As promised, we've been taught oils in class this week. Above is the piece I did, based off a piece by Jenny Saville. I really enjoyed trying out oils, because I had to really concentrate on layering, and the paint stayed wet so that you could mix the layers in. The colours are so rich too. It did leave the classroom smelling rather strongly of white spirits though, and the paint is really messy too...
Another exciting thing I did this week was going to see the Open Studios event in Sheffield. Six floors of artist studios were open to the public. This was really interesting, because you could have a look at the working environments of artists, and get to see their workspace and talk to them. There was a wide variety of different specialisms, too, from sculptors to mosaic artists to oil painters and more. The really exciting thing for me came unexpectedly - I got to meet Andrew Hunt, a Sheffield-based artist who has inspired my painting technique for a while now. He uses oils to paint very life-like portraits that hold a lot of character. I was inspired by him when I was only just starting to paint again, after seeing his work in Sheffield's Now Then magazine. It was amazing to be able to see him working in his studio, and to say to him that I really admired his work. I've started posting my work in progress on Instagram this week, so if you'd like to see more of my process, please follow me and maybe send me a message to say hi! https://www.instagram.com/handsofawatch/ I just want to say wow!, first of all, to everyone who has visited my site. I launched on Facebook this week, and received over 100 views in 24 hours! Incredible! Obviously that's not a daily occurrence, but I don't mind, I make my website for my art, not my art for my website.
Being back at college this week has left less time to do painting and the like, but we have started an interesting project surrounding 'Disguise' in art class. We've been covering art theory surrounding artists challenging us to think about stereotype and assumption. This lead me to think about the purpose of my art. Personally, I don't want my pictures just to show what is already there. I want to communicate with others through artwork. My art is part of my voice. So what do I want my art to say? I want to speak about things that are important to me. I've started listing what I want to say through my art. If you're interested, this is what is important for me to say so far.
These are particularly important to me, and I'm going to work giving my art more direction through exploring these areas, as well as others which are harder to group into just a statement. So far this week, I've worked on a piece exploring attitude to Free Will, and also a reaction to Remembrance Day. Learning oils in college next week, which is something entirely new.... It's a bit nerve-wracking posting work I'm not confident about, but I want to be able to show how my work progresses and evolves with time.
A break off college this week has given me a bit more time to do art (yay!)
I've been drawing and painting mostly, as well as spending far too much time on Pinterest. I've started trying something new this week - instead of having work that sprawls across my entire page, I've experimented with adding a border to work within, to help with my composition and framing. A day or so later, I came across a needlework-based piece in a local gallery, which had many elements coming out of its frame. It felt like the artist was breaking a kind of fourth wall in a way. Using this idea, I sketched several portraits with parts coming out of the frame, like hands and hair. I'm a bit on a roll with these at the moment, because they're helping me to add a background that the character was distinctly separate from. Just goes to show again that artist's block isn't as eternal as it felt a few days ago! Last weekend there were lots of cosplayers in Sheffield as a result of a sci-fi fair and Halloween. I felt shy taking photos at first, but soon found that people were often more than happy to pose. So now I've got some first-hand photo references to work from! Exciting times! |
Claire-M BathI'm a mostly self-taught artist, currently studying A-Level art at college. Archives
March 2018
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