I have a theme running throughout my work, Clouds, moons and sunsets, why do I paint these?
At first I didn’t know, because they are pretty, I would say. But now looking in to it further, in more depth I think it is something more spiritual. I think they symbolise healing and starting again.
From suffering with depression for so long and so severely I found myself in a rut and feeling low, but it turned around when I started painting. Soon I found repetition of imagery the Clouds, moons, sunsets often landscapes and seascapes.
I think I paint them because, the moon I find healing and I enjoy painting the different phases to show the cycles it is very therapeutic. The seascapes and sunsets remind me of home as I live by the sea, this relaxes me. The clouds because they are fluid and round which I find therapeutic to paint.
My painting is all about healing and recovery so this would make sense.
for my dissertation I have been studying Yayoi Kusma this is part of my chapter about her, I love her work and have found it inspirational.
Yayoi Kusma’s Infinity Mirrored Room – The souls of millions of lights years away, is one of Kusama’s more resent installations.
Its consists of a series of mirrors positioned in such a way you get a visual illusion of Infinity, the mirrors are on the walls the ceiling and the floor has a swallow pool of water. The shallow reflective pool allows the viewer to ponder life and death.
There is a walk way though the water letting the viewer be in the middle of the installation.
She decorates the room with hanging lights. These Mainly blue, orange and yellow lights create an infinity effect in the mirrors. The room is dark the lights look like a beautiful universe on stars.
The light flicker on and off, pulsing in a celestial celebration of colour and dark, these lights create a dream like infinity. Her hallucinations and nightmarish fears influenced her to create such a beautiful space. Her obsession to cover everything in dots also manifests in this, as the hanging lights are spheres of light creating a polka dot effect.
Her installation immerses the viewer in to obsessive vision of endless dots, giving the viewer a piece of her life.
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.
