After experimenting with a more expressive and rough approach to painting from my family photographs, I decided I wanted to create a similar effect on a larger scale.
From my family albums I selected what I believe is a typical family photograph of my Mum, Sister and I at Great Yarmouth, poking our heads through one of those comical photo opportunity boards on the pier. The pinnacle of a family trip to the seaside.
I wanted the painting to be quite bright to reflect the vibrancy of the seaside and to represent the clichéd image of the beach with yellow sands and clear blue skies. I therefore dripped watered down blue and yellow acrylic onto the paper to create a backdrop on which to recreate my chosen photograph.
The images within this post demonstrate my progression with this painting.
As mentioned previously, the decision to use drips in my work wasn’t a pre-determined action. I think the reason I started to use this method was to create works quickly as if I was trying to capture a moment before it was gone forever. What I was attempting to create was a piece of work which still contained some formal and more painterly elements whilst embodying an expressive quality which reflected my inability to accurately remember this time in my life.
It is interesting to think about the conciseness of the photograph which I am working from in relation to the approach I have taken with my painting. It is almost as though I do not entirely believe the truth which the photograph tells me about this event and I’m fighting against it. The simplicity of this drip method has the ability to reflect the vulnerable and fragile aspect of memory and directly represents what little I remember of these trips to the beach.
I want to continue experimenting with this approach to painting but would like to utilise the anaglypta paper mentioned in a previous post. Using this type of material as a canvas will, I hope, create a more interesting effect to communicate some of these concepts as well as making a direct reference to my childhood experiences.
