New Work - Cytherea

Finally I have managed to find the time to update my blog! 

This weekend I continued work on my `Cytherea' Painting. The canvas was primed with luminous pink paint with a wash of black acrylic once the pink was set.

For this painting I wanted to emphasise my love of texture and colour, using powerful complementaries and a range of textural finishes.

Purple underpainting completed

 The purple that I mixed up had a bit of translucency to it, I underpainted the dark areas on the canvas to allow a darker tone to be applied later.

Highlights added, working with the luminous pink underpainting

 The highlights add to the illusion of depth creating almost fold  like sections within the natural form image. My lines could have been a bit crisper and sharper. Something that I will have to work on for the next piece. You can see in the image above how the purple has applied a lot darker than the first image.

Power line dots added

 The dots represent a lot of different aspects for me and reference a couple of artists that I am influenced such as Chris O'Fili. I wanted the dot line to act as a power-play between the soft and dark tones to aid drawing the viewers eye around the piece.

Detail of dot work

I am not sure if this painting is finished yet. I am tempted to add more dots around the outer purple edge, but having stared at it for a few hours today I think it is best to come back to it with fresh eyes tomorrow!

Live, Laugh Love - Working title

This weekend I have spent some time working on sculptures for the A127 art trail in September... yes I know, time is ticking!!! As I have often mentioned I love working with paper and I am especially interested in the quality of newspaper as a sculpture medium. For these pieces I am experimenting with the paper bowl technique used at a recent workshop for Access Art in Cambridge. I want to explore how these units can be manipulated and linked together. The idea that something that is easily discarded, thrown away or used to line a cat tray can be made into a thing of beauty, appeals to me. For the first time in a long while I am not sure where these pieces are taking me. I have ideas of the basic forms and am enjoying watching the pieces manifest themselves, grow and take on their own form. There is a lot of autobiography in my work and sitting writing the initial thought process evokes a personal response to life situations that I face at the moment. I use my art work to explore emotions, relay observations and discuss issues faced in day to day life. I am very lucky to be part of an extremely strong and close family, who unfortunately are facing a brutal battle against Cancer - My intention for this series is to explore family bonds, emotions, fears and hopes. This series is titled "Cell story" , the piece pictured below "Live, Laugh, Love".

 A series of units made ready to be worked on, these units are made

with rolled pieces of newspaper spiralled together

 Black acrylic paints has been used to bond the paper together and help to keep the form of the sculpture. PVA glue can work just as well.

 The three sections of the sculpture start to take form

 This is the general idea for the finished piece in it's raw form. The rolled newspaper produces a stunning finish to the sculptures which I think I will explore in additional sculptures.

The three units with their undercoats of white acrylic paint.

 I am still planning the final design for which I am planning a trip to the Tate Modern to have a look at some of Fiona Rae's, Jasper Johns and Chris Ofili's work for inspiration.