Learning to Art

Blue Paintings & Unwanted Detail

In these paintings I found that mixing colour is the part that takes the longest, and by applying many colours the painting takes far longer to complete.

When analyzing the choice of subject I have found that they have a similar feel to them as of the previous paintings. Because of the simplicity of the painting style by leaving out the faces the men in the blue painting could very well be the men in ‘Sanding in Blood’ and ‘The Exchange’. I really like this because it means that the viewer has to work harder to figure out what is happening in the narrative, and it also adds a sense mystery to the paintings just like there may be in a crime/detective thriller.

The Fare

I like this painting, however there are some things that didn’t turn out as planned, and if I were to paint the image again would change.

I really liked the composition of this image, and tried to get the feeling of a Los Angeles taxi cab through without adding too much detail, however I don’t think that it worked.

With the very simplistic style that I am going for at the moment, I have found it extremely hard to limit the amount of detail I have been putting into my paintings. In this case, I think that I failed to strike up the correct balance between simplicity and clarity. I believe that if you don’t add enough detail, then the painting is in danger of becoming abstract and devoid of narrative, however if too much detail is added then the image looses it’s mystery, and simply becomes another image and not a piece of the puzzle.

In this image I believe I added too much detail in parts, and not enough in others, giving the painting an uneven look. If I were to redo this ‘The Fare’ then I would definitely make sure to lower the detail in some areas in order to give it a more balanced appearance.

For the next image I plan to continue with the Taxi cab narrative. Perhaps now that I know of the balancing issue I can avoid it.

Joe

New Inspiration & Refining Direction

Since my last post I have thought more about my idea, and have changed how I want to showcase it. Instead of painting 12-13 large paintings, I have decided to paint a large number of paintings in the same way that I have been doing them at the moment.

Because after talking to some of the tutors I realized that by painting a large number of images, and having them close together, they work to give quite a strong impact. Vicky and Laura, showed me an artist that has worked like this too, Cathy Lomax.

I am planning on presenting my work a bit like this, though I think I’ll try and use the whole wall, and arrange them in a more chaotic way, a bit like a detectives crime wall, with red string and newspaper cuttings. This way the spectator  will become the detective, and the  ‘Who Done It?’ becomes the ‘Who Art It?’

Sanding in Blood

For this image I was inspired by my other painting, The Exchange, I really liked the composition and the style of it and in future paintings I will try and keep up with this. I also like the addition of the red blood, I found that it really stands out when surrounded by the earthy colour pallet.

While I think that the last few paintings have had a very nice pallet, I think that the final presentation should be more colourful, so I have decided that in the next few paintings I do will be more intense.

In terms of what I have done before, I think that the mainly brown paintings will work well with some blue and green paintings.

So since I have decided the size of  my paintings are going to remain the same, and the material I have chosen is going the same, then I have to decide what I am actually going to paint, and how I am going to paint it. So I’ve decided to use blue in my next painting, but what should my subject be?

Joe Teather