I’ve had a really good day at university today – it was an art exchange day when we got to work in the studios and get feedback from other students and all the fine art lecturers. It was initiated in an attempt to encourage students to fill in the National Student Survey but it has resulted in the lecturers taking on board our enthusiasm for it to happen more often. It was particularly important for us part timers as we don’t get a studio space and consequently it is rare to see anything other than a small work, images on laptops or a journal from other students. We were given a space for the day and I worked on my ‘painting in the attic’ – moving it on a step further – you can read more about this project on a previous post on 18 Dec last year.
I have made the decision to carry out a forensic investigation of the ‘man in a boat – painting in the attic’ by scraping away the oil paint to reveal……. well who knows!
What will remain is a trace I hope – just like the trace that’s left, of that 16 year old girl, me, who painted it fifty years ago! I am collecting the pigment that I take away in a matchbox.
It is a very meditative process and will take me a long time as the painting is 60 cms square. But the process feels right for the work – peeling back the years to see what fragments and traces of memory remain. A narrative is forming, part truth/part fiction and I can envisage a performance piece coming from this contemplative practice – maybe this will form part of my degree show? It feels an exciting place to be – a place of discovery and not really knowing what is going to happen next! I had very positive feedback from four lecturers and a number of students – it just makes all the difference when you get external verification of your work – I have been working away and rather doubting the process but now I know I am on the right track! It was suggested that I film myself working on the painting, so next weekend I will get hold of a camcorder and make a start.
Over the weekend you will find me scraping away in my studio for a few hours a day at least!
Art Intentions 2012
There’s no escaping them if I publish them here! (Based on a 5 day working week) and in no particular order…………..
Complete Fine art degree in June
Take part in the Leeds International Artist’s Book Fair in March
A photograph a day – this is today’s a tiny feather on the beach – plus a new blog header image!
A drawing a day (doodles acceptable) – this is my sea drawing with a new Pentel brush pen I’ve never used before – I rather like it but the marks are very different to my usual pen/pencil so I need to practice.
A studio practice structure to the week which is flexible to allow for good walking days!
A weekly blog post
An end of day reflection, what’s worked, not worked and things to do tomorrow.
Read one art book a month
Visit at least one exhibition a month
Submit work to at least 4 exhibitions during the year
Review this list quarterly to keep on track
I’d love to hear all your intentions for the year ahead – wishing you all many creative adventures in 2012!
This is my entry for a drawing exhibition on the theme of SPEED in Artspace at Plymouth University in January 2012. I found the brief quite hard but then remembered this photograph and it seemed to sum up my attitude towards the digital age and the difficulties of keeping up with technology – ‘running with the light’ so to speak!!
This is the brief
We live in a fast-paced world Everything seems to move more rapidly all the time. Things happen more quickly, we move about more quickly and life changes more quickly than it did in previous generations. Many, if not all, aspects of the society we live in – transportation, technology, media, scientific discovery, even the rate at which cultural trends recycle themselves – are affected by this apparent speeding up of life. How do artists respond to this? By meeting it head on, jumping into the stream? Or by slowing down, standing to one side to observe and reflect from a distance as the pace of life increases. Is it as simple as that, as adopting one position or the other?
Technically it’s not a drawing of course but I feel that the camera is an extension of the hand and can be used much like a pencil – what do you think? How would you respond? Perhaps you could post something on your blog? I’d love to hear your comments. My intention is to enlarge it as near to the maximum size specified for the exhibition 50cms x 70cms – I will have to take some advice on this as I’m never sure of image enlargements – so much technical information to learn these days!! Happy New Year to everyone! Wishing you many creative adventures in 2012
Fifty years ago I painted this (an oil painting on hardboard) …… I am not a painter, it was something I did at school – now I work with found objects and in a sense this is a found object much like the slide transparencies that I have been working with! When my father died a few years ago the painting came back to me and has remained wrapped up in storage. It’s a strange feeling unlocking things from the past………
I am wondering where that girl who painted this has gone? I don’t remember painting it at all! It must have been from an illustration in a magazine or book! Why the man in a boat? It’s a mystery! So it’s about things lost and forgotten rather than memory – a kind of mourning for lost youth maybe!
Is this my next project? – I have taken the first step and attempted to clean it up – the background has yellowed considerably during the years it hung in my parent’s house (they were both smokers) – the photograph hides the yellowing which is interesting. I’m not sure where I’m going with it yet.
I have propped it up in the studio and will live with it there for a while and see what happens!
FAILURE IS A SUCCESS!
Can you believe it – today I heard that my dissertation project on FAILURE got a FIRST – not only that but the University has asked me for a copy for their archive. I am over the moon – not least because of the 22 artists who supported the project with their artwork – I will be contacting you all separately of course but meantime thank you so much for submitting work because without you all it would indeed have been a FAILURE. This failure thing is complicated! But I have rather fallen in love with the subject and I’m definitely not finished with FAILURE yet!
If you have missed the previous posts on Failure you can find them in April posts
