Mind Explosions

My Masters Research Proposal draft is due in exactly one week...and then my presentation for candidature is another week after that...and then my final proposal is due to get sent to the board another week or so after that...and then I find out if I can actually go ahead with my project or have to alter the proposal.
So...my thoughts and daily activities are pretty occupied around getting all this done.
What is interesting is that my dreams have increased in weirdness by about 300%. Which gets me thinking...maybe I should be a Surrealist after all and just paint images straight from my dreams! But they would probably be too disturbingly bizarre for anyone to relate to.


In other news, I recently finished my first painting series of the year!! They are currently on show in the "Natures Best" exhibition at Artists Den and Art Gallery in Takapuna. I wanted to explore the idea of painting oceans/waves in churches, basically to see how I could combine two visually. Also to investigate how the meaning of what church actually is could be wrestled with. I'm reasonably happy with them, technically they turned out pretty good.
Even better was that they kind of failed as a series for me, in that I didn't learn anything from them. In fact nearing the end of painting them I got angry and bored and would've moved on if I hadn't had a show to put them in! The reason for this is that I hadn't changed anything in regard to how I was approaching the process of making the painting. I was painting a slightly more challenging subject but neglected to reconsider how I could have arrived there more effectively. 


Since then I've been mega inspired and basically am opening the doors wide for experimenting with new ways to make a painting. I'm really excited about this next stage now (excluding all the previously mentioned proposal deadlines) and have no idea really what my next paintings will look like, so watch this space! I feel really grateful to have arrived at this conclusion now at the start of the Masters- otherwise it would've come up when I was halfway through and completely crippled my practice somehow.
So yes, this is my honest opinion of my latest work- they are great paintings if you're a viewer, and I like the ideas and visual impact, but they didn't do a lot for me as a painter.

"We are the body" Oil on canvas, 50 x 40cm

"We are the living stones" Oil on canvas, 60 x 50cm

"We are the salt" Oil on canvas, 46 x 60cm

Also, seeing as I've been reading and researching A LOT over the last few weeks, I thought I'd post some pics from my artist crushes at the moment. I have at least a dozen that I'm interested in pursuing further, but here are just a couple.


These works are by David LaChapelle, a photographer who has enjoyed success in commercial photography, and more recently in fine art photography. I love how he sets up his scenes and uses a collage approach to combine random things. These are from his series "Jesus is my Homeboy" in 2003

Sermon

Five Loaves and Two Fish

Anointing

The Last Supper

I have to include a painter too, seeing as I am one. These works are by Gil Heitor Cortesao (Portugese). I looove the way he paints interiors- he inspires me to be less uptight and more painterly. The first two painting titles translate to "Behind the Volcano" in English, and the last 3 are Untitled. He paints oil on plexiglass and layers glass/paints on both sides etc. Would love to see these in real life!!

The Beginning

This post is mainly to show everyone what I've been up to lately, now that I've been a Master of Design student for about 6 weeks!

Our first deadline is mid May, where we have to present our Research Proposal for our project, and then hand it in for the Research Board to approve. I've found that the best way to approach these things is to spend about  65% of the time just making work, and the other 35% of time researching, reading and writing. With art project based research, everything should really center around the making- the more I paint the more clearer I become about what things I need to be researching, and how to articulate certain aspects of the written proposal.

I'm currently half way through making a series of three small paintings, which will be in a show called 'Natures Best', opening Monday 30th April 6.30pm, at Artists Den and Art Gallery in Takapuna. I'll put up pics in a couple weeks once I've finished them!

In the mean time, here are some of the drawings I've been doing over the last few weeks to get the ideas flowing. It was a great way to generate concepts, and has helped me decide what kind of directions I want to go in with my subject matter, and which ones I don't. Enjoy!

Better to give than to receive

I'm not allowed to work this year if I want to get student allowance while I study, so I decided I'd do some volunteer work!

I found this great organisation (you can see their website here) called Toi Ora. They hold a range of creative workshops specifically for adults who have/have had issues with mental health.

I've been helping out with the Wednesday afternoon intermediate painting class for the last 4 weeks, and I'm loving it! I led the class for the first time today in a lesson on perspective drawing. The artworks that come out always surprise me and sometimes amaze me! I love how creative we all are, and the different ways we express it. And it feels so fulfilling to be able to share a bit of my knowledge and encourage the students. Some of them will just keep on doing what they want to do no matter what you tell them, but I find this is actually an admirable quality in some ways- they know what they want and won't be swayed from their goal.

One of the artists there is Andrew Blythe, who is a self taught artist. He's recently had a lot of success with selling his paintings internationally and in local Auckland galleries such as Tim Melville.

Here are a few of his works:

They are quite arresting in how they're both raw and delicately intricate. Up close in real life, some of those marks are really tiny! He told me that he was put off the idea of art at a young age, but has recently embraced it again- it just goes to show that you never know how talented you might actually be at something someone told you you were bad at!

Proving I can still paint

I'm a big fan of documenting the process of my art making through photos. I'm often so caught up in the final product that I forget to pay attention to the process and all the important lessons it holds.

I want to share with you the process of my latest painting, completed a week ago. I made this painting for the purpose of entering it into the Uxbridge Arts Estuary Competition, and have made it into the finalists exhibition! The aim of the competition is to raise awareness about the environmental and cultural treasures the estuary has to offer, and to motivate communities to help protect and restore it.

As always, the scariest part of making art was beginning! 

I started off with a bit of research, and a trawl around the estuary, taking hundreds of photos. I had the idea of combining a local marae and the estuary. Tamaki has such a rich cultural history, and the estuary area is breathtaking and diverse. I wanted to create a work that conveyed the emotional, cultural and spiritual features of the estuary, as well as environmental.  

 From there I selected the best photos and made thumbnail sketches of different composition options. After this stage I've discovered it's best to always do a rough painted drawing to investigate colour relationships, tones etc before starting on the painting.

 I hate staring at a blank white canvas, so I always chuck some paint on there as quickly as possible to begin with to get rid of the intimidation. This is the first layer- the underlayer.

 And then I slowly begin adding colour, filling in detail. 

At this stage I was feeling horribly unmotivated and uninspired, and was wondering if my 2 month break from painting over summer had severely depleted my painting skills.

 Starting in on the carvings, I found a renewed confidence in myself and the painting, and found enough drive to complete the whole painting over the next 3 days ready to be submitted.

And my work made it to the finals! The opening night of the exhibition is Thursday 16th February at 6.30pm, at Uxbridge Arts Centre in Howick (http://www.uxbridge.org.nz/whats-on/exhibitions), feel free to come along!

I would love to hear any feedback you might have for this painting :)

Until next time!