The category containing all posts for part 1.
November 5th, 2020. It isn’t ideal to be doing the ground work post hoc for the practical work it’s likely to inform but, due to ongoing actual ground work, that has been the way it has had to be. This … Continue reading Formative feedback
This module is about exploring the use of different media in the making of paintings. One of the pieces that, for me, came off best from what was a difficult series was a small almost abstract painting of the pair of osprey I’d been watching for much of lockdown on the Loch Arkaig webcam. I saw the eggs; I was watching when one of them hatched; I saw all three grow up and leave the nest on their migration to Africa. This tiny painting, and some of the less satisfactory challenges that followed, drove me back into my comfort zone … Continue reading Painting media
Not beating about the bush, I find this sort of task difficult because meaning drives my painting and reducing an image to shapes strips it of that. But I know this image because I used it in the previous exercise … Continue reading Part 1, exercise 1:4 – 10 and 20 minute paintings upside down
18th August. This task requires an assembling of five of my found images, overlapped; an A3 sheet of paper, and water-based paint. I have run out of HP watercolour paper so I used black cartridge, painting the blocks of the … Continue reading Part 1, exercise 1:3 – quick and focused
The notes present a table of artists grouped according to style: slick, flat paint; loose thin paint; photo-realism; black and white; colour and pattern; and messy. The task is first to look two (at least) from each category and write … Continue reading Research point 1 – categories of contemporary and historical painters
This exercise uses found images again, this time on 10 prepared postcard sized backgrounds – 5 black and 5 white. I used Aquarelle HP watercolour paper which is quite solid and relatively robust, although I discovered it is not up … Continue reading Part 1, exercise 1:2 – black and white
The task here is to use, I think, of one image on different kinds of background using dilute paints or inks of various kinds, and also varnish. I had available acrylic, watercolour, gouache, ecoline inks, and both polymer and spray … Continue reading Part 1, exercise 1:1 – painting thin and small
This was a revelation and really supported the course materials. Details such as the ideal tilt, and brush shape that aren’t covered in the text, and the concept of the bead – that leading edge of dilute medium that sits at the bottom of any horizontal stroke – which I’d never heard of and had no idea of its actual use. Liron is using watercolour but I need to try it with acrylics. My guess is it will dry more quickly but we’ll see. First attempts, some with stretched paper and some not. These are prussian blue and raw … Continue reading Washes – a video by Liron Yanil
I came across the term chiaroscuro many years ago and subsequently forgot what it meant then confused it with sgraffito. A little analysis would have clarified that, given the latter’s close approximation to graffiti. Chiaroscuro is about light and the use of paint to create that illusion on canvas. Sister Wendy Beckett (Beckett, 2001) notes an early example of this (see above) and makes the link back from this Roman piece to Hellenistic art. I find this painting startling in its realism; representational without being frozen. It looks alive. The small glass vase in particular has a fragility to it, and a … Continue reading Part 1, Research Point 1, Chiaroscuro
Pasted into sketchbooks, this is the latest batch of acrylic washers based on the video by Liron Yanil. Burnt umber and prussian blue, magenta and cad yellow, prussian blue and cad yellow. The video uses watercolours but it seems to … Continue reading Part 1 – washes and objects
Strayfish Arts 