Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Research & ReflectionLeave a comment

Side project: not-a-matisse

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

This picture has struck me for longer than I’d realised. I didn’t give it much thought and I had no idea who painted it but it looked bright and rebellious. It turns out that was not far from the truth; it was Matisse’s painting of his wife Amelie in the wild colours of his style, Amelie herself later being arrested (in 1944) for being part of the French resistance. I’ve taken to challenging myself recently between exercises and assignments to copy a painting (or complete one of the in-the-style-of exercises set by the MoMA Coursera course on post war abstract … Continue reading Side project: not-a-matisse

Assignments, Part 53 Comments

Part 5 assignment 5 – Lockdown Art: a series of paintings on a theme

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

There is no particular order to these paintings although chronological is probably the most appropriate. For me, in a statistically defined ‘at risk’ group and with no end in sight to that risk, lockdown has been the defining feature of this module and probably will be for the next one at least. I have had to invent ways of meeting the requirements without access to people, or landscapes, or sometimes sufficient space. This in the context of also accessing reliable food supplies for myself and my five cats who would be quite unforgiving if deprived of Felix As Good As … Continue reading Part 5 assignment 5 – Lockdown Art: a series of paintings on a theme

Research & ReflectionLeave a comment

Side project – paint a Rothko

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Again this is prompted by the Coursera course on abstract art. I baulked at Pollock and de Kooning, both of them a little too unconstrained for my circumstances, but thought this would be a doddle. It wasn’t and I had a day of muddy failures on an 8″ x 10″ canvas board. In addition to lack of actual skill, the key issues seemed likely to be the medium and the support – his oils (with linseed and turpentine) on canvas, mine acrylics on a small canvas board with pva glue and some medium that slows drying. So after a day … Continue reading Side project – paint a Rothko