Week 8

18/01/2016-24/01/2016
Painting Workshop Part 3-Abstraction
Summary:

This week for the third week of the workshop the focus is Abstraction. I've never fully considered working in an abstract style, primarily because I'm not overly fond of such a style. However I entered the workshop with an open mind. At the end after experimenting on canvas and paper, using acrylics, ultimately I still I do not fully see the appeal of such a style. Mostly because as I have said in the past I am a figurative artist. I prefer to create work that features visible figures, and unique forms, however in my opinion abstraction removes all visible forms and rearranges them into something unperceivable.

Finally I am now fully better and once again am able to participate in the workshops, this week being the third and final part of the painting workshop, this week the focus being Abstraction. I've never fully considered working in an abstract style, primarily because I'm not overly fond of such a style. However I entered the workshop with an open mind. However at the end after experimenting on canvas and paper, using acrylics, ultimately I was not swayed still I do not fully see the appeal of such a style. Mostly because as I have said in the past I am a figurative artist. I prefer to create work that features visible figures, and unique forms, however in my opinion abstraction removes all visible forms and rearranges them into something unperceivable.

At the start of the workshop we were given a small seminar based presentation expressing what abstraction is with a wide variety of examples, we were told to keep in our minds whilst we painted a few simple questions:

Is abstraction about the act of painting?

is the aim of abstraction to paint an image of something that never existed in the world until the day it was painted?

Can abstract painting offer an antidote to the abundance of instant imagery in the world?

Is abstraction more real than representational in that it never pretends to represent something else?

 At the start of this workshop we were all given an envelope with three shapes as starting points for our paintings.

Above is a photo of the three shapes that I was given. using these shapes as inspiration I began making five minute paintings on a3 card, below are the images that I made.

 

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Above and below this is a canvas piece that I made in the workshop, the image stretches over two separate panels. What I've done is red wash the entire canvas and then layer with thick paint these rectangular shapes. 

Outside of the workshop for the rest of the week I continued with the ten rules paintings. Starting with a painting of an ending. For which I wanted to link to my theme of human violence. Therefore I chose to paint in a realistic high detail style a road kill animal, the concept being that this is an example of human arrogance. A driver kills another animal yet cant be bothered to spare the time to check for life or even to move the carcass.

1.2.3.

4.5.6.

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10.11.

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Below is the finished piece.