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Aside from the terrorist threat in Egypt, I have my own giddiness. The self portrait everyone seems to like is this...

Trust me it looks better than it appears there even though in reality the background is just a wash and I was intensely focused on the portrait. Anyway this says a lot about me, vast background small image in the corner, I'm an observer, I people watch though I add my own soundtrack (lately The Eagles, Noisettes and Andre Rieu). Anyway tutors have said it's a very powerful image and Miguel suggested an interesting use of space which I had only ever so lightly brushed upon in the project. As a result I think it is this image which has brought about a turning point and concentration for my mass of thoughts which has brought on many stalling points.

Say hello to a morphed mug shot of me. once this is dry I will incorporate it into a series of experiments involving models of my own hand made of paper and wire. So far I am sitting in a collection of items I have horded for sentimental reasons because they belonged to my Nana Benji (Benji being a Scottie dog she had and how I identified her when I was little, this case being my Mothers' Mother). Again Miguel's fault as he implanted the Narrative concept in my head, if I have the hands on a desk, a pen, a letter with a name and a photo frame, what messages does that send? Well I intend to discover that in the coming week! For now though I leave you with a couple of hands.

Friday's for Painting

Every Friday I go to Ricks painting workshop to... ... well... ...paint.

This was how the apple thing started. anyways the following is a bad one though with certain interesting elements...

The concept of surveillance with the all seeing eye in the centre, gesture of a hand above and perverseness of a male figure with an arm on female legs. Also the layout as I wanted to suggest a sort of jigsaw badly composed, how we see majority, conclude and condemn without the whole piece.

Next is the self portrait day. We came in with photographs (or rather mug shots) edited by computer which we would then work on. I like these two in particular because I think they work well side by side and the one on the left reminds me of the Mona Lisa...though others suggested The Spectrum of Jesus...I think that's because we went to the Walker gallery the week before.

Obviously I was feeling a little blue in the morning which eventually led to my own 'Spectrum of Me'. Funnily enough this then led onto yesterday's painting as we all did our own 'Spectrum of Simon'.

We picked a colour theme then were basically let loose on doing what we wanted with his image. I chose a candy floss pink because of the idea of dissolving sugar and the event. The X-Factor for example interested me for the first series but like everything else it gets overdone soooooooooooooooo much that it's boring and the sense of castration creeps up on me when people talk about watching the latest.

Red was the first one I did because basically that's all I see when Simon Cowell appears on the news. I GET IT! HE'S A TALENT HUNTER YET HE HASN'T BEEN DOING THAT FOR THE PAST FEW YEARS HAS HE! IT'S FIVE MINUTES OF FAME BEFORE WE FORGET THEM AGAIN! This people is why I was so happy Rage Against the Machine hopped to Christmas number 1.

Life Drawing

I have been attending Jagjit's life drawing class so here are what I think are my best (also favorites). Why didn't I bring these up in my review!?!?!

To the left we have a cut out of what I consider an incredibly exposed view (after several attempts and 45min). And yes I am quite proud of my patience.

And finally above two of my latest where the easel decided to collapse and as a result got put in the background. I'm so glad I moved my hands just before it did!

Anyway I've been attending these mainly because I didn't last year and I want to explore and exercise my visual understanding of shape and space. Hopefully this will contribute to my project, if not then at least execution of a sketch.

1st bits of painting

As I have not started this blog as soon as I probably should have I am adding it in stages started from the beginning of the semester by just posting what work I have done.

I began this project incredibly confused about what I was doing but since last Thursday I am really clear on the direction I heading or the materials I wanted to use. So I began with an exercise before the semester began painting a portrait from a photograph using acrylics.

I have left the painting incomplete because I started the project looking at Port Sunlight and it contained society, this portrait became irrelevant as I began my research.

I have also explored the use of oil paints. The subject here being apples which I viewed with religious connotations referring to the Garden of Eden also the isolation the apples have received in my home. They are home grown apples from a tree planted fifteen years ago; though the produce is ever increasing in quantity and taste, many of the apples remain isolated from sight in a cold cupboard where they are forgotten and so decay slowly until they are thrown away or salvaged for a curry. I thought this significant in the development of ideas for my project due to the narrative behind it and the rejection of the new which is mirrored in Port Sunlight.

I have also completed a smaller painting of a singular apple in a deep set frame in which pieces of apple are cut up and allowed to rot. I will add this to the blog along with all it's stages of decay once the process is complete.