Fluid Painting – acrylic and ink pours
Experimenting with dripping and pouring
Category: Uncategorized
The Imaginary
Boronali (fictional artist made up by Frederic Gérard – this painting was created by Gerard’s donkey with a paintbrush attached to his tail)
‘Les demoiselles D’avignon’ – Picasso 1907
‘The jungle’ – Wilfredo Lam
sources: https://bonjourparis.com/archives/cafe-lapin-agile-montmartre-lolo-infamous-art-hoax/
Independent work
I think these roller experiments came out really effectively. I did them using leftover paint from a bigger piece but I really like more faded colours – I think the negative space works well.
After experimenting with getting other people to carry out my instructions I wanted to ask them to write instructions for me. Doing this allowed me to play around with the idea of chance vs control as having others write instructions for me and the mixing them up removed my input into the outcome. Through doing this I was further playing around with the idea of process being more important than outcome as any result would be a coincidence.
I think layering these instructions has produced some really dynamic work – it would be interesting to see how these translate to a bigger scale.
Id been addicted to a game in my phone called free flow where you have to connect the dots in the order of their numbers. The dots are in a grid and when connected would create these maze like lines which I found really interesting. I wanted to play around with drawing some of these patterns myself and I think they came out really effectively. It’d be interesting to see how these look with different mediums – if I could get them as neat or if I made a point of smudging them to see how this might affect the shapes.
I was partly inspired by my drawing machine for BA1a for this idea – I hung pens from string and used my hairdryer to blow the pens around and create marks on the page. I think these drawings are really interesting due to the physicality of the process. The marks are mostly centred in one spot but despite this I think the drawings are energetic and dynamic.
I found using a palette knife really exciting; it’s something that I’ve done a bit of a bit before and I wanted to experiment with it again because I really like the method. I think that it produces really exciting textures and keeps the colours unblended allowing for more vibrant work. The top right painting was done from a series of instructions but the rest were carried out through drawing a pattern or image first and then using a palette knife smudge the paint across the canvas. I really liked this method of drawing then palette knife because it places emphasis on the process of the work and I want to experiment with it more on a larger scale.
These were my first experiments with instructions; writing my own and having other people carry them out as well as myself. I think that these are really visually exciting and dynamic and I really enjoyed playing around with the idea of controlling chance in my work. As I was writing them myself I had a clear idea of what I wanted them to turn out like in my head and I wanted to play around with the idea of control and giving up control in my work so I had other people write instructions for me to then carry out. I found this really exciting as others drawing mine and me drawing others led to different interpretations and the drawings came out differently each time which was really interesting. I definitely want to experiment with this on a larger scale outside my sketchbook.
I played around with pattern inspired by Sol LeWitt, experimenting with different shapes and colours and different methods such as singular lines or more solid blocks of colour. I think that these are really visually exciting – the colours work well together however, I’m not sure that all of the patterns are that effective so I might play around with layering some to see how that changes them.
Workshop
Before skills three I did a series of drawings based on images I already had in my sketchbook for ideas that I might want to use in the 3-D workshop. Some of these are based on my instructional drawings, others are based on patterns but I think that they all have potential and I’m excited to try recreating them in 3-D.
The process of casting already has quite a few steps in itself but I wanted to add even further to the process by doing drawings of the casts. I think that these drawings came out really well and I really liked zooming in on certain sections because I think it creates ambiguity about the scale, size and material of the sculpture which I find exciting .
After week one of Sculpture I played around with some different ideas for the second week using the costs that I had already done. I really enjoyed making more angular costs so I wanted to play around with this more contrasting the hard right angles and lines with curvy edges to create an interesting dynamic.
I was unsure what I wanted to do for both part of the print workshop so I played around withdrawing some different ideas before deciding. Some of them I think had potential, like the stars, but ultimately didn’t work out as I wanted to so I went with the grid and the stairs image.
Sketchbook
Skills 2 – Print workshop
I was excited to do more printmaking, in particular the screen printing as I’d really enjoyed doing it in skills 1 and I wanted the chance to experiment more on my own. I didn’t really have any ideas for what I wanted to do for the workshop but I really liked the way Thomas Kilpper uses pattern in his work so I decided to incorporate a grid into my print, layering with the text. I think this came out really well – I like the contrast between the straight and curvy lines if the grid and I think the text works well on top.
I’d not done woodcut before but I have done Lino which is similar so I had more of an idea of what I could do in this section. I took inspiration from a photo of stairs that I’d taken to create an angular spiral shape which I think is really effective. I didn’t enjoy woodcut as much as screenprint but I did have fun playing around with layering the two mediums – I think these are the most successful prints from the workshop.
BA1b work
Sol Lewitt
I think Sol LeWitt’s wall drawings are really interesting. The concept that the art doesn’t have to be the outcome but can be the idea (in Lewitt’s case a series of written instructions) is similar to my reason for exploring action painting wherein the process of making the work is more important than the finished product. I’ve been trying to bring back a sense of enjoyment and focus on the process within my work and and I think Lewitt’s ‘Wall drawings’ with their accompanying instructions will be a great point of inspiration within my work. Not only because of his philosophy but also the scale at which his work is carried out. I think that these patterns repeated over large spaces bring a real energy to the work that just adds to their intrigue.
I want to experiment with setting myself instructions to carry out within my work and see how this will affect my practice. I think it could be really interesting to explore this not only as a stand-alone idea but also in combination with the more spontaneous, free flowing way that I have been working so far. I believe that layering these two technique – the more structured nature of Lewitt’s work with my more fluid approach – could produce some really interesting work.
‘Like an architect who creates a blueprint for a building and then turns the project over to a construction crew, an artist should be able to conceive of a work and then either delegate its actual production to others or perhaps even never make it at all.’ – The Art Story
Sources : https://massmoca.org/sol-lewitt/
https://www.improvisedlife.com/2015/08/10/learning-stealing-sol-lewitt/
https://www.theartstory.org/artist-lewitt-sol.htm
https://www.artrabbit.com/events/artist-rooms-sol-lewitt-wall-drawing
http://www.cagrimmett.com/sol-lewitt/2016/10/30/sol-lewitt-289.html
Independent Research
Artists/Methods/Techniques
Process/Action art – definitions
Books/Articles
‘Art in the Making’ – Glenn Adamson and Julia Bryan-Wilson
‘Do It: the art of instructions’ – guardian article
‘Agnes Martin’ – Barbara Haskell
Exhibitions/Galleries
Tate Modern – Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory
Tate Modern – Anni Albers and Christian Marclay: The clock
Eleanor Morgan
Darcey McAlister-Wober 