Proposal and Evaluation

MIXED MEDIA

PROPOSAL FOR ASSIGNMENT 1

I am so enthusiastic about the Mixed Media course at the moment that it is difficult to decide on the elements I want to use in the two paintings of my choice.

My tutor, Richard Liley, kindly suggested two alternatives, Visual/physical texture and Coupage/Decoupage.  I am particularly taken with the first of these suggestions and will produce something that uses texture influenced by  artists like Rauschenberg, Tàpies, and Anselm Kiefer. 

Rauschenberg introduced so many different ideas into his work including screen printing which I would like to do but may use block printing instead.  His use of fabric as well as found objects takes the work so much closer to a sculpted item with very heavy texture and this I find very interesting and attempting to work something to that degree would be extremely rewarding.

Tàpies work is less colourful and much more poignant, and to achieve this would be extremely hard with abstracted forms and symbolism, but I like his use of material and the muted colours.

Anselm Kiefer is so much darker and heavier than the other two artists but his impasto is dense and sculptural almost visceral and again I am excited by such overt texture.

As to the second picture, I have been influenced by Klein’s monochromes and want to do something in an almost monochrome if not fully monochrome style which incorporates some ideas from the work of Jasper Johns, particularly his Periscope (Hart Crane) 1963 painting.  I like the way he has incorporated letters in the background with lots of drips and runs, and the way he has divided the canvas.  I also think I will want to include some collage and possibly some images taken from my pc printed for use in collage, as well as magazine pieces, if I can source the right colours and images.

In both cases I will work on un-primed hardboard and am looking forward to seeing if my outcomes will be different from my initial ideas

 

EVALUATION

At various times there have been programmes on TV regarding the sacrificial remains of victims in Puru.  The images are grotesque, not quite skeletons, their flesh and expressions of fear and pain are clear to see.  Munch used  the images of similar skeletons to produce his Scream paintings.  I had always thought I might produce something in mixed media to hint at the texture of these images, but hadn't at that time thought how I might approach the painting.  My learning with the OCA has given me the tools with which to attack the subject.

I have used unprimed hardboard with artex, sacking, cheesecloth, plastic film, plaster bandage, shredded cardboard, string, lollypop sticks, and so on in this piece.  I couldn't quite capture the look of fear, but did I think capture the hopelessness, pain and sadness. The heaviness of Anselm Keifer's work and the darkness is exemplified in this piece, but is achieved through added texture rather than paint.

 

 

 

 

 

For my second painting, I was influenced by Tàpies and Keifer's monochromes as well as Picasso in terms of the subject matter, if not style. I have also been influenced by Rauschenburg with his use of collage and paint.  My painting incorporates some collage, lettering, and various more subtle textures than the previous piece.  I was taken by Jasper John's Periscope, which uses text in the background. My painting is based on the Bull which is my birth-sign, and includes images for the bull, including photocopied pieces from Picasso's Bull in the Guernica painting.  The hardboard has been slashed to give texture and to hint at the sword in bull-fighting. Some of the collage hints at the visceral.  The strength of the bull is hinted at and the monochrome (more or less) red is the colour of the Spanish earth, the cape, blood, death, passion and man's inhumanity not only to man but to animals. Motor-racing has been part of my life so I couldn't resist the Red Bull logo, it is about speed and strength. There's a lot to read in the painting, the "i bull" and the bull's eye. As well as different interpretations of the text and numbers. I didn't include as much collage as I had thought in my proposal because I couldn't find the right images and I didn't want to make it entirely a collage. Having looked recently at Keith Haring work, I might have included his Bull image, I could have printed it in red and white and included it as additional collage, but I felt my painting has sufficient images included.