Studio: Grey Painting on Canvas + Conversation with Sculpture

• Close up's of the textured grey painting on canvas. The unprimed canvas left room for texture to appear when the roller repeatedly covered the canvas. 

• Hanging the painting on the wall and getting feedback, the peer group liked the unfinished look of the painting as you can still see the canvas underneath. 
• These gaps in the painting are something quite unique, and a reoccurring theme within my work. They remind me of when I cut out the gaps in the aluminium metal, responding to Anish Kapoor's void concepts. 
• Anish Kapoor talks a lot about the 'void' in the book 'Anish Kapoor: Making Emptiness' by Homi K. Bhabha. 
• "... the presence of an object can render a space more empty than mere vacancy could ever envisage." p.12. 

Responding to Andrews Feedback, Trying to Make the Aluminium Stand: 

• Andrew stated that he liked the look of the aluminium with the holes cut out that I did previously, and whether I could make the sheet metal stand up. I decided to have more of a play with the material, and bent it around more. It was surprisingly easy to bend due to the thinness of the metal. 
• The only way I could get it to stand was like this in a curved shape, which I think works quite well, but still not like a fully fledged sculpture in its own right. 
• I like the shadow the sculpture leaves underneath on the floor, its a faded abstract line pattern - something I could do somethng with further. 

Mixing Sculpture and Painting; In Conversation:

Reflections:

• Since the painting had 'voids' in it, and the sculpture had voids in it, and they both have an unfinished look, I thought about how they would look if they were in conversation with each other. 
• They almost reflect each other and provoke an argument between painting, sculpture and form. They are two different mediums that are essentially projecting the same approach of abstraction, void, monochromatic tone... and their placement together works a lot stronger than separately.
• This collaboration of works made me think back to Chelsea School of Art's Undergraduate Summer Show, where there was a room with paintings on the wall, and metal steel sheet metal sculpture on the floor. It worked together in the show there as a curatorial decision to put two opposing mediums together, but it was because they shared a common ground of colour or tone. 

Chelsea School of Art Summer show (sculpture on the floor, matching paintings on the walls)

Development for Sculpture + Painting

• Upon reflection, I want to maybe crush parts of the aluminium sculpture even more.
• And although this painting is finished, I may add some silver leaf in the 'voids', to bring it closer to the aluminium sculpture. 

Overall Reflection:

• Seeing my work on the wall for once, I felt a sense of achievement and like I had finally created an art object after a year of what feels like experimentation pieces. This is why the framed approach to my art now is essential - the frame almost elevates art to become perceived as art.
• "The void slips sideways from the grasp of frame and figure; its visual apprehension as contained absence, made whole and present in the eye of the viewer, is attenuated." ('Anish Kapoor: Making Emptiness' by Homi K. Bhabha. p.13-14). 
• I feel that my past work last term focused on the void conceptually through using a purely reflective material, but now it seems I am depicting the void physically. 
• I feel like my work answers the following quote from the same book, speaking about Anish Kapoor's own concerns within his work:
• "Kapoor stays with the state of transitionally, allowing it time and space to develop its own affects - anxiety, unease, restlessness - so that viewing becomes part of the process of making the work itself. The spectator's relation to the object involves a process of questioning the underlying conditions through which the work becomes a visual experience in the first place: how can the conceptual void be made visable? how can the perceptual void be spoken?" (('Anish Kapoor: Making Emptiness' by Homi K. Bhabha. p.16). 

Studio: Painting on Canvas

Today using an unprimed canvas, I created a monochrome/ grey painting, with an ink roller. Here are photos of the stages of painting:

Progress Documentation:

 Finished Piece:

Reflections:

• Using the unprimed canvas worked really well to absorb abstract shapes of paint in certain areas, but the canvas did start to get a bit tacky towards the end of the paining when the paint had been applied over and over again. 
• Compared to my previous painting on board, the unprimed canvas really allowed more expression of what the paint could really do, and I think I would like to use canvas again. 
• The ink roller worked well to spread the paint, and I worked in a left to right motion, and then up and down, covering the whole canvas over and over again, until the paint had settled into a pattern I was happy with, and the canvas was covered. 
• I used only black and white acrylic paints, and these created the varying grey tones. There are areas of the canvas that are darker and lighter, and some with more blobby shapes which was where I applied the first layers of paint to the unprimed canvas - and this is what I really love about the outcome. 
• Using monochrome rather than colour is something that I feel I prefer at this stage, although I have experimented using colour, I am unsure which colours I would want to choose or why. The absence of colour seems easier.  
• Using the end of a paintbrush, I went around almost all of the edges with black paint to give it a rounded and more framed look, which helped draw attention to the central parts of the canvas more.
• Overall, while painting I felt like the process of creating art was at the forefront of this piece, and it was very much about wen I felt like I was satisfied with the painting, which was when it was finished - much like how Gerhard Richter has stated. 

Development:

• The ink roller created a checkered pattern when looking at it from a distance, which I liked at first, but now, looking at it again I really love the abstract areas where the canvas absorbs the different paints at different times of application. 
• Using a larger squeegee to apply the paint, and pouring more paint on at once, dragging the squeegee across the canvas would help to create more of these abstract poured shapes in the image. 
• Upon further reflection, adding a splash of yellow paint to the canvas would make a good contrast to the image and the colours would go well together. 

Further Research:

• Gerhard Richter's Grey Paintings
• Richter completed a number of grey paintings in the 1970s and 80s. Some of his paintings were thick grey squares, and they never came down the sides of the canvas, rather they left a neat edge, much like what i've tried to produce above. 

The edge of Richter's Grey canvas, source https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/videos/abstracts/grey-cr-3671-8-134

• Richter also did some abstract grey paintings varying in texture, using oil paints:

Grauschlieren, Grey Streaks, 1968 200 cm x 200 cm Catalogue Raisonné: 192-1, Oil on canvas

Ohne Titel (grau), Untitled (Grey), 1968 50 cm x 50 cm Catalogue Raisonné: 194-6, Oil on canvas

Tate Shots: Lynda Benglis and more Studio Work

This video by Tate Shots explores Lynda Benglis' approach to her work. Source: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/video/tateshots-lynda-benglis

Key Points & Reflection:

• "I started with wax painting because I felt that painting was all about surface and form, so the idea of a linear form creating a gesture was with me."
• Benglis's connection with the surface and form here is similar to my own thinking. Surface and form were the most integral part of my work, they provide the foundation of my practice. 

• "The art in general that was happening at the time was Minimalism and Pop Art, so I think I was reacting to the material qualities of the pop artist and reacting also to the ides of a minimalist, because I was not interested in taking art to a final conclusion, a minimal conclusion, it was more a kind of closed deductive reaction as to what art might be, and I felt I wanted art to be much more excessive and it was about more, not less. I’ve made a whole series of these linear forms first in plaster and sparkles and then later the metal and the metalising."
• Benglis is talking about her work and how the art movements at the time influenced her materiality. Benglis wanted her art to be about more and not less, which is the direction that my work seems to be heading in now. After a minimalist term last term with my stainless steel works, the more I am exploring materials I realise that I wish to create and express details within materials. 
• Themes of being excessive is also related to my newer work and designs, where I want to create a large piece of mild steel full of intricate details for the viewer. 
• Benglis describes how metal allowed her to be more 'excessive' which is a running theme in my practice - the excess of consumption within society. 

• "I’m not depicting something I’m making a feeling or I’m making a form, and the edges often create a kind of reading, the way we read into clouds or tree forms or landscape forms. I think form and texture create the mood and the magic of the work."
• Benglis' connection with the process is also evident in this quote. Making a 'feeling' or a 'form' is what I am doing in my work, and I agree that form and texture have a significant impact on how the work is perceived by the viewer. 

Lynda Benglis, Pinto, 1971, Pigmented Beeswax, Damar Resin

• This piece by Benglis, created using pigmented Beeswax also shares a material with painter I saw at the Nottingham Castle exhibition, Antony Micallef. This texturising material creates a Gerhard Richter-esque approach here and Benglis' form is very unique as a painting. 
• I really like the painting and sculpture collaboration here and wish to develop these two styles more within my work.

Reflection/ ideas:

• Materiality was an emerging theme in my work last term, but is now becoming the main focus on my practice. 
• Her work makes me think back to my aluminium piece where I made the cut outs, but if only it was more manipulated or bent round itself. For example if I had a larger sheet of aluminium, cut it all out to create this material which could be folded in on itself to create knots. 
• Painting and sculpture together. This is becoming the theme for my practice now, to see how these two mediums can be pushed and react together.
• Painting and sculpture are the most commercial art form - perhaps this is a subtle critique.  

Further Research

• Materiality book reading. 

Further Studio Work / Material Testing:

Photograph of close up of CD that has been heated with a heat gun. 

• Photoshop Manipulation

• Printed out photograph and added paint rolling technique. 

Reflection:

• This experiment worked to reveal the details within an ordinary material, which when undergone manipulation, appears to consume the viewer through its reflective qualities, and range of details and texture. 
• The colours vary depending on what angle you look at it, and it's quite iridescent. 
• I don't think I would take the CD any further just because it's not a material I could work with on a larger scale that would look slick or well made, however it works well as a digital representation and could be printed on fabrics or made into large prints. 

Reading: Gerhard Richter Books and Publications

Panorama, London: Tate Publishing, 2011

Key Points and Reflections:

• The Panorama publication was factual in providing information about Gerhard Richter's background and meaning behind his work and his beliefs. 

• "Consequently [Richter] is sometimes described as an artist who recognises painting’s compromised role in the present day. However, this recognition has not stopped Richter from asking the most difficult questions of his practice. What are the capacities and limits of painting? What is its relationship to photography, and how can we think about its material status? What are its private and public roles? These are questions he explores to this day."p.2
• Richter here asks questions about concerning art in general, and particularly material status, and public roles. Material status of art links to capitalism. 

Photopainting in the 1960s

• "Richter painted luxury and everyday goods, images based on tourist brochures, film stills and erotica. Collaborating with Sigmar Polke and Konrad Lueg, he called his practice ‘Capitalist Realism’, hanging his paintings in a department store and appearing as a living sculpture alongside them" p.3  
• Richter's practice is becoming very interesting. Capitalist Realism is also the title of Mark Fisher's text in which discusses Capitalism as a political structure and way of life, and how there isn't really an alternative to a money fuelled system. 
• The act of an artist copying luxury and every day goods, things that contribute to the capitalist way of living, and the societies much of the world is used to, it just a way of fuelling this capitalist desire. The fact it's innate humans to want better for themselves or want a good wage and to display their wealth, is just the way we are, maybe it's brought on by the culture we live in or maybe its in our genes. 
• The performative act of Richter here - hanging his images in a department store and then appearing as a living sculpture alongside them, is a step further and maybe a critique of capitalism. 

• "grey ‘makes no statement whatsoever; it evokes neither feelings nor associations; it is really neither visible nor invisible... Grey is the welcome and only possible equivalent for indifference, noncommitment, absence of opinion, absence of shape.’" p.6. 
• Here Richter describes the use of the tone grey, and why he chose to use it in his Grey Paintings. I recently completed a rather grey looking abstract painting and was interested to take on board Richter's thoughts on the tone. The monochrome tone is something that I have been working with for the majority of the year, and i'm slowly moving away from it now, introducing colours to my paintings. Monochrome was also appealing to me for similar reasons - it isn't making a statement, rather the textural tones and details of either the reflective metals, or brush strokes of the paint is more apparent. 

• "One is made with rollers producing an impersonal surface off which light plays in different ways." p.6. 
• Richter states that one of his Grey Paintings is made using rollers to create this surface which light plays off. This is the exact reason I also used an ink roller in my own previous grey painting - but I didn't know that Richter had done this for this same reason. 
• This has allowed me to put into a sentence that - 'creating a surface which light plays off' is what my practice has been about for the entire year, and it is what interests me most. 

 Gerhard Richter: Text, writings, Interviews and Letters, 1961-2007 Thames and Hudson 2009

• "Picturing things, taking a view, is what makes us human; art is making sense and giving shape to that sense. It is like the religious search for God." Notes, 1962 https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/quotes/art-1  Gerhard Richter: Text, writings, Interviews and Letters, 1961-2007 Thames and Hudson 2009, p.14.

Reflective Log: Nottingham Trip Gallery Visit

Nottingham Contemporary

• Canvas's with threads overlaid. This is a unique way of creating texture on a close up look, and yet from a distance it looks like a flat painting. 

• The metal used here is shaped like a frame. Although this is only a small part of the piece of art, it was the most inspiring part of the exhibition. The discolouration of the metal is also quite good here, it fades from black to a reddy tone, and these are tones that I am intrigued by for my own metal work. 

Nottingham Castle Gallery

Matthlieu Leger,

• Nottingham Castle's newest Exhibition, 'Reportrait' features bringing portraiture into the modern day.  Above  is a Glitch Portrait by Matthlieu Leger, which looks as though an old painting has been digitally manipulated, but it's actually just paintwork.

Maisie Broadhead, 2016

• Work coming off the canvas. These photographs look like paintings from hundreds of years ago, yet you can tell they are made in 2016 from little signs such as the facial expression, crisp quality of image. 

Jake Wood Evans

• Abstract painting. Details in the brush strokes. 

Antony Micallef, Oil and Beeswax on French Linen

• Here the materials stood out to me. Beeswax to be used as a paint thickener is something I am really interested to try as I love the look of thick paint, it's something that's always inspired me due to the details created by the brush strokes, and the sculptural look of the paint itself.  
• Further Research http://www.antonymicallef.com
• Micallef focuses on portraiture and in many of his paintings the face particularly is blurred out with heavy paint. 
• Since this was in the exhibition which focuses on bringing portraiture into the contemporary era, it suggests that there is more a focus now within art for textures and materials, rather than photorealistic paintings and art that was more common in the past. 

Glenn Brown, 2014

• Close-up detail of Glenn Brown's painting. Whats interesting is the contrast between this piece and Antony Micallef's piece above, and how Brown's work is a realistic painting of the details within paint. 
• Capturing the brush strokes like this there is emphasis on brightness and contrast and tones within the paint and attention to detail is high. It's quite an interesting thing to paint details of paint at such quality, yet also have a slightly impressionistic look. 

Surface Gallery

Ahmed Rahman

• Surface Gallery had an exhibition on about street art, and I found the piece of art above by Ahmed Rahman the most inspiring to my practice, due to the textural marbling affect. 
• Creating something similar to this - with the details within paint or metal, in my work is what I am working towards now. 

Studio Work Development: Mild Steel

Mild Steel Cut-outs with Painting Behind:

• Combining the painting and the mild steel frame idea after previous designs. This does work quite well, and I think it would work even better on a larger scale.

Further Painting Experiments

 

• Sketchbook swatches

• Emerald green acrylic paint with white paint overlaid.
• Yellow Paint splatter works quite nicely to contrast the textures. 

Emerald Green and Yellow Painting:

• Close up of details. 

Reflections of Painting:

• Using the ink rolling technique I was able to create some great textures with the paint. Rolling it causes this slightly bumped texture, and I also scraped the roller which created a more blended look similar to Richter's abstract paintings. 
• I do like the mixture of different textures and the up and down and left and right strokes which create a sort of checkered pattern as some peer's have stated. 
• The green hues make the painting reminiscent of landscape paintings that I used to do. 

Mild Steel Bending Testing:

Reflections 

• The subtle bends in the metal would work well on a larger scale as I think this could be obtainable, as this metal will be thicker and larger than the much creased aluminium. 
• A powder coated finish would be necessary for mild steel as the  steel has already began to rust.
• The colours I am thinking of powder coating it are white or chrome. 

Feedback:

• Powder paint chucked colours straight at the steel to get a variety of colours (ashy toned colours like greens blues and oranges but dulled).
• Some peer's agree that the metal should perhaps not be a bright colour, but a dull ashy tone similar to that of the raw material. 

Further Designs for Bending Mild Steel & Frame Piece:

Reflections

• I think the colour that I want my steel to be is similar to its natural colour, or the colour it goes when heated.
• Heating  a large sheet of metal in Ann's workshop wouldn't be possible, but if I was to work in small sections on the back of the metal sheet in Robs workshop with the welding tool I will be able to create a pattern like this:
• 
• This could be set with a clear varnish.
• This pattern may work better with no bends in the metal, so on a flat frame instead. 

Further Development: Adding Paint Behind Metal

Reflections:

• The paint details behind the cut-outs work to draw attention to the details in the paint itself.
• The contrast in colour works nicely, but I'm not sure if colour is something that would really compliment the metal frame on a larger scale. 

Testing Wall Placement of Painted Board