Poster Proposal

 

 

Exhibition Pieces

These are the two conclusions that I will be using for the exhibition. These two piece differ in terms of the composition, the techniques and even the materials but share an onsite experience.

I have chosen to develop a response to the landscape by using natural seascapes and coastal landscapes as my inspiration, based on images and sketches that I recorded on a trip to the beach and pine woods. I made the decision to work on a larger scale then I ever have before (in acrylics), which is why I chose to use A2 paper for these pieces. I started by giving each piece a simple composition, in watered down acrylics, responding to the photographs that I took at Ainsdale Beach. When I returned to the beach, the weather was extremely windy and dark, I found that the clouds were very heavy and full of rain. I used lots of dark greys and slate blues, to convey this in the painting. I used many layers for this painting because the colours of the sand were very difficult to capture in the acrylic paint that I used. I wanted to use many layers for this piece because I wanted to clearly show that there was a background, mid-ground and foreground. This meant that I had to work in a particular order, starting with the sky, then moving onto the grass/dunes, the sand and beach itself and then when all of the painting is dry I painted the fences to model thier shape and structure.

In the right hand seascape, I did not use any brushes in this piece but only palette knifes. This left the strokes rough and textured, which is the complete opposite of the smooth surface of the sand dunes painting on the left. To make the paint act more like the oils that are traditional use for this painting techinque, Polymeric Thickener was added to make the acrylic paint more buttery and easier to apply with a pallette knife. I began with blocking out the basic composition (strata, high horizon) in watered down acrylics. I then mixed a light slate blue colour for the sky, and let this dry. Later on I mixed a darker and a lighter shade to add in some rough tones, that I hoped showed the type of weather that was going on in the beach, which was windy and very cold. I ued untreated acrylic paints in various shades of brown, greens and blues, layering with brush and palette knife to create a rough surface on the seascape. I later put white acrylic paint on the page and scraped it off to reveal small amount of lightly tinted paint on the sea. While painting the sand area I used the polymeric thicken to give a texture that made this section much in contrast to the sand on the sand dune painting.

When both these pieces were completed and dry, I varnished both of these pieces to seal in the paint and give them a glossy texture that helps pick up on the brush marks and tones.

Exhibition Development

I have chosen to develop a response to the landscape by using natural seascapes and coastal landscapes as my inspiration, based on images and sketches that I recorded on a trip to the beach and pine woods. I made the decision to work on a larger scale then I ever have before (in acrylics), which is why I chose to use A2 paper for these pieces. I started by giving each piece a simple composition, in watered down acrylics, responding to the photographs that I took at Ainsdale Beach. When I returned to the beach, the weather was extremely windy and dark, I found that the clouds were very heavy and full of rain. I used lots of dark greys and slate blues, to convey this in the painting. I used many layers for this painting because the colours of the sand were very difficult to capture in the acrylic paint that I used. I wanted to use many layers for this piece because I wanted to clearly show that there was a background, mid-ground and foreground. This meant that I had to work in a particular order, starting with the sky, then moving onto the grass/dunes, the sand and beach itself and then when all of the painting is dry I painted the fences to make them stand out from the paper.

Reponse to Beach Photographs

In response to the photograph that I took of the beach a few days ago, I began to

Trip to the Beach

After looking over the photographs that I took when I first visited the beach and woods, I found that I needed more images of sand dunes and waves in portrait rather then landscape. I then proceeded to wrap up warm and go down to the beach in high wind and rain. Although it was cold and wet I got the photos I required.

These are a select few of the photos that I thought turned out the best. 

Response to Monet's Work

After studying Claude Monet's work I decided that I would understand his methods better if I tried them out for myself.

 

The top picture is a image of the Sand Dunes that I took myself and looked at the painting 'Terrace At The Seaside' This was painted in 1866 and was once of Monet's earlier pieces, and was painted just one year before Impressionist painting become popular.

 

I tried to keep the painting realistic but add some amounts of impressionism, this is what Monet will have done when painting. I started with a simple wash of thin acrylic paint in dulled down tones. I then after letting it dry overnight, started to add definition into the sky and add the clouds into the painting. I did this step first because it meant that when I painted in the dunes, which are the midground, the sky would clearly be behind the grass on the dunes. I found that the foreground of the painting was my favourite part to do, because even though the way it was painted was simply done, it still looked like a fence made from pieces of wood.

'Terrace At The Seaside' by Claude Monet

Monet painted this landscape in 1866 and he tries to show the viewer

"the border line between a free realism and Impressionism” as said by
William C. Seitz. He used for this painting like nearly all of his other
painting, Oil on a canvas. When painting the sea the brush strokes are
free and gives a calming feeling to the sea. The sea is also flatly painted
as opposed the complicated cloud filled skies of his other works.
Monet was influenced by his surroundings in many of his paintings
and was also influenced by his uncle, M. Lecardre, who was a successful
ship chandler. I find this painting to be very contrasting, with the flatly
painted skies and green-blue seas, but then in the foreground has
brightly coloured flowers gardens and blossoms.

'Coelus' by Gillian Ayres

Texture Experiments

I used mixed media to create two extremely textured pieces of work that differ greatly from each other:

In the image on the left I started with a simple emulsion layer that I started to scratch and scrape into with the end of a paintbrush and with a paint palette knife. While the paint was still wet I used the burnt umber and the Ultramarine Blue to create a verity of blues and purples that I used a stiff paintbrush to apply to the wet emulsion. I then scraped and scratched this layer after I gave it a few minutes to dry. This created even more texture. I used thick black ink to create a very basic composition in this piece (cruciform). After I had let this dry, I used the batik and hot wax technique to create yet even more texture and after this layer had dried, I chose to flick emulsion over parts of the page and left this to dry over night so the paint would remain textured.

With the other image I once again started with a simple emulsion layer and before it dried I placed strips of newspaper on the wet paint to create a vary basic composition in this piece (strata). Before I put the newspaper strips onto the piece I used tyhe end of a paintbrush to  scape into the emulsion layer to give the piece more texture. When the paint dried and the newspaper stuck down, I used the Burnt Umber paint with a dry stiff brush to apply it to the page. I found that the paint became darker in the sections with the newspaper on, and the emulsion kept the paint lighter because it was not quite dry. I later applied melted wax from the batik pot follwing the strata composition. In the short space of time before this stage dried I springled a small amount of sand onto the page and then once again used the end of a paintbrush to scrape into the wax and sand. After this layer dried it left me with a highly textured piece of A4 work.

I will be able to use this piece to combine with another image and create an create an implied texture piece. This is something that I will comsider later on in my project.

Aeolus by Gillian Ayres

When I first saw this painting at the Walker Art Gallery, I was instantly drawn to the huge scale, energy of the work and the brilliantly bright colours.This painting ‘Aeolus’ by Gillian Ayres was painted in 1987. Her painting were known for their often their grand scale, expressive use of paint and her profusion of colour. Her technique of dragging one thick colour over another, wet on wet, produces a very abstract effect. Here, amidst the density, colours, and apparent chaos of her brushstrokes, there are hints of recognizable imagery; trees and flowers, hedges and fences, a wheel and a bridge, as if a garden or farm provided the inspiration for this painting. Ayres usually gives her works poetic or literary titles. In Greek Mythology Aeolus is the ruler of the winds. An influential teacher at St Martin’s and Winchester Schools of Art, Ayres remains a leading British abstract painting. I have just found out that there is another Gillian Ayres painting just down the road. I'm off.