Brick Wall: The finished article!

Da da! And the wall is finished. A career in set design awaits...

Brick Wall: Progress

Today saw me working on the brick wall for another week: sharpening things up, starting to add texture etc. Ian suggested that I might try and brighten things up next week, as my palette has become quite desaturated. I actually like its misty quality, though I take his point. Also that I play more with the juxtaposition of colour, rather than lines, to create the 'fissures' of brick; a really interesting point. George on the other hand said it was 'sumptuous', and bizarrely, that the gummy pink bricks reminded him of the 'inside of somebody's mouth' (something Bacon was fixated with if I recall correctly)...

Bubblegum Queen of Hearts

Had an awesome screen printing class today. After weeks of work, my rude-girl Queen of Hearts is almost finished. I just have to add the keyline (a black outline, that will include her facial features and generally articulate the design), et voila! Some of the prints are really badly registered (i.e. the different layers aren't lined up well), but I'm really chuffed with this one. The colour scheme's nice and zingy (I originally said I wanted it to have a bad shell-suit vibe, a brief I kind of strayed from during colour-mixing), though the photograph doesn't show this very well - and once she's got eyebrows and shiz, I think she's gonna be good. Had an absolute nightmare session last week; had to prepare and strip my screen three times before printing, which meant I got absolutely nothing done and was in a bit of a huff for the duration. So today left me on a real high. If there's one thing I've learnt its that screen printing really demands you be meticulous. You can't cut corners, or rush processes, without your finished product turning out rubbish. So it's quite the exercise in patience.

Brick Wall

Ian had the novel idea that I should paint a brick wall for the next 3 weeks: doesn't sound particularly inspiring, I know, but it's a great exercise in colour mixing, and will force me to 'luxuriate' in the process of oil painting (I'm a bit speedy gonzalez at the moment)! I'm not going to lie to you, it was a bit of a mental slog to begin with - I felt more like a bricklayer than a soaring artiste. But once I got into it, things started coming together. It's a nice, loose start I think - hopefully it will shape up from here.

Morandi

Today we looked at the work of Giorgio Morandi - an Italian artist who spent his life painting the same bottles and jars, over and over again (bit of a basket case). Not a big fan, I've got to say; but his paintings did provide a good starting point for our experiments with space/composition. Had an excellent day actually. Working from a Morandi esque still-life, we started by sketching 'thumbnail' images (mine ended up looking a lot like an advertising storyboard). From there, we chose the composition we felt was most dynamic and made a quick acrylic painting of it. My attempt was purposely pared down- I wanted to eliminate the detail/description that I'm usually drawn to, and focus on the objects' arrangement in space (in this case, a jug and cheese grater). The whole exercise was really productive. Though what I produced was not necessarily 'art' per se, it symbolised a small departure for me. George was pleased (heheh, teacher's pet)!

Mr Crabs

Shot off to Oxford yesterday afternoon, for a night of drum and bass madness - which meant cutting my painting class early (playing hooky already, tut tut). This is the fruit of my three and a half hour labour: the resplendent Mr Crabs. Apparently he'd been sitting pretty in the Heatherleys freezer for a week, stinking out the joint. The studio did get pretty pongy, but it was worth it - such amazing colours/planes to its shell.

Life drawing

In today's drawing class we worked from a rather entertaining life model (a buxom, elderly French woman, prone to cranky outbursts re: insufficient heating, and her aches and pains). Though my morning sketches were a bit lackluster (matching my inexplicable hangdog mood), things picked up in the afternoon. The pencil sketch was intended as a study in proportion - my use of line is a little 'constraining', but I'm pretty pleased with its general weightiness/dimensionality. The other sketch is in acrylics, which I've never used before. With a limited palette of yellow ochre, black, and white, George asked us to capture the various tones and contours of the body (which I think I've achieved in parts). Being such a quick-drying medium, you have to work extremely quickly - even so, I didn't quite finish this 30 minute study.

French Fancies

Another cakey venture. Had great fun with these Mr Kiplings today - really pleased with the pink one, which I think sits quite delectably in its paper case (ahh, modesty). It's harder than you might imagine to paint such tawdry, artificially coloured/shaped objects. Makes quite a change from the 'normal' palette. Next week we move onto portraiture for 3 weeks, a completely new area for me. Oh the fear (and the excitement).

Mulling it over...

Making oil paint is a slow and labour intensive procedure: not the most pleasurable pursuit for my fidgety self. When you've finally filled a tube with your glossy, hard earned pigment however, it is THE most satisfying thing. Today we made Cadmium Red, one of six colours we'll be producing in Methods and Materials: by adding linseed oil to loose pigment and then 'mulling' the paste (a mull is a glass implement, which you use to grind the paste in a figure of eight movement. That's right, I've got it down), you arrive at your sumptuous mixture. The whole alchemic process took up most of the day, leaving me with only two hours to actually paint - hence the unfinished nature of this little study, done on ply wood. My aim within such a short time frame was to experiment with bolder, more minimal brush strokes than usual (best achieved with the pomegranate I think, though the photograph doesn't really show this).

Sea Bream

Painted extremely stinky sea bream today (oh dear lord how it stank). Though the angle of the lemon's a little funny, I'm very happy with the rendering of my slippery friends.

Om Nom Nom

On Friday, Alan set up seven or eight compelling still-lives, scattered around the room: rows of pomegranates wrapped in crisp packing paper; clusters of old glass bottles; a crate of exotic coloured fruit and veg; abstract hunks of chalk and meringue. In the midst of all these scenes, there was one which caught my eye - a little metal teapot, flanked by two cakes. Now those who know me know that I lurrrrve cake, and it's something I've always wanted to paint successfully (my last attempt was a bit dodge). So try I did. Out of all the studies I've done so far, I had the most fun with this - attempting to capture the refections in the teapot, the crumby texture of cake, the dark dense hue of chocolate. Though time limitation meant I rushed the setting, and there are various aspects of the painting I could improve (the yellow ochre in the background might not be the best choice, as it brings out the violet/plum tones in the chocolate cake), I'm really proud of my effort. Got lots of compliments on the realism/tangibility of my edibles ('good enough to eat' said one, probably hungry, fellow student...), and I think I managed to treat the objects sensitively. Excuse the rather dark photograph. Must swap my inferior phone camera for my shiny new compact camera.

Happy Feet continued...

Had my second shot at the shoe painting today. Spot the difference, if you can! The amendments are pretty subtle: certain details have been edited out in an attempt to focus more on mass than mark-making; areas darkened; tones modulated; and the background fleshed out etc. It's far from perfect, but the revision process has taught me a lot and I'm quite pleased with the results. Though I managed to ruin/overwork the vase I think the shoe-moulds have gained something, and that the overall composition is more unified. I'll try to be more gusto next time - perhaps I was a bit tentative today. All in all though, a learning curve.

Happy Feet

Ian's class today was a revelation. Had a ball painting a pair of old wooden shoe moulds, and an accompanying portly vase.
Who'd have thunk it? But I suppose that's the joy of the still life - it doesn't matter how banal the objects are, it's all about the character and interplay of them. This is the first painting I'll be spending two weeks on, so consider this a glimpse of the finished masterpiece. Chortle. I'm upping the opacity of my paint which is good, and have invested in a bad-boy palette so I can mix freely. Progress is slow, but I can feel it nonetheless. P.S. Everyone's getting with the credit-crunch lunch these days. No more soup of the day at bijou cafes - it's all about homemade, tinfoiled sandwiches and of course, thermas flasks...

Gherkins...

I'm at home with a mean head-cold, wearing tracksuit bottoms and a mismatched t-shirt. It's one of those days. Managed to pull myself out of my lethargy to do a half an hour sketch though, and here it is. Don't know whether it was the gherkins (comedy foodstuff), or the excitement of doing something after a groggy evening/morning in bed - but it's cheered me up.

Nudey ladies

On a completely different note, here are some of the pin-up prints I did at my screenprinting class (a 3hr session at Putney School of Art). They were done using paper stencils, so they're a bit primitive shall we say. But ho hum, I'm pretty pleased with them. The aim is to learn all the processes and get good at them so I can print onto t-shirts. Watch this space.

Humble beginnings

Hello friends,

It's been two and a half exciting weeks since I started art school and here I am, entering the bloggersphere. The plan is to record my progress/experiences throughout the year, and post pictures for those of you who fancy a peek at what I'm producing (it's pretty fledgling stuff remember, so be kind critics, be kind). There have been triumphs and there have been disasters - this is a platform for both!

To set the scene: Heatherleys School of Fine Art is nestled snugly amongst the auction houses and antique shops of Lots Road, Chelsea. Recently relocated to a brand new building (great big 'modernist' windows; bold blue and white stucco walls), it maintains a genteel atmosphere. For three days a week, I toil (pah!) in its painting and drawing studios. On Tuesdays it's 'Drawing and Visual Composition' with George - a rather eccentric tutor who comes out with the kind of gems you'd expect of an artiste (yesterday, my sketch was like an 'oasis in the desert'). On Wednesdays it's 'Methods and Materials' with Ian, a class that allows for all kinds of experiment. And on Fridays it's 'Beginners Oil Painting' with Alan, a chatty Scotsman (who brings in fantastic source material). Classes are 10-4pm, and I'm really getting into the rhythm of the working day (I bought a thermas flask yesterday, to avoid wasting time/money come lunchtime - which I think says a lot about my geriatric adjustment to the place).  

Here are a few still-life paintings I've produced in the last week. I've never worked with oils before, so its a new challenge. I tend to lay the paint on too thinly at the moment - a habit I think I've picked up from doing watercolours - but that should change with time. Really enjoyed painting the pumpkins (though the room did smell of rotting veg) - such awesomely colourful, massy things. Less pleased with the fruitcake painting, which came out looking flatter and less dramatic than I'd have liked. But it's something I can have another go at in a year maybe. If only I had a photo of me in action to go alongside these. The apron I don is monstrous - it's one of those full-body jobbies, like you have when you're a kid. Bottle-green, with giant pockets. And of course I have to wear my geek glasses. Basically, I look hot in the studio.

So that's a taster of my working week. More to come very soon...