Paint reflections

REFLECTIONS

I am using sketchbooks for notes, reflections, little sketches and testers as it is helpful to have a hard copy to hand whilst I paint. However I find re-writing up my reflections briefly helps me to solidify my direction in my painting practice.

Idea of scratching into paint came from touch device drawings (see Documenting touch page).

Attempting to link the physical to the visual.

Initially planning to re-create touch drawings into paintings but decided they were complete in themselves.

Lead me to think about how to use my own pigments to make paintings that could layer and allow marks to be made.

Discovered cold wax medium - only I made my own using beeswax and turps.

Primed with gesso and then black acrylic.

One of the first paintings using beeswax paste- really bulks out oil paint, gives it a richer quality.

Playing around with making marks and layering.

Plan to make marks using limb attachments although found I was actually enjoying having some control over the marks being made, unlike my touch device.

Discovered fascination with particular pigment from Burton in Lonsdale - Mudstones containing hematite, FASCINATING! Inspired dissertation.

Mixing the pigment with a little white provides different range of tones and makes the colour much more luminescent. (really like this strange natural pale pink colour).

Only sections of my paintings at this stage are satisfactory- why?

How can I apply this to an entire painting?

Scratching away to reveal the white gesso and also the black acrylic- adds contrast- lead me to experiment with priming in all black and also sections of black and sections of white. Works for some but can be too busy in the overall painting.

Pale colour on top of the darker ones make better marks.

Adding other colours like yellow pigment from Burton in Lonsdale, adds interest and more dimension... extends colour palette by blending with the red tones.

Using different sized tools to make marks and apply paint- my favourite being; silicone spatula, dust pan and brush, roller, thick paintbrush, wire, chisel, wall scraper, scalpel blade.

Dont want paintings to be pictorial however I found myself creating shapes that were inspired by the rock shapes in my studio.

Straight harsh lines contrast well with the curves and loose swishes.

playing around with opacity, some sections where paint is applies thickly other places thin and more diluted.

Using varnish to make certain layers stand out.

My handmade chalk on top gives different texture and detail. Also notice that the colour, even though it's the same pigment has a better intensity.

As a whole these pieces are too busy and are lacking depth within the composition.

A way to solve this is to use a larger solid space of colour with a sections or area that contains the busy scratches and marks.

Needs more of a foreground.

At this stage decided to give the more controlled marks some context- trip back to Burton in Lonsdale (home to my pigments) and made some simple line/shape drawings.

Looked into theosophy a spiritual belief that has influenced the abstract art world. Artists like Hilma Af Klint believed that it was the spirits she called 'art masters' that instructed her what to paint. Im not quite on this level however I find it interesting to see how my intuition speaks to me when I make marks into these paintings, they're inspired from subject but where I place them, the tool, the speed, how precise I make them is all down to something within.

Much better with block colour background- works really well with the brush marks all in the same direction. A vast expanse of this one red colour allows you to focus on it's quality and nature- to me this colour has a special place in the evolution of man and hence draws me to celebrate its symbolic connotations.

Love the colours together

Thickness of paint in certain areas.

reminds me of a fleshy Francis Bacon and the cave paintings in both the colour and form- really interesting as these natural ochres would have been the pigments they used.

Still lacks depth.

Colour theory- Warm colours are foreground whereas cooler colours have more depth.

All my colours are fairly warm so maybe this is why the lack the depth.

Going to include a blue to see if this improves the overall composition.

Initially didn't want to as the blue pigment isn't one of mine, however unless this rule is implied throughout( which it is not... the gesso the acrylic the board etc.) - it can be broken to improve the appearance of my pigments.

A few of my favourite shape/line drawings above, very simple but these shapes have more meaning to the painting and make it easier to focus on the composition by controlling elements like this.

I dont copy them, I use them as influence for the mark making.

thought I had done enough sketches at Burton but actually I now realise that I go through them quite quickly and so will need a lot more for next term to stop my paintings repeating themselves.

Sections of the blue looked really interesting- definitely makes the two layers very separate from each other.

This piece was used after to experiment with layering other colours on top of the blue.

From these initial experiments above the blue doesn't necessarily need to be the first layer applied for it to still have depth.

Learnt a valuable lesson with this piece... Know when to stop!- I went over the top and instead of making a piece with larger areas of block colour, using the composition from my touch drawings, I made a busy diptych.

Like may of the other paintings I have produced, there are certain parts of this painting that work really well, yet the composition as a whole doesn't do it for me.

I feel like the reason this was so hard to achieve a composition similar to that of my touch drawings was because the tools I like to use are quite big.

To solve this I would either need to use smaller tools or paint on a larger surface.

Overall though this piece has taught me a lot about colour layering and actually has improves the problem of depth.

I did really like the red ochre background in the previous painting as it emerses you into the specific pigment which is the one I'm particularly celebrating in these paintings.

The open space in this piece has worked really well however I visualise these marks and colours on even more of an open block space of colour.

I think in my head I am imagining a layout similar to that of my touch drawings.

They are positioned in a really appealing and simple way (small detail on a larger monochromatic expanse.

My studio practice is inspired by my dissertation and vice versa. My dissertation explores the different aspects of the natural pigment red ochre with relation to the history, psychology, culture and use in the art world. The research I am doing for my dissertation has ignited my fascination with this pigment, its great to be able to express my excitement into my artwork.