I chose this painting from the two I’d done because I like the colours, the brush marks, and the fact I’d managed to get the shape of the jug right for once. I’m also drawing a contrast with the seafront scene in that the jug painting, ironically, seems to have more movement in it despite being a still life.

I have scoured the folder for a structure for this component and failed so I’m transplanting the one I’ve used in the Drawing module.

• Demonstration of technical and visual skills – materials, techniques, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skills.

I like simplicity and space although I’m not always good at delivering either. This time I think I’ve exercised sufficient restraint to at least stay out of the background, more or less. I haven’t given the onion enough base and I think the jug has a light lean to the right, otherwise I’m pretty happy with this as a first offering. I’m particularly pleased with the orange flashes on the handle, largely because that required immense restraint to avoiding over-doing it.

• Quality of outcome – content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas.

I write almost contemporaneously in my blog and, this being the first part of this course, I see I’ve written very little about the early exercises. That’s because I really had very little to say that might be insightful, which in itself, with hindsight, is a form of insight. I’m not a waffler or a parroter of quotes I don’t understand but I expect this to change. As regards this assignment, I know I’ve benefited from the work I’ve done on the Drawing course (assignment 3 is just in) and I’ve applied this to my use of paint. Prior to that, I would have been too tight and driven more by line than shape. There would have been less movement and that, I think, would have reduced the vibrancy I believe I see in it.

• Demonstration of creativity – imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice.

I know I’ve been somewhat aimless in the build-up to this assignment, not quite clear about what the task is or how to reflect on what I produced in response to the tasks. But I’ve enjoyed using brushes, palette knives and other implements in this module because I prefer movement to lines and the essence of an object rather than a precise replication. This gives me more room to dial up the intensity of colours (or down in the case of the seafront painting where I think I’ve ended up with something that’s almost stylised) to reflect the way I feel them. I’m not sure yet where my artist voice is going but exposure to so many more scales and octaves is beginning to expand its range.

• Context reflection – research critical thinking (as evidenced in learning log).

I am relatively under-skilled in this area for now, particularly with regard to that close research relating to influences. I suspect there are influences but they’re subsumed within a body of experiences stored over many years and no longer individually accessible. The seafront has some Beardsley to it, and some stylised work that may be due to seeing some Patrick Caulfield although I only know the name because my Drawing tutor referred to it in the context of one of those assignments. I’m beginning to discuss art and artists more generally though, and this is evidenced in my blog with posts such as those on Paula Rego, Sean Scully, brutalist architecture, and a short review of Will Gompertz’s book ‘What are you looking at?‘