Photography

 My first project of the year was photography.

Our theme was 'The Environment'.

We created mind maps and lists of everything that represent the environment, this was to start our off our initial ideas. 

I explored many new techniques like emulsion lifts, pinhole cameras, photograms etc.  

My favourite of which was the emulsion lifts:

1. Print out your photograph onto plain or thin paper (in colour or in black and white)
2. Paint over the photograph with a thick layer of emulsion paint (I used white)
3. Flip it over onto your chosen surface ( I experimented with fabrics, plastics, different types of paper, leaves etc.)
4. Leave to dry out completely
5. Get a wet cloth or place your hands in water and start to rub away the paper. you will find it starts to peal or flake off. Be sure not to rub away the image underneath the paper.
6. You should be left with a mirror image of your photograph. Be sure to print your image out in reverse if you are printing out words or letters!

After all my experimentation with emulsion lifts I was sure I wanted to use this as my final piece I also loved how it looked on the leaves so I knew this was what my surface would be. 

Now was the time to find a subject matter. After looking back over my work I decided to focus on the work place. After a lot of thought I based my subject matter on 'Workaholics' My final piece would be a message to all the people who put work before anything or anyone else. 

I bought a work suit and photographed myself in numerous of work situations: in an office, out side the work building, talking to colleagues, in college etc.

After all the photographs where taken I decided to take photographs of the suit hanging off trees floating away in water etc. this represents leaving your work life behind to focus on family and friends, letting your work suit get lost and putting on everyday clothes. 

After taking all the images I picked out my my favourite ones and used an emulsion lift on them all. I decided it wasn't working and wanted to go down a new path with the photography but still including the suit. In the end I settled for this new idea...
I got an old rickety garden chair and placed it under a tree. I set up the suit and hat so it looks like the suit is sitting down with its legs crossed the way men do. I tied green cotton to the hat and then tied the other end to a branch on the tree this is so you couldn't see the thread and so it looks like there is a head there.
I took my picture and each time I took a photograph I took away a a piece of the suit. First the hat then : jacket, tie, shirt and finally the trousers.
This represents the worker slowly forgetting about his job; as he forgets about it the suit starts to disappear.
These are the photographs that I took I decided to make them black and white because after all the emulsion lift experiments I found that black and white images work much better and end up clearer than coloured photographs...

I really like how these look.

My next step was to emulsion lift them onto the leaves. It worked really well and I am very pleased with how it has all turned out.
To display the images I got two pieces of clear plastic and drilled holes in the corners. I placed all the photographs in between them and put mounting screws in the holes to keep them together.
It was finally displayed in the window of my college for people to see along with my sketchbook.

                    

Work Placement - Churchtown Primary

I have had experience working with and teaching primary school children, as I have worked alongside the Head of Arts Coordinator at Churchtown Primary School. In past work placements there, I have created numerous of art related projects for the children one of which I entitled 'Walking Art'.

The children had to create designs referring to their class project and finally painting them on to a pair of white canvas pumps. The children where so happy with their finished work that they wore their pumps at the annual school parade.


On numerous occasions I have revisited the school with new ideas and projects, one of which we called 'The Bee Movie'. Each child designed a bumble bee with which we created a short stop motion animation. We designed different scenes and selected music. The children wished to show their Headteacher, so he came down to watch the finished movie with them. He was so proud of their hard work that it was shown in their school assembly the next day.

Here is the finished film... 

Churchtown's first home made film
Created By Churchtown Primary School Class 4D of 2010-2011

Fine Art - Transcription Painting

Christian Ward's Original Painting

‘Frontier Monument’
Christian Ward 

For my next project in Fine Art, I have been asked to make a transcription painting from a trip to the walker art gallery I took earlier this month. The painting had to be from the John Moores competition 2010, and after a long look at all the entries, I finally decided on Christian Ward’s 'Frontier Monument'.

The painting was created by using oil paint on a 205 x 221 cm linen canvas. Oil paint is a type of slow-drying paint that consists of drying oil, most commonly linseed oil. Other materials can be added to this for example a type of varnish that is used to

increase the glossiness when dried. It is a hard-wearing paint that comes in a variety of radiant colours.

Due to the oil and thickness of the paint applied, it tends 

to require a lot of patience when it comes to drying time.

A lot of Christian Ward’s work has elements of Japanese art in it, this could be from the fact that he was born in Noda, Japan and likes to incorporate that in his work. A great number of Ward’s paintings are landscapes that include Technicolor Mountains, caverns and grottoes that shimmer with rainbows and cascading multicoloured waterfalls that are covered in iridescent mist. For this piece in particular, Frontier Monument, Christian Ward said, ‘I play Walt Disney with black holes or cherry blossoms with an atom bomb afterglow. Each part rhymes with another in dissonance or harmony, sometimes both, and new possibilities open up. A painting is normally finished on a climax, usually about 4am.’ 

Ward influences span through the sixties psychedelic graphic design to ancient Chinese paintings, as well as the latest Japanese animation techniques. ‘A teacher once told me that making a painting was like overfilling an envelope’ he said to a critic, therefore, he tends to overlay subjects, references and styles to ensure that he can fill up a canvas. One critic described his work as ‘a cross between Fantasia and The Land That Time Forgot - they are always based on the direct experience of a real place.’ 

In the past, Ward’s travels have taken him from the mountains of Scotland and America into the Arizona desert; but his most recent paintings have their starting point in Yakushima, an island off the southern coast of Japan. This island has a personal meaning to him because his mother and her family originally came from this area; it was also the landscape that he last visited as a child. He said, ‘These paintings are as much a mental island, an unknowable space that I can do what I want in them, but which in the end does what it wants.’ 

I find Christian Ward’s work fascinating; from the meanings and subjects, to the colour choices and compositions. In the Frontier Monument, the composition is particularly captivating, due to the suttle, pastel colours of light blues and purples that spread over the canvas, they contrasts well with the bright flashes of rainbow like prisms that draw your eyes to the centre image of this brilliant piece. This centre image is another cave or grotto which has a bright glow coming from within. I find this glow represents wonder, curiosity and temptation. Once you have focused on this, your eyes start to scan over the rest of the painting so you can observe the other images hidden inside. With all of the hidden images from faces and ping pong games to foosball games and strange holes and bright green ponds, it becomes not only a personal journey but a quirky, abstract piece of art. The path like layout of the painting reminds me of a maze, this makes me think the piece is based on a journey the artist has taken or a group of memories he likes most. The paint its self is laid down very flat, this is because of his application of the oil paint, but you can see a few brush and tool marks within it. 

Over all, I truly love this painting, and it has inspired me more than I ever thought possible. The techniques, materials and formal elements are perfectly ideal throughout the work, as is the subject matter which intrigues me deeply. For this reason, I have really enjoyed finding and researching the facts. The painting makes me feel happy and content, as to me it is about memories and journeys. The painting has encouraged me to take a journey through my own memories and has inspired me to incorporate these ideas to my painting. The general consensus of people when they look and admire it is that it is an impressive piece of work, because it is so grand, striking and meaningful. Frontier Monument by Christian Ward, was a very successful and inspiring painting; the very reasons why I have chosen to use for my final transcription piece.

Here are photographs of my transcription.

 As you can see, I have created drips, splashes and heavy brush strokes of paint across the background. This is to give more of texture.

 Some of the rocks from the top of the cave float around the outer edges of my work gradually evolving in to footsteps that lead back in to the cave. As you can see from the image above and below, they where created with paint and leaf skeletons that progressively change colour in to brown, muddy, bare foot prints. 

 I think that the burnt parts of the map really gives my piece a different style. It changes your mind from the flowing and calm feel you may get when looking at it, to a slight sense of anger. On the other hand, these small burns of anger are calmed right back down again by the delicate feathers and leaf skeletons placed behind each burn.

Textiles

THE SEA

The subject for our textile project was 'Natural and Organic'. As the sea and beach plays a very important part in my life I decided to use the sea as my inspiration. 

One of the things that capture my attention when looking out at sea is how the sun light bounces off the ripples and waves. I wanted to recreate this by applying beads, crystals, embroidery, stitching, nots, knit, ribbon, and weave onto my home made felt. These where just some of the techniques we explored during this project. I was very pleased with the outcome off this piece and to top it all off it was exhibited in my college exhibition windows at the front of the building.