My theme from the start of the course work has been faded as
it was the one I found most interesting and the theme I could do the most with.
At the start of the course I was taught to look at things in a different way,
not just see them for what they are but how they could be turned into pieces of
art other than just drawing them for what they are. Also I was shown how to
study objects and observe them in a way that could make them a lot more
interesting as a piece of work. All this lead me to doing semi-abstract
landscape paintings.
During the course I studied a lot of artists including:
Leonardo Da Vinci, Matt Flint, Squeak Carnwath, Michael Albert and Betsy
Albert. All these artists lead me in the direction of expressive semi-abstract
art where I found Christopher Mathie, I studied Mathie’s work and found the way
he deconstructs an image and focuses on the line, colours and flow of the scene
inspired me. He uses varying directions of brush strokes to create a sense of
movement in his piece. He also uses different hues of colours that harmonise
together. I was able to use that effect with reds and whites in my piece by
applying a base coat of white paint, then applying red paint on top and mixed
the paint together on the board. This created a gradual blend of the two
colours.
For my final piece I am basing it of off and image I captured
of a scene in Bradgate Park which I applied a filter too to give it a more
interesting range of colours and to make it more striking. I am using acrylic
paint to create the piece which for me is challenging to use as I am very in
experienced with paint having never used it properly up until now. I find it
hard to use as it is harder to get the tones and marks you want compared to a
media I am very familiar with e.g. pencil. Although I find it hard to work with
I find it very rewarding when I get the effect I was after; such as using layers of paint to create marks and texture,
also using washes of paint to a bring out colours from previous layers.
Whilst creating my piece I am able to make it personal to me
as it being an semi-abstract piece I can add in colours that I think will add
to the composition even if they aren’t there in the image thus making it more
personal to me as other people might not have made certain decisions I have
whilst creating the piece, for instance I used a red for the sky as if I had
used the yellow it was in the image of the scene it would have made the piece
to yellow and bland. Also the location of the scene (Bradgate Park) is personal
for me as I have been there quite a lot and have a lot of faded memories of the
place from when I was younger.
If I were to do another final piece I would do a lot more
experiments with the media I am using beforehand as some difficulties can crop
up when you haven’t used to media much and things can start to go wrong or
there might have been a better way to use it. I would have also improved my
planning of time as I sometimes had to rush things due to a lack of planning
