Charlotte – Fine art – Level 5 BA hons

Art and conscious mind. This was around the theories and ideologies about the mind – and one’s consciousness – in the body or outside of the body? These had influences on my work in subject – because I was relating my presentation about DAMASIO’s theories – along with the ideas around ghosts and spirits, the non-living person and what happens to the consciousness when a person dies…. this has associations to the paintings – darkness and hauntings.

How did it link in with the field modules?

Furthermore, the constellation and the field module which was ‘art the conscious mind’ related to one another; and gave me wider depth of the subjects. An example of this is that (from constellation), “it was more about understanding God, other than just believing in him” (lecture, 20/10/16). And (from field, art and conscious mind) which led me to think about ‘two-self’s’ (from Damasio) and the theory of ‘extensionism’ and mindfulness, and enquiries on the lines of: “how do we illustrate the non-visual?”…The field module explored issues such as ‘Do I feel more self aware?’ and was a lot about SELF AWARENESS. Similarly, the constellation series questioned the self and the self became more independent during the Mannerist period; people wanted more sense and logic, instead of feelings of just religious faith: The 16th Century used intellect and power. Here, during this period of art and intellectual depth, the artists and professors such as Michelangelo and Rosso Fiorentino may have been experiencing this deeper sense of self-awareness.

At first, I made these surrealist landscapes/abstract paintings, which could be seen as a collection of paint or a sky or unusual, blurred landscape.

https://charlotteundergradyear2.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/animism/

deciding on how to display

These are a few photographs of trying to display the paintings in the right way..

The paintings have been displayed in a sparsed manner, where there is the framed painting in the centre of the wall to bring attention to the wall itself.

Because the landscapes are curved, like Grant Wood’s and Paul Nash’s, I thought that displaying the work like this worked better than uniformly = they would not reflect the landscape paintings so this wall brings out how you have to come closer to the paintings to see what they really are.

The lightness in all of the paintings shown on the wall also relate to the display, the light wall inbetween them.

Slade show

I loved these paintings from the Slade undergraduate show.

Especially this one on the top right. The dark colours/dark reds in this illusionary landscape, as well as these floating figures in a light, unfinished sky that looks like a person riding a horse, and figures and angels flying through the air. This had direct similarities to my own paintings and drawings; the influences of Renassiance art work my using creatures and figures, the use of light vs. darkness, and this imaginary environment this particular painter has made.

Using a border, fragments of different landscapes – doc

This painting is a selection of different paintings I have been doing. It is an unfinished piece, but It is debatable to say that the rest of the paintings have an unfinished quality to them.
I liked the use of borders I was using for 2 of the previous paintings I had done beforehand. It also makes it look antique and perhaps been found in a scroll or old house.
The borders also make the paintings feel as a narrative to each one and if any of the four paintings here relate or tell stories to one or another. This may reflect the ideas I have around stage sets.

doc ; tree

The tree sketch was drawn from the Southerndown Trip last Tuesday.

I had not drawn in a while, so I was interested in sitting down and spending a long time on this tree. I liked this tree because it had dark caves in between the branches. There is mostly, always a tree that stands out in every landscape painting before this sketch, so maybe I was drawn to it because of that.

I left the sketch alone, and wanted to see if I could paint from it.

I thought about installation here and in the future e.g. next year, making stage sets and murals/ which would be the paintings – and other smaller paintings that would be props – like the tree here.

about the paintings in May

After the Welcome House exhibition, it was time to start painting and working at home/in the house because we left the studios for the year. I felt I could get into the painting more and I did lots of work at home because it was quiet and convenient. However, I would have liked to have worked larger scale, and this would be difficult to carry out at the house – whereas the studios I could work much bigger and messier.

The day after 22nd May, I felt there was a big weight and there was a lot of sad news close to home (considering the Manchester attacks on 22nd May). This made me feel determined and motivated to create art and perhaps more peaceful environments that I was going to paint that specific day; my method of painting changed slightly, it was lighter and less dark – yet still mysterious. The painting I am relating to especially is —— with stoned pillars that could reflect an ancient landscape from the Roman or Greek period. These pillars could suggest the gates to an afterlife: the viewer is standing in the present day, and beyond is the afterlife.

Field – subject inspirations from the field projects

Public spaces – understood more about developing a public art work such as making design sheets; displaying and talking doing a presentations- confidence about my work and talking about work; using and developing skills on Photoshop, the use of CAD equipment and making sample models; being considerate about other’s beliefs/the public’s opinion especially in the church; considering architectural issues and designs of the building. The work was site specific so I had to be aware of what the cathedral was and how it linked into what my work was going to be of: for example; what materials would I use and how would this reflect or effect the site itself? This field project therefore made me be more thoughtful about materials I use. As an example – how does using teared up paper relate to the subject and context of the work. 20161123_175718 I was allowed to explore with other materials such as silk and dyes – allowing and exploring the way colours can be layered.

The project has given me some skills on how to use my art outside of the university, and how to transfer my art skills in another environment and for a future career.

The last field project in February was Art and conscious mind. This was around the theories and ideologies about the mind – and one’s consciousness – in the body or outside of the body? These had influences on my work in subject – because I was relating my presentation about DAMASIO’s theories – along with the ideas around ghosts and spirits, the non-living person and what happens to the consciousness when a person dies…. this has associations to the paintings – darkness and hauntings.

Ideas around meditation and the mind also were a part of this field module from this certain project, along with unknown forces unknown to the mind – such as aliens and ghosts or demons; such as Madge Gill and Guo Fengi; these ideas can be transported and seen in some Hieronymus Bosch paintings. These outside forces can be seen in some of my paintings; about the after life and the dark, cavey and sparse landscapes that could be hell or heaven-like environments .

Therefore, both of the field projects have seen some influence on my subject paintings and the ideas of them. One of these being from the Cathedral at Llandaff relating to meditation and religious themes, the afterlife and a spiritutal place. Perhaps my paintings relate to a spiritual place.

The second point being that being taken from Art and the concious mind, that related to philosophy and psychology, as well as unknown forces and the mind which we are unaware of.

Exhibiting work at the Welcome House …reflection

20170429_113837 Because this was a temporary, fast exhibition, there allowed a sense of it feeling derelict – there links in with my paintings I decided to show.

20170429_113846 The decisions behind these paintings were decided on the day. I brought along a selection of paintings, that I was going to display as a set.

The paintings deficit a house, or several buildings that are old buildings. Perhaps with thatch roofs. These houses, and the land painted between them, try and provoke the mysteriousness, fantasy and the dark such as haunted, murderous, scary, fearful. This felt as if the paintings reflected the environment of the house; the house itself was a derelict/unused former hostel so it already had the cold, un-familiar feeling to it.

How does this reflect my ideas in my dissertation?
Satire – Eminem’s music (in which the dissertation was hip hop vs. Renaissance Art) has a lot of dark themes, include topics such as dysfunctional families, gore/horrorcore, death, illness, violence, deformities – however there is an exaggeration here and he uses humour , “what she tripped, fell landed on his dick?” – sarcasm (Guilty Conscious) – e.g. added sounds like burping, high pitched screams, dogs barking (e.g. Kill you, The Real Slim Shady) – also the beat/instrumentals are mid-high pitch as if it could be used in a nursery rhyme. In the videos, for example, let’s take Role Model and White America, he dresses up as the priest (dressing up being fun and playful) and the WA video, uses animation/cartoon to, ironically, talk about major political issues in America after 9/11. This use of satire comes in to my paintings.

Listen to Eminem’s ‘3 a.m.’ taken from Relapse album 2008. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAuo8IOFNuE

From America after the Fall show:

Image result for a new nightmare peter blume — P. BLUME – Eternal City

RA shows the last year have been huge and outstanding with paintings, sculpture, architectural designs, video, from miniscule to massive works. Especially Russian Revolution art work from Russia that felt like it brought it back: and the building was like walking through history.

I always find that when visiting an show I have never seen, or even heard of the artist’s/looked closely at their work before – there is always a piece, and sometimes several pieces that relate to my work quite directly. – where that may be the method of applying paint, the theme of the work, or the idea behind the work – history of the pieces.

For example, lets take Peter Blume’s ‘Eternal City’ (1937): uses fantasy and ‘hallucinitory elements’ themes; as well as the landscape that is depicted – stand-alone-trees, small houses on the high terrain, mountains and the contrast of colour such as the dark caves at the front. Likewise, I use the same concepts in recent pastoral paintings.

From the America after the Fall- painting show, that I saw last week, it can be considered that the Great Depression ploughed the country back with disbelief