Krysta Hudspith

In this painting project we were giving numerous briefs to build up towards a large canvas painting consisting of the range of spaces we looked at; industrial, domestic, public and private. One of the briefs included researching up to 4 artists from the library who looked at industrial, domestic, public and private spaces. My artists will be looked at more in detail on the following pages of the blog.

In our first briefing we were giving an A4 piece of paper containing the deadlines for our project over the following 4 weeks. In the first week our assignment we were tasked with painting an 4 individual A4 pieces, one of each of the spaces. Starting with domestic space, influenced by Jonathan Bourne, I had taken photographs of my hall way including numerous lighting. Like Bourne, introducing lighting into the domestic interior. When painting this interior space I tried to add as much detail as possible into the painting in order to create a warm, realistic appeal. However, by doing this, it had taken me the entire week only to do this one painting, leaving me behind schedule. 

Moving onto the second week we were briefed with enlarging our four paintings onto A3 paper. Instead of doing a larger version of each A4 painting we were tasked with zooming in and enlarging particular areas of the A4 paintings. When looking around other peoples work, many people had done abstract painting and 'block' paintings in order to get an effective and quick finish to the painting. As I hadn't finished 3 of the A4 paintings i decided to finish these become continuing with the A3 paintings. Taking ideas from others in the studio I did a range of 'block'and abstract painting to increase my understanding of numerous painting techniques. When finished my A4 paintings I began to paint my A3 paintings. However, this was proven difficult when it came to enlarging areas of the painting. This is because managing the scale and proportion is a weakness for me. I painted the A3 pieces in the same style of which I painted the smaller pieces.

In the third week of briefing my task was to further enlarge my paintings from A3 to A2, once enlarging my painting once previously this seemed less like a task than it was before. This is most likely because I was able to practice my scale and proportion once before. During this week I had also stretched my canvas across the frame I had made in the wood workshop. As this was also new to me, it had also proven difficult. Therefore partnering up with someone from my studio had made it easier to stretch my canvas, ensuring the canvas paper was tight and securely fastened. This was important to ensure my final painting could be as successful as possible. 

Finally, the fourth week consisted of careful planning of how each of the four spaces would come together and create one larger final piece. Trying different colour schemes and compositions on A4 paper allowed me to see what will and will not work. When I had my final design, I sketched it out onto the larger canvas, ensuring the scale and proportions were correct. With the domestic space as the main background to my canvas, I originally was going to place the other spaces such as private, public and industrial in and around the staircase. However, when coming to the end of my final painting, i came to the conclusion that the public painting (ice rink screens) were not a necessary part to the overall painting. This was because they would look out of place and hide parts of the industrial areas to the painting.

To conclude the painting project, I think my final piece was a modest success. As my project started off strong, as the paintings increased in size. When it came to my final canvas painting, even though the main background was a success, when introducing the industrial and private space I felt like their spacing would've been thought about a little more. Also, as I became to the end of my final painting the quality started to deteriorate as I rushed to finish on time. This project had taught me to realise that using different painting techniques and colours could be used to create a just as effective appeal as a detailed painting.