Completed a week long residency at the Cyprus College of Art, for the second year running.
with it being my second visit, I felt like I already knew the place and was able to get straight into the studio and do some work.
I wanted to make some larger versions of drawings that I’d made in my sketchbook. The idea was to see if they worked on a larger scale and perhaps make some versions of them on canvas for my degree show.
Pen drawings in sketchbook.
Being limited to the type of materials that I could take on the aeroplane, I decided to take a roll of lining paper (used to decorate walls) as it would fit into my case and would enable me to work on a large scale.
Larger charcoal drawings, in the Cyprus College studio space.
Last year I made a drawing from an image of Frida Kahlo. I hoped at some point to make a painting from the drawing, but never got around to it.
I was going to donate an already existing drawing or painting to our degree show auction, but instead I used it as an opportunity to revisit the Frida Kahlo image.
I decided on making a large (A1) charcoal drawing from the image.
Progress shots.
On a group visit to London, myself and a few others went along to the Frank Auerbach retrospective at Tate Britain.
Having spent time looking at Auerbach’s work in books and online, it was a completely different experience to see them up close.
The paintings were so thick with paint, that they were almost sculptural and something you can’t really appreciate from a printed image.
I’m particularly pleased to see his charcoal portraits in the exhibition. As with the paintings, there are layers of torn paper that had been worked over, that you can’t really see in a photo.
As part of my research for the dissertation, myself and another student went to the British Museum’s archive room, to view a set of Goya’s ‘Disasters of War’ prints. The set was one of only two that were produced during the artists lifetime.
Disasters of War, Goya.
We also viewed a set of ‘Disasters of War’ prints by the Chapman brothers. Unlike Goya’s prints, which focused particularly on the Peninsular war in the early 1800’s, their set references more recent conflicts.
Disasters of War, Chapman brothers.
Id been writing about Goya’s Disasters of war, relating the themes in his work to the more recent work of John Keane. Seeing the Chapman Brothers prints, made me think more about the timeliness of Goya’s prints and how the themes that are dealt with are applicable to most conflicts.
Two of my own pieces.
works in progress…
I’ve taken several images from YouTube videos, all with significance to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.
I’m considering the idea of mixing images of the relevant world leaders in with the ordinary people, who’s lives are being affected being by their decisions. I’m still interested in the reactions and behaviour of ordinary people, towards each other.
I like the idea of the drawing/paintings that I’m making for the degree show to have coherent visual style. I’ve made several large canvases (40″x60″) two of which I’ve started to work on.
Both images are charcoal, straight onto the white primed canvas.
Syrian refugee
Barack Obama
