It’s been a bit of a strange week- bank holiday, final tutorial, and lots of tying up loose ends. I’m still working on the painting I mentioned last week. I’m pleased with how it’s going but the paint seems to be taking a lot longer to dry than usual, which is frustrating. I just want to get on with it!
As we only have 2 weeks left I don’t really want to start any new paintings, so most of the week has been taken up by the more mundane things like screwing mirror plates on, sticking collages in and writing To Do lists. I was given my own studio space as my area for the show, which I was very pleased about.
The tutorial went really well: I had to put a selection of work on the wall that I was considering showing, and have all my support work there for Virginia to look through. She was excited about the new painting and happy with all my support work, and gave me a few pointers on my artist statement and bits and bobs of different paintings. I love the way she describes bits of my work- “splintered islands” and “dinosaur bones” were notable examples! The next time I’ll see her is when I’m hanging the work. Now just to work out where and how to hang it…
This week I bear exciting news… I’ve been offered a residency! It’s in my old foundation course, and I get to do a bit of teaching as well as my own work, which is a dream come true for me. So you can imagine this post being said in a high-pitched giggly voice because I’m so happy. It’s such a relief to know what I’ll be doing next year, and that it revolves around continuing with my practice.
Ok, back to said work. As I mentioned in my last post, I went to see Trevor Bell’s exhibition ‘Links’ at the Millennium Gallery in St. Ives at the weekend. It was one of those special gallery visits where you’re completely absorbed in the paintings, your heart beats faster and you come out in a daze, knowing you’ve fallen in love with the work! Thus it’s been a big source of inspiration for my new paintings.
However, the week didn’t get off to a great start- stepping outside my comfort zone meant that I couldn’t approach the paintings like I normally would, and so I became scared to make even the slightest alteration to them. The shaped board paintings were the most difficult because I’m so used to thinking about composition in terms of a rectangle; when faced with multiple irregular-shaped surfaces, everything I painted looked overwhelmed.
Thankfully, I’d arranged with my sister and housemate (Lucy and Laura) that we would set out all the work we were considering putting in the degree show, and we would talk about any potential problems or changes we would make. It came to light that most of my work was mid- or small-scale, and that there was only one large-scale painting. This painting is one I really want to include, so we discussed integrating it better by creating a companion for it- similar size and format to balance things out a bit. Then Lucy suggested combining this with the shaped boards, so that the image was played out in positive and negative space across the wall (see picture of how it looks now). This was a lightbulb moment for me- I now have so many more ideas about now to develop this theme, and I’m back to thinking positively about the remaining weeks before the show.
So the moral of this week’s post is- when in doubt, get a little help from your friends.
We’re almost at the end of the second week of term (scary- only 4 weeks of working time left!) and as I’d hoped it’s good to be making work again.
I’ve finally finished the first of the mirror diptychs, which I’m quite happy with, though it needs a polish! It’s interesting to be introducing new themes into my work.
The mirror idea came from a strange memory I have of being in a mirror maze with my twin sister when we were younger and still wore the same clothes, and not being able to tell which of the hundreds of people reflected all around me were her or my reflection. I liked the idea of looking into this feeling of disorientation, and how our sight can play tricks on us. I’ve combined this with my drawings based on snowflakes, playing around with symmetry/asymmetry, as in the landscape-format painting I’ve just started.
Another project that’s just begun is having very simple forms cut out of board and stuck directly onto the wall, as shaped paintings. I made a few collages as ideas for these, based on snowflake structures and satellite photographs, and started jigsawing and sanding pieces of board this afternoon. I’m planning to draw into them a bit, but want them to stay quite pure, focusing on form and colour.
I’ve been looking at Trevor Bell’s work again because of his shaped canvases and emphasis on colour. I find his work mesmerising, particularly the ones with retina-melting colour schemes! As I was researching, I found out that he’s exhibiting in St. Ives starting tomorrow… so that’s my Saturday planned!
The Easter holidays are drawing to a close and I’m trying to squeeze some more work into the last few days now I’m back in Falmouth… it’s proving difficult as I’m veering between laziness and lack of confidence! It’s amazing how quickly self-doubt seeps in when you’re not in the studio every day making work, but it has been nice to have a break.
Due to lack of space I haven’t been painting, but mainly making small-scale drawings/collages like these ones shown. Some of them are based on ideas I had at the end of last term, others on photographs of interesting rocks I took on holiday in North Devon (I am a bit of a geology geek at heart!).
I’m looking forward to getting back into the studio on Monday and back into the swing of things. All I want to do at the moment is curl up in bed with tea, biscuits and iPlayer… but I will NOT let myself do that now, I’m off to make some work!
It’s been a productive if tiring week, finishing off bits and bobs in the studio as well as writing exhibition proposals and filling in lots of forms.
On the plus side, I’ve completed my cut-board series of paintings, as well as being very nearly there with my larger one, all of which I’m more pleased with than I thought I would be. I can’t really put my finger on why that is, but it’s nice to come into the studio in the morning and be excited by what you’re doing, rather than daunted.
I’ve also started bringing my ideas about mirrors and symmetry to fruition, though only just. It’s interesting painting on mirror because you can also scratch into it, though I am having difficulty finding a secure way of getting them on the wall.
I’ve made the most of the studios being empty in the first week of the Easter break by moving all my paintings around and connecting them with pins and thread. This was an idea I began to look into a while ago but haven’t really had the space to explore while everyone is around and my paintings were still wet. I’m interested in the idea of extending the drawn elements of the work beyond the 2D, and creating a new way of guiding the viewer’s eye around the space.
Today is the last day the studios are open, so I’m off back to Torquay tomorrow. I’m planning to do lots of drawing and research in my 2.5 weeks at home, and then come back and have a big burst of painting…
