Personally I love portraits, I have great admiration for those who can capture a person’s personality though portraiture, it is very much my cup of tea!
I have tried to paint and draw pictures of myself, some drawings have been ok, some technical skill has shown its self, but its my painting of myself I quiet like. They are more basic than a photo realist paintings (that I like).
The first painting I like, It has my painting style and my personality has come through. the colours are great and the messy painting style is very expressive. It is abit of an evolution of my work bringing figurative to abstract. I feel like it is a successful painting.
The second painting of the close up of my eyes and nose. I don’t like, it doesn’t look right to me. The skin’s tone looks sunburnt, and the nose looks lumpy. Saying that though there are things I like about it the eye colour looks great the shape of the eyes also look pleasing. To improve this painting I will give the face a paler skin tone and rework the nose.
I have to ask myself this, as when I first started creating art work it was mostly drawings in sketchbooks I hadn’t even painted on a canvas before I started university. so why painting, and why abstract?
To be brutally honest it comes down to the limitation of my skills and patience. I have the basic skills in drawing shading and proportions and if I pushed myself I could be rather good but I get to frustrated to practise. So I turned to paint the expression of colour and emotion this is when I found myself as an artist. I understood the colours and how they went together to create something pleasing.
I only found this last year and I have been painting ever since I have found it relaxing where the more ‘technical’ art practise frustrated and upset me. So I paint abstract because it is the way I found to express myself in a way I understand and enjoy!!
I have taken the close ups of my painting ‘Wild Flowers’.
I really liked the effect created by taking smaller sections of the painting, to see more detail, it almost looks like new different paintings. The blue splatters pop against the red dark background to be able the see the detail has brought new meaning to the painting.
The close up of the sky could be a whole new painting, I really like the effect and I think I will use this image as inspiration in paintings to come.
This has been a really great exercise I enjoys seeing my picture from different angles, and getting more out of the painting.
After my review today, I have had some great idea’s!
Idea one to record myself painting, I think showing my process would be a great idea because I get very involved in to my work, with my latest piece I was listening to music and started dancing while painting the music went with my brush strokes and because of the size of the canvas I was able to move around a big space, I enjoyed jigging around moving with the painting and music was a great experience.
Also because of the type of painting I do is mostly abstract it involves a lot of mess, by the end of the painting I was covered in paint on my face in my hair clothes even my feet so to record what I look like during a painting would make me part of the artwork. After my painting I was very temped to take a selfie with my painting! has the paint was very amusingly up one side of my face. think in the future I will.
Idea two, too take pictures of smaller sections of my last painting to show detail, there is so much detail that can’t be seen in the photographs I have taken so it would be great to see that. I though taking some more picture of the mess the paint made on the floor would be a great idea too. as the colours are quite beautiful.
My process usually starts with images from sites such as Pinterest, saatchiart.com and tumblr and create an image I would like to make from these artworks. Often the idea is already formed in my head I just need some help with inspiration.
With the painting shown on this post I started with looking at paintings by Marta Zawadzka Called Memory and Georgina Vinsun called Vanda. I found this images on Saatch’s Pinterest.
I already had the idea of a vast wild flower field, looking at the chosen artworks helped me put my images in my mind on to the canvas.
I wanted to make a wild flower field because it is my ‘happy place’ as a suffer from anxiety and depression I use techniques to help me cope one is a meditation exercise that takes me away from a potential ‘triggering’ situation.
In the meditating exercise I imagine being in a vast wild flower field in the sun with bright colours just like the paintings. It is calming and helps me relax, that is one of the main reasons I enjoy to paint.
In this painting the main message is joy and happiness the subject, colours and process brings me happiness and I want to carry the feeling over to people that look at it.
