Final Project-Jenna and 6,000 miles of Embankment

Jenna and 600 miles of Embankment

This painting began as a montage of photocopies of Jenna hanging from the climbing frame. Her enthusiasm and joy were infectious and I had to use them somewhere in my work. I like the idea of introducing people from other cultures into a commentary of the Fens as our main city, Peterborough, is heavily populated with people from Eastern Europe, Russia, Portugal, India, Pakistan and South America. Jenna is a symbol of the youthfulness of our population and the hope they bring for the future of the Fens.

I liked the vortex of limbs and hoped to keep the sinuous, softer shapes in this work, which reminded me of the interlacing of grasses in the photos I had taken earlier and used in Four Thousand Farms. Some of my colleagues wondered why I would go to the bother of creating a montage and then cover it up and paint over it. To include the montage seemed important to me. Just knowing that she was part of the painting (and you can still see her!) creates something more powerful and interesting. The landscape become more of a commentary than simply a pretty picture. We all play a part in the picture of our communities, but most of the time we are little noticed except by those we are closest to. For me Jenna plays an important part of the development of this painting. I notice her, and hope that when people take time to really examine the painting that they will notice her too, and the important part she plays.

I felt that using small oil pastels had been successful in my earlier work and was attracted by the colours in this small sketch and decided to use it as a spring board for my painting.

As with my previous work I wanted to reference other aspects of the Fens with textures and divisions and that is how I began. In this painting I felt that I would like a more direct contact with the land and added soil and chaff and some seed heads that I had gathered whilst out sketching. I attached these with glue and later painted over them. They become immersed in the painting rather than be a stand out/ stand alone reference. In the bottom right corner there is also part of some sketch book studies for field patterns.
It took me a while to get the composition laid out in a satisfactory way and it has changed from the original but I think that looking at the painting and what works in the final piece is more important to me than slavishly repeating the study.
My horizon has again become more industrial and the 'fencing/gates' on the right continue the comment of battle between man and nature. I think the horizontal lines that run across the painting balance the strong verticals. they seem to embrace the painting and quietly hold it together.

Having recently seen the Hockney exhibition at the RA I can sense his influence in using brighter colours and simple more stylised forms, although my painting is significantly different from his there is another worldliness about them!

Final Project-Learning Log, Four Thousand Farms

Four Thousand Farms

 In my study for this project I did some research into the creation/history/geography and general demographics of the fens. This painting represents the chaos at the edge of a field, nature; the cultivated field is just visible at the top of the painting with fresh uniform growth, and of course the four thousand farms that the Fens support.

FTF began with photocopies of a picture I had taken of the land protected from frosts with straw. This gave me a structure to start from and I love the apparently random interlacing of the stems which would later be reintroduced to the surface of the painting. Some of the photocopies are still visible.Once more I chose to introduce lots of texture onto the surface. This helps create depth and surface interest, but the long straight lines of the thread are reminiscent of the way the land is divided with fields, roads, railways and drainage ditches. I like the contrast between the formal structure underlying the painting and the organic application of the paint, a hard line meets a soft line. I also used some Pebeo black  nature gel for an earthy effect.

 I was attracted by the vibrant colours and energy in a small oil pastel sketch I had made of the rough grass at the edge of a field. I was attracted by the contrast of rough and smooth texture, and the contrasting colours, cool green and the fiery orange and reds. I choose to zoom in on the rough texture of the foreground as it made a more dynamic painting. I was excited to be working with a much more exuberant palette than usual.
I have found in this set of paintings that I often need to work with a larger bush, creating more blocks of solid colour. In the past I may have used more 'bitty' arrangements of colour to guide your eye around a painting. Working from very simple sketches directly to the canvas has

been a useful experiment and helped me to be bolder in my use and application of colour.

Adding the strips of paper at the end was to reintroduce structure to the painting. I like the way they thrust themselves across the canvas, providing a lot of energy and movement despite their  geometric, regular shapes. Some of these shapes have been outlined a la Hockney and Van Gogh!

Four Thousand Farms is written along some of the strips.

Final Project-Learning Log 2 - Hold On

Hold On

Hold On began as a montage of photocopies of a painting I had done in the summer of two children on a slide. I loved the tenderness of this painting and an idea for a series based on the theme of 'holding on' began to formulate for  my figurative work - remember Agnieska was struggling to pull herself onto the climbing frame. I felt that the reference was appropriate to the Fen landscape where our hold is tenuous  and a constant struggle against the forces of nature. If we let go the land will be lost to the forces of nature.

I added structure and texture to the canvas with thread, fabrics and papers referencing the patterns of fields from an arial perspective. I then added oil paint with a pallete knife in block colours using a section of a small oil pastel as inspiration. Small photos of individuals living in the area have been snipped from the local paper and attached to the canvas. These images, and the many figurative elements and forms within the painting, provide a subtle texture and allude to the relationship of man and land in the Fens. I have used some printing  and have worked some soft pencil through the paint for other  effects.

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Final Project - Learning Log 2

My series began with a small oil painting, Out of Focus.It was really a bit of fun, a little release before the serious work of my final project. In reality I learnt that everything that I had been looking at had been simmering away, waiting for an unselfconscious moment. The painting really just 'came out'.

I referred back to some of the research/sketchbook work from the 'scattered images' project in the 'Your Own portfolio" course. I had been intrigued by randomness and  control, so I started scattering and glueing small strips of paper over the surface of the canvas. This felt like the random pattern of harvested crops or of the grass verges of the fields and created a lively texture. I then decided to paint in a very loose way with a pallet knife over the surface. I began covering everything with black, then simply worked in a horizon and a field.

Since a  recent visit to the Gerhard Richter exhibition I have been interested in the colour and qualities of grey. I have been doing a lot of research into black, but hadn't really considered how important grey could be in your pallete. In this painting I felt inspired to use small negative shapes in grey to bring definition and rhythm. Using grey made the other colours seem to have more importance. Grey is softer, more subtle than black; more subdued, less intrusive or attention seeking than white. I t seems a perfect foil for any colour. I like the way the small grey shapes tend to disappear or recede beyond the fabric of the painting.

In the centre of the painting is a smudge, an area our of focus. This began as an area that I was not quite happy with until I realised that the blurred area helped the eye to work it's way around the painting. I think there a many analogies/comments one could make here about how we 'look' at the landscape and what we value or 'see' there.

The horizon has a slight industrial feel, a reference to the meeting of nature and manufacture which typifies the fens as much as it's flat fields and big skies.

My next work, In the Groove, began as a patchwork of fields using different paper and textures. I was trying to work in a figure of a child hanging onto a pole but was frustrated with the way things were going. It all seemed too direct and contrived. I had so enjoyed the freedom with which I had painted Out Of Focus, that I decided to try to be freer and more spontaneous in my work. I referred back to some of my sketches and decided to focus in on a small area of a little oil pastel of a drain at Oxburgh. I again added some snips of paper and this time included some sand for texture.

Although the original image is almost totally obscured (I can just make out a hand and face in the top right  of the painting, and a foot on the top left) It doesn't seem so important. When you look at the painting you will begin to see figures in the shadows. This is how I would like the influence of mankind to be expressed in these paintings, kind of 'behind the scenes'. In reality nature is the dominant feature in the Fen landscape. Man only manipulates it, a kind of puppet master, we see the Work but not the Master.

My third painting, Agneiska,was a rework of a painting I had begun in the summer, of the children at school. When I decided to change the topic of my project the painting was abandoned. Since I had begun to think about incorporating figures in a submerged type of way it seemed appropriate to resurrect the painting. Agneiska is submerged by the landscape, only her face, with an expression of determination and struggle remain( she was trying to pull herself up onto a climbing frame). The tension and struggle is still expressed in the painting via the strong diagonals, and strong contrasts in colour.

I had taken photographs of the land, literally. I held my camera parallel to the ground, zoomed in and snapped away. It was interesting to see the relationship between the arial photos and these zoomed in photos - lots of intersecting!

I decided to use one of these photos as the basis for this painting. I used my scattered strips again, then built up the form. Firstly with a pallete knife and then with a brush. I have also used a pencil. There is a very fluid feel to this painting. The Fens are generally quite damp underfoot. The grasses are like a wave traversing the canvas. The textures expressing the soil on the top left appear like a flock of birds taking flight, while on the right the grass strips are like an army of cranes, or search lights from a prison. Once more there are shadowy figures to be found alluding to man's role in the landscape.