As mentioned earlier in my blog, I wanted to research why the floral pattern seems to be associated with females rather than males. I found an article on the subject, written by Andrea Frownfelter.
She writes in ‘Flower Symbolism as Female Sexual Metaphor’, how the flower can be a symbol representing the vagina. This symbolism has been used so often in art, by artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, and the author of the article.
Andrea uses roses to symbolise vaginas in her work, and has written about what each watercolour painting of hers means. You can read about them here : http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1210&context=honors
With this idea, I can understand why so many feminist artists use the floral pattern in their artwork. I am now considering on whether I should embroider suggestive flowers into my artwork; roses with lots of petals, or orchids seem to be a popular one in artworks like this. I think these would be difficult to embroider, plus time is an important factor now. Painting is my priority at the moment, but if there is a considerable amount of time left after painting, i’ll start my embroidery work.
References : https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/mar/01/georgia-okeeffe-show-at-tate-modern-to-challenge-outdated-views-of-artist
http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1210&context=honors
These are my favourite drawings from a recent life drawing session. They aren’t particularly accurate, i’ve elongated parts of the body and missed out a lot of features, such as the feet and facial features. Does this distortion make her less susceptible to being subjected to the Male Gaze? (Featured in Laura Mulvey’s Narrative Cinema and Visual Pleasures)
Are these drawings nice to look at, or is the viewer left feeling uncomfortable because the images aren’t proportionally accurate or perfect?
Another idea to explore. These drawings could be taken further by embroidering them on top of a painting or onto a wall hanging.
I’ve been working on this portrait of Emma Watson for a little while, but I don’t seem to be getting very far with it. I started off painting with brushes, and I just wasn’t enjoying it. So I found some leftover gloves from an old hair dye packet and decided to start painting using only my hands/fingers. It gave me a lot more confidence with the boldness of the strokes/textures, and the colours I chose to use were brighter, leaving me feeling happier with the overall outcome. It’s still an unfinished painting, but I would like to continue using my hands to paint with.
I’ve always been very keen on the idea of creating textures within a painting, and for this project i’d like to explore new ways of doing this. I think by combining different fabrics with embroidery string, and then painting over the top, I could create a really interesting texture.
