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Part 1 – another round of washes

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I really didn’t get the hang of this first time round, and I’m not so sure I have this time, but at least after making my colour mixing chart I have grasped the idea of dilution. These aren’t very exciting but they give me a better idea of how washes work. There are some plain single colour washes here, and a blended one. The greys are in preparation for the contrast study in which, last time, I’d struggled with trees.   Continue reading Part 1 – another round of washes

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Part 1, mixing paint

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Sometimes you just have to go back to basics. I’d skimmed over the paint mixing exercise, not quite seeing the point, then for all sorts of reasons I decided to revisit the early pages of the course materials. There on almost the first page was a grid of mixed colours – extensive, careful, neat; I very nearly turned the page. But after a bit of thought it seemed to me that this was the kind of thing I needed to be tackling. It’s not an identified exercise but I thought it would probably help when I moved onto the one … Continue reading Part 1, mixing paint

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Extracts: response to tutor feedback Assignment 3

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

A key piece of advice, and one that has just been reiterated by my Painting tutor, is to slow down and take more time to explore. I’ve commented there and it’s relevant here that I think this is due to my still being in shallow waters and that I am expecting this to change in due course. When I have more depth of relationship with the material, depth of perception and focus will follow. I have been an expert in my field for many years and so this feels like floundering. It’s uncomfortable but that bodes well for action. You … Continue reading Extracts: response to tutor feedback Assignment 3

Art and artists: building a vocabulary, Research & Reflection3 Comments

Paula Rego – BBC documentary and Gompertz review of exhibition

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Dame Paula Rego: Will Gompertz reviews Obediance and Defiance show in Milton Keynes. BBC News, Entertainment and Arts, June 2019 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48616934?xtor=ES-211-%5B23633_PANUK_DIV_25_ART_PaulaRego_Over35_Mopup%5D-20190623-%5Bbbcnews_damepaularegowillgompertzreviewsobedienceandefianceshowinmiltonkeynes_news%5D I’ve just watched the BBC’s 2017 documentary, Secrets and Stories, on Rego (which is due to expire in twelve days from now but just in case of a reprieve, this is the link https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08kz9qz/paula-rego-secrets-and-stories?xtor=ES-211-%5B23633_PANUK_DIV_25_ART_PaulaRego_Over35_Mopup%5D-20190623-%5Bbbctwo_paularegosecretsandstories_factualarts%5D) and found my first speculations about the deeper issues referred to in short biographies to be both justified and deepened. Being born in Portugal into a world in which fascism and repression – particularly of women – meant much of what was real in terms … Continue reading Paula Rego – BBC documentary and Gompertz review of exhibition

Art and artists: building a vocabulary, Research & Reflection, Videos documentaries1 Comment

Paula Rego – BBC video and Gompertz review of exhibition

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Dame Paula Rego: Will Gompertz reviews Obedience and Defiance show in Milton Keynes. BBC News, Entertainment and Arts, June 2019   https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48616934?xtor=ES-211-%5B23633_PANUK_DIV_25_ART_PaulaRego_Over35_Mopup%5D-20190623-%5Bbbcnews_damepaularegowillgompertzreviewsobedienceandefianceshowinmiltonkeynes_news%5D I’ve just watched the BBC’s 2017 documentary, Secrets and Stories, on Rego (which is due to expire in twelve days from now but just in case of a reprieve, this is the link https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08kz9qz/paula-rego-secrets-and-stories?xtor=ES-211-%5B23633_PANUK_DIV_25_ART_PaulaRego_Over35_Mopup%5D-20190623-%5Bbbctwo_paularegosecretsandstories_factualarts%5D) and found my first speculations about the deeper issues referred to in short biographies to be both justified and deepened. Being born in Portugal into a world in which fascism and repression – particularly of women – meant much of what was real in terms … Continue reading Paula Rego – BBC video and Gompertz review of exhibition

exercises, Research & Reflection3 Comments

Part 2, exercise 3&4 – broken or tertiary colours, research point 1 colour theory

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I needed to get my head round the whole additive and subtractive colour mixing thing before going any further, particularly in relation to complementary colours and why they have the effect they do on each other. It isn’t the first time I’ve been round this block and that’s because the terms themselves seem counter-intuitive. Let’s start with light. Light is, to all intents and purposes, white but it is so because it’s a composite of all the visible frequencies that comprise the whole. As Isaac Newton demonstrated in 1666, it can be broken into its component parts using a prism. … Continue reading Part 2, exercise 3&4 – broken or tertiary colours, research point 1 colour theory

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Part 2 exercise 2 -primary and secondary colour mixing

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Again, I’ve rather strayed from the plot but not without gaining a bit of valuable experience. This is just one of several sheets, most using the lighter grey background but all both grasping and failing to grasp the purpose of the task. I have three kinds of yellow and two of red. Some of these are student grade (the second and third yellow and the second red – all Royal Langnickel) which means their pigment load is not high, and two are professional grade (first yellow and first red – both Winsor and Newton). The brightest yellow and deepest red … Continue reading Part 2 exercise 2 -primary and secondary colour mixing

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Part 2 exercise 1 – mixing greys

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I may have missed the point of this, and also got a little carried away! Top left is what I think is the bare bones of the exercise; a progression of mixed paint going from unmixed white to unmixed black. Underneath is a series of mid-grey patches roughly but not completely equivalent in tone aiming to show how much darker they seem towards the left of the line when sitting beneath the lighter patches. Not the best representation. The rest are streaks made by dragging a pebble across two patches of pigment and, at the bottom, more dilute wet-in-wet applications … Continue reading Part 2 exercise 1 – mixing greys