Research
Moving forwards from my research last week Ive been investigating different painters, their techniques and meaning behind their work.
Lisa Milroy
I discovered Lisa Milroy’s work through our workshop in Wednesdays class, I was instantly drawn to her work as a still life painter I instantly connected to her work.
Her work romantisies everyday objects and investigating her person through this. She has a sheer awe for the objects and studies them deeply creating dynamic paintings. I’ve seen her be described as having an undiscriminating curiosity and for some reason I am fascinated by this term, I can see that yes this term fits her work as she looks at shoes, lightbulbs, jewellery all with the same interest and dedication. Furthermore her studies have taken her to investigate different cultures expressing her learning through her art. Ive included one of her pieces “unseeded” in response to this idea, can anyone truly have an undiscriminating curiosity in the current world circumstance for example the ethical principles surrounding textiles and over consumption.
Merlin James
Ive included Merlin James into my research due to his use of different techniques and materials, he encourages me as an artist to explore my work further. The pieces shown below demonstrate a snippet of the diversity he creates, In a way I’ve already began to reflect his influence in my own work. In particular I like his piece Estuary (2014) which is the fourth photo in the slide, I love the use of colour and the subtly used greys which give a soft yet profound contrast.
Experiments
To develop my practice further I have established some rules, it’s my goal to do at least half an hours amount of work painting a day and to paint freely. Starting with the skull painting, this was an observation of a crystal skull on my shelf that took longer than the majority of this weeks work and it doesn’t necessarily express any emotion I felt. I then attempted to create a study of the full shelf the next day but I wasn’t really feeling it, starting the painting again and again. I then took another approach using primary colours I explored different compositions. Experimenting further used the cup from Wednesdays workshop and decided to paint on its surface, in hindsight I could of painted inside the cup or on its base.I also used a more expressive life painting of a candle to explore my techniques and brush strokes more.
Reflection
In reflection this week I am further exploring how I paint and starting to look at what objects I am choosing to paint, for example what’s the significance of me painting the skull or the candle? Is there a significance? does their NEED to be one? I know that the week coming I need to look at more artists, exploring techniques and maybe finding some that resonate with me. I also think I should explore more mediums and if not more importantly how I will present my work. Will I display all of my work over the semester as one installation or will I select and curate the space to show my most powerful work that I feel conveys my message.
Some good reflection this week, and glad the painting artists are inspiring you. Have a look at Peter Dreher and look at Karsten Botts archive of contemporary objects. I just googled ‘drawings on paper cups’ and many images came up..maybe this is a way to move forward, to not only question what to paint but what to paint on, perhaps there is something in the idea of painting an unexpected object on an unexpected object – Grayson Perry’s painted ceramic vases come to mind. It does seem to me that you need to work deliberately with, in a style or no style, this feels like a decision that needs to be made soonish. And to decide are you trying to paint well? or are you not at all bothered about painting well? what is painting well? there are some big questions here…your images have got very muddled in this post, go back into sort them out into a tiled gallery or carousel