John Hancock BA Studio Practice Research

(29/11/22)  Today was a difficult day to attempt to function. The day prior I had to say goodbye to my beloved pet dog of 14 years. Today I came in with the intention of channeling the difficult emotions I have been experiencing into a painting. The prospect of catharsis by way of painting was a motivating factor for me, rather than throwing the day away to lay in bed waiting for the tide of grief to pass.  The first task I set myself to was putting up a painting I had done in the H.E. lounge. This took some consideration of how I was going to mount the painting but I eventually decided on driving very thin nails through each corner of the board. This ended up supporting it quite well, and seeing the painting in a different context has made me realise how a surrounding can change a piece of work and how it translates to a viewer. Below I have attached some pictures of this. After mounting the painting in the H.E. Lounge I began work on a a painting I had been desperate to do s...

(22/11/22)  On this day I wanted to add more colour and through line / continuity  to the painting. So, I added more squares in the colours I have used for the painting I used burning on. Through line in the respect of the colours I am using, for example I added a large pink square / rectangle to this painting to be more a part of the other paintings because this one has felt more of an outcast finding it’s own path. But I want to add more of the same colours I’ve been using as well as possibly some burnt elements. It remains to be seen what could be burnt onto it. But never the less adding the colour has brought this painting closer to the others. This painting still fits with the research I did on De Stijl, but adding different colours to distance itself form traditional De Stijl. (Below pictured is the painting with added pink). On this day I also began a new piece using filler , silver spray paint, oil paints, pillow filling, spray adhesive and burning. I have attatched a ...

(15/11/22) After spending last week burning I decided to try and make some progress on the other piece that I’ve been tinkering with and trying to iron out the direction of.  Up to this point I have been consciously trying to build up the texture of this piece until I find a direction for it to travel in. I have up to this point added texturing paste, inks, oil paints and spray adhesive that gives an interesting texture once sprayed on the surface. On this day I decided to go and buy some household paints from pound land and section off squares with masking tape to add some formal contrast to the free texturing that has occurred so far. (Pictures below)  In the process of deciding to contrast the somewhat free flowing background of the pice by adding prominent geometric shapes I had been looking at works from the De Stijl movement. Artists work I looked at were works by Piet Mondrian and Bart Van Der Leck. I gravitated towards works by these artists because of the strong geome...

(8/11/22)  I walked into the studio on this day with the intention of burning the latex and adhesives I had arranged on my painted board. I found that the latex I placed out had changed colour slightly and dried out more, which I’ll aid the burning of the material so there are no wet areas to burn out first. (Picture before burning below)  After inspecting the materials on the board I gathered my bag of tricks I needed to go outside and begin to burn. I set meself up out back of one of the college buildings with a bucket of water to hand just in case the fire got out of control. I used spray adhesive as fuel for the fire which gave some burning power, but also the adhesive contributed a very interesting texture when it burned. (Below is an image of the burning in progress)  As I burned I added wax and oil crayons and oil paints to add subtle colours to the piece.  When I got as much of the latex burned as I felt appropriate, I began to add more of the pillow stuffing...

(1/11/22) On the 1st of November after having painted one of my wooden boards with pink and red enamel paint, I was trying to place the next piece of the puzzle.  This came in the form of some dried liquid latex and sofa cushion filling.  When I got into the studio on this day (1/11/22) I was feeling a mental block. I had felt this somewhat during my commute on the train, but had merely dismissed it as tiredness and told myself that once I woke up a bit I would be fine. Surely enough the mental block persisted and I found myself hunched over in a chair, looking at the paintings I had started (at least I had started), feeling the nausea of existential dread soak through me (melodrama implied).  I do usually expect this mental block during the start of a new project. Especially in the early stages where the paintings have so much possibility it is difficult to tell what way they will go. Never the less I decided to take myself for a walk, in an attempt to clear my mind of t...

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 pr...