Increasing the Scale

Over the past week I have been working on a new project, painting in response to feedback I received from my peers and tutor. I try to take the insights of those around me into consideration regarding my artwork (particularly of those I share a studio with) as I wish to communicate through my work and learn if my ideas have been received the way I intended.

Two very important - or what I considered to be important - points made in my critical evaluation regarded depth within my paintings and their size. It was clear that I was unsuccessful in creating the desired depth within my work, which was something I began to tackle immediately in my Prussian Blue mini series on wood. After believing that this was successful, I challenged myself to up the scale of my work and paint on a much larger surface.

It is at this second point that I am currently working. The piece is one hundred centimetres square, almost four times the size the majority of my previous paintings on canvas. I decided to continue with my choice of colour from the Prussian blue mini series, adding hints of yellow ochre, burnt umber and the tiniest amount of silk purple to keep the piece interesting. I feel that this colour pallet is suitable for what I had envisioned painting and that the earthy tones create a nice contrast amongst the blue. In addition to this, I've been using heavier brush strokes to that of my last pieces, which have helped in creating texture and thick layers of acrylic.

So far I am nine hours into working on this painting; I'm enjoying the process however challenging and feel that I am learning more about my project through painting this particular piece than I have any of my past work. I'm especially enjoying the colour pallet and have ideas about creating a series involving these tones.

Above are two images I took close-up of the piece I am currently working on, demonstrating my use of brush strokes and colour pallet.

Summer Skies

Below is a selection of photographs I took earlier this year of the sky in different states. I was fascinated as to how different factors (time, weather, etc.) can have an impact on the skies colour and shape of clouds. These photos present some interesting colour pallets that I may consider using in my upcoming work.

Back to Blue

Continuing with my practices on wood, I created another piece - about the same size as those in my "Earthy Tones" post - but this time in blue shades. I made the decision to continue working on wood as I find the surface easy to paint on. This was something I discovered whilst working on my last two paintings, seen in my previous post. For the colour however, I chose to use Prussian Blue purely out of my love for blue tones and mixed it only with Titanium White to achieve the different shades. In my mind, this brought me back to my first few experimental paintings I created before the start of term.

With this painting I chose to leave some areas of the wood visible, much like I had experimented with previously and felt worked well. Furthermore, I tried using a combination of controlled brush strokes and spontaneous pallet knife applications, which resulted in a mixture of blended colours and textured layers.

I enjoyed blending the blue shades into eachother and overlaying them with heavy paint. I felt this had an interesting effect, as well as creating a suitable amount of depth within the piece.

After completing this piece, I decided to create another using the same techniques I have described above. Once finished and placed together, I felt that these two paintings looked interesting as a series.