Learning to Art

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

Finishing Macbeth & Changes of Direction

It’s been a while since I last posted, so here is some of the process that I have made.

Macbeth

Since I last posted I have managed to finish the painting of Macbeth. I worked on the skin colour, and while I found that I got the shade right, I think that it does not have enough contrast to give the effect of three dimensional skin. I also think that the eyes should have been more detailed, the simplified effect that I was going for didn’t really go with the rest of the paintings style. If I were to go back and change it now, then I would have gone for a more detailed approach, and as far as the mouth is concerned I think that It fits the rest of the piece quite well.

I also added a varnish to the canvas once the paint had dried because the paint seemed to have lost its intensity after the colour was slightly absorbed by the surface of the canvas. In the future I think that I will choose a more glossy varnish as the one I chose isn’t strong enough in my opinion.

Painting of a Woman in the Desert

After Macbeth I decided that I wanted to change my style drastically. After thinking about what I wanted to do for my degree idea, I came up with the idea of painting ordinary places without people in the frame so that the places themselves could resonate an eerie sense of menace. I looked at a lot of David Lynch films like Blue Velvet, and Lost Highway, and that led me onto my second idea. I decided that I would create 12-13 paintings, and arrange them so that they were a storyboard. and I would paint them in a very simple way so that the characters were obscured, and didn’t give too much away to the viewer. I thought that instead of simply viewing the paintings in a detached way, they could instead investigate the paintings like a puzzle, so that they were more like detectives than spectators.

This is where the Woman in the Desert comes in. By painting her so that the viewer can’t see her face, they wonder at her identity, and at why she is there. Since I was going for a very simple painting, there was hardly any detail in the entire picture. When I look back on the image now however I think that I would change the dress, and I would also add a little shadow under the chin because as it looks now her head seems to have no chin.

Overall I like this image, and I think that I will carry on with the story board idea. Though perhaps in future paintings I will add some more colour.

The Exchange

I think that this painting is more interesting than the Woman in the Desert. I really like dynamic of the composition, the viewer is wondering who the people are, and what is in the briefcase. After a while they might also wonder what the man is getting in return for the briefcase. I also like that even though the colours used are quite dull,  the painting still resonates quite a lot of intensity.

I think that I will try and keep painting images like this for the storyboard. I like how it is so different from my last painting, and how the viewers will wonder at the connection between the two.

I have a few ideas for my next images, and I’m thinking of starting on the final paintings now, I just have to decide what to paint them on, and how large I want to make them.

Joe Teather