Evaluation

Context

I decided to carry on with the sky theme I have been working on since the beginning of the year. So at the start of our final major project I visited the Harris gallery in Preston. There I saw an image that had been placed over a light box. It looked amazing, so I wanted to do something similar for my final piece. It also seemed fitting with the sky theme, as there is loads of sources of light in the sky. My original idea was too print a photograph, I’ve taken, and print it onto acetate, and then stick it too a light box. So I researched some photographers such as Wolfgang Tilmans. I also looked at artists who use paint a bit differently than the traditional, because I wanted to create texture in some part of my final piece. 

Research

After doing more research, I started to lean away from putting a photo over the light box. I wanted to do something a bit more creative. I also had the idea to do some abstract canvas, that resemble skies, to accompany my light box. I looked at John Constable to begin with, but his work is too traditional. So, I looked at the likes of George Rowlett who uses paint very thickly, and it looks touchable. I want people to feel that way about my work. Richard then introduced me to the work of Helen Frankenhaler, who makes marks by poring paint, rather than using a paint brush. I also looked at Damien Hirst’s Spin Paintings, which I absolutely love. So I decided to buy some tins of paint and use them to pour onto canvas. 

Problem Solving

The canvas’ that I poured paint onto turned out really well, so I didn’t really need to develop that idea any further. I just bought a wider range of colours, and created more canvas’ in the same fashion. The big task was creating something to put over my light box. I did my initial experiments on paper. I used paint to begin with, and then combined it with PVA. I then tried ink and later combined that with PVA. You can see this development process in my sketchbook. I preferred the ink to the paint, so now it was a case of making the background transparent so the light would come through. I first tried applying ink on to Perspex but I didn’t like how that looked. I then had the idea of pouring PVA onto a plastic sheet and then applying the ink to that. It turned out really well once dried. Now I needed to see how I could develop the PVA and what effects I could create. I tried everything I could think of, ink, paint, dye, salt but I still preferred the ink. I then came across Brusho, and it looked great. So all that was left was perfecting the colour and the thickness. I knew I liked purple the best, and I had to keep the colours similar to what you might see in the sky. I did what seemed like thousands of experiments finding what colours went well together, what thickness worked best if there was anyway I could shape the PVA, rather than cutting it. Once I had sorted all this out, I had to transfer these small experiments onto a much larger scale, which was a bridge I hadn’t crossed until this point of my project. 
I stuck several sheets of acetate together with masking tape, to make a large surface to pour on the PVA. I measured the light box, and tried to estimate how much glue I had to pour. This guess work worried me, but there wasn’t much else I could do. The PVA can be unpredictable at times, so I just had to hope for the best. The PVA took about two weeks to dry. I came to peel it off the acetate, and the PVA started to snap. So, worried I would ruin it, I left it for another day. I decided to just cut around the acetate, but for some weird reason it started to peel off really easily. I placed it onto the light box, and figured it would be best to stick the PVA down with double sided sticky tape so it can be peeled off again at a later date. I then had to trim my PVA, scissors wouldn’t work, so Jamie and Bill offered to trim it with a Stanley knife for me. See blog for all these issues in depth. 

Planning

I wrote the majority of my plans on my work plan. I used it as a sort of calendar, it was actually really useful. My work was really independent, so I didn’t need to work around other people schedules.  The only thing I had to make a scheduled time for and plan was the pouring paint sessions. I needed a lot of space, and had to set the area out so nothing would get spilt onto floors and tables etc. I also needed Richards help with the pouring paint, both for artistic influence and to help me move everything to places it could dry. So I obviously had to arrange times me and Richard were both available. This was fairly easy as he is in college Tuesday to Thursday.

Practical Skills

I learned a lot of new skills on the project, mostly concerning materials and how it can behave. This was the most enjoyable bit of the course for me. I discovered how to make interesting effects using PVA mixed with various other materials. I also learnt about how bleach can look amazing when added to ink and created some really nice sky effects with this process. All of the skills, and experiments can be seen in my sketchbook. Some went wrong, as can be expected but I made some really successful discoveries, and got myself familiar with a lot of media. I’ve annotated my sketchbook through out so specific reflection can be found in there. Overall I think I’ve come a long way during this project, as my work has, and I’m really proud of what I have achieved.

Presentation

I thought building the exhibition would be really hard work, but with Jo and Jamie’s guidance it didn’t seem so bad. Everyone pulled together and contributed to building the exhibition, which made things happen a lot quicker. It really didn’t seem to take long. Ideally I wanted my work to be hung side by side, the canvas’ in a grid and the light box next to them. But in total I have 25 small canvas to be hung up, and I need a plug for my light box so I am willing to compromise. Jamie has suggested hanging the light box on the wall, and the canvas grid across from it. I think this will look quite good. My only concern is actually hanging the light box up, its really heavy, and I don’t know if the wall will take it but I have time to talk that over with Bill. 

Evaluation

The light box hung up without any problems. The grid and the light box ended up hanging across from each other, but it looked really nice. It sort of looked like a transition of how my work has developed, the canvas’ to the light box. It was really difficult arranging the canvas’, harder than actually painting them. It must of took me about two days to come up with an arrangement I liked. The critiques I received were really positive. Jamie and Jo mostly spoke about how I have progressed over the year. My work has come on really well, at the beginning of the year I would of never pictured myself doing fine art at university, but now I am really confident.