VSW21, 22, 23, 24 |
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I concluded that works in a series must share something that an artist accords thematic status to. This can be anything the artist wishes and is clever enough to elevate to that level. Artists will always find new creative ways; they just have to present their work in a way that signals the connection. Titles can help but visual clues are more important. Series that are planned ‘top down’ are more likely be tight than series that are investigative or experimental.
This explains my question about whether my pear series consists of four or five works, and it explains the difficulty I had in finalizing my bedroom series. I had already put a window into each painting. I hoped that this would be sufficient to connect them, but I also decided to experiment with applying the paint in a different way in each painting. They were not even all the same size and shape.
This explains my question about whether my pear series consists of four or five works, and it explains the difficulty I had in finalizing my bedroom series. I had already put a window into each painting. I hoped that this would be sufficient to connect them, but I also decided to experiment with applying the paint in a different way in each painting. They were not even all the same size and shape.
I did five things to help them com together:
- trimmed two canvases to match the size of the others,
- added a purple curtain to every window that didn’t have one yet,
- left out one canvas where the purple curtain didn’t work,
- think about their order,
- imposed the same title on all.
Where the Light Comes Through I-VII. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 46x61cm.
A body of work is similar to a series but more varied. Cycles of the Intertidal (VSW24, previous post) consists of artworks that have significant connection with each other. These include a group of nine encaustic boards and a book with nine sketches: are these one series or two? In relation to each other they are surely separate, but in another context, and suitably displayed, they might mesh into a single series. Adding in the video and sculpture, the formal differences are so great they a best considered a body of work on a single theme. |
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VSW24 Painting: Art Project
Our shoreline is subject to remorseless weathering and erosion, and continuously recycles through natural processes of erosion, removal and deposition. Science refers to the water cycle, the rock cycle and biogeochemical cycles to trace the Law of Conservation of Matter at work. I have studied the shoreline at my home beach, Fishermen’s End, searching for evidence of changes in the rocks. My aim has been to interrogate the assumption that the ground we stand on is solid and unchangeable.
I have attempted to represent this ‘natural recycling’ through mixed media selected for their potential to reference the mutability of the land and the water as well as the physical materials of which they are composed. My aim was to integrate a visual vocabulary consisting of lines, curves, cavities, deposits and textures with encaustic and pen and wash, two media which are both moveable and removeable. I also integrated natural materials – rock and pigment – collected at Fishermen’s End.
I have attempted to represent this ‘natural recycling’ through mixed media selected for their potential to reference the mutability of the land and the water as well as the physical materials of which they are composed. My aim was to integrate a visual vocabulary consisting of lines, curves, cavities, deposits and textures with encaustic and pen and wash, two media which are both moveable and removeable. I also integrated natural materials – rock and pigment – collected at Fishermen’s End.
The body of work consists of three cyclical elements: a ‘time’ clock, a non-narrative video loop and a spiral-bound field journal. In addition there is a small installation of natural sandstone. The clock is suggestive of cycles of geological change while the video references processes of coastal erosion. |
VSW23 Painting: Development and Extension
VAR31 Art Visual Research 3
Studying art online requires a camera for submitting work, and we are also encouraged to use still photos in developing work and to experiment with video. Below are two short videos and some series of still shot manipulations.
Top: 'Edge to Edge' (33 secs), an exercise in manipulating shapes.
Centre: 'Piggery - the Final Cut' (1:09 mins), a reflection on animal slaughter.
Below: some painterly versions of simple snapshots.
Bottom: the original photographs.
Top: 'Edge to Edge' (33 secs), an exercise in manipulating shapes.
Centre: 'Piggery - the Final Cut' (1:09 mins), a reflection on animal slaughter.
Below: some painterly versions of simple snapshots.
Bottom: the original photographs.
These are the original snapshots:
VSW21 Painting: Strategies and Materials
Project on Imperfection
This is an example of how Curtin University (through the OUA) teaches multiple techniques within a single project. I enjoyed injecting some humour into this one and making it relevant to where I live. I borrowed the title from my friend Helen Menzies’ successful children’s books. Once I'd decided that I would locate 'imperfection' in the dangerous life our local ducks lead and issue them with a stern warning, all I had to do was work through eight ordered steps.
1) Prepare four supports with different types of surface to test.
2) Choose a topic that relates to the notion of imperfection.
It took a mere five minutes to squirt the paint onto each canvas. This is how they looked straight after pouring.
I titled the canvases around and then abandonned them overnight. This is how they dried:
What ideas about abstract art did I challenge?
- that it is sacred and serious.
- that it can’t convey a message.
- that it lacks social function.
- that it is sacred and serious.
- that it can’t convey a message.
- that it lacks social function.
8) Find an inventive way of displaying the deconstructed works.
VSW21 Painting: Strategies and Materials
VSW22 Painting: Concept and Process
VSW23 Painting: Development and Extension
Three of the Year Two painting units built on the basic introduction to texture, figure and field, tone, colour and transformation given in Year One. It was a tremendous learning curve, and relied upon vast amount of experimentation. When I look over my outcomes I feel that only a few look finished. Given the huge amount that was expected in a very short time frame, plus the different concerns of all the exercises, this isn’t really surprising. But it was all worth the effort. Below are some of my more interesting outcomes.
VSW22 started by asking us to consider the effects of time, both through the day and conceptually. Clockwise from top left: Morning, pen and wash (30x21cm) Evening, watercolour (30x21cm) Night, oil (40x30cm) 'Love, Hate Decay,' acrylic (50x50cm) 'Things Fall Away,' acrylic and collage (50x60cm) Afternoon, acrylic (35x45cm) |
VSW22 continued with the theme of place, where I live. Clockwise from top left: Local earth pigment and collage (56x38x5cm) Oil paint (21x30cm) Manufactured pigment and seawater (38x56cm) Local earth pigment and manufactured pigment (38x56cm) Acrylic, watercolour and collage (38x56cm) Local earth pigment (38x56cm) |
VAR25 Drawing A
VAR26 Drawing B
The first year BA drawing unit surveyed a range of drawing activities but in Year Two the units became very skills centred. The focus was on line, shape and tone in Drawing A and on perspective drawing, shape morphing and layering in Drawing B. The exercise arcs spanned the simple, the difficult, the imaginative and the impossible. Sometimes I didn’t understand what I’d been practicing until I finished and my outcomes were often unexpected. Below are some of my favourite drawings. Buried behind all those enjoyable activities were hours and hours of skills practice, the sort of practice I could continue with indefinitely. Thanks to Dr Ben Joel for conceiving and delivering the units.
These self portraits in silhouette combine line, shape and meaning:
These self portraits in silhouette combine line, shape and meaning:
To emphasise dark tones and contrast we had to imagine an underground cave, with lit candles on a floating table:
Then we set up an all-white still life to practice drawing at the light end of the scale. I chose a memento mori theme:
Perspective required a lot of attention:
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Finally I experimented with both planned and unplanned approaches for the exercises in layering. In the top two I combined a lot of drawings, seven on the left, ten on the right. The two at the bottom involved putting bamboo pen drawings over ink marbling.
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