Karart Blog

Moving on from covering the original canvas in a dark colour I wanted to explore if the effect and narrative of the image changed by using a white to partially obscure the original portrait.  When I started to paint over the first one it felt to me as if I was veiling the image not blocking as I had with the darker colour before. It seemed to give a softer description to the first one.

After sanding the white away from the features, particularly the eyes, the impression was one of gentle observation of the eyes looking out.

Kathryn Raffell, 2015, Ghost, Acrylic on Canvas, 40cmx50cm.

However with the second canvas I started over-painting from the outside edges towards the edges of the face and the effect was totally different. The impression was of a face trying to peer through the part not over-painted. The white was acting like a barrier, or wall, that was being broken through from behind the white layer. The remains of the face was peering through. It gave an unsettling feeling, as if the image could move to observe the viewer from a different angle. I almost wanted to carry on and paint the whole surface.

Kathryn Raffell, 2015, Untitled,  my original over-painted work acrylic on Canvas, 40cmx50cm.

Outcome of these pieces of work:-

1. I need to hang these on the studio wall and contemplate how, and if, I will rework or add, subtract from the canvases.
2. Question if I want to continue to explore in this manner

In response to these “month in the country” photographs, I made these pieces which are three previous abandoned canvases. The portraits were not quite as I wanted them to be at the time but are ideal to experiment on now, to see how the different layers of paint covers  the surface and changes the feel and  expressions of the faces as I sand and reveal them. It is a process that I am liking very much but I must be careful not to sand everything.

The photographs below show the “after” effect of sanding the canvas surface.

Kathryn Raffell, 2015, all untitled pieces, acrylic on canvas, 40cmx50cm.

The photographs below are the original paintings before I transformed them with overpainting and revealing parts of the canvases.

Kathryn Raffell, 2015, all untitled pieces, acrylic on canvas, 40cmx50cm.

Moving on to the next painting I sanded back to reveal the face underneath.

Kathryn Raffell, 2015, Acrylic on Canvas, 40cmx50cm

And then I sanded a bit more……….

……… and I took away too much of the expression in the eyes.

Unfortunately you can’t start again so I will put that one down to experience.

This piece of work was a commission where four photographic prints were hired and hung for a month in Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery.

Extract and photographic images taken from Cornford & Cross, published by Black Dog, 2009 page 132-135.

After the month whitewash was applied over to glazing, obscuring the images, trapping the image within the photograph and they said this transformed the prints into abstract conceptual objects.

Extract and photographic images taken from Cornford & Cross, published by Black Dog, 2009 page 132-135.

If you have never been to a 1st Thursday I thoroughly recommend you give it a go. It’ s free and is held every first Thursday of each month. My tour started at Whitechapel Gallery, picked up a map of all the galleries around Brick Lane. I dropped into several galleries but the two mentioned below left the biggest impression on me. The first stop was Gallery SO where an exhibition of Simone Ten Hompel ‘s precious metal pieces.  I felt drawn to his explanation of his work  “traces have a notion of someone having been there. Traces convey memory…”  which I thought could equally apply to painting as a painter leaves brush marks that capture how the marks were made and the movements  made holding the brush.

I came across an artist on a recent trip to London called Karina Vettorel and a moving pieces of her work called The Closed Hearts which she describes as being made during an emotional moment of her life and represents her own closed and wounded heart.

Karina Vettorel, 2015, The Closed Hearts #1, Oil on Canvas, Size (H x W x D): 63 x 49.5 x 4 cm. Image taken from her website at:-

http://www.karinavettorel.com

I was drawn to these two pieces and thought that my work was similar in the covering and layering process.

Reflecting on her comments about why she made the work does make me think that perhaps I am exploring the covering and uncovering  in my work as a way to test my abilities to express how I feel about myself through the art that I make. I certainly question why I feel compelled to explore and make the work that I do.

I realise that I am building on the work I have produced over the past two years. To someone looking in it might appear that I have  strayed far from a single path but when I step back and reflect on the different themes and ideas running throughout I see that I am drawn to explore the human form and how it can be portrayed.

In my Eqyptian work I “wrapped” a form in brown paper.

This was part of the final work I displayed at the end of my first year in an exhibition called Twenty-Thirteen.

Kathryn Raffell, 2012-2013, Untitled, Cardboard and paper, 150cmx40cmx30cm

In my research I also found that the Egyptians used a symbol of an eye. It was called The Eye of Horus and was a symbol to them of protection and royal power.

Eye of Horus image obtained from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Horus

This fascination with the  human eye and its images led me to experiment further and make a short video.

I wanted to show how material can be used to form representations of other things and it formed the base to progress my painting practice

This moved to investigate human eyes, which are one of the most important organs and symbols.

Kathryn Raffell, 2014, Untitled, Acrylic on oval canvas, 25cmx20cm.

This piece was made to question if, by just detailing eyes into an oval it could/would represent form and function as a masked face. It was one of a pair (the other was a smaller pair of eyes behind a crimson oval).

These two pieces were shown last year in the Crypt Gallery London as part of our Universities Contemporary British Painting exhibition.

And finally this year I have pushed forward towards representing pattern and form, wrapping and covering of the human form within the medium of painting.

Within this I continued with exploring and made three small portrait paintings which I placed behind painted canvases and cut them to reveal parts of the faces.

Kathryn Raffell, 2014, Three untitled pieces, Acrylic on Canvas, 10cmx20cm.