Abstract art is not my favourite genre to view so it’s not surprising I’m finding it difficult to find a way into this task. First though, I found some shapes in a Hoya plant in the conservatory, took a photo, … Continue reading Part 5, project 3, exercise 1 – abstraction using natural objects
This task requires some additional materials such as paper, rags, bits and pieces to stick onto a support and to then paint over, using the texture in the structure of the painting. Of the several available scenarios, I’ve chosen ‘rough … Continue reading Part 5, project 2, exercise 1 – preparing a textured ground
Impasto is the technique of applying paint thickly, often unmixed, with a brush, palette knife, pebble, or other implement. It can either then be left to dry in ridges or blended in situ. This task was to make three painted … Continue reading Part 5, project 1, exercise 1 – impasto
If you’re going to do excruciation, do it early and do it big so here it is, my one take, unedited, no embellishments assessment presentation. Not even a cat turned up. Contracted to Zoom, probably. Continue reading Formal assessment – video presentation
The demands of this exercise – putting a large piece of paper on the floor, covering floor and furniture with newspaper, then applying paint by dripping, dribbling, and spattering it onto the paper using large household brushes – are ones I can’t meet. I have no usable space of this kind and a back injury prevents me from adopting the physical position required. I have to be upright with my back straight. I’m going to argue that I have experimented with very loose applications of paint in the past, that I am unlikely ever to incorporate this technique in my … Continue reading Part 5, project 1, exercise 2 – dripping, dribbling, and spattering paint
This exercise is a real challenge because it’s about using floor space to dribble, drip, and splash paint onto from above. I have very little floor space, and five cats whose main function in life is to sit on or … Continue reading Part 5, project 2, exercise 2 – adding materials from the environment
There are two main parts to this task, the first being to review all my landscape paintings to consider which have been the most appealing. This is my collection from the current module and what strikes me is the colours; … Continue reading Part 4, assignment 4 – landscape
I bought some mixing white after seeing a video in which it was used but by the time I came to think about it again, I’d forgotten its purpose – how was it different, and why use it? This video explains: Titanium white is opaque and mutes and ‘pastelises’ a pigment while mixing white brightens the colour of the mixed pigment, maintains the colour saturation, and only subtly tints it. This is my unscientific experiment: Brightening, retaining saturation, being less opaque – this sounds like an ideal wash, whereas the alternative sounds more like robust coverage. ___ Mixing white vs … Continue reading Titanium White v Mixing White
This has been my predominate practice of late and so I hope I’ve begun to show already some of the learning points this exercise is designed to cover. Specifically, interpreting rather than transcribing, attending to composition and being selective, and … Continue reading Part 4, project 5, exercise 3 – working from a photograph
From the course notes: [Essentially] the Golden Mean is a proportion in which a straight line or rectangle is divided into two unequal parts in such a way that the ratio of the smaller to the greater part is the same as the ratio of the greater part to the whole This site (Maths is Fun) describes the Golden Mean and its relationship to Fibonacci numbers thus: … just like we naturally get seven arms when we use 0.142857 (1/7), we tend to get Fibonacci Numbers when we use the Golden Ratio. Maths is Fun https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/nature-golden-ratio-fibonacci.html#:~:text=Fibonacci%20Numbers,B Sometime last year, watching … Continue reading Part 4, research point 2 – the Golden Mean
Strayfish Arts 