University Campus Suffolk

Triangles

After looking at various monochromatic imagery of paintings and photography, I began gathering my own images for my painting/ series of paintings of monochromatic rendered flesh.

I have been considering the triangular composition that runs through a lot of art works.

It is a strong compositional shape.

Triangular shapes can be used to lead the viewer into the painting.

I reflected upon this in analysis of Passage by Saville in my dissertation.

The use of this composition in Passage in-particular alludes to perspective. The Pyramid-like form of the figure gives a strong triangular structure to the image.

An extract from my dissertation:

” Saville’s use of various devices such as low-level viewpoints, exaggerated foreshortening and cropping of the figure to fill her canvas enhancing the power of her fleshy nudes to produce “a confrontational yet contemplative image which pushes itself at you” (Henry, 1994, n.p.).”

I have been considering this in the images I have gathered and the composition I have constructed.

My vision is of a partially distorted head on a neck – a more recognisably human version of Dana Schutz, ‘Face Eater’, 2004.

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Black & White/ Monochrome.

Colour is a very communicative devise in painting. Often a mood can be easily established in a painting through association of colour and emotion. Very much the same way that large scale can easily communicate an element of power or confrontation over the viewer.

I have been transferring my paintings into black and white using photoshop as a device to see my paintings in a different way – Tonally is it correct? Also because changes like that or viewing paintings in a mirror or upside down can help me see changes i want to make.

This process as well as seeing ‘Thingly Character IV’ at the Saatchi Gallery has prompted me to paint in mono chromatic colour. I want to see how this affects my language.

To me black and white imagery speaks of anxiety. It isn’t trying to be reality, reality is colourful. There is something trapped about mono chrome. It is like looking at flesh contained in a TV set, stopping and pausing a moment.

I bought a book from the Saatchi Gallery – ‘The Body’ by Thames & Hudson which, is filled with black and white photography of different bodies – some deformed and distorted. This has also lead me to naturally progress to experimenting with monochromatic colour. Originally I wanted to appropriate various images of flesh perhaps from newspapers however with media appropriated images there is a likely hood that they have been messed with. My intention is that I will absorb these images and use them to create images of my own flesh.

In my dissertation I looked at ‘Hard, Fast and Beautiful’ (2000) by Cecily Brown and found it produced an element of terror. This was supported by Richter’s claim that Grey scale imagery emits terror and something negative.

I have also been looking at the work of Yan Pei Ming an example being ‘Autoportrait’ (Mars) 2000, oil on canvas.

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LONDON & BODY LANGUAGE EXHIBITION.

This week I went to London to hand in a piece of my work from 2013 to Trinity Buoy Wharf for submission to the BP portrait awards, 2014.

The standard of work was incredible high and me proceeding is very unlikely however, I’m glad to know the process for future reference and it was an exciting experience.

Afterwards I visited The Body Language exhibition at The Saatchi Gallery; http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/body_languag….

One of the artworks that really stood out for me in the exhibition was ‘Face Eater’ (2004) by Dana Schutz. It reminded me of ‘Head ii’ (1949) by Francis Bacon, which I saw at The Ashmolean Museum.

They both project a silent scream and communicate something unspeakable. Both paintings describe something which is hard to put into words. Gerhard Richter once said “Talk about painting: there’s no point. By conveying a thing through the medium of language, you change it. You construct qualities that can be said, and you leave out the ones that can’t be said but are always the most important.”

These paintings both remind me of that quotation. Although these paintings don’t describe what a human form or flesh they both spoke to me of the human condition, terror and flesh. I am also interested in how both these paintings use interesting angles and perspective.

Other works that stood out for me at the Body Language exhibition was that by Nicole Eisenman. Within her work there were areas of thick texture…just snippets which brought the paintings alive for me. I found myself attracted to those areas, thinking I love that head with a thick dollop of paint to give the impression of an ear. This has lead me back to my first post where I quoted Bacon;

“There is an area of the nervous system to which the texture of paint communicates more violently than anything else” (Bacon, n.d cited in Russell, 1971, pp.21).

I want to start experimenting with a wide diversity of textures and varying weights of mark-making.

Also at the exhibition, Helen Verhoeven’s ‘Thingly Character IV‘, 2010 painted in monochromatic colour, drew my attention and stood out to me just as much as the colour pieces.

References: Gerhard Richter: Text. Writings, Interviews and Letters 1961-2007, Thames & Hudson, London, 2009, p. 35.

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Light and Flesh on Canvas

As progression from my face on paper and also my exploration into light & flesh, I decided to work on canvas with the still from my video.

A mark on canvas is undeniably made. It appears more permanent in my opinion than marks made on paper, and so its language changes.

I have commented before on canvas making my paintings feel more precious to work with and how sometimes this can hold back a certain spontaneity. However to explore active paint further I wanted to push myself further.

My assumption was that changing to canvas would make my painterly language louder and more commanding and make it inherit an ‘unwavering’ quality.

Before starting this painting I had a tutorial and in response decided to remove all my artist imagery from my studio wall and replace it with my own work. As I am dealing with the subject of flesh which has been rendered endlessly in paint I wanted to make sure I concentrate on developing MY language and not get lost. To take inspiration but to allow myself to grow on my own too. I felt this was the right time in my development to do this.

In this painting I wanted to think about composition carefully-on paper I can trim it down or extend it. Canvas is fixed. I also wanted to consider composition because I think if you can apply a composition that draws the viewer in then this opens up the viewer to the paints language. I intend to start looking at compositions used in advertising to draw people in and also compositions of other artworks.

To help me section off parts of my image off to work from I used masking tape.

Similarly to my Face on Paper I wanted to create a textured ‘alive’ background for my face to emerge from. This is something else that came from my tutorial. Posing the question of how do I find the balance between technical ability and controlling that with spontaneous mark-making which encompasses something of what I was feeling of thinking.

** Thinking back to my first post where I outlined that “the idea that an artists own psychological nature can be read by the viewer through their paints language is at the heart of my project”.

Before starting this painting I put my image into black and white to see the tonal values more clearly. I used this as reference as well as the coloured image. Whilst my painting developed I also photographed it it and desaturated it for the same purpose. It is also interesting seeing your work on a screen as it is like seeing it from a distance.

The scale of the canvas is 80x100cm so just off square and quite large. The composition I chose also made it a very up close examination of my flesh.

I used a stick with a paintbrush attached and graphite in the earlier stages. This technique (used by Picasso) allows me to step away and see the image as a whole. It also keeps it loose. I find this incredibly useful as I don’t get swallowed up by its scale – I can see the wood for the trees !

I also used a decorating brush baring in mind a point highlighted in my dissertation raised by Gerhard Richter who says large marks made by such things like a decorating brush make those mark-makings louder!

This painting has lead me to reconsider scale in my work. I want to compare this painting with a smaller one. How will that change it? What will the affect be if they hang next to each other?

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Light & Flesh

There is a relationship between light and flesh which has run throughout art history. During January I attended a talk on the Italian Renaissance held by lecturer John Sheeran. I found this lecture really useful in expanding my knowledge of historical paintings – learning how artists used to paint and looking at ‘painting’s’ journey. Ultimately I feel this knowledge can only strengthen my project.

The first artwork which was discussed was ‘Crucifix’ c1280-5 by Canabue. This example struck me immediately in terms of my subject. There is such a huge sense of muscular structure created through the use of light and shadow. It’s not all about texture, fibre and surface.

I feel in this image there is a feeling of iridescent skin and something undeniably human about this rendering of flesh. From this I decided I wanted to gather images of my own skin looking at the effect of light. I think this will help me get a better idea of the volume and the planes of the body and face.

As well as these aspects and the historical context of flesh and light for myself there is an emotional context. I suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder and recently I have acquired a lamp to act as a sunshine supplement.

This is a video of me in front of the lamp. I wanted to document the bright light on my skin. I was looking at my skin in whilst videoing this, studying how it changes and moves. I was then able to take stills to paint from.

The above still from my documentation of my flesh infront of SAD lamp is an image I plan to paint from in the future. I chose this image as it still includes my open mouth and teeth – a subject I am not ready to leave yet.

I have been asking myself, if I introduce light into my paintings do I expect them to have an effect on my viewer?

The religious paintings perhaps did this? What was the effect ? There was a lot of gold and light. A glow. An element or awe? The Sublime?

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Light & Flesh