Joffe, Karen Kilimnik, John Kørner, Yayoi Kusama, Wangechi Mutu, Alice Neel, Chris Ofili, Jacco Olivier, Philip Pearlstein, Grayson Perry, Elizabeth Peyton, Tal R.

Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin & Paula Rego: At the Foundling. (2010) The Foundling Museum 13.03.2010. Artists: Mat Collishaw, Tracey Emin & Paula Rego.

Fiona Bradley. (2002). PR : Paula Rego. London:Tate.

Turner Prize. (2010). Tate Britain. 12.12.2010. Artists: Dexter Dalwood, Angela de la Cruz, Susan Philipsz and The Otolith Group.

Wilfried Seipel, Barbara Steffen, Christoph Vitali. (2003). Francis Bacon and the tradition of art. Milano:Skira.

oo... ah... just a little bit...

2011-01-09T17:36:00.001Z

oo... ah... a little bit more... of jonathan by the water...

Despite a hangover and a long walk on Ashdown Forest I managed to get a bit of work done in my studio today.

Am trying not to over work it. In fact this was supposed to be one of three quick paintings as a preliminary to the final painting. But since it has to be in on Friday I guess this will be my final piece!

Need to get it completed tomorrow so I can prepare a canvas for life drawing on Saturday.

What I painted today... jonathan by the water...

2011-01-08T17:18:00.000Z

It's still a work in progress. But I'm getting a positive response to it already. I think college tutors will like it too as it's very similar to the 'college style' (which they deny having).

So I am not sure if I like it because of that!

You can still just about make out the drawing lines underneath it... which I do like. So may try this style at my next life drawing class, but keep the paint very thin.

Its a little under A1 and is oil on paper.

A friend at college is currently working on a 4 foot by 3 foot canvas... I am very jealous! But think I need to get more confident with my style before getting too big.

*sigh* this finding my style seems to be taking forever.. can I not just find it already?!

My Secret New Year Resolution Has Been Achieved

2011-01-03T23:04:00.000Z

Yay!

I may as well sleep for the rest of the year.

Today I ran a mono-printing workshop with me mucker Nicky, and it went quite well. Which is quite an achievement since I have only actually mono-printed once! Fortunately, Nicky has a lot more experience - however, there was a lot of positive feedback about elements of the workshop that I led.

So we will be running it again in February.

When I say it was a secret resolution, I mean that it was secret to me! I didn't make any resolutions this year. But if I had, then to start running art workshops would have been one of them... so... TA DA!! resolution number one *tick*

What I painted today...

2010-12-29T17:30:00.002Z

So I can tick off another a few hours towards mastering art!

This is what I painted today.

I am learning to accept that I like clashing colours and drawing in paintings. Though the lines are a bit too dark at the front of this as it needs another coat of red... though I may add more colour at the bottom.

This is A1 in size and is conte crayon and acrylic/gouache mix. I shall play with it more tomorrow :)

Ten Thousand Hours to Mastery!

2010-12-29T17:23:00.001Z

Someone told me recently that it takes a person 10,000 hours of practise to become a master of their chosen discipline.

I googled this idea, and apparently research suggests top musicians, sportsmen and chess players were all able to become masters in their field by achieving the level where their time of practice reached 10,000 hours.

In his book, Outliners, Malcolm Gladwell expanded on this idea, explaining why Beatles became so successful. While in Hamburg, Germany, the band played about 8 hours a night, seven days a week in their early days. When they became popular the Fab Four had already performed about 1,200 live concerts, more than many young bands play during their career.

So one of my new years resolutions is to have faith in this idea. Instead of worrying about the outcome of every painting and drawing, I shall endeavour to just enjoy the experience and realise that I am still quite a few hours away from mastering art!

But I will continue to plough on by practising and practising. Life-drawing wise I have already completed about 132 hours (though that includes 6 hours of drunken life-drawing burlesque nights!) So only 9868 hours to go!

Bugger!

I have completed a lot more if I count all art practise... but still nowhere near 10,000 hours.

If I draw for an hour a day, that's 365 hours in one year. Ten years of study will log me only 3,650 of practise time! That's almost thirty years to mastery. So I guess I need to be logging a lot more!

2.7 hours a day drawing would allow me to master art in less than ten years... gawd I'll be nearly 50! But if that is what it takes....

Seawhite of Brighton

2010-12-25T12:18:00.017Z

Happy Christmas!

I am posting this purely as a reminder to myself as to where to buy my art supplies online...

http://www.seawhite.co.uk/ for orders over £55.00 excluding VAT otherwise I can place a smaller order at http://www.artesaver.co.uk/.

Father Christmas kindly made a rather large order for me for Christmas - Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Hope you have a good one x

This week I have mostly been... trying to abstract again...

2010-12-23T20:04:00.000Z

And this is the result...

Too tired to write more! But its acrylic/gouache mix on A1 paper, with a fair bit of black conte pastel.

Should I apply for postgraduate fine art courses?

2010-12-16T19:24:00.000Z

When I first started my foundation my plan was to go on to do a postgraduate course (I already have a a BSc and MSc in psychology).

But I hate the foundation course so much that I just can't face the thought of going through the same on postgrad.

So I have decided not to apply to any course that does not involve life drawing... and to that end I have just booked an open day at the Prince's Drawing School... yay! And if I don't get in there I shall just do some short courses...

Phew... that's a relief to finally make a decision...

Plus, I made a decision on my exhibition and moved it to May 30th so that it's after the end of my course.

Just have to start making some ruddy art for it!

My exhibition will be called 'butt naked in the foliage'.. who cares if Chelsea does not value life drawing...

I personally do not value conceptual art... I think it's pretentious w*nk! But I will still support any artist who chooses to do it, because I do value diversity.

End of rant.

I thank you x