This morning I went to visit Middleport Pottery which is a follow up visit from about 18 months ago. I took my camera to generate ideas for The Artist and The City project, the first meeting at the museum is scheduled for tomorrow so I wanted to have a stronger idea of what I would be painting.
I managed to start talking to a volunteer at Middleport who kindly took me around the site and it was amazing to see how the building has changed from a building site to its present state, it can only get stronger and stronger from here on in.
I managed I hope to get some good shots and I will have a look at these in more detail tomorrow before the meeting but after chatting today and wandering around, I have a lot to think about.
I also popped to woodworking and got my mdf board canvas for resultant painting which needs to be completed and handed in by the 5th of January so in terms of timeframes, I have my work cut out but its a much better start after todays visit.
Then I was back in the studio working on the 6 text paintings. I sanded them down further and then added the spray paint text. Although I have 6 paintings I am thinking ahead as to how they will be presented as I want to showcase these for my hand-in assessment and I am not confident that I should use all 6.
I had a few issues with one of the pieces and as such, it has been overworked on the text and I don’t want to use it as a result. I did try to save it but I am not happy with it. I guess this is about critical judgement. The other area that was annoying me was the size of the text. On the one ‘love is blind’ (which I used as a stand in to replace the stencil that referred to jealousy and I did not want to reference this emotion in 2 of the works) the text is really quite big, and considerably bigger than the other paintings. As such, I don’t think that as a series I should use it. I realise also, that the text works best when it is smaller, letting the ground breath as less is more, just like leaving open areas in a figurative representational painting for balance.
As a stand alone painting, perhaps but not for putting up on the wall. So I am down to 4 that I am happy to present together as a series. Also, I am considering how to lay these upon the wall. I have decided after laying them out time and time again to have them in a straight line with a small gap between each, say 2 inches. This will lead your eye to read them like a newspaper looking for the beginning, middle and end. So it will add to the narrative whilst also letting them stand on their own.
Another good day in the office.
