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?
