I have posted some illustrations out of my sketchbook; these are ideas for my painting project later on in the course based on the theme, childhood. These are still very much in the preliminary stage and if my tutor thinks that it is not a good plan I will need to rethink. I may yet change my mind again anyway. At the moment though the thinking behind this is to create two paintings on childhood. One on the lighter side and one showing the darker fears and imaginations of a child. I am desperate to avoid sentimentality in these paintings especially in the happier painting.
One of the ideas that I thought would be interesting which I have tried in these drawings is to draw like a child with no reference to photos or anything. They have been drawn completely out of my imagination. Something that I used to do as a child all the time, I hoped that this would convey a childlike perception to the image, whether this would work in a painting remains to be seen.

ideas for extended project

I have been looking through some of the themes for the extended project. I am really not sure which one I want to try yet, but I am going to try some ideas out in my sketchbook and publish them to my blog, so I can keep a record of my ideas as they progress.
I have recently been to see some of the works of Paula Rego. I thought her paintings were very dark and eerie, but I kind of like an image that really stops you in your tracks and makes you think. Her childhood was quite solitary and she had an insatiable appetite for stories told to her by her grandparents and aunties. These dark tales often providing material for her images .
The painting above is called, The Maids 1987 it is based on a play which was a true story about the maids who brutally murdered the mother and daughter whilst the father was at work.
The painting creates an eerie atmosphere with its claustrophobic interior. There are strange malevolent shadows and the placing of symbolic objects in the room, for example, a white lily which is often associated with death placed on an open book (bible maybe) and there is a strange vicious looking pig in the corner. The sexuality of the figure sitting in the chair is questionable also. There is so much going on in this painting, very interesting .


The reason I wanted to investigate Paula Rego is that I thought I may be interested in creating work using the theme; Childhood. My initial thought was to explore the positive and negative side of childhood. The darker side of childhood being the fears and insecurities. The shadows and the monster under the bed etc.....

finished painting for movement in the city

Using newspaper, acrylic paint, inks and gel.

movement spinning painting finished.

I think I have finished this now, I have brightened up some parts, as I felt it was a little dark and was lacking the vibrancy that I wanted to help make the image more energetic.
I decided to shorten the arm slightly eventually, as although the images are not proportionally exact, I decided it was a bit distracting.
I really enjoyed this painting it was a lovely free way of working allowing me to really use my imagination and experiment further with the overlaying of translucent colours.

This is one of the paintings that I have revisited after a few months off. I have looked again at it and although I was quite happy with the overall construct of it, my tutor had made a few comments that I have taken on board and have therefore made a couple of changes. The faces are a bit of a distraction and by taking the Chagall circus painting as an inspiration for a previous painting . I can see that maybe one single clear eye/face in the centre of the painting leads the eye into the centre of the composition. This I feel works better for the painting and so I have taken out the face details except for the central figure. I think this pulls the painting together better and is less distracting.

These are some further experiments on movement from my sketchbook, using my original photos and experimenting further with different backgrounds and simplifying the image.

Marc Chagall statement

Marc Chagall La Mariee 1930

"I have never liked realism ..... My pictures were illogical and non realistic long before surrealis.What I wanted was a kind of realism,if you wish, but a psychic kind and hence a quite different thing from the realism of objects and geometrical figures."

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head almost nothing."

Marc Chagall(1887-1985)

Barnett Newman statement

Barnett Newman Canto VIII 1963-4

"Insead of using outlines, instead of making shapes or setting off space, my drawings declare the space. Instead of working with remnants of space I work with the whole space."

Barnett Newman (1905-1970)

Cezanne statement

Paul Cezanne, Bottom of the Ravine. 1879.

"Nature does not lie on the surface but hides in the depth, through colours whose depths are revealed on the surface - they rise up from the roots of the world."

"To acieve progress nature alone counts and the eye is trained through contact with her."
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)

Van Gogh quote.

Van Gogh, Red Vineyards at Arles 1888.

" In painting I want to say something comforting in the way that music as comforting. I want to paint men and women with that element of the eternal that was formerly symbolised by the halo, and that we try to express by the actual radiance and vibrations of our colours."

I cannot work without a model; I won't say that I don't turn my back on nature ruthlessly in order to turn a study into a picture, arranging the colours, enlarging and simplifying but in the matter of form I am too afraid of departing from the possible and true."

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90)

Maurice Denis statement

Maurice Denis, Easter Morning 1891

" What I ask of a painting is that it shall look like paint. It must be done according to the nature of paint."

George Braque quote

Georges Braque, Female figure 1910
" I couldn't portray a woman in all her natural loveliness, I haven't the skill.No one has. I must therefore create a new sort of beauty, the beauty that appears to me in terms of volume,of line,of mass, of weight and through that beauty interpret by subjective impression. Nature ia a mere pretext for a decorative composition plus sentiment. It suggests emotion, and I translate that emotion into art. I want to expose the absolute and not merely the factitious woman." George Braque (1882-1963)

artists statements

Paul Klee, Moon over the Town, 1922.

I have begun to investigate the statements of other artists and to try and examine the problems and solutions that they have endured during their careers.
The following are a series of quotations that I have endeavoured to place with one of their artworks and to see if I can relate to it when I have been painting
Pablo Picasso " I paint objects as I think them not as I see them."
Still Life with Lemons 1938.

I can really relate to this. There have been so many times when I have been painting from life. The recreated image, is boring its not saying what I want it to say. I will experiment with the colours or shape and grant myself some artistic license, then someone will come along and say, "This bit here is not right, or where is that colour/shape coming from ?" and thats when I lose my nerve maybe I am running before I can walk, But then again if I wanted something that realistic I would take a photograph. I need the confidence (and genius ) of Picasso. Which leads me on to a quote by Paul Klee,
While the artist is still exerting all his efforts to group the formal elements precisely and logically so that each in its place is right and none clashes with another, a layman watching from behind pronounces the devastating words," But that isn't a bit like uncle." The artist if his nerve is disciplined, thinks "to hell with uncle " I must get on with my building ..... This new brick is a little too heavy and puts to much weight on the left, I must add a good size counterweight on the right to restore the equilibium."
I also need the discipline of Klee.

movement spinning studies

Back to my original study I chose to create a painting of someone spinning based on my previous series of merged photos inspired by the works of Muybridge and the Futurist painter Balla . These are the preliminary sketches and colour studies. At this point I think I will try and incorporate the movement lines into the painting as I prefer the sketch with them in as it definately helps to add to the feeling of movement.

I have been working further into this painting, and I am so far reasonably happy with it. I can see at this point that there are a few points that need tidying up and the arm in the further image is too long, but I am not sure whether to shorten it or leave it as in a way it helps add to the flowing movement. Will look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow and make a decision.

movement in the city

preliminary sketches and experiments

After investigating the Futurists I thought I would like to attempt to portray the movement of a city. I decided to use the movement of traffic coming into and out of the city. I completed a couple of small colour studies to give me an idea of colour and composition. For my final piece I used newspaper to create the buildings in the background, using a combination of ink and paint to create a three dimensional cubist feel to the buildings which I hoped would add to the whole atmosphere of a busy and hectic city. I am pleased with the finished painting as I think it has managed to achieve the main objective...Speed and movement...

These are some experiments from my sketchbook looking at the movement of grass. I use acrylic ink in the first image. For the second image I experimented with texture paste and inks,allowing the inks to bleed into the texture paste which created an interesting subtle effect. I particularly liked the scraffito effect which also helped to create movement.

movement cutting photo

These are a series of photos using the theme movement I have taken them with a fast shutter speed to try and capture the static movement. I decided to experiment further by cutting up the image horizontally and vertically in an attempt to try and recreate a flicker movement as the eye travelled across the image.
In the second image I took this a step further by combining two photos. I feel that this image is the most successful.