For the past two years on the Fine Art course, I have mainly used acrylic paint and photography within my work and I have been wanting to explore other mediums, within my final year and make bigger works. I have decided to can the camera for now and start with spray paint, using bright colours to cover big areas quickly.
I found this old piece of board above, in the carpark outside my flat. I bought some cans and tested out the colours; contrasting it next to a piece of calico fabric. I was inspired to do this from reading through the magazine Juxtapoz and seeing artist; Mary Heilmann’s work: ‘Splashy Cut’ (2013) The three colours I like most at the moment are pink, yellow and orange (the hot colours) I shall be using these colours together later on but for now, my main focus shall be trying out different surfaces to see what works best with the spray paint.
The work above is Heilmann’s work: ‘Splashy Cut’ (2013) I like that the work is not a conventional shape; not just limited to the canvas but has broken the boundaries. I like the way the shadow fills in the gap where the work is partially disconnected, as if a ghostly presence is trying to bring the work back together without the physicality of material. I find all the different depths interesting, the two shades of yellow where the brighter tone is pushed forward and I like Heilmann’s colour palette.
I would like to create some depth in my own work by producing a range of textures to paint over, so I have bought quite a few small A6 canvases to test this on and this is how it went:
These are the first 8 small paintings I made by applying primer that was quite lumpy, to the canvas board which gave an interesting texture. Some of them I then painted over with neutral tones, while I just left the others with the primer exposed. At this stage I was just getting used to using spray cans, so I wasn’t really thinking about composition or complimentary colours. I did not wait for the paint to dry before adding other colours, that is why some of them are quite muddy but overall, I am happy with the outcome. I have bought more canvases to try out other ways, although I do like this type of texture as it is like a close up of craters of the moon or an Ariel landscape.
I am going to think about new ways of creating texture; one artist who I have researched into before I started spray painting was Katharina Grosse. I was going to write about her in my dissertation but I could not find a lot of writings on her, however she has still continued to be a big influence on my current practice. I really like her installation pieces especially these two pieces below. The first one looks like a film set (Wizard of Oz) with all the fantastical colours and then, with the brilliant white rising up and erupting out from all the chaos surrounding it. I like Grosse’s work on the right called ‘Cincy’ (2006) because she has spray painted over windows, which will change the opacity of the paint throughout the day, when the sun shines in or even when its dark and the interior lights are turned on. I would like to use lights within my own practice. I like how Grosse has sprayed directly onto the wall and floor, as if the paint is spreading like fire.
The idea I came up with, to make a more prominent type of texture rather than continuing to just use primer, was to use cotton pads on my small canvases and paint over them. I am very pleased with how well the cotton pads worked so I am planning to make bigger ones. I also started to use wool; gluing down strands, painting over them and then lifting off the wool to reveal a negative trace. Here are a few images of these canvases:
This is the first cotton pad canvas I made, which is one of my favourite works to date, I love the colours (pink, yellow, orange) its like a view above a desert. I took some close up photographs of this particular piece below. I think my spray painting has improved.
This is just a few of the canvases I prepared in my studio space, before spray painting them.
Here are some afterwards: I have maintained a similar colour choice with a few of the paintings. I think the wool works really well also and I would like to try this on a much bigger scale. At this point I am think about using bedsheets to spray on, as a possible outcome for my final piece.
Above is the complete collection of all the small canvases I have painted. I have used a variety of methods in the process including sellotape and cotton however, I only see them as practice but, I would like to try and recreate some only bigger. I have used shells in a couple of the paintings, which are from the beach of my home town; Harwich. I am going to incorporate more objects into my future works so they are not just flat surfaces.
