The past few days my mind has been in a peculiar and emotionally draining place. I feel like I'm on the cusp of a whole change in direction, artistically and spiritually. I've been listening to new music, playing with new materials, going new places, thinking new thoughts and talking to new people. I can't quite put it into words, but I am being challenged, the boundaries are being pushed, and I'm craving something more than what I have come to accept thus far.
In light of this, the series of six female figurative portraits I am doing for uni and hopefully to exhibit at Kickarts all are far more experimental and hopefully thought provoking than previous works of mine. All the works are on cream or cobalt blue linen, primed with gesso and drawn with charcoal, water-soluable pencil, watercolour, ink or whatever else is handy. They will be embellished with various textiles. All you can hope for as an artist is to, challenge the viewer and represent what it feels like to be human in some way. Inspired by the emotiveness of Egon Schiele and Gustauv Klimt, I hope these upcoming works may be a bit more captivating, in a way I was never able to in the past.
Image by Egon Schiele
These are two of the drawings I completed for uni, semi happy with the results. I am particuarly pleased with the bottom one as it is hinting at a narrative. There is a relationship dynamic between the mother and daughter figure, it is quite autobiographic actually (thats a word yes?). I hope to include a bit of roleplay and narrative in future works, it makes them that much more exciting, and it is so easy as I can just use my life experiences as a starting point.
As I have mentioned previously, I have been working on a series of six femme portrait drawings on linen. This is the first to be completely finished, others are a work in progress. As you can see the work is moodier than usual, and the girl less beautiful, but for me the greatest change is that with these works I've loosened up, a lot! The background is marked from mopping up pigment from the previous work, stained with ink and highlighted with various shades of soft pastel. The figures have been stitched with a single thread (well two if you count the bobbin thread). The tension was terrible to start off with, and I found I liked the underside far more than the side i was stitching onto, so if you click on the image for closer inspection you will see loose loops of thread. I have also included a fair bit of beading, which I particuarly like, as well as buttons, and minature flower buttons in provocative places. The others are quite different to this one, but as a series they link together well; femme, colourful, gritty, textured, hand drawn, sewn, playful xx.
The past few days my mind has been in a peculiar and emotionally draining place. I feel like I'm on the cusp of a whole change in direction, artistically and spiritually. I've been listening to new music, playing with new materials, going new places, thinking new thoughts and talking to new people. I can't quite put it into words, but I am being challenged, the boundaries are being pushed, and I'm craving something more than what I have come to accept thus far.
