After the feedback from my previous self portrait, I decided to paint another one on a slightly bigger scale and try not to make drastic decisions, and just see what happens when painting something completely textured. What I first done with the canvas was, I primed over a painting I done a while back that I was not that pleased with. The canvas was primed in a rush because I was excited to get painting. The primer turned out to be very streaky and at that point I felt that the primer layer is a big part of the process of the portrait, so I kept part of the primer exposed so all the layers are not lost. I did not really like the colours from the last portrait so I started with a base tone of flesh that I mixed together first then built more tones over the top of that. Once the whole face was blocked in I felt that the wide palette knife that was used was too thick, so I decided to go over the whole thing with a thinner knife to make the marks more defined so the expression of my face comes out more. With the primer part exposed on the right side of the painting I wasn’t sure whether I should block the whole canvas, but there is alot of layers to this painting, so I felt exposing another layers works well.
One of my peers mentioned how much more depth there is when I paint with texture. I agree with this, the comparison with my self portrait (also with my painting ‘Storm’) to my realist paintings could not be anymore different from each other. All of the work I have done so far each piece shows a completely different style. My painting ‘Storm’ was part of my final assessment in my second year. At first I didn’t really like it, but when it was in an exhibition soon afterwards, it sold so it made me feel differently about it.
I came across artist Andrew Salgado, his work explores ‘concepts relating to the destruction and reconstruction of identity – a process that he views as re-considering the conventions of figurative painting through a continued pursuit toward abstraction.’ Kurt Beers. His work is based on a very large scale, and this is something I want to do with a slight abstraction in the way I paint. In terms of scale at this point I want to have three strong big scale paintings that shows completely different emotions.
From a previous post I mentioned about having a intimate space with one big portrait and a few much smaller paintings around it. I feel now that with sound and other things going on, around ten portraits and a piano in one small room may seem to much and may confuse my audience. Also with the degree show approaching fast I need to think of alternatives if I can’t get the space i want.
