Photography: Hale Lighthouse + Pex Hill

Taken: 09/05/2014

Recent Paintings

Hiyaaaa!! 

Just want to introduce some new paintings that I've been working on these past few weeks!

Below: "Purple Sight"

Given the name because of the main color that brightens up opposed to the black shadows. And 'Sight' to depict the image as a whole.

The materials I used were acrylic as I wanted to apply various layers of paint in order to get the built up look. My inspirations for this piece were mainly my views on how the landscape has changed over time but associated with the works of Chrystel Lebas.

Given that her work is drawn from her interest in looking at how landscapes can be portrayed with a psychological significance this is something that I am using in a expressive approach to history, time and place and how to communicate these within an image.

The strengths of this piece are based upon my techniques to paint using a palette/ drawing knife or a brush.

I really enjoyed making these as practice makes perfect when your not used to painting to bigger scale. 

Below: "The View"

The name just reminded me of the work itself which i think is simplicity at its best.

The painting depicts an image in which I had taken of the fields in Hale Village, though the photo includes the distant pollution across the Mersey I decided to cut that scope out. Not using the image as an exact replica I decided to use different colors to make it my own interpretation; mainly using yellow ochre as a contrasting tool.

To reflect on English weather I secluded the idea of having happy blue skies to a cloudy overcast, which i think makes the deception between the foreground more appropriate. 

Artists I used for inspiration were Tim Summerton and Andrew Gifford as he works with the mechanics of light and atmosphere. From this I then depicted the use of color to capture light that has been changed into a surreal landscape.

Below: "Farmyard Orchid"

The name I'd given this piece only inspired me to do so because it was inevitable to call it something that didn't remind me of the place which was the farmyard fields in Hale Village. I didn't use a photograph of an exact place so with the ones I already had I played around with sketching different areas and mix matching scenes to create an idyllic homely outlook.

The materials I have used again was acrylic to build up texture within the paint. But also it's easier to mix with other paints such as oil to thicken it.

Artists I used for inspiration were Seurat for the rapid spontaneity of applying paint in bits on the canvas, which I think is a much faster process in order to get layers of paint down. I also used Monet as inspiration as I wanted to create a reflective surface in the foreground to that in the leaves on the trees.

Compared to "Purple Sight" the expression isn't that strong in means of a message for example: PS can express isolation, erosion, destruction, loss in the terms of deforestation. Whilst this one could foretell home. The key is to play with contrast and descriptive words in order to create an image itself.

Photography: Greenbank Park

Taken: 20/05/2014

How do I find inspiration?

Hellooo,


Quick QUESTION and ANSWER...

How do I find inspiration?

I am surrounded by nature, and that is a huge inspiration for me, not only landscapes and seascapes, but seasons and the weather. It's been so cold lately, and I can see all my paintings have a lot of blue in them! I also love the internet for inspiration. It is a never-ending source of fascinating and diverse art at my fingertips. Current contemporary artists who I follow include Tim Summerton, the Australian artist. His work straddles abstract and figurative, and he works in layers, which gives a wonderful richness to the surface of his paintings. The more traditional British artist Andrew Gifford I enjoy for his lyrical capturing of light. His Istanbul series is evocative and beautiful.

How I begin a painting?

My paintings very often start with an idea and possibly a small drawing. Then I block out my canvas with washes of colour, I like to be spontaneous, and I try to push myself in terms of mark making. My canvasses have many layers of paint on them, and spend a lot of time on the floor having paint dripped and splashed on them, building texture. I use acrylic paints, decent quality acrylic is highly pigmented, and fast drying paint is extremely important as it allows me to move forward with a painting relatively quickly. Choosing when a piece is finished I find hard! I often have canvasses in my studio for weeks or months, waiting for me to make that decision.

In the Garden with Sandy Dooley

Bright Autumn

In an age dominated by conceptualism and abstraction, Sandy Dooley’s beautiful landscapes come as a welcome respite. Painting out-of-doors to capture the interplay of light and shadow, Dooley is spearheading an Impressionist renaissance. But this isn't just Impressionism churned out 150 years later – Dooley revitalizes the once-radical style with a contemporary twist, expertly capturing the tension between figuration and abstraction.

Still contemplating my techniques and ideas to complete my final project piece, I came across Sandy Dooley and love how she portrays a countryside character by using a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric blotches of paint to form the wonders outside.

Landscape artist living and working in the beautiful Weald of Kent in the UK, Sandy is known for paintings that transport the viewer to the in-the-moment experience of being out in the countryside surrounded by the colors and visual richness of the natural world.

Her work captivated me as I am deciding whether to produce something similar in terms of vibrant colors, I love using color and texture in my work and I’m always attempting to use these elements to create a harmonious balance.

Spring Greener

Winter Blue

Given that her studio is in her garden and she works outside as much possible, Sandy exquisitely captures the moods of each season in her paintings – from the verdant greens of spring and warm tones of an Indian summer, to the deep rich hues of fall and the cool blues of winter.  Her work feels as spontaneous and lush as any garden with her vibrant colors.  

Its also like she uses the same scene in every piece of work but in different seasonal times which is what I have been looking into doing throughout my experiments though I have used watercolor because for me the unpredictability and uncontrollable nature of watercolor make it the most exciting and expressive medium to use even if its just to use as a block color or to add some minor detail.

Indian Summer

Coastal

Photography: Liverpool Sights

Going Local LIVERPOOL Heritage in Ruins

Going local, Liverpool, heritage in ruins:

Simply demonstrates me following the topics of research into my city and culture and what to make of the architecture in comparison.

I will determine and thoroughly investigate the old against new forces of contemporary to modern architecture and how I can come to terms with the heritage meaning 'the past' or just a sense of status that can be seen not only in the sites in which it holds but also city that surrounds it can be a greater clause than most.

I will also be coming to terms with the meaning of the term 'ruins' and that they not only define: "the remains of human-made architecture; structures that were once complete, disrepair given that in the time that they were built could easily come across as a name, status, a memory, or an image, however in this case I am looking at ruins that have been built up from that foundation of past and what competition has to offer.

Sigmar Polke: Extended Artist Research

Sigmar Polke

Sigmar Polke grew up in East Germany. After moving with his family to West Germany, settling in Wittich, he studied glass painting from 1959 to 1960 at Dusseldorf Kaiserwerth and then transferred to the Academy of Art. With fellow student Gerhard Richter he formulated a Pop inspired "Capital Realist" anti-style of art, appropriating the pictorial short-hand of advertising. The anarchistic element of the work Polke developed was largely engendered by his mercurial approach. His irreverence for traditional painting techniques and materials and his lack of allegiance to any one mode of representation has established his now-respected reputation as a visual revolutionary. Paganini, an expression of "the difficulty of purging the demons of Nazism" - witness the "hidden" swastikas - is typical of Polke's tendency to accumulate a range of different mediums within one canvas. It is not unusual for Polke to combine household materials and paint, lacquers, pigments, screen print and transparent sheeting in one piece. A complicated "narrative" is often implicit in the multi-layered picture, giving the effect of witnessing the projection of a hallucination or dream through a series of veils. 

My reasons why I came to be so interested in his work was because I found out that he used techniques that allowed him to portray an image over an image; which was my intention throughout this project. Most of his pieces of work aren't as quite as good as compared to his expression works like the referral to Nazism. However, the thing that interested me the most whilst looking at his work was the fact that he used a larger scale in his work and how he interpreted three multiple pieces together but still made them flow through each one more effectively.