Now that our studio work and journals have been assessed, this week we have been allowed back into the studios to start working again. Despite the fact that I know that I want to continue with my current ideas (whereas a lot of people are starting afresh) I have found that the ‘lull’ where we weren’t allowed in our studios and were detached from all of our work was a struggle; it felt unnatural to be completely cut off from my work and as a result I feel odd now coming back to my studio. In some ways it is a great opportunity to look at my work with fresh eyes, but I now feel a little stuck. A lot of ideas have been floating around in my head as a result of doing some research over this period but the chance to put them into practice has been limited. To try and get my head in the right place, I have commenced to do a lot of research. This has been to try and contextualise my work for one which (was a necessity before), but secondly it is also a way for me to compile all of my ideas through looking at other peoples’ work. I find that through doing this I can focus on the ideas which I think are the strongest or the most interesting. I have been looking at the work of Matthew Ritchie and, and the drawings of Henri Michaux and Wols; all of these artist have a particular sensibility towards line which I find fascinating, and has really inspired me to continue with my drawings and potentially make something more refined from them. I have also been considering the ideas of encountering and capturing elements of the environment through perspective, such as viewfinders or mirrors, which has led me to the work of Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures and the mirrored works of Robert Smithson; I find an interesting connection between these two artists who approach the human relationship with landscape in totally different ways, one through the manipulation of materials in response to the environment, and the other creating pieces that are directly involved with the land and alter the viewer’s perspective of it as a result. From here I want to start experimenting with line and form both in two and 3 dimensions, and hopefully moving into print to stay consistent with my previous work, but I hope to include the skills that I have picked up through my recent printing workshops, and develop the prints further by manipulating them and incorporating them with other materials.
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Today a small group of us met up with the PASS leaders from second year to have a look at our studios and discuss our work. It was refreshing to be able to look at other studios and hear people talk about work that I haven’t encountered before after being surrounded by the same work in my studio for such a long period of time.
When looking at my work we discussed possible external sources that I could take influence from to give some context to my work, such as Robert Smithson and William Anatasi. I was also given the idea of using my small scale prints to cover a large space, so that a viewer becomes fully immersed in the small details that I have created in the frame of the print. The topic of the square became a recurring theme as we looked at peoples’ work, and it became clear how many forms that we are used to today; grids, frames, windows all conform to this shape when it is not a naturally occurring shape itself, yet the relationship between squares and nature were being looked at again and again throughout the studios. This session was really useful as a helpful starting point to really get the ball rolling again after the lull where assessments were being marked. Jesse led a workshop in drypoint printing today, a technique which I have previously explored in my A-levels using Perspex. I was sceptical about the workshop purely because I hated drypoint last time I tried it, it was frustrating as I couldn’t get the results that I wanted. But this time I was relieved to be using a new material; aluminium is far easier to work with and make marks into. I was also glad for the experimental approach to making the prints, whereas before I was attempting to draw representational people and I found this difficult with this process. The aim of the workshop was to rediscover the basic principles of printmaking, and applying this to an aluminium plate which could ultimately become a visual representation of us and our artistic practice. I found the concept of creating something to represent myself without being in any way ‘identifiable’ difficult; so I avoided all geometric shapes and worked initially with making different textures and working with single strong lines. We were encouraged to use only black and another colour, for this workshop orange was selected. I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the idea of using such a bright colour but I did find that the colour did in fact work very well alongside the black, especially when the two were both used as a richer pigment. I used the black ink to create the intaglio part of the print, and I used the vivid orange on a roller to add a gradient to the top and bottom of the image; providing an isolated viewpoint of the black and white texture. When looking at the prints I am somewhat reminded of a landscape, yet at the same time there is something quite raw or primal about the marks. I embraced the possibility of mistakes and allowed them to influence the prints.
I am pleasantly surprised at how these prints turned out, and I would like to look into this printing process in more detail and be able to develop the technique, referring back to my own subject matter. This weekend I visited Tate St Ives to attend the first Tate Collective meeting of the new year. I have been looking forward to attending my first meeting to see what being a part of the Collective involved. Considering that the Tate is offering such a great opportunity for young people to get involved with the gallery I was surprised to find that only 6 people in total attended the meeting; even more so because we were all new members! We looked around the current exhibition and had a chance to discuss the work as a group, and brainstorm possible ideas to develop for the next Young@Tate event in March. We have also planned to screen a couple of short films in relation to the exhibition in the next meeting, as well as the potential to visit other galleries and set up events.
Another opportunity that the Tate are offering is Peer Leader training; a two day course to learn about the running of the gallery and be trained to work alongside other employees in the running of events and coordinating of activities. The next course is running in February and I hope to attend as I could gain some valuable work experience in the arts industry. I am grateful for these regular meetings, it gives us a chance to get away from Falmouth for a little while and look at other places around Cornwall, as well as talking to like-minded people that I might not get the chance to talk to otherwise. Last week I printed my small collograph plates, at first inking them up as if they were etching pates so that I could get an intaglio result. I also used this in conjunction with a relief print by layering two colours on a plate before printing it. One colour was for the first intaglio layer and the second lighter colour was for the relief layer rolled over the top of the plate before printing. I am really pleased with the results now that they are dry. I am especially pleased with how the two-toned prints turned out, as the layers of colour give the resulting image more depth, and these prints seem to be very coherent with the idea of creating an illusion of depth that a viewer can involve themselves in when looking at them. At this stage I have printed them as a number of long series on long strips of paper, and some on smaller paper to then be cut up and moved around. I now hope to create another series with one print plate occupying a whole page, so that the print becomes isolated and a separate piece of work in its own right in addition to being part of a series.
Today we were introduced to Jesse Leroy Smith; a painter and printmaker based in Newlyn who was going to be running workshops and making work in the Printmaking Workshop.
His interests lie in making prints to use in collages and paintings, and relies on the printmaking process to create vast amounts of source material, like we use photographs or drawings. He has also curated exhibitions where a number of artists collaborate to make large scale pieces of work. This has also been adapted into workshops for members of the public to create prints and following on from this the plates made are taken and developed into large books. I look forward to the opportunity of working with Jesse and seeing what I can learn from him to carry into my own work. After only being back in Falmouth for a couple of days I already feel more at ease with the idea of continuing with practical work. Being back on campus has allowed me to varnish my new collograph plates in preparation to print them and experiment with the outcomes.
I had my first tutorial this morning, and through talking I realise how similar the textures of my prints look to maps of environments. Neil and I were discussing the contrast between physical journeys and how they can be recorded (the drawings I make on the bus, for example) and fictional places, such as the ones created in my prints. We also spoke about the idea of memories, and how recalling locations and journeys from memory can create interesting twists in reality, and combining the factual with the imagined could make for an interesting step forward in my work. I have been recommended the books ‘In Patagonia’ by Bruce Chatwin, and ‘Notes from a Small Island’ by Bill Bryson; both written recollections of people, places and journeys. Perhaps reading to then create visual responses could then inspire further drawings or prints. |
AuthorThird Year BA Hons Fine Art student studying at Falmouth University Archives
April 2017
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