Development of Work
Oil on Canvas
My work started through painting self-portraiture. However rather than using typical facial features within the self-portrait but something that is personal to me, such as my ice-skates. Using the colour scheme inspired by Kristina Troufa, I used a yellow ocre acrylic paint as my background colour and cooler colours (blue, baby pinks, purples) for the main subject which is my skates.
Using the same colour scheme and the idea of reflection in the back of my head I looked at how light refracts off uneven surfaces such as water. I feel like these were moderately successful in their appearance however, I wasn't getting any excitement from these pieces and felt like I wanted to play more with the concept of distortion and reflection.
Although keeping in the theme with the oil on canvas I decided to paint a surface that is more easily distorted; water. Using a reference image from the internet I loosely painted a water droplet with loose paint strokes once again in the style of Troufa. With areas of the water surface missing from a distance the work appears to have some depth with the ocre seeming like the surface underneath the water.
From here, I looked into painting on different surfaces other than canvas (wood). With scrap wood from the workshop I used a glue gun to attach the separate pieces of wood in a random combination creating layers and gaps within the wood. Maintaining the colour scheme I pained sections of the wood in a yellow ocre acrylic and others in a white acrylic (to prime the wood). On my first wood piece I painted my hand from observation stretching over the three sections of wood. I left one of the planks its natural grain to compare how well the oil painted onto the bare surface. The oil paint went onto the bare wood better than expected, however it did take longer to dry compared to the oil on the prepped wood. As the wood didn't fit together perfectly there were section missing from my painting; reflecting upon Troufa. I did the same techniques but with a face rather than a hand on another series of wood stuck together.
As I liked the idea of distortion with water from painting the water droplet earlier on in my project, it was very time consuming. Thinking about how I could use the idea of distorting around the subject of water I cam up with the idea to use water in its physical form. With the idea of submerging my paintings to see how the water could distort them I soon realised that canvas and wood would not be sustainable underneath water as they'd soon saturate and fall apart. Painting on glass, such as mirrors, is where I was lead to experiment with. Buying a mirror I took the frame and backing off resulting in the mirror then smashing, however I was able to do more experiments with the different sections of the mirror. My natural instinct was to use oil and my medium and its always my "go to" material when painting. As I was painting onto glass I was not able to sketch out my image before painting which I found very difficult. Painting a hand in the Troufa scheme and an eye in natural tones allowed me to analyse which I preferd. When using oil paint on glass I came up with many conclusions:
- The oil took longer to dry and was more easily smudged
- As it took longer to dry, it was difficult to create any detail within the painting
- It pre-distorted the image as getting the correct proportions was difficult
Emphasised and more pure colours, no paper to alter the colour of the oil
I also painted over a reflection rather than from an image. In theory I thought this was going to be easier as id have an outline to follow. However, when painting over a reflection I soon realised that with both eyes open it was hard to focus on the reflected image when painting over it; resulting me to have to close one eye whilst painting. Also, as I am right handed painting the far left of the image was also difficult as my right hand would then cover the reflective image so I wouldn't have a stencil to paint over. When finishing this experiment, I took a step back and realised the image had been compacted and was smaller than the actual reflection. When taking all of this into account I would not try painting over my reflection again and it created more issues.
Out of interest I did swatches of aquamarine blue acrylic paint onto glass and placed them underneath water in a sealed container. Within 10 second of being submerged underneath water the acrylic started to crack and peel off the glass, however this may have been because sections of the acrylic weren't fully dried. After about 30 mins, the pigment within the acrylic was released changing the water blue. The majority of the acrylic had peeled off, especially around the edges. When the glass had been underneath the water for over 24hrs, the acrylic had started to form bubbles and had lifted off the glass almost completely. The water was now a stronger shade of blue and although the majority of the acrylic was no longer connected to the glass it still sunk to the bottom of the container. From here I decided to take the glass out of the water and let it dry on the windowsill. To my surprise, the acrylic paint had stuck back down onto the glass drying with a matt finish like all moisture had disappeared. There was visible brush strokes within acrylic as well as cracked areas. The lifted areas had stuck back down overlapping each other as well as the glass being left with a blue tint like the acrylic had been dusted over the top.
After the experiment with the acrylic I decided to do the same with one of my oil paintings on the glass. From putting the image under the water to taking it out the container, the image never changed once. This may be due to oil and water not being able to mix. Therefore, when I put an oil painting underwater, it resists the water as isn't affected by the element. The oil appeared very opaque when underneath the water and didn't seem to distort as well. From here I decided to drip the water onto the oil painting rather than submerging it. When moving the image with the water dropped over the top the water would move about the painting catching different beams of light. However, the lines within the painting wasn't distorted. This may be down to a series of thing. For example, with the water simply dripped onto the painting there isn't that thick barrier between the painting and the surface of the water creating less room for manipulation. The droplets did catch the light however this only creates a shine rather than a distortion created through the movement of water.
From these experiments I bought two mirrors with thin gold frames in a hexagonal shape. I bought these mirrors because I found the shape to be more interesting than the basic rectangle shape most mirrors are. Also, as the frames were thin I could fit them into the translucent plastic box I had also bought. I wanted a larger container so I could place numerous paintings in as well as experiment with the level of water; see whether the distortion relies on the amount of water within the container. I had bought two of the same mirrors and on one I painted a detailed hand from observation using oil paint and on the other I quickly painted an eye using acrylic paint in primary colours. I left them both submerged underneath the water, which is when I presented in the Shaun space. When looking at how people reacted to the tank of water it was very interesting. People were not afraid to place their hand under the water and disrupt the surface. As I placed my tank on a plinth people were also able to look up from underneath the water rather than just directly into it. This then created a reflection from the mirror and underneath the surface of the water, which I did not expect. After the crit I placed my tank back into my studio and took some photos with the water being disturbed. As the water moved it caught the light and disfigured some of the lines within my paintings. I also took a photo looking up through the water to recreate the reflected painting on the waters surface.
Restricted by the amount of water I was able to pour into the tank due to weight restrictions, I was still able to achieve minimal distortion within my work. Getting my head around using physical water within my work I moved towards creating sketches which I could paint in the future. Using tonal pencils and a tortillon I started to draw the eye area of the face. Adding a lot of detail to make it realistic I remembered that this may not be possible if I chose to use oil as my medium.
After taking my time drawing in my sketch book I went to take my mirrors out of the bath. What I didn't expect was the water to have turned orange and the mirror starting to rust. Forgetting mental being exposed to water for a long period of time rusted I took the mirrors out the water to see a layer of rust collect on the surface of the mirror over the paintings. However there was circular sections of mirrors than hasn't been affected by the rust creating a bubble look. The layer of rust, on the hand particularly, had turned the colours into an orange tone and gave a textured surface onto the mirrors. As my project was to use water to cause distortion I didn't think about how rusting could also be used to deform the paintings. I loved this effect onto the paintings as it added texture to them. As well as this, the areas that had not rusted was still reflective therefore the surroundings created depth and layer.
I hung these pieces into a white cube space to see how they would look against a white wall with different lighting. I hung the hand up because it was the only mirror where the chain hadn't snapped off through the rusting. When the lights in the studio were off I placed a flashlight in the bottom right corner of the mirror to create a spotlight. The light created highlights and shadows onto the mirror placing emphasis onto the rusted areas as well as creating a dramatic effect from the enlarged shadow onto the wall behind the mirror. Rather than placing the mirrors back into the water I dipped them inti the bath and placed them onto the wall allowing the water to drip onto the white wall leaving water parks being. To me, this connected the white cube space and the mirrors together into once piece. As well as this with a thin layer of water lying on the paintings this caught the light and added a shine to the mirrors. From here, I am look towards buying more of the hexagonal mirror and painting the sketched imaged stretched over the mirrors. With the image painted on multiple images this will distort the image. I will then rust them in the tank of water and then see if I can glue them together in a "hive" form to create a completed series.
