1. Off To A Start
Today (18/10/22) marked the day I began painting for my studio practice. After the last week or so gathering materials and negotiation of transporting them into the college building, I finally got my materials situated. This now allows me to begin painting and fleshing out ideas ready to prepare and write a project proposal.
Todays mission was to make a start. No matter how basic the start was, I needed to find my way in. As it stands I have an abundance of ideas drifting around in my head, but none made tangible though sketches or inspirations documented in a research journal. This blog will serve as research evidence and updates on progress and experimentations in my studio practice. Currently I have a dense amount research to document and make cohesive the ideas that are scattered through my mind and ratty note books stuffed in bags, coat pockets and doors of my car.
My start was made today by applying enamel paint to one of the wooden boards I have sourced. This process began from the ideas I have about bringing vibrant Colours into my work (this will be expounded upon in blog posts to come), to make the contrast between beauty and ugliness apparent as they coexist in the piece, such as life. I applied 2 coats of each colour to the wood to give it a thick and bright colour, and to cover up some of the wood grain colour that was stillvisible after the first coat.
The process of starting this piece allowed my mind to wonder and mull over ideas, directions and territories my work could potentially march into. Not to mention the spark I felt within as my mind sank deeper and deeper into the world I am constructing when I am creating these pieces (the odour of solvent based paint facilitating this, obviously, windows eventually cracked open to bring sanity back to the room).
Towards the end of my session I though I would train the artistic muscle by making a painting using some lining paper I had bought. This can be seen in process and a semi complete state next to the red & pink board. The purpose of this was to flex artistic muscles and build up muscle memory to be able to paint with ease. Hopefully, gradually improving the way I paint, use materials and approach creating pieces. I am treating these paper pieces as tests or reference paintings for bigger (“proper” pieces).
As I have been researching and combing through artists, at this early stage, to draw inspiration from, I found David Hockney a relevent practitioner. This is because I look at implementing vibrant colours in my work. At this point the idea I have is to use vibrant/bright colours as a means to contrast between perceived beauty and ugliness.
These pictures illustrate Hockneys use of vibrant colour, but In his case as a means to accentuate a landscape. I have grown to notice as I research his work, and the two examples above illustrate this, but the colours I have used in my work so far draws similarities to the ones Hockney has used in these two examples above. The pink and red specifically, but in my painting the colours have a smear like quality that shows through some darkening from the wood board I have used to paint on. This brings the painting a kind of darkness or a sadness as the vibrant colours are offset by the darker wood colour behind. Where as Hockney’s paintings in constrast maintain a vibrant colour tone throughout and brush strokes can be seen which give a human feel to the paintings rather than flat block colouring whithout depth.
The way Hockney has constructed these paintings is interesting too, as he uses a mix of abstraction and landscape painting that is more implicit of a landscape rather than a realistic representation. This is done through the colour and shape he is using to represent what could be seen as hillsides and mountain ranges as there is depth to these images and point of perspective through his construction of shapes in the painting. There are also representations of shadows, but where they both occur the light source is in a different area as the two areas of shadow have shadows falling in different directions.
At this point in the process, although not setting out to paint a landscape, the pink and red appear to represent a hill with ground and sky. This is purely unintentional, but this sets my painting up nicely to have a depth with contrast between the enamel Red and Pink paint I have used in this piece so far.
More Later,
All The Best,
John Hancock.
As I have been researching and combing through artists, at this early stage, to draw inspiration from, I found David Hockney a relevent practitioner. This is because I look at implementing vibrant colours in my work. At this point the idea I have is to use vibrant/bright colours as a means to contrast between perceived beauty and ugliness.
These pictures illustrate Hockneys use of vibrant colour, but In his case as a means to accentuate a landscape. I have grown to notice as I research his work, and the two examples above illustrate this, but the colours I have used in my work so far draws similarities to the ones Hockney has used in these two examples above. The pink and red specifically, but in my painting the colours have a smear like quality that shows through some darkening from the wood board I have used to paint on. This brings the painting a kind of darkness or a sadness as the vibrant colours are offset by the darker wood colour behind. Where as Hockney’s paintings in constrast maintain a vibrant colour tone throughout and brush strokes can be seen which give a human feel to the paintings rather than flat block colouring whithout depth.
The way Hockney has constructed these paintings is interesting too, as he uses a mix of abstraction and landscape painting that is more implicit of a landscape rather than a realistic representation. This is done through the colour and shape he is using to represent what could be seen as hillsides and mountain ranges as there is depth to these images and point of perspective through his construction of shapes in the painting. There are also representations of shadows, but where they both occur the light source is in a different area as the two areas of shadow have shadows falling in different directions.
At this point in the process, although not setting out to paint a landscape, the pink and red appear to represent a hill with ground and sky. This is purely unintentional, but this sets my painting up nicely to have a depth with contrast between the enamel Red and Pink paint I have used in this piece so far.
More Later,
All The Best,
John Hancock.
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