Burst mains

So today I planned to spend the whole day in my studio working away as I did yesterday, as I feel my productivity hasn't been great of late. Plus January's review week is looming and I want plenty of work for then. But you know what they say about best laid plans... well today a water mains pipe burst down the road from the university (and where I live), meaning the whole of NW4, NW2 and NW3 and had no water! Fun. Therefore I couldn't get any photos of what I've been up to or use any of my sketching pencils, inks or oils, so today I had to improvise.

My tutor pointed me to some artists worth researching for my sketchbook and I was particularly taken with Gwen John (1876-1939)





Looking at her work got me thinking about the composition, background and setting of my drawings, so I've been playing around with a couple in my sketchbook this afternoon, though only one has photograph remotely well:



Hopefully the studios will be reopened tomorrow so I can get some more things done before I go home for the weekend, and have a go at using the new composition in a few paintings.

I'm planning to take the majority of my work home over the Christmas break so I can scan them instead of having to put hideous phone photographs on here. Or I could just take my real camera into uni one day. We'll see!

More inks...

I've added 3 new drawings from old photographs to my collection. These bring me to a grand total of 8 so have been working on the 9th and 10th today as I can't have a gap on my wall! (Geek)



I only have a picture of two (don't ask why) so will put the other one in my next post :). As I have no access to a scanner here I've had to settle for a phone photo, hence the dodgy quality.

I've also been working on some larger versions of my pencil drawings from last year on my tutor's recommendation...



Not looking great since I had to mess around with it on iPhoto to get the pencil to show up (I always start off with an H) but que sera, sera! Just thought I'd give a hint at what I'm doing. I'm thinking bigger and better quality paper is the way to go, but haven't been able to bring myself to trek to Hampstead on the tube to pick some up. Must do it this weekend.

Happy Thursday

The dissertation tutorial this morning wasn't as scary as I thought it might be, it seems my panic over the last week worked in my favour, as I ended up a bit over-prepared which can't be a bad thing. I'm looking at the notion of truth in art and whether representational or abstract painting is more representative of reality. Since realism and abstraction both began with the intention of presenting the truth, it's interesting to see how they went about it so differently - and I will attempt to ascertain whether either is successful in their quest.

My favourite realists and therefore the ones I'm likely to include are



John Singer Sargent




Gustave Courbet



And of course the great Edouard Manet (never have I written an art essay excluding him).


Favourite abstract painters include



Howard Hodgkin (j'adore)



Giamcomo Balla



and James McNeill Whistler

Progress

It's been so long since my last post that a few things have happened!

First of all I'm all moved in at Middlesex and up to speed with everyone else in third year. Got myself a swanky studio space:



Which now looks more like this, after putting up lots of stuff:



Oh and the view from the window that I'm considering making into a snooze space...



Exciting times. The work is continuing, which I will update in my next post, as well as research for the dreaded dissertation. I have my first tutorial on it tomorrow so have been desperately trying to organise my thoughts and the research I've done so far. Scary!

What Next?

I realise I've been a little cryptic in talking about the issues behind my work, but I really don't want to offend or misrepresent anyone in my family. All the paintings and drawings I've produced are essentially self portraits - looking at myself through the eyes of others, others through the eyes of myself and myself through my own eyes. How confusing! While I have been focusing my attention on my grandmother, I've really been analysing how I feel I should be as a person, and the issues I have that may be related to her past as well as my own.

I am therefore moving forward by looking at old photographs of myself, continuing along the same line as before - possibly with a view to create some comparison or reasoning between the two. It's hard to explain at the moment as the theory behind my pieces is usually easier to explicate once I've gained a bit of distance from my process.

So! Onto the paintings:

Moving On

So my second year work got a bit heavy going toward the end, with my focus moving from the dolphin slaughter in Taiji (looky) to a subject much closer to home.

It was a bit of a shock since I had categorically stated I never wanted to do work centred on myself, thinking it self-absorbed, but it really was apparent that I had some issues! (Don't we all).

While the Taiji paintings were about expressing my anger and frustration, it was clear my motivations didn't truly lie in the abuse and killing of dolphins in Japan and Denmark - this was instead serving as a metaphor.







Metaphor unravelled, it turned out my anxieties were aimed toward a family member. On reflection it seems to have been due to a relationship that was never able to form and adjust properly for many reasons. I started by looking at old photographs from her past...







... and figured I should process them the best way I know how!









So I tried taking the figures from these drawings and applying the painting techniques that worked well from my last body of work:







These all came together for my end of year show (as you can see in my last post). I feel I'm in a good position to move on to Middlesex and continue working with these ideas. Who knows where we will be at the end of 3rd year...

A Bit of Background

Some snippets from my last body of work:







Above are a few examples from the degree show at the end of second year. The finished article looked a little like this:



(Please excuse the bizarre facial expression)

Due to an extreme lack of space we could only have one or two boards each, so were unable to explore the full potential of our exhibited work... not to whinge but it was really limiting. However! The final degree show is what really counts, and now we've all moved on to bigger institutions, there's going to be no excuses at the end of this year :)

My statement:



If you'd like to see all the pieces from my exhibition, take a look at my website.