This is my latest painting which I have just completed. I was testing the magazine cover idea and have amended my new title to Review. I think I am already aware when I look back over this year and review what is working and what is not, this will be a pivitol piece of work. By using the union jack as the ground for the painting (and applying clear gesso) is already gives vibrancy and iconography to the image. It plays with the instantly ingrained symbolism already ingrained into the UK psyche. It screams cool britannia to you. It could well be that the union jack will become by motif of choice, similar to Gordon Chung always using the financial times in his work. The face was painted in oil in a day. I am finding that the speed and confidence of the execution is adding to their power. The female guaze stares out at the viewer, very aloof, sexualised but also questionning and at the same time, closed off. I am aware that this time, I have used the oil paint more effectively, allowing that gentle smearing that is so delightful to the medium to take over, it is a definate progress on the acrylic painting I was using earlier on.
I realise now that alot of the work I did last year was about loosening up my painting style and not really about representation. I am now beginning to realise how much my painting style and confidence has improved as a result of this experimentation with abstract painting techniques. I threw turps on what I thought was a finished painting and that stripped back some of the hair and the top left side of the face to reveal the union jack design underneath. This was a critical decision and really worked in terms of painterly technique and using the ground to its full effect. I think next time I can trial this again but next time in a more sophisticated, less dangerous fashion, by using cotton buds perhaps.
I added the ON SALE NOW at the bottom by stencil. I felt that to totally make it a magazine cover was not needed so perhaps they are turning more into posters. This is something I need to consider. Does it need to be a magazine cover or does it just need to use the language of magazines of which we are so familiar already, the ubiqutious language of advertising and marketing.
I am interested in how this will be read by the audience but equally I appreciate that I need to continue to develop my own critical distance from my work so I know before opening to the public what the response will be in terms of reading of an image.
Pleased with this one as a progression of ideas piece, such as it is.
