Pre-degree show March 2015.

As in previous years, the painting pre-degree show was held in Edinburgh, allowing my fellow course mates and I to deal with the challenge of raising enough money and awareness for the show to be as successful as possible. We each had significant roles throughout the year in attempt for things to run as smoothly as possible. The curating team of five students went down to Edinburgh with the work and were responsible for hanging arrangements and making sure the gallery space was as presentable and professional as possible.

            The opening of the show was held on March 6^th, and was a private opening for friends and family of the artists involved. The atmosphere was fantastic and the turnout of those attending was much higher than expected. It is safe to say that a well earned gin and tonic was needed after the build up to my first exhibition, and I was able to relax and enjoy the ambience. This night, as well as the preparation was a great insight into displaying our works, and many lessons were learned that will prove useful in the coming months leading up to degree show in June.

            The experience learned that I feel will be most useful, is one that the curating team passed on to me. The practice of hanging works proved to be challenging as it was hard to find works that sat alongside each other that complimented and didn't overshadow each other. In grounding a basis of work for my degree show, I will spend time viewing my paintings alongside each other in available spaces around the art school in order to gain a greater understanding of how different pieces flatter one another and the spaces they are displayed in.

            As a team I feel we worked well and the outcome was commendable, and I am proud of everyone’s work displayed and the effort we all contributed to the show and to each other.

Yellow Stratum.

      Currently in the studio I am finishing my latest piece of work, one that is a stretched canvas with multiple layers of paint used. It was then taken off the stretcher and folded in a specific order that allowed for a certain pattern to be formed. When folded, the piece was three dimensional and able to integrate and mould around the spaces it was placed in. As this was similar to other works I have developed I decided to experiment with making the piece flat again, and this allowed a trace from previous folds to be more visible to the viewer. Though I found this interesting, it was still important to me for the work to interact with the space it was placed in, and I felt that as a piece on its own it didn't seem finalised.

      I began looking at frames and other ways to allow the work to intermingle with space around itself, such as hanging from the ceiling or shelves, to becoming a floor piece. I came to a decision that giving the piece a space of its own to work in would be suitable, and began exploring the idea of placing it inside a frame that was box like. This way I could explore a range of ideas within the box and it gave me limitations to work with.

      Through building maquettes I chose to try and give the illusion that the canvas was floating within the frame, hovering in the space created.

      I plan to experiment with lighting in order to exaggerate and enhance the depth between the canvas and frame, and hopefully add a further element to my work that will bring it closer to its conclusion.

What is the fourth dimension?

There are many theories as to what the fourth dimension may be, whether it is time, light or other. How we understand space also plays are huge part in what we imagine the fourth dimension to be. We live in a world where there are only three dimensional things, therefore it is difficult for us to be able to understand how to visualise it, or how it even is constructed. A great book to read to understand how we visualise and interpret space is Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions  by Edwin A. Abbott. This influenced my comprehension and approach to the subject through my work. If dimensions run on a pattern, it is thought by some that a tesseract would be formed, though this is just a theory.

                    

In my studio practice, visualising what the fourth dimension could be has become of great importance. I want my work to not only be three dimensional, but also contain elements of what could be considered the fourth dimension to be. Through experimentation I feel it could be time, and I want my work to be ever changing and constantly evolving. Using matt emulsion on folded canvas has become centre of my attention at the moment, and emulsion can be seen as unsuitable for paintings, as it is known to flake and crack, meaning the work will most likely need to be restored much sooner than other substances, for example oil paint. I want my work to be constantly changing over time, more paint peeling and flaking and adding to the pile of paint shavings on the ground below itself. This work can potentially become a timeless, ever changing, three dimensional painting, therefore can this represent the fourth dimension?

I hope to continue experimenting with other theories and try to incorporate them within my work, for example light and space. I hope for my work to evolve into something that represents my understanding of the fourth dimension.

Bringing origami and layers of paint together.

This was done by layering paint on canvas, many times with multiple colours in order for the paint to physically take up space and become very thickly coated. Once dry I folded the painted canvas into the same folded pattern as previously in order to see what differences it would have compared to the original unpainted one (See previous post). The results were varied on the different experiments I undertook, particularly due to dissimilar types of paint used. Regular household paint was one that I found most intriguing, as is it is a chalk based paint, it cracked and fell off in layers and clumps. It was an uncontrollable reaction that had an element of surprise involved that was out of my control. On other examples I used mixed media which involved peeling and cracking together, as well as some just peeling, and some not being affected at all. An example of a finalised piece completed in early 2014 is shown below.

 The black and blue paint underneath the white emulsion breaks through the cracks, and the black satin paint peels giving the piece an opening effect, exaggerating the layers underneath. I began to work with only household emulsion, limiting myself to only primary colours, influenced from Mondrian (Blue, Yellow, Red, Black and White). I layered even more paint on canvas and folded it, flattening it again afterwards. I kept all the paint that has cracked off in hope that I will use it for something else, perhaps in conjunction with the piece itself. The amount of cracked paint is substantial, and I think reinforces the concept of how the paint physically takes up an unexpected amount of space.

Folding to create mass.

     Origami is a technique which has become an important component in my work. It grew from my interest in layers of paint, and realising that a sheet of paper can lie flush against a wall or surface. I found that many sheets upon each other become a physical mass, and I feel this was a significant breakthrough for my work, and became one of the main techniques I now use when producing paintings.

     One piece of flat paper can be folded into a range of shapes, which consequently become three dimensional shapes. Each individual piece takes up physical space, reflects light in different ways and for me, allows me to consider the space behind it, as well as the space it takes up and interacts with.

     From this I wanted to incorporate traditional painting materials such as canvas and paint, and attempted to find a way of folding canvas while manipulating it to retain its shape once constructed. I explored a range of materials on the canvas such as paint, varnish, glue, rabbit skin glue, starch, primers and many more to produce the desired effect. I found that rabbit skin glue was the most effective and created a crisp surface that was rigid enough to preserve this once folded.

     I began to work on a larger scale, and this is something I produced earlier in the year.

How I became interested in spatial representation and understanding.

Currently I am studying fine art at Grays School of Art, specialising in painting. I am now in my final year, concentrating on the understanding and representation of spatial awareness. I began looking into this last year in third year, and it all stemmed from the idea of painting a room. Listening to someone say that painting a room a certain colour will make it look bigger is something that I can relate to as it does sometimes give us the illusion of a greater or smaller space. Generally people believe that a white room looks bigger than a dark coloured one, though when thinking about painting a room over with another colour I find myself considering the space that the paint will consume. Layers and layers of paint will partially have an effect on the size of the room, as each layer will contribute to the walls becoming thicker with each coating. I begin to feel as if the room will eventually become significantly smaller than originally. It is this thought that grasped my attention and one that has had a great impact on my outcomes throughout last year.