Tutorial with Gerrard & Research & Studio Designs

Key Points

Reflections

• The key points of the tutorial were talking about final pieces for the exhibition, and Gerard suggested that I could have a variety of pieces (they are all different 'painting's)', as all my work is different yet they share this language of sculpture/ painting. My work conforms to the physical dimensions of a painting, but uses the processes of sculpture. 
• The context and how the work is displayed is important. I want my work to be perceived in a white wall gallery space, but playing with this aspect of painting and sculpture merging together, so what if my steel frame piece was viewed on the floor rather than on the wall? This could display this sculptural context as the mild steel 'painting' becomes a small plinth. Staged as sculpture. 

Development:

• The mild steel piece uses the process of labour to fill in the surface itself. It's a manipulation of the surface. There is an element of this out of control process with all of my work, which is good, but when it comes to my mild steel piece the welding of the patterns could be considered more rather than simply being random, so where I choose to make the marks could be only in specific zones of the image. This could work to look more pictorial, or though the image is saying something. I think using the concept of the labour process to fill in a surface works well for my practice, and connects back to Marx's labour theory. 
• Also with the mild steel frame piece, the exposed painting behind the frame works to reveal a hidden layer almost. But is this needed behind the steel? I'm not sure anymore whether the steel image needs to reveal another painting. However, the painting itself could work on a larger scale on its own. A development idea would be to use only the blue tones (or tones produced from the heating labour of mild steel) and create a large acrylic painting with the ink roller. This could also be a painting on a plinth, to mix the conversation of sculpture and painting. So the painting taking the format of the plinth, and the steel sculputral-process-piece taking the format of a painting. (swapping contexts)
• Using real silver leaf rather than metal leaf on silver leaf canvas painting. 
• Pouring a layer of resin over the top of the mild steel piece after it's been finished - this could act as a varnish and a slick reflective polished surface?
• Consistent landscape format for all final pieces? mimicking the 'landscape painting' 

Further Research:

• Stefan Sehler - works on the back of plexiglass to create intricate imagery. 
• Glenn Brown - paintings of paint ( I saw him at Nottingham Castle museum). 
• Jackson Pollock - paintings that were made on the floor. 
• Mark Francis - behaviour of paint , references to the micro. 

Stefan Sehler

Untitled, 2008 Oil behind plexiglass. 185x185cm

• Intricate details - abstract patterns created by marbling process, and covered with plexiglass to be a shiny surface. 

Mark Francis

Source 1992, oil on canvas

• "Over the past few years, Mark Francis has shifted the focus of his painting to microcosmic and biological imagery. References to spores, cells, sperm, ovae and skin tissue dominate his paintings. This picture belongs to a recent group of works which relate more specifically to genetics and the processes of creation. The photographic origins of the image are evident in the way blurring around the edges of the sperm motif suggest objects moving in and out of focus. However, a counterbalance to the apparent naturalism of the subject is in the controlled patterning across the entire canvas. This inhibits the viewer from reading the image literally, as a view through a microscope." http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/francis-source-t06663 

• Focuses on details, the 'micro' which is something I'm intrigued by and the details inside the materials, why we are visually attracted to them/ what makes them appealing. 
• The criss-cross pattern that Francis installs here is also something I am working with. 

Further Designs for Final Pieces

Plinth / blue painting design: 

Mild Steel Frame Design Development:

• Feedback/ idea: Having a light shine behind the cut outs rather than a hidden painting behind the canvas. This could give the work itself more definition, and perhaps this would focus on the void aspect even more, light and shadow, or a different colour light underneath the frame to show the space between the 'painting' and the wall/ floor. 

Silver leaf piece & Installation view idea for exhibition:

• Here my design shows 3 final pieces, exploring the walls and the floor to create an argument between painting and sculpture. The plinth being put on the wall to disrupt the context of sculpture and painting, merging the two together, and the mild steel frame piece being placed on the floor for the same effect. 

FINAL NOTE/ reflection: USING THE PROCESSES OF SCULPTURE TO PAINT.