Assignment 5: A series of painting on a theme

The theme of my final piece is Willows.

I started the series while trying the impasto technique; I painted a few pictures during the whole process and picked one as a starting point to be explored. I worked using random photos either ones I took or found on the internet. Many artists doesn’t like using photographs in their work, from simple reasons such as the details aren’t present and we definitely see more with our naked eye but for me the most important was to show a random landscape using the impasto technique, in the technique the most important thing is how you translate what you see on the photo into the painting. I tried to show, by eliminating certain detail, a certain feeling in the painting. To create a more interesting and challenging series I chose trees which for both me and many artists are a huge task while painting, I wanted to show the dimensional living form in a simple space without worrying too much about the sky. I found that after the first painting some sign of atmosphere and a feel of an autumn weather and decided to continue with this theme.

“The Willows 1” Acrylic and Impasto gel on canvas 80/60cm

  Next I painted the same trees changing the tone of colours, using a traditional way of painting. The biggest challenge while painting this was the branches and bushes as I wanted to show the composition of trees and the rhythm they create and in the colour I wanted to create a oneness with the rest of the painting.

“The Willows 2” Acrylic on canvas 80/60cm

 I then went onto something different and change from acrylic to gouache on board and tried a different mood using a completely different palette of colours. For me this was a way to show the same theme but in a more abstract way.

“The Willows 3” Gouache on board 80/60cm

 The fourth piece in the series going back to acrylic I wanted to show the structure of the tree itself using darker colours including a lot of black detail. I wanted to get a more realistic form of a landscape, to show the same object in a conventional way and also try to do the same theme in a completely different style.

“The Willows 4” Acrylic on canvas 80/60cm

 The last picture in the series is a more abstract and expressive form of the theme. While working on this piece after painting the first sketch layer of paint I added some paint brush hair in some areas, gluing it to the canvas using impasto gel, I didn’t wait till the gel dried but started the next layer of paint straight away so the hair still moved under the brush strokes. This was a very interesting experience as this created a barrier for my paintbrush and a natural relief was created which I then covered in paint. In some sense I felt like I didn’t have complete control over what happened but this created an element of randomness which after drying gave me a form of what to paint next, which was to go over the relief and between it. First idea was to recreate the same painting in this but after seeing the effect I decided to minimalize the sharpness of the trees and worked with a paintbrush to show just the branches and the light between them covering the rest of the trees showing them as less important. I would call this an attempt to create an abstraction with a theme suggestion in the background showing that there is something natural in it.

“The Willows 5” Acrylic and Impasto gel on canvas 80/60cm

 The whole series of paintings has the same theme; I deliberately didn’t copy the same shape of trees because I wanted each painting to be different so I explored each one in a different way.

Work on this project was definitely an evolution of me as a painter and I see similarities such as brush making and creating form and space as I tried to show a personal attachment in each piece. I worked relatively expressively but still managed to leave a personal mark on each work. I am aware that each painting has a different degree but I tried to use different medium and some are more or less skilfully demanding when manipulation it to the painting. I was not able to eliminate some problem during this project I also see problems after some time but unfortunately I do not have time to fix them. During this project I looked at many artists and used the book by Ian Simpson “The Challenge of Landscape Painting” published by Collins but haven’t adopted any of the other artists’ techniques and used my own inspirations to develop.

 

Assignment Four

 

Assignment Four

For this assignment I thought long about what to paint and wanted to create something slightly different than my previous work from the exercises. I found a beautiful winter landscape of Semer water in the Yorkshire dales, with lovely mood and atmosphere. I decided to work on canvas 80×60 using acrylic paint.

I painted the picture after which I decided I was not completely happy with it because the picture was not taken by me but was from a calendar and I could not put a personal touch into the work. So I decided to look in my photo album to find something with similar cold atmosphere showing water and trees. I found one picture that I always identify with as it is a very lovely place; I used this photo earlier for watercolour exercise.

 

This is also within walking distance of where I live so when I go for a walk I can observe certain details. I made preparation work on board using tempera on a 90×70 format,

after which I wasn’t too happy with it as it did not portray the atmosphere I wanted it to, I used too much black in my opinion which I don’t like doing but I needed to so I decided to work on the only available canvas 90×90 and try to paint something that I won’t focus too much on detail in and won’t be too realistic but will appear how I feel when I’m painting. When I chose the photograph to work from I knew that there was a lot of trees and detail in the photo and I knew it would be a challenge. The only way to show this realistically is to draw the photograph out and then use paint but that then becomes a copy of the photograph and not a work in its own right. When I started working on the painting from laying down the first colours it changed, the green grass in the foreground, grey water and blue sky. I got inspired by the colour combination and I knew that I needed to carry on in that direction not changing the tonal valuation of the colours. I knew that the whole atmosphere would be different if I leave the colours like they are compared to the p[photograph. The problem that appeared was how to paint the trees so that they are there but so that they don’t stand out from the whole painting, so not too much detail and creating a unity in the whole painting, in some of my other paintings you can see more colour but I wanted to limit this as I was scared that if I use too much then the three main colours with loose its pastel character. I created a different atmosphere than I planned to but at least showed who I am and how much I like painting, so I can definitely not just copy a picture but have to put a bit of myself into the picture, so I used the photograph only for guidance.

Final piece acrylic on canvas 90×90 cm

ASSIGNMENT THREE

ASSIGNMENT THREE

For this assignment I chose to do a self portrait and started to do simple outline sketches of my face. The whole assignment was a continuation of the previous exercise. I know my face and tried to investigate more deeply and show some different kind of emotion and use different kind of expression and find some different tonal valuation of my face. After the exercise with the self portrait I did in acrylic I came back to oil paint my self portrait in very monochromatic palettes. In this portrait  I used experimental brush marks and I tried to build an old picture mixing a colour mostly on the canvas. It was a very good experience for me because I feel like not only did I paint my portrait but feel like carving my face in the clay. I was not happy with this painting but I decided to leave it like it is without any more work to it because after a few days the paint starts to dry and all that technique / effect will disappear because I can only add another layer on top and not achieve any new colour mixing with the old one. It wasn’t good but in that work is something which I can build up later on.

After I decided to do more conventional way and I did final piece on oil on canvas about 60cm x 80cm. This time I mixed some colours on the palette and sometimes I let the colours mix on the canvas. I always had a problem when I looked at my face in the mirror as I have grey hair and beard and the form of my face seems to take a different older character. At the same time when I look in the mirror I look into my eyes and sometimes I see a different person. In the end that person looks more older and it looks like a liturgical image. Maybe it’s because  I always like looking at that kind of iconographic painting with great interest.

 

Final piece oil on canvas 60cm x80cm

 

ASSIGNMENT TWO

Still Life with Flowers and Apples

For this assignment I decided to paint on canvas size 51x41cm using acrylic paint. For a long time I have been fascinated with the work of Paul Cezanne especially the series of Still Life with Apples paintings. This inspired me and I set up a still life with apples and a vase of flowers adding extra pieces like a mug and plate.

In this assignment it was important to pay close attention to the understanding of colour, showing how the composition is illuminated and at the same time placing this composition with harmony to the background. After doing a few sketches to see if the composition is right I started to paint the first painting, this is in a way a continuation of previous exercises such as still life with flower, natural object and manmade objects. In this painting I also tried to use contrasting colours and create some mood atmosphere. Most of the objects in the painting can be found in previous exercises.

While painting I concentrated mostly on finding a right balance in colour, light and also show geometric forms of the objects but also placing everything within a background. In the painting you can see a outline of chairs against a table. I tried to find colour in each element, light areas aren’t only filled in with white but they are filled with light colours from my palette, apples which are mostly red also have a touch of purple, orange and pink.

Next I painted the next picture where the bouquet of tulips was replaced with a bouquet of unopened lilies in a transparent vase, the mug was replaced for another but with a different colour and I also showed a clearer outline of the chair against the table. This painting is lighter and I think the flowers are more three dimensional. The painting is gentler with a better balance between the colours, the previous was maybe a little too blue this one show a wider variety in the palette. I think the second one is the better one for the final assessment.

Final piece acrylic on canvas 41/51cm

ASSIGNMENT ONE PAINTING

Before I started working on this project, I looked carefully at the assignment criteria and I was confused when it said ‘don’t be too ambitious at this stage’ and ‘your painting should be representational’ and I chose an easy way to express myself; I started working on landscape painting. I started working with oil on white ground canvas sized 75x60cm. I tried to show an old stone barn in Wensleydale, where I live. I made some sketches and I started working outside because it is close to my home. I did not do too much of colour study because I know the green palette very well from the previous exercises; most of them were light and dark green. I needed to finish the painting at home because of the weather conditions, and at home, I do not have the natural view so I imagined it and finished it in the colour from memory. I know every detail of the field and I can always imagine drystone walls and barns because I live and work on the farm. When I painted the sky, I did the first wash in ultramarine blue and cerulean blue, and some other blues. After a few days where it was nearly dry, I added some clouds and made the blue show through the clouds. When I was painting the clouds and the barn I used some zinc white and titan white. Whenever i used the white, i never just used white; I mixed it with other colours like yellow, blue to create a warm effect and grey to create a cold effect. I did not add too much black, but when I did it was always mixed with blue so it did not stand out too much from the green. This was my first proposition, and I had some time to reflect and i think i can do another one.

Second proposition: I used oil on canvas 61x61cm. I found a picture that I took of White Scar Dam, and I thought I could paint the simple landscape from my photography. I did a sketch before i started painting, and this time I chose to add yellows, burnt umber, yellow ochre, burnt sienna to my palette and I chose those compositions because I like the contrast between the water and the yellow grass. When i painted the sky, i used similar techniques as in the previous painting and I tried to use the same warm colours for the grass and clouds. This highlighted the dark blue water most, which was painted with six different shades of blue. I am not sure if I can use both works for this assignment because I think this assignment is for introducing myself, may I ask for your opinion about which one is the stronger and weaker painting? If I need to choose, I’d choose the second painting.