Environment Project

Abandoned Factory (Unedited Photograph)

Having collected numerous photographs related to my project on the urban environment I began to experiment with a range of techniques and mediums, also producing work on different scales. For this painting I focused on using palette knives as i had never really worked with them before and my usual painting style, created with brushes is quick realistic and flat in texture. But for this project I chose to paint in a more experimental style as I wanted to create a rough and thick texture to give my paintings greater depth. 

Abandoned Factory (Acrylic Paint With Palette Knives)

(59mm x 84mm)

I enjoyed this technique of using palette knives as it creates really interesting textures fitting for an urban look and I will most definitely continue to use and develop my palette knife work throughout my project  If I was to paint this again or change it, I would of liked to add more detail into the flooring and perhaps use less white in the flooring as I feel all the white is distracting.

I chose this photograph as I find the perspective really unusual as when photographing a place people don't often think to look up at the ceiling and take a picture but I rather like the criss-crossing of the numerous beams and pipes.

Above (Unedited Photograph)

Having found my new love for palette knives I experimented with using the same technique but using different colours. This painting was mainly created using black and white acrylics with hints of brown and blue, I also started with a red ground and believe that the little flecks of red coming through makes for an interesting contrast.

Above (Acrylic Paint With Palette Knives)  

(59mm x 84mm)

Empty (Unedited Photograph)  

I printed out a copy of this image to work from and it turned out a lot darker than it appeared on screen as the whole right side was in complete darkness just showing the light of the window and the reflection of light on the surrounding surfaces, which I found rather interesting and striking so I went along with the idea.

Empty (Black & White Emulsion) 

(86mm x 150mm)

For this large black and white painting, produced on fabriano paper with emulsion paints I experimented with using a wide range of objects to apply the paint with, these included squeegees, rollers, large palette knife used in cooking and decorating brushes. I also used water mixed with white emulsion to create the drips and splatters. 

I really enjoyed this method of painting and felt very relaxed and confident in what i was creating at the time and would love to develop this style in the further as I found the use of a squeegee very effective. 

This piece was created on canvas using a squeegee to merge the colours into one another creating a blurred effect. The inspiration for this painting was influence by my first painting as i loved the numerous coloured beams and wanted to experiment with the composition of them.

Blurred (Acrylic Paint On Canvas)  

(61mm x 76mm)

Looking at this painting I feel that perhaps it wasn't as successful as i imagined it to be and don't particularly like the harshness of the black, I also feel that it could possibly look more interesting turned on its side.

For this project I have chosen to look at the environment and more specifically, the way in which time can affect it.  To gather inspiration I firstly collected numerous photographs to show evidence of my journeys and discoveries, also allowing me to have a massive supply of primary sources to work from later. My photographs focus mainly on the interior of an abandoned factory and I have also started looking more into textures and surfaces such as brickwork.

Having gathered a generous amount of images to influence me I began exploring a range of painting techniques with numerous objects like Gerard Ritcher uses in his painting such as palette knives, brushes, rollers and squeegees… all my work so far has been created with acrylic paints and I see the medium as both an advantage and a disadvantage. Acrylic paints dries almost instantly and whilst this is fine for quick thick painting, it can sometimes be an issue when creating a more detailed piece which also involves trying to blend colours on a large scale. On the plus side quick drying paint can become quite interesting if continuously layered upon as it can create amazing depth and texture.

The next step for me is to keep creating new ideas and collecting more photographs to keeps things fresh and moving but at the same time still remaining relevant to my original idea of time. I have already decided that I would next like to experiment with a more abstract style as I generally find paint as a material itself fascinating and want to see in what ways I can manipulate it.

Having painted this image in my project before in a larger scale and really liking the outcome I decided to develop on it even more. So I painted on a much smaller scale and changed the composition sticking to one or two palette knives and created these outcomes, one in black and white and the other with a range of colours.

Empty 2  (Black & White Emulsion With Palette Knives)

(30mm x 21mm)

Empty 3 (Acrylic Paint With Palette Knives)

(30mm x 21mm)

I don't know why but for some reason when I created the coloured version I ended up with much more texture, I do believe that it could of been due to the fact that I was adding flecks of colours in the shadows afterwards, which would of left to pecks forming in the paint.

Having done many large scale paintings I did numerous experiments and I found the use of PVA glue very fascinating and versatile. The first one I did was inspired by the floor in the factory, to create this I painted some wood with white emulsion, then covered the wood in PVA glue and dropped black drawing ink into the glue when it was still wet. Once left to dry over night I returned to find that the ink had run into the glue and created this really wonderful splatter effect, which also reminds me of marble.

Floor (Emulsion, Ink & PVA Glue) 

(21mm x 30mm)

The second one was created in the same way you would produce an emulsion print but instead of emulsion I used acrylic paint. This method is really simple yet effective, I firstly painted two coats of red acrylic and placed a printed out image onto the wet paint. Having left it for a few days the image came out much clearer than it would just after one day, so I didn't have to take as much care when removing the paper with water and risk the print coming off. To finish it off I apply two coats or glue over the top to add a little extra shine.

Beams Transfer (Acrylic Paint & PVA Glue)   

(30mm x 21mm)

The new transfer technique I had recently learnt was quick effective and I felt it would be nice to try and paint on top of it. I also wondered what effect glue would have on top of acrylic paint, I tested it out and found that it washed the colour out and turned the white a awful cream colour.

Bricks (Acrylic Paint & PVA Glue)

(21mm x 30mm)

For this painting I used a combination of experiment one and two using a transfer, paint, glue and ink.

I used the glue and ink over the paint to make the reflections of light more realistic and present in the image as white does not transfer.

Empty 4 (Acrylic Paint, Ink & PVA Glue)

(21mm x 30mm)

Beams (Unedited Photograph)

I chose to paint from this photograph as I really love how the beams show great perspective and the depth of field, as the beams gradually get smaller and closer together creating a real sense of space and distance. All these different qualities about the photo helps to create a truly three dimensional painting.

Beams (Acrylic Paint With Palette Knives) 

(30mm x 21mm)

My latest piece is made up of several small boards, placed together they create one larger image with gaps in-between but the lines continue as if the image was whole. This design required a lot of measuring, not only did I have to divide an image into nine but I also have to allow for the  missing parts. Then there was also the case of rescaling as the image I was working from was not even the size of one board, not only that but then displaying the work was also quite challenging due to lining thing up and having even gaps.

Abandoned 1 

(21mm x 30mm)

Abandoned 2

(21mm x 30mm)

Abandoned 3

(21mm x 30mm)

Abandoned 4

(21mm x 30mm)

Abandoned 5

(21mm x 30mm)

Abandoned 6

(21mm x 30mm)

Abandoned 7

(21mm x 30mm)

Abandoned 8

(21mm x 30mm)

Abandoned 9

(21mm x 30mm)

Abandoned (9 In 1) (Acrylic Paint With Palette Knives & Brushes)

(69mm x 96mm)

Looking back at this I do like the idea of working in sections as it is much less over whelming than looking at it as one larger painting to do, it was also helpful being able to hole the painting and turn it around easily. I am not fully satisfied with the outcome as I am unhappy with certain colours, but feel I would like to try the sectioning style again.

Beams (Black And White Emulsion)

Ed Fairburn

Ed Fairburn is a modern Welsh freelance artist who mainly focuses on portraits and uses a range of mediums, he often draws on maps and has created some stunning and interesting portraits using the shapes found in maps. To create his well known portraits shades blocks of the maps in forming the structure of the face, he cuts out sections revealing over maps underneath in various bold colours.

After seeing Fairburn's work this has really made me would to consider using maps in my work as I find all the different little lines in these portraits fasinating. If I was to aproche this idea of using maps in my work i believe I would prefer to transfer the maps onto woods with emultion print.

Emanuel M. Ologeanu

Emanuel M. Ologeanu is a European artist who has sold hundreds of artwork all around the world and he specialises in a number of mediums such as, paints, inks, print and collages. I am particularly fond of his collage and print work and a lot of his work is drawn on book pages with chalks and ink. This work reminds me of an artist called Ed Fairburn who also enjoys drawing on top of things such as maps.

Ologeanu's work is very fresh and modern but also focuses on classic everyday scenes often seen in documentary photography. I felt that as the project has gone on I have been strongly influenced by his loose style, as my drawing are becoming a lot more painterly and i have started to experiment with collage and print transferring.

Journey Project

Screenshots From Video Of Journey

For my first journey I decided to do my walk from the bus station to university, which is roughly a 1 mile walk. I planned a day where I would bring my camera to university and have it hanging around my neck throughout the journey capturing everything I saw from people passing by me, to morning rush hour. In doing this the final result would be unpredictable and the shots I would get would be based purely on chance or luck. This idea of not knowing was rather interesting and i could not wait to watch the video and look for potential photographs.

Journey 1 

Journey 2

Journey 3

Journey 4

Journey 5

Journey 6

Journey 7

Journey 8

Getting these stills was very tricky as you had to pause at the correct moment, a millisecond out the whole image could be to blurry or you could lose half of the persons head. It was also raining on that day and you can see many rain drops from my lens but I really like how that has turned out. There is just one thing I would of liked to change about this video that is the fact that it stopped recording in the final minutes and I just wished I could of made it to the studio.

Statement

For my Journey project I have chosen to focus on my journey from the bus station to university as this is only the one journey i take around Leicester and felt it would be fitting seeing as i have to take this journey between the two 10 times a per week. My idea on how I was going to record this journey was through a video, I record it by putting the camera around my neck and videoed the whole walk.

To get some information to draw from I then when through the entire video and took a series of interesting screen shots of people I saw amongst my travels. This then gave me a range of photographs to work from, as they are only screen shots the quality of them is low but I kind of like this effect as it gives a sort of eeriness to them.

I have started off with small drawings in my sketchbook and found the work of Emanuel M. Ologeanu inspiring as i like his use of inks and watercolours mixed with drawing materials. I don't know if I will pursue this much longer as i would really like to try a more realistic approach.

Larger Work

After doing numerous little sketches from stills in my sketchbook I moved on to trying larger scales A4, A1... I used a combination of mediums from pencil - charcoal and ink - acrylic paint.

Waiting (Pencil, Charcoal & Ink)  

To start with I tried out drawing in a realistic style capturing as much detail as I could, but instead of doing what I would of ordinarily do when drawing, where I just used average drawing pencils. I decided to incorporate charcoal and drawing ink as these were two mediums i had never used before i started this course. Having found my new fondness for these mediums I felt they would be perfect to add to my drawings as they would create much darker shade then any pencil could ever achieve. To make the image impacting and compelling I also experimented with over exaggerating my highlights to really heightens the contrast between light and dark.

Just Passing (Pencil, Charcoal & Ink)

I also did this one in a similar style as I just wanted to see how the technique would translate to different things such as vehicles and trees. I found working in such a small size very difficult with these two as the heads are about the size of a 1p coin and it was rather tricky adding all the detail especially when using chunky charcoals. I would of course like to try a much bigger version but really do not thing I would of finished it in the time that we had left, these took roughly eight hours each.

Moving On (Pencil, Charcoal, Ink & Acrylic Paint)

(59mm x 84mm)

After my other pieces I thought I shall experiment more and try to be more free with my style as I am often very precious with my work and precious can be boring after several hours. This one was done on A1 paper and was done with much less control, but i did firstly started out by mapping out a few simple straight lines to give me direction and help with getting the scale proportions right. I then decided it would be best to use sorter mediums such as pencils and willow charcoal for the background as i really wanted to create a three dimensional affect. To make the drawing come to life I wanted really present bridge and railing and felt that a solid material such as paint would be the perfect way to create a strong impacting foreground.

(59mm x 84mm)

I had also drew a young man on a separate piece of paper who is present it the photo, but once I added him it just did not seem right and I rather preferred the drawing without him in it. Before I had decided that I did not like it I had drawn highlights and shadows around which are still present in the draw. I still kept the lines those as in shows that there was someone there at one point or another but they had just moved on, which is were I got the inspiration for the title of this piece "Moving On”.

London...

Gerhard Richter

Gerhard Richter has produced numerous abstract oil paints and the collection of 6 named after composer John Cage, where created using a range of techniques such as the use of a squeegee, layering, erasing and scraping away paint. The reason for naming the paintings after the composer John Cage was simply the fact that he was listening to him at the time and had always been interested in his ideas on life. I also feel that the name "Cage" could refer to a metal cage and I do feel that these paintings remind me of metal as there is a great range of grey tones and the texture is very rustic.

"Cage (1 - 6)" (2006)

(3000mm x 3000mm)

This work was also displayed at Tate Modern on the "Transformed Visions" level and was situated in his own room. Richter's style and how he applies his paint is something that has really influenced me and my style of painting, as I have just recently started to use palette knives and they are now my favourite way of a applying paint, but I have also experimented with numerous other ways of apply and manipulating paint such as, squeegees and rollers…

Abandoned 1

(21mm x 30mm)

This is a section fron one of my paintings which shows my use of palette knives by using them to layer paints on or scatching paint away reaveling colours underneath.

Blurred

(61mm x 76mm)

This is another one of my paintings where i experimented with a squeegee on canvas. These two paintings and my other paitning can be found on the "Studio Work" page, where I go indepeth about creating it.

Joan Mithchell

Joan Mitchell mainly works with oil paints on canvas, creating abstract and almost unrecognisable forms focusing on colours and textures more than anything else.  Although her paintings have a strong build up of colours  they always appear to have a smooth delicate shimmering surface across the whole of the canvas. The inspiration for Mitchell’s  expressive paintings often come from memories of the natural landscape, colours show that link with nature as the palette is often very earthy in tones.

"Number 12" (1951 - 1952)

(2019mm x 1867mm)

This piece "Number 12" was displayed in Tate Modern on level 3 "Transformed Visions" and was in a room called "Elegies". Her paint are often on unprimed canvases, which create a real sense of unfinishedness and her colours also have a strong contrast in cold and warm shades.