University Campus Suffolk has been great at offering a variety of opportunities but it was only recently I saw an email in my inbox that was impossible to ignore. In keeping with the series running on BBC One The Big Painting Challenge, BBC Radio Suffolk were looking for four artists to paint each of their presenters throughout the course of a day. I was given the drive time slot of 4pm until 7pm to paint Stephen Foster. Although this is separate to the work running up to my Degree Show, I have decided to document the experience whilst still fresh in my memory.
Recently I have worked from photos over a number of days but this challenge gave me a time constraint and the added bonus of having the subject in front of me. I met up with Jon Wright at Radio Suffolk a few days before the event to see the studios and discuss what would happen on the day. Immediately I began thinking about what paints to use and how I would go about mixing them. I eventually decided to use Water Mixable Oils as this meant no need for solvents. Always thinking of a Plan B or perhaps just indecisive, I made sure to bring two different size canvas’. I prepared my canvas with primer and a blue wash beforehand; I like to add blue underneath as a base colour under flesh tones. I also faintly drew a grid on the canvas. At home I made some sketches of Stephen from different angles to get try and memorize the shape of his face.
On the day I had a camera over one shoulder capturing my painting, people walking in and out of the studio and guests speaking to Stephen throughout. Stephen also spoke to me a few times while I was painting. Despite all of these goings on I found myself quite content. If anything, I was afraid to laugh while listening to the chatting back and forth forgetting it was not the radio in my art studio but live on air! I took a photo of Stephen so I could work from life and the photo. I decided to use a 12”x 16” canvas (the larger of the two) on a landscape format as this could include more of the surrounding studio details giving it more of a narrative. I would normally begin with pencil before picking up the brush but with this project I went straight in with a grey painted outline. I think my palette could have been darker and had I structured my allotted time better, I would have added more depth. I tried to capture Stephen’s cheeky expression as best I could and whilst listening to him talk I could get an idea of his character.
The work of the four artists, as captured by the time-lapse camera, was published by Radio Suffolk at the end of the day – click on this link Painting Challenge.
Taking part in The Painting Challenge has had an impact on how I go about my other paintings. I may try some more painting without the aid of a grid and more from life. It can be more challenging but at the same time, less constraining. The whole time aspect was a great reminder that although difficult it is possible and giving yourself a time limit adds an urgent and expressive feeling to the paint.
During my Second year of University I came across the work of Wilhelm Sasnal and was hooked. Unfortunately I have missed the opportunity recently to see his work up close but I remain transfixed by his use of colour and composition. The subjects for Sasnal’s works may often be unrelated, some landscapes, others nod at an historical event and some just depict a person reclining. What they have in common is their broad brush stroke and bold colour that gives them a film like quality and hint at a bigger story beyond what we see inside the frame. Sasnal’s refusal to adhere to one subject implies that there is connection in all things. His paintings appear deliberately composed so that the viewer looks where Sasnal wants him to focus. Speaking about what interests him most in painting he said ‘finding the consistency of thickness of paint, of colours, that make a painting ageless.’ (Hauser and Wirth, 2015). It would appear that his combination of subject or lack thereof combined with these other aspects such as framing and thickness of paint, may have created just that. Looking at Wilhelm Sasnal’s work has made me more aware of my own compositions-perhaps I need more than just a face. Are my compositions too flat? Would a smaller scale make it more intimate? Does the subject matter when composition is the same?….
-
-
I approached my painting of Vin Diesel with more fluid brush strokes which perhaps adds to the emotion. The Greens and Blues add to the tone of mood.
For my next work I have chosen to work on a landscape canvas; mirroring that of a wide cinema screen. The image (below) I have chosen to work from is taken from the film Avengers Assemble. It is interesting to see why the characters may be where they are in the composition. Are Captain America and Iron Man placed centre stage because they represent entrepreneurship and the American dream? The humans remain in the middle perhaps as they need protecting and Thor (Alien) and The Hulk (Scientist) are on the edge. I intend to produce two separate canvas’ altering the composItion in the second painting to see if this produces a different emotion in the viewer.
I had always found Marlene Dumas’ work difficult to relate to although I had never seen it in the flesh until recently. I went to Tate Modern to see the exhibition The Image as Burden and was surprised how little paint could make so much an impact. The eyes of her portraits, just blobs of paint are filled with so much emotion. The vivid, bright colours bringing out the soul of the person.
She has spent most of her artistic career working from media images particularly of the human figure. In 1985 she worked on a set of large blown up portraits. Speaking of the influence of film and her cropping of her subjects she stated…
“From blowing up to zooming in, the close up was a way for me to get rid of irrelevant background information, and making facial elements so big increased the sense of abstraction concerning the picture plane.” (Tate, 2015)
I found this to be relevant in the way I crop my own paintings.
Later in 2008 she exhibited a series of works under the title For Whom the Bell Tolls. These works were based on images sourced from films, focusing on the emotion represented in cinema. Dumas was interested in the way a film could make her cry and a painting could not. This mirrors my own interest in the emotion we experience from film is incredibly real and yet we know what we are observing is purely fictional. Her painting For Whom the Bell Tolls depicts the film star Ingrid Bergman tearful, staring into the distance. The surface of the canvas is scratched and the paint smudged only adding to the emotion of the face.
I was interested in her collection of Small paintings Great Men as they included brief descriptions of their biography underneath reminding me of the way I like to add description to my own works. Marlene Dumas also reminded me of the difference in impact when cropping and excluding certain information from a painting. For example The Widow 2013 was produced on two different scales one only focusing on Mrs Lumumba. Likewise, her painting of her daughter The Painter 1994 gives a certain morbid feeling. The source image was of her daughter in the garden but because of the lack of surroundings in the painting we see the innocence of childhood combined with the blood red paint on her hands making for an unsettling feeling.
This is the beginning of my latest painting of the character Riddick from the film Pitch Black. This is almost monochrome in it’s appearance which I believe adds to the intensity of mood. I have begun to see that colour plays a big part in my work. I have added colour where there was none in the original picture and made sure to use complimentary colours. I began my painting of hit girl with an orange background but came to realize a bright green would really make her purple hair pop! Likewise in my painting of Rocket her yellow hair is offset by the deep purple opposite.
In my dissertation I looked at the relationship between subject and artist. Elizabeth Peyton identified with celebrity and friends equally. The paintings I am making are of characters that may be fictional but from films that I have watched over and over until we know and recognize that character well. It was interesting to see that a lot of people recognized I had painted Will Smith although they did not necessarily know the film. I have noticed my brush strokes have become loser especially in my painting of Will Smith. It gave more movement to the image and stressed the out-of-focus appearance. I have yet to decide on a Title for each of my paintings and so this is something I will be thinking about and commenting further in later posts.
Usually I go straight into the painting without a prior sketch. I choose the images fairly instinctively and adjust issues throughout the painting. The painting of Riddick has brought me back again to the image of the face on it’s own. My next piece I will take images perhaps from different films to create my own. By collating found images, I will look at both faces and objects seeing what creates or provokes more feeling in the viewer.
