Hello everyone, well I started my second elective this week - sculpture. The first day was spent doing an exercise to come up with an idea for our piece. Based on the body and it's senses, we had eight categories and had to add words to relating to each category. From these lists we made a list of roughly twenty verbs, which we gradually whittled down to three. Finally, we picked one verb from these three as our subject. I ended up choosing the verb 'to twist'. Now I'm sure your thinking that's got to be easy enough. Maybe get hold of some wire, rope or fabric, well almost anything pliable really, and twist it around, or twist bits together. The initial plan was to gather some materials together and just get started - see what happens. As I hadn't brought in any materials with me I got hold of some clay and paper to make a start with. Both easily twistable with pleanty of potential. Now I'm not sure exactly how this happened, I kind of got swept along with an idea, but as you'll see from these images, I've ended up with a small collection of twisted steel plates. I was surprised at how easy these were to make and they look quite impressive. Now all I have to do is figure out what to next. That's the hard part.

 

The next three images I assumed were metal but they're actually wicker. Still nice examples of twisted material though. Taken from Sculpture magazine, December 2012, Vol.31 No.10, and by Edgardo Madanes.

The image above is also taken from Sculpture magazine, 2012, Vol.31, No.1, by Rita Mcbride. Titled 'Mae West' and made from carbon fibre it is situated in Munich, Germany.                                                                                

Hi all, time for an update again. Having failed to upload any images last time - due to technical difficulties, I'm going to try again now with some I'd saved by the artist Frank Auerbach, who I was researching for my painting elective.

This first image is of Frank's studio. The canvas shows a painting he was working on depicting the entrance to his studio in Camden town, London. His landscapes were generally this size 50" x 50". The build up of paint on the floor and work surfaces is the result of his practice of scraping the paint off the canvas at the end of each session. He would then start the painting again at the next session gradually building up layers of paint - sometimes up to or more than an inch thick. He did keep the scraped off paint to use again but obviously a certain amount fell to the floor and worksurfaces. He used a similar method when drawing i.e. rubbing off the entire surface after a days work only to begin again on the same sheet the following day. Considering that he spent ten hours a day, seven days a week in his studio for over thirty years it's hardly surprising that a little residue managed to accumulate.

 

 Forty one work sessions went into 'Portrait of Sandra' and the drawing in progress was photographed each day on it's easel. At roughly half way through the progression a section of the page had to be replaced as it wore through from the constant erasing. I could go on for days with his fascinating story but sure ye may as well borrow the book (LSAD library) and read it at your own leisure.

While I'm on here I want to upload some images you may or may not find interesting, of some stuff I did over the holidays. I'd made a selection of forms, legs, hands and head with the intention of trying out various compositions. As I'm starting my second elective - sculpture - next week, they may provide some useful reference. I also find this blog works as an extra back-up for work saved. Any critique is welcome so feel free.

 



Hello bloggers, anyone for turkey? Back at college again, new year, new semester. Had my assessment last week on the first semesters work. Seemed to go O.K. so fingers crossed.
I started my first elective this week - painting. Like everyone else I was itching to get started. Not surprisingly there were a few preliminary exercises to conduct first but we got around to some painting eventually. It's always interesting to do something new, for example painting blind, which I hadn't done before so I found that a good exercise. Need to practice though (a lot). We also got a new list of artists to research which is always interesting. I've just finished a book on Frank Auerbach, by Robert Hughes, and it's amazing to get an insight into an artists past and discover the dedication and passion they have in thier work.
Typical - I've just scanned several images from the book with the intention of uploading them, and now I find that the 'insert image' facility isn't allowing me to. The curse of modern technology strikes again. I guess I'll have to save them onto my cigarette lighter thingy and try again tomorrow.