Cubist Painting

After a lecture about colour theory and mixing and looking at examples in cubist art history,  were asked to create cubist-inspired paintings using acrylic paint and a design made from objects we either made or found.
I chose to draw a design from a headless, armless, torso mannequin of a woman I found at the back of the classroom. The object was white and had interesting angles. I chose to copy the technique I used to draw a design for a sculpture and overlay drawings of the torso from different angle to create spaces and shapes in the image. I am pleased with how the initial drawing came out and was worrying about ruining it with acrylic paint.

My initial pencil drawings/design

After I'd created my base design, I decided to block in vibrant warm colours; reds, oranges, pinks and yellows after picking out definite shapes. I hope to paint the entire image in this way and create an abstract, jumble of shapes and colour. When the painting is finished I will upload an image

The mannequin I was drawing from at different angles

EDIT: I finished painting the piece, purposely leaving middle areas white to pull focus to the centre and to not over-do the painting. 

Nelle

Glazing Ceramics

Yesterday we had another ceramic session with the technician, Fran, where we glazed our small hand-built pieces and turned some of our thrown pieces on the wheel. I have turned pots before and it has never turned out well and yesterday's session was no different; I turned one of my leather-heard pots but the glaze ring was far too large and the pot didn't look great.
When glazing my slab, pinch and coil pieces, I found a beautiful turquoise-green bucket glaze which I covered all three in, with plans to draw on-top in a Jean-Michel Basquiat inspired way with ceramic crayons. Upon discovering that the crayons wouldn't work on top of the glaze, I scratched and indented the thick layer of turquoise with Basquiat qualities in the hope it would create some interesting textures. I left my slab pot plain turquoise on advice from the technician and scratched lines into the pinch pot similar to the lines left in the clay underneath.
When coming up with Basquiat-inspired designs I jotted down words that came to mind when looking at it to scratch into the surface which I didn't end up using but found to be an interesting thought-generating technique.

EDIT: The works have all been fired and the turquoise colour I used on all three looks fantastic. Deep, smooth and unique on each form.

Nelle

Deconstruct/Reconstruct

This week we received our first official brief, the theme is Deconstruct/Reconstruct. A lot of the base ideas our tutor Pam wanted us to research revolved around cubism, the artists involved in the historical movement and cubism's effect on art since and today. Our outcomes don't have to be directly linked to cubism, just the very wide subject of deconstructing and reconstructing something. There are many different paths to go down, possible subjects and themes to explore and a lot of research, historical and contemporary, to be done.
Before we received the brief, we had an art history lecture about cubism and the importance of the movement and were asked to produce collages with a 'cubist approach' out of photocopied images, magazine pages, old screen-print textures etc.

I made three collages with different themes (will upload photos once I have taken more). I was extremely happy with all three of them. It was exciting to see themes and ideas unfold from the placement of collage pieces and building on those themes. I do think I slightly swayed from the 'cubist approach' but my ideas and processes were definitely within the deconstruct/reconstruct theme.

I am a huge fan of collage and appropriating images and will definitely be using the techniques in this exciting new brief

EDIT:

The images of the other two collages I completed in class. I used similar images plus my own cut out pieces from the fashion magazine Peacocks and Pigeons

Nelle

Throwing and Cubist Sculptures

Last week we started our Monday sessions in the ceramics department. We created slab pots (inspired by cubism), pinch pots and a slab-coil pot (will upload photos when I have them). I spent a lot of time in ceramics over my the duration of my last course so knew how to make these shapes, but it was extremely helpful to be re-taught the techniques by a new, better technician.

This week we were in the throwing room, something which again I have done many times before. I hadn't thrown in a long time and was extremely rusty to begin with but the technician, Fran, helped a lot and got better as the day went on.

After we had thrown (I created three pieces I was happy with), we were asked to create a design for a plaster sculpture inspired by cubism (to do with our brief we were let to receive). To come up with the designs we gathered random objects in the studio, arranged them and draw the shapes from many different angles, layering the drawings on top of each other.

I chose to draw each layer in a different colour do I could easily differentiate between the shapes and layers. I was pleased with how the drawing turned out and enjoyed making it; I would like to develop this technique in the future. The sculptures were to be made from card, plastic, wire etc. and covered in plaster. I didn't get round to making the sculpture itself but will do so when I get some free time at college and will upload pictures once it's been built

Nelle

Inktober

After in increase in my use of ink recently I though I'd try to attempt Inktober this year, after I completely failed last year and did about three drawings for the whole month. I'm not hopeful this year with my workload but I've already done better than last year so you never know! I only have four pictures to post now but will do a big post in the future if I manage to complete this

I have mostly been doing these quick inky faces, which I enjoy and remind me of Marlene Dumas's work (which I adore) but I have tried to branch out on my subject matter since I completed these. Hopefully more to follow.

Nelle

Ink Work

During class, my tutor often organises small activities to do during the day. A while ago we were getting into ink, firstly exploring different tools and mark-making, before getting us to push ourselves to do giant ink drawings of panoramic photographs we'd taken of our bedrooms and houses. I really enjoy working with ink, it's something I do in my spare time a lot and having Pam teach us ways to use different weird and wonderful tools further emphasised my love for inks. The mark-making was quick and spontaneous and the drawing were expressive and messy. I wasn't happy with my drawing and wanted to give up but Pam was extremely encouraging and I felt confident enough to push myself to finish.

Ink drawings in progress

Ink drawings in progress

Mark-making experiments using salt and strange tools such as sticks, cardboard etc

I chose to draw chairs over some background experiments because I often draw chairs from old furniture books in my free time. I'm really happy how these ones came out. I'm looking forward to further using ink in my work to come, and thoroughly enjoyed the session in class.

Nelle

St. Paul's and Tate Modern Trip

On the 26th September, me and my classmates went on a trip to St. Paul's Cathedral to watch a video installation by Bill Viola. The videos were moving and spiritual and the setting within the building emphasised this. There were two videos; one entitled Mary, featuring a number of interlocking short videos of life on Earth and in nature, the other called Martyrs, a series of 4 screens each showing a person being subjected to each element - earth, wind, fire and water. I personally found Martyrs to be more moving; the energy and power behind each video was exceptional. After researching Bill Viola and falling in love with his work, I found out what he had said about Martyrs:

"As the work opens, four individuals are shown in stasis, a pause from their suffering. Gradually there is movement in each scene as an element of nature begins to disturb their stillness. Flames rain down, winds begin to lash, water cascades, and earth flies up. As the elements rage, each martyr’s resolve remains unchanged. In their most violent assault, the elements represent the darkest hour of the martyr’s passage through death into the light."


His films are like spiritual, visual poems, captivating and moving.
After viewing these works, we walked over to the Tate Modern to visit the new extension The Switch  House. I had been to the new part twice before this trip so I knew what kind of artworks were inside, but it was helpful to go with a group to get a new perspective on some of the work I'd previously seen on my own. We were asked to chose 4+ pieces we liked and produce a presentation on each work and why we liked them/answer some questions about the work. I chose 6 pieces and the presentations the following week went very well. I have since been back to the Switch House a further two times to further look at some of the work I'd liked.

I chose 6 rather different pieces at the Tate to write about and made the PowerPoint Presentation in a day, answering the necessary questions and talking about why I liked that particular piece.

I have my opinions on the new Switch House extension which I will make a separate blog post about another day, however I do believe there is some fantastic new work to see and explore. For now, I will be finding articles and reviews for the work I've selected and putting together my research.

Nelle