Have been working on allsorts this week. Essay, Utah trip and core work. Everything has gone smoothly. Sorted out colour red for Utah books. Ended up using printing inks because oils didn't work with gum arabic transfer method. Started five paintings for core. Managed three layers so far and the images are starting to give an atmosphere of silence and contemplation. The books have got the atmosphere I wanted in them. The feeling of fragility and vulnerability of the human form within a landscape. This will be my last posting before my trip to Utah the day after tomorrow. I am now excited as well as nervous, but confident the trip will bring something new to my work.
Still in writers block. Littlist one is going to nursey for the day tomorrow so hoping to get to grips with essay which is changing everytime I write something. Today it's on how the artist mainpulates the viewer. Yesterday I went to the studio to do some work on the mapping Utah project. I layered some paper lithograph images using two or three layers. The results were interesting and going in the right direction for me. I struggled to get a deep enough red for the image. I think it's the printing reds I've got. One has too much blue in it, the other too much cadmium. I may use some of my oils mixed with a block printing medium. I often do this when I can't achieve the colour I'm looking for. Will work on them some more on Thursday. Tomorrow it's essay time!
Essay. Constantly on my mind. Feel terribly distracted by it. Have reached a thousand words and am now in writers block. My thoughts have also turned to the Utah trip in a few days. I have been wondering how I can connect the trip and work with my core work and degree show. This has been more successful than essay. I have been fascinated by the map of a desert section of Utah we were given and the names held within. These names of the creeks and canyons have given me the connection with my work here. It is showing me the fragility of the human form within the barron landscape. These thoughts will be translated into more books. Based on the previous design that I have done for my elective, but photo litho printing on the outside of the book. Hoping to have two or three finished this week…. back to essay!!
It's a huge relief to have the elective out of the way and the results are in. I got a 2.1 which is what I was aiming for. 65% so quite comfortable with that. Now that's done and dusted, it's back to the grindstone, no rest for the wicked. I have done some more photos of my daughter in the pose of the child amongst others. They have come out beautifully. Have also worked on journal and am assembling my essay which I hope to finish over Easter holidays. My poor children. Mother is miles away in fairy land. I know they talk to me all the time, but havent a clue what they are saying. My mind is consumed with the degree. My plan is to do some more paper lithograph prints over the next two weeks and start three paintings which I have prepared grounds for. Myself and nine other fellow students from my printmaking elective are going to Utah on a two week residency a week after we return to college, so it is important to get as much work as we can done over the hols.
I have just completed my printmaking elective which is now hanging in my studio space at college, ready for assessment. It has been exciting and challenging at times, but I'm pleased with the images. It is a set of three series each on the theme of 'Aloneness'. The first series is a set of seven books, each containing a single image with a single form within the image using paper lithograph. Each book has a word to describe the emotion held within. The second series is a set of screenprints based on a single form within, then described as 'Aloneness'. The third is a set of three images of my daughter Amelia whose gentle, quiet nature has the essence of 'Aloneness' I am searching for. The prints of her are paprer lithographs taken from photographs taken at my studio in natural light. I am now ready to take these images of my daughter further in my core work, placing them onto the canvas and working the paint in and around them until the essence of 'Aloneness' is resolved.
