In my eagerness to progress with Part Four I had completed Projects 1 and 2′ and numerous works, before I stepped back to look at the suggested artists from my Part Three feedback. What follows is a reflection, by artist, on the research that I have now completed.

Esther Donaldson, I am now following this artist on Instagram

I find that Esther’s paintings are expressive. She uses nature and the garden as her inspiration. The transitory aspect of nature and the changing seasons, the short life of flowers, moments, colours and moods are explored. Her painting medium is mainly acrylics which are applied richly, gesturally and allowed to drip and run. Trees and plants are suggested as rough shapes with lots of cool greens and yellows. Her painting, above, titled ‘In the shadows’ is a good example of her work.

Clare Woods (Daddy Witch)

The painting is two panels both 218.5 x 175.3 cms.

On researching this painting it was obvious why it had been recommended. There are aspects of my work in part three that allude to it. My attempts were much less successful. What I pick up from Clare’s work is the simplification of the scene which is carefully broken down into a concise composition. The colour palette is harmonious and subtle.

Extract from Arts council description “The painting, Daddy Witch, pictures an inverted pool bathed in moonlight, reflecting the shadowy brush. Dark shapes emerge from the surface as the viewer is witness to nocturnal happenings and latent drama.” This sums up the painting succinctly.

John Bunker

I found this work of less interest to me in so much as I don’t anticipate that I will use the technique of collage extensively in my work. Although I do feel that the juxtaposition of shapes and colours is a great method of breaking up the support and challenging the viewer to make sense of the painting.

Elizabeth Peyton the suggestion here was for her still life and landscapes paintings. however I found mainly portraits of friends, lovers, heroes, admirations, inspirations and fascinations. The portraits I found to be intimate studies. They observed the spirit of the person. An example of this is the joint portrait of Barrack and Michele Obama.

Kay Donachie b 1970, blurred, faded, muted ephemeral portraits, mainly heads, which have a filmic, film noir or retrospective quality. figurative imagery relating to modernism, domesticity, longing utopian counter cultural movements.

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Michele Fletcher, the garden paintings, a series of abstract paintings inspired by gardens and plants I found to be the paintings that I was drawn to most. Although I found it difficult to fully embrace them. In the example below the bramble appears menacing.

Michael Porter,

Michael’s paintings are about landscape but do not necessarily depict landscape as we would expect to see it. He uses landscape as an inspiration. Taking what he sees beneath his feet to create visions of what the landscape is as he sees it. The paintings are carefully, meticulously painted often using abstract patterned background to indicate dense undergrowth.

Michele Whiting, In looking at her paintings I came upon a series where the subject of landscape is in evidence but is only suggested in abstract forms. The series is limited to a pared back palette of colours, browns, ochres, white, Payne’s grey and light blue. The paint is applied in soft translucent washes of colour, loose gestural brushwork with added lines and contours.

Frances Ryan, of the selection of artists that were suggested it is between Frances’s and those of Justin Mortimer that I found resonated most with me. Frances’s paintings are abstract visions of nature incorporating plants, shapes and lovely bright patches of colour. In some ways her paintings are all the things my Assignment 3 painting ‘Hidden away’ wasn’t. I need to reference the three examples, plus others, when I look to make further paintings in a similar vein.

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Justin Mortimer, viscosity of paint was the pointer in the suggestion to examine the paintings of Justin. I started with his most recent works which are somewhere between abstraction and still life. Plants are suggested by smearing, smudging and scrapping. Swirls of paint, poured and layered. His website has his paintings in a chronological sequence. I went to the earlier works and discovered in 2002-07 a series of paintings that I should use as inspiration for my parallel project. In these painting buildings are described that are in states of disrepair. Blocks of dark, brooding colours, greys and dark greens are used to describe the form of the buildings. The paint is laid down in visceral slabs which contrast with burst of light. The painting below is a good example of this.

Following his work through the subsequent years the buildings became only occasionally in evidence as they were replaced by human forms. The paintings from 2012 – 2014 have a dystopian feel to them. They reminded me of the mood, look and feel of the television drama of the Chernobyl disaster, gritty, dark and melancholic. These are followed in the subsequent years 2015 -2017 by paintings in which the human figures are dressed in Personal Protective Equipment and are seen fighting chemical spillages. From the perspective of 2020 they would appear to be invoking the pandemic to come.

Carol Rhodes 1959 – 2018,

The aerial perspective of carol’s landscapes show parts of the landscapes and leave other parts to the imagination. the paintings run outside the edge of the support into the mind.

Conclusion: I have gathered a lot of information in completing this research and I will need to unpick it further to enable myself to incorporate the inspiration and ideas into my own work.

Overall the meeting and subsequent comments were positive. In an earlier blog on my personal assessment I rated my work against the assessment criteria. In this I explained how I had adapted the exercises to allow myself to explore the topics via painting. In so doing it had allowed a freedom to express myself and respond to the challenges. The resultant work varied in style and technique and used a variety of sources to create inspiration. In amongst these were some specific pieces which were singled out for positive comment.

In Exercise 1.0 where I created a series of four sketchy paintings it was one where despite there being obvious issues with the perspective it was felt that the background wall texture and the chair was well rendered. The composition was tonally balanced.

For Exercise 1.1 ‘Body as canvas’ the way I had interpreted the exercise was interesting. Of the paintings it was commented that the smaller blue painting had a better body shape than than the larger one where the right side of the body, the left side of the painting, appeared to be squeezed in to fit the canvas.

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Whilst I agree with the observation I feel that the tenderness, the caressing of the instrument, is better observed in the second painting.

The series of paintings completed for Exercise 1.2 ‘Before and after’ were commented on a having a charming and playful quality that was found to be amusing. The main learning points from this exercise, for me, was the requirement to keep a consistent format and style across the pieces. this had necessitated planning, organising and not plunging into the work which, at times, I am prone to do. It was suggested that I research George Shaw’s Payne’s Grey paintings as a source of inspiration as to how to create narrative over several works by the consistent use of a limited palette.

The exercise for which I created the most work and made the most investigations was Exercise 1.3 ‘The mirror as a stage’. It was this exercise where the most in depth conversations and comments were directed. The overriding comment that I highlighted from the feedback was the possibility to start making more connections between subject and process. How can I integrate some of the more successful experiments and techniques into my parallel project of exploring aspects of Fenland landscapes.

Some of the more successful paintings were:

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For my Assignment piece I had selected an image from a photograph which, it was felt, had created difficulties, for myself. The photograph didn’t have sufficient tonal variations and the focal point lacked emphasis. The result was that the final piece became overworked. The quicker study was preferred to the final painting. The alternative orientation of displaying the final piece upside down from its intentional orientation has now become my preferred way of hanging the painting. It was commented that it reminded of exposed tree roots along a river bank. I also feel the it has a dark, gloomy quality in which the landscape looks desolate under an foreboding sky.

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The final part of the review concentrated upon my ideas for both the Parallel project and the Critical Review. I outlined my ideas to create a series of painting where I would explore abandoned, run down, decaying Fenland farm buildings looking for unusual angles and perspectives. The idea included a comparison to and inspiration from the suburban landscape paintings of George Shaw. I would also use George Shaw as the main topic for my critical review where I will look to examine his paintings of the mundane, the discarded, the back alleys and the familiar sights of our day to day existence. This would be compared to other artists working in similar fields both in painting and other artistic fields.

A number of artists were suggested for research which I will do in due course and will write up my thoughts and reflections in my blog. In this I will endeavour to increase the depth into which I investigate.

Demonstration of Technical and Visual skills

To assess the outcomes that I have achieved I have broken this section down into the key elements.

Materials: 

The materials that I used during Part Three were those that I would expect to use, oil and acrylic paints, pencils, charcoal for the paintings and drawings. However for the creation of the stand in for the human form I used old clothes and fashioned a t-shirt from paper.

Techniques: 

There were a number of different painting techniques that I utilised to create the varied styles that I utilised in responding to the exercises. These ranged from loose gestural application of paint to tightly controlled.

Observational skills: 

I believe that I have demonstrated a depth of observation throughout Part Three. I have looked to complete the exercises in a variety of ways whilst at the same time looking to resolve them with a painting.

Visual awareness: 

The exercises forced me to address how I looked at, around and into objects, their positions and relationship to their surroundings. In doing so I found that I expanded my knowledge and responses to visual challenges.

Design and compositional skills: 

I had to utilise a number of different design and compositional skills for the exercises. The most notable example was the storybook paintings that created for exercise 1.2 ‘before and after’. In this exercise I needed to create and consistent and clear design to enable the story to unfold and be understandable.

Quality of Outcome

I feel that I have produced throughout part three has been of a consistently good quality. There are some pieces which I believe are amongst the best paintings that I have made.

Demonstration of Creativity

In trying to resolve the exercises with painted solutions I have needed to look beyond the obvious solutions.

Context

My learning log details a lot of my thoughts and reflections on both the work that I have completed and my thought processes. I would have liked to have complimented some of the exercises with visits to exhibitions but this has not been possible during lockdown. In response to this I have utilised on line resources. These do not compensate for the experience of confronting art in the flesh. I have set up a regular, not quite daily, routine of exploring a new, to me, artist. For each one I have written a short blog about their work and my reaction to it.

Summary

Overall I have enjoyed Part Three and can look back on the work that I have undertaken and the resulting paintings with satisfaction.

I will start this written piece by posting the finished painting and then I will go through my thoughts and reflections on its creation and outcome.

This painting is very much a follow on from Exercise 1.3 ‘The mirror as a stage’. The subject of reflections has been a line of investigation for me for some time. I have made a series of paintings, going back to the start of my previous OCA course ‘ Concepts in Practice’ which explore the reflective qualities of water, particularly in the landscape. My investigations have explored both the mirror aspect of bodies of water and the act of looking into water. It’s ability to be looked through and to reflect back at one and the same time. For this particular painting I wanted to make use of a small series of photographs I took earlier in the year. They focus on part of a Fenland drain that is usually hidden from view. The photographs were taken in early spring before the foliage obscures the view. The water at this part of the drain also dries up and the reflective qualities disappear.

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There is considerable information in the photographs which I would need to edit in order to try to convey the subject in a clear way. This started by making an edit of one of the photographs which would then become the template for the composition.

A quick sketch was made before I embarked upon the painting.

At this stage I was stuck in two minds as to how to approach the painting. I had a number of different outcomes in mind ranging from a painting that was more abstract in nature to a more pictorial one. It was during the initial laying down of acrylic paint for the underpainting that I stopped when I realised that I had a loose painting that encapsulated much of what I had envisaged as a potential abstraction. This became a work in itself.

What I enjoy about this painting is the way in which the light, yellow and green, on both the banks behind the trees and the white reflected on the water contrast with the dark shadows. The trees themselves are crudely suggested by vigorous lines dragged through the background paint with a loaded brush but appear believable.

I started again, this time I would not stop at the underpainting, it wasn’t as good. It had many of the qualities of the first painting but lacked something.

The second, completed painting which I used to open this blog, is a more focussed painting. It is also more pictorial in intent and outcome whilst taking some liberty with the colour palette which makes it less naturalistic. The temptation to overwork it and potentially lose some of its vitality was strong.

Whilst being content with the outcome I feel that I still have more to do before I feel satisfied within myself with this style of work. There are elements of my practice that I am trying to resolve. This will take time and practice and will evolve.

I have discovered a dilemma with this painting in that whilst editing the photograph, rotating the image, it struck me that the painting also looks good upside down. In fact it takes on different qualities. It has more depth as the what is the water now becomes a receding landscape. I am not entirely convinced. I will live with it hung this way for a few days and make a final decision.

This has become my preferred way of displaying this painting. The positive feedback that I received was that it had the appearance of exposed roots at waters edge. The reflected light in the water becomes a receding skyline. There is a sense of desolation a barren landscape beyond the trees. A foreboding gloom in the sky as day moves into night.