ASS5 - Project 3 Towards Abstraction

    Towards Abstraction

     For this project I've got to create two abstract paintings, one of man-made materials and one of natural materials. I'm going to attempt the man made painting first. My natural painting, I am leaving an orange to dry out and go rotten. I may use it, or I might change my mind by the time I get to it. I want to see how it turns out over the next few days to see if it becomes interesting to paint.

Study of man made forms

     I've been thinking for a few days what subject I could use. I wanted to create something that was unique and original. I've gone around my around my house and decided to observe a broken tiled area, that in the hallway. There is an interesting texture to it, especially where the glue is visible, from where the tiles have come away from the floor. There are also different shapes and different layers to the area. 

   Above are photos of the area, that I want to capture. As you can see it is an interesting area, some thing I would not usually paint. There are different layers in this area, such as the ground, the glue area and the tile area. I am now going to look carefully at this area and sketch it. I want to try to create an abstract sketch, that will be interesting to create as a painting. I have put it on here, so you can see, and for my reference, of how the area looked before I started. I am now going to do my sketches:

      I have now done my sketches and I'm really excited about this painting. I have come up with a great angle and I am happy with the overall look. I am certain that this will capture the area well and I think it will turn out to be an interesting piece of work. What I want do with this area is show the layers and textures and convey this in to my painting . I want to capture the layers from the ground to the highest layer which is the tiles.

Looking at this area the layers are:

Layer 1 - The main ground
Layer 2 -  Where the tiles have come off and the glue is left on the surface, which is greater thickness than the great main ground .
Layer 3 -  The black grout between the tiles to add depth
Layer 4 - Final layer with the tiles raising the highest/closest area to the veiwer.

      I want to create a very textured painting with the layer's of the area sticking out. I am firstly going to use Gesso on my canvas and create a smooth layer for the ground area and a textured area for where the glue area is. This should automatically create two layers in my painting. Next, I shall look at the shapes of the tiles and using cardboard, cut-out the shapes of the basic areas and stick them on top of the Gesso to create a stick out effect this will be the third layer in the painting.

    As you can see above, I now have a smooth layer and a textured layer of Gesso. I applied both areas on to canvas with a knife. The first layer area, I applied Gesso on to the canvas and then spread it about with my knife on its side, to make it smooth.

With the second layer in my paining, I Used a heavy duty Gesso, which is more thicker.
This helped to create a taller layer then the normal Gesso in my painting. I applied the heavy duty Gesso first, just like my first layer, but then I turned my knife to become flat and dabbed in on to the Gesso. When lifting my knife up from the Gesso, it helped it to rise it higher and gave a good texture which looked like the dried glue - a rough texture.

    The next thing was to cut out the basic shapes of my tiled areas and apply them on to my canvas. I have cut them all out and stuck them on. I am now going to paint the whole area over in Gesso so then it will be ready to paint on.

      Now I have covered the areas in Gesso. As you can see from the above photo there are three different textured areas so far. I need to leave it to dry before the actual painting, I think firstly the best place to start painting, is the 1st layer -floor area and then glue area and build my painting upwards.

  I have began to paint and done the basic two areas of the floor area. I have painted the ground layer grey. The glue area is also grey but as you can see in the photo I have painted lightly and have left white areas of Gesso showing through. This is because looking at the actual tile area, there are white speckles throughout the glue texture. 

 I think so far I am capturing this texture well. I can see there there are a few more other colours in this area such as brown and a nude shade. I am going to leave this to dry then add in these colours to build up the texture of the glue.

     After another attempt at painting you can see I have done quite a bit more than the previous time. I have now added different colours into the glue areas, using splattering techniques and using a knife to apply dark brown and black areas to add depth. For the base floor area, I have speckled white and a hint of brown to capture the texture as I saw fit. I have also painted the cardboard areas (third layer) as a black base because the grout in between the tiles is black this will help show depth between the tiles.

Another thing to mention is that on the right hand side of this painting, I have made the piece of cardboard stick over the edge canvas. This to me came as a surprise, as I was going to cut it off, but decided to leave it there. I thought to myself why does a canvas have to be square when you can add interesting angles on to it . You can overlap it to create a more interesting shape of a canvas which I guess would add more interest to the viewer. It will be interesting to see how it turns out.

     The next thing I'm going to do is get cardboard cut-out the shapes of the tiles paint them in a shade of the actual floor tiles and a line them up correctly onto my canvas and glue them on:

       As you can see I have cut out and painted the tiles its been a few days and they are now dry. I have just laid my tiles on top of the black areas of the canvas, which now creates layer 4. So far the overall view for my painting seems to be coming along really well. I am really impressed with myself and I've actually really enjoyed creating this type of art. To me it's a more interesting than just a flat painting. I feel I have opened a new door full of ideas and exciting textures. It is great that I can create texture and layers with cardboard to make 3D effects into a painting.

      I have now glued my tiles on to my canvas and by looking at my painting, I feel like there is still some textures to be added. When you look at the tiles on the floor, they are dirty and worn. They are not actually pristine condition. So now I have glued all my tiles on, I am going to use paint by using a toothbrush and bits of cardboard to scrape paint onto the tiles to make them look dirty and try and get that worn texture to my painting.

     As you can see I have spent a while trying to add worn and old dirt, to capture the texture onto my canvas. I think it looks really well and I'm so impressed and happy about this piece of work. 

     To finish it off I want to add some varnish to the tile areas, even though they do look worn, they still have a shimmer to them. I'm just going to add one layer of varnish as I don't want too much on there, just to keep it subtle.

      Here is my finished painting, I feel I've come a long way, in just this one painting. I think I've actually found something I really enjoy doing and I'm actually quite good at it. If you look below, I have took some close-ups of the painting, just to show the textures. This to me is a good painting because you can step back and see the image for what it is. Also you can look up close and look at every detail that I put into this painting. There's speckling, toothbrush painting, painting with a knife and more.

     Overall I am really thrilled to bits with this painting.It has opened my eyes and I want to explore this type of work more. I am thinking that this could be my personal voice using cardboard and tools to make a 3D textures painting of items that I find interesting such as this tiled area.

     An issue to point out, which I need to improve on, that I noticed from doing this exercise, is that on the tile areas you can see the ribs on the cardboard underneath the paint showing through. It has not effected my painting too much, but I need to cut this out to improve on this type of art I am enjoying. I think I can tackle this issue by either applying thicker Gesso, or thicker paint on the top of the cardboard, to hide the cardboards texture. In my next paintings, I shall keep this in mind so hopefully you wont see the cardboard texture showing through the paint. 

      I really like how I captured the glue area, it is very realistic and even touching it on my canvas, feels like the rough glue area. I think have observed this area very well.

     After taking a risk with leaving some of the cardboard area sticking out from the canvas, I think it was a good idea to do. It makes a more interesting shape of a painting then just a square or rectangle. 

     I feel that I am ready to push myself into this Direction more so then a flat painting. I am now going to look at my natural abstract task and see what I can come up with. Now I feel I know my direction, it is quite exciting and looking forward to seeing what I can create with my ideas, tools and textures for the next tasks.

Study of Natural Forms

     For this next task I left an orange for 2 weeks to go rotten, however the orange didn't go as rotten as I thought it would do. I even left it on top of a radiator to dry out. I drew a sketch in my sketchbook of half of the Orange:

     As you can see it was just showing an orange as plain and boring. Sketching it this way didn't have much of an interesting appeal about it. I have decided to try again but this time rip the orange apart and try to make a good composition.  

   I came to realise that what I want to do, is show the viewer all the different textures within an orange. That means the segments, the area where peel is left on the segments, the white rough area of the inside of the peel and the outer peel texture. I think creating a painting showing all these textures will definitely be obvious what it is to the view, yet will be interesting as by studying how I have captured each area. 

     I did a few sketches in my sketchbook and this is what I came up with. I really think this will be a great painting and to do. I need to think how and what tools I'm going to capture the textures of the Orange.

     With this painting I have decided to use a canvas, but like the tile painting, I am going to cut pieces of cardboard out, of certain areas to show the view layers in my work. I want to show the different shapes of the orange as well. I have started by using Gesso to create textures of the segments in the orange. I have then used cardboard areas for parts such as the orange peel, the crispy dried edges of the fruit and the orange peel turned upside down. I am now going to cover it all in Gesso and begin to start painting.

       Here above is what I have done so far, I let the Gesso dry and then started to add paint using a knife. On the segment areas, I applied orange paint, leaving white areas of Gesso, to capture the texture. I also did apply white paint on to the top of the orange paint to add more texture. I think so far, it looks like a really good abstract way of painting. I have again gone away from a square canvas and tried to create some thing more interesting and original, that no other student would think of.

       I have had a thought as to what to do next as I need to add texture on to the orange peel and a few more areas. I decided that looking back at my experimental textures I did previously in this assignment, that bubble wrap, by dabbing it into fit paint that is already applied would create a good bubbly texture of the oranges surface of its skin. I think for the orange peel that is turned upside down I am going to use a knife and apply paint thickly and scratch in lines and groves to show its texture. I am now going to attempt the final layer I love my painting whilst painting the orange, I have realised that the orange peel has gone brown around the outside I am going to also add a bit of brown into my orange peel to create a more interesting painting and capture the rotten look of it. 

    As you can see above I have now finish my painting I feel that I have captured the textures well and every area has a different texture relating to an orange. I think the viewer would be able to understand and relate to these textures easy, when looking at my painting. Learning from the tiled painting I have learnt to apply the paint thicker to stop the cardboard areas from showing, this worked well and made them invisible in my work.       I have also used  a varnish on the outside skin areas of the orange to capture the shiny surface of an orange.

       Here is a look up close, you can see that the orange peel here, I created a good texture using that bubble wrap. I am glad I used it I think it was the right choice for creating the texture of the peel. the brown areas of the peel which showed the orange drying up worked well and gave added detail which looks interesting.

    This is the orange peel area that was turned upside down. As you can see I used a knife to scratch in the lines that were there in its texture. I  also added a bit of brown and yellow here, as it was drying up a lot to whilst leaving it out in the air. I feel like this part is my favourite are of my painting because of the texture I created and I think I capture this area very well.

   This part is one of the segments, where the orange peel was peeled from it but left some of the inside of the orange peel on. I feel this part of the painting looks interesting, its created different textured areas, where I've just applied white paint with a knife on top of the orange areas I think it creates that very accurate look of an orange segment.

       Overall I think I did another good job here. I am really happy with the outcome. I've created again, something unique to myself and I hope it creates interest to the viewers who look at it. I think using this method again such as the layers with the cardboard and capturing texture, is something very original, I guess my own personal voice. I have really enjoyed this way and I want to carry on this type of painting, that I have created and see what I can keep improving on. 

    After looking at abstract art, it has opened my eyes to realise a painting doesn't have to be as perfect as the golden master painters, before my time. 

  When I was younger, I always looked up at those perfect paintings and thought that was art and then looked at other paintings, where it was a square with a blob of paint on and thought how stupid they looked. I am now coming to realise whilst doing this degree that actually paintings that were perfect are now no longer really needed. We now have cameras to capture reality moments and we now have photographers that capture these moments. So why paint them when you can get the actual print in your hand? I think art is now more expressive than ever. 

    Today's artists can look back at these master painters and appreciate their work for what it was and how amazingly they captured scenes and objects so perfectly. Now we are in a new era, where we can use our own imagination and ideas to create something unique and express ourselves more in a painting. We can get a simple item and think about it and mix it up to create something completely different. The way that you paint textures into a painting give viewer an insight to the artists personality. They can look at it closely and decide for themselves how you have painted it, why you painted it that way and what our thoughts were whilst painting.

    These last two abstract paintings, have shown me what I could create when being expressive, I don't have to try and paint perfectly and that is what I love about it because the word perfect in Art makes me scared to express. This way, I can just enjoy and create something that I want to create without having the pressure of perfection. I think my work is so much better when I am not trying so hard. From these last tasks I have realised that my work it is perfect because it's how I wanted it to be and overall you have to be unique to the industry to get somewhere. I think now exploring and breaking old bad habits and views, that I am ready to express my own voice like I have done in these last two paintings.  

     I am now looking forward to attempt my final assignment. I kind of have an idea of what I'm going to do, but I will tell you more about that in my next blog and hopefully I shall create something as brilliant or even more so brilliant then these two paintings.