Out With The Old, In With The New.

Today marked the official end of my first year at uni (which has gone so fast!) with a meeting bringing us all together for one last time before we all disappear for summer.  It consisted of some brief information regarding local exhibitions, plans for level 5 and the student rep re-election process (which I ran for and was elected, whoop!). 

As my first year is over and have received my results I thought I'd post a little self evaluation of my recent modules. Since being put into the painting strand I have experimented with painting and painting techniques as part of a 'Materials and Processes' module and a 'Fine Art Practices 3' module which focused on strand specific practice.

I first started off by painting landscapes (just chosen from a sheet of paper our tutor gave us) using different paints and painting techniques such as solid tone, transparent layers and removing layers. I really enjoyed the challenge of applying the paint in different ways creating different tones and textures. 

Painting task experimenting with different ways of painting.

Transparent layers.

Oil on MDF board.

Painting task experiment using different ways of painting.
Solid tone.
Acrylic on paper.

Once done with painting landscapes we were able to bring in our own imagery. I went with the theme of religious art which after some reflection on my part, was a bad move. These religious ideas seemed to limit and constrain me and even though I was looking at Renaissance painting I couldn't move forward. So after a helpfully unhelpful group critique (in the respect that everyone was stumped with what direction I should go) I decided to go back to what I really enjoyed - Landscapes. During a 4 week project where I loved painting landscapes, I figured this was a natural theme I am comfortable painting.

Trying to limit my colour palette for a challenge.
Black and grey.
Acrylic on paper.

I then tried adapting it a bit by painting some vivid landscapes based off old holiday photos. The aim was to create a surreal, dream-like scene triggered from memories captured in photographs from the past. I wanted to combine the bright, exotic nature of Henri Rousseau paintings with the rehearsed gestural movements in Alex Katz paintings. I think I managed to successfully combine these two ideas as well as put in my own style of painting and I am pleased with what I have started to develop.

Trying to merge together landscape imagery into one dream-like scene.
Oil on paper.

Trying to merge together landscape imagery into one dream-like scene.
Oil on paper. 

This concluded my practical work for the year and I have positive feelings to where I am, and where I will head between now and the start of level 5 in September. My tutors believe there is confidence and maturity in my most recent paintings which I should continue to explore next year. I plan to do lots more bright paintings of landscapes (but without the distracting black lines) in the near future to test and find a style I really like so that I hit the ground running in my second year of uni.