Continuing to use images that i have appropriated online. I primed my second canvas with magnolia emulsion. Secondly i sketched the basic outline of me image onto the canvas. Using a small paint brush i started to shade in little areas using a free flowing motion. The reason for this is i want the areas to be delicate. I don’t want them to be bold and dominate. As i want my subject to represent this, rather than the paint. I still want to keep aspects of the females delicacy.
Throughout my blog I have tried to come up with witty titles for my posts. And with the degree show coming up soon, I didn’t want to leave my titles to the last minute. I want them to mean something. Looking back through old sketch books and dissertations it gave me the incentive to continue with traditional paintings portrayals of the female nude and make then relevant to my work.
Traditionally paintings of the female nudes were not given real identifiable names. This was because they were representations of what the male perception of beauty was. An indulgent of what society perceived to be the ideal beauty. Generally, these images of women were considered mythical. Given the Title of a goddess i.e. the Virgin Mary or Venus. Painted with smooth porcelain like skin, and a perfectly framed figure, angelic faces, small breasts and no bodily hair, the ultimate purity of a woman. These paintings were accepted on the basis that they were unidentifiable as real women. But if the woman in the painting resembled any individualization of a real person, the painting would be frowned upon, and rejected by society. Such images were discriminated and considered vulgar because the audience could relate to, or identify the woman.
The women I am creating are considered to be unreal. Sociality does not see them as real women because they do not compel with the norm. Virgin Mary and Venus are a little dated and have been used excessively.
Next step was to researching the name Venus and Mary revelled that the name stems from names of goddesses. Widening this search revealed a variation of ancient cultures.
Now that I have a starting point and meanings behind my titles that relate to my work I could concentrate on creating my images and referring back to the names once complete to decide which Goddess name best represents my image.
It has been nearly a month since i last posted a blog. The reason for this is because i have had no internet at home. Which has made it very difficult to keep up with the “online diary”. This is still one of the issues that i have with the degree and in general the modern world. Everything is done using a computer. And everyone assumes you have access to the internet. Which i don’t usually. So I’m very old fashioned in the way i view things. The same goes for art. I feel very strongly about drawing and sketches, because it is one of the first things we come to recognize about ourselves (i feel), that you are good at art. That’s what where taught at school aren’t we?
Since my last blog i have still been creating work. And since that time we have been allocated our spaces for the degree show. Which i had a slight problem with but I’ m hopfull it should be resolved quiet easily with the course leader.
Depending on the space i end up with will ultimately decide how many canvas i will display. My original idea was to display all 4 of my 5ft by 3ft canvas’s, at an angle, tilting over the audience, to ensure that the female nude represented in my work is dominating the viewer. But if i am not allocated a bigger space i will have to adapt and only represent 2 canvas’s in the final degree show.
I displayed 2 big canvases on the female nudes in my studio space, ready for Hannah ( another L6 Fine artist) to take photographs of our work for the degree show catalog. And whilst observing from a distance my own work i had an idea. Instead of having 4 different female nudes i could have 2 paintings of female nudes and mirror the image. But instead of using the same style for the mirrored image i could change the style into pointillism. Therefore giving a different perspective of the same woman.
Title of Blog: We know what we are, but know not what we will be.
Web address: https://www.a-n.co.uk/blogs/we-know-what-we-are-but-know-not-what-we-may-be/date/2015/03
In my own words my experience with the Blog assignment;
My experience with using the “blog” has had its ups and downs. I’m pretty old fashioned when it comes to technology, and I feel more confidant and stronger when my work is on pen and paper/ sketch book rather than online. The reason being is I have difficulty with internet access, as I cannot afford a lot of internet at home, so I have a limit usage. This restricts my time when posting blogs, and the whole processing and uploading my images, thoughts and research. Whereas a sketch book it is accessible anytime.
The second issue I’ve had is with images. This is because my computer doesn’t allow me to change my images, i.e. rotate them and uploads them to the a.n website as they appeared on my laptop. Instead it uploads the original image that was uploaded from the camera. This meant that I have to spend unnecessary time using photo shop on the University Campus Suffolk computers, rotating my images.
The third issue that I ran into was mind mapping. I suffer from Dyslexia and was given a document on my computer which helps me plot them out with ease on a computer. This document then transfers these into word documents. But when I tried to upload this document/ or copy and paste it onto my post I was creating, it would allow me to paste into the text but when the post was published it was erased. Hence why the mind maps on my blog are small and displayed as photographs as this was the only way I could get them onto the Blog.
The positive side of the blog is that it is neat and tidy. You can clearly see the whole progression of the project. Allowing you to edit and review anything and add web links is also handy as you can refer back to things with ease.
Over all I have enjoyed the experience and will continue with the blog to help keep myself organised.
Mrs Sheree Gradiner.
BA HONS Fine Art.
Marc Quinn’s visceral sculpture Self (bloody head) is made up of nine pints of his own frozen blood.When his work was first exhibited, it created a big stir with the public some described the work as repulsive and some admired it. It was reported that Saatchie’s wife,, Nigella Lawson half melted the piece of artwork after accidentally switching the fridge off. (The independent Friday 27 March 2015)
Marc Quinn has since this time made three the newest is currently being displayed in the National Portrait Gallery.
Quinn, said that his work was inspired by Rembrandt’s self portraits.
Quinn said ‘Self’ had been driven by his desire “to push portraiture to an extreme, a representation which not only has the form of the sitter, but is actually made from the sitter’s flesh.”(Akbar, A. 2015. the independent.)
http://www.npg.org.uk/about/press/marc-quinn-press.php
