sketches/experimentation for final project

As I get more stuck into the project, following on from the Hockney-inspired photo collages http://rosieminney.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/hockney-inspired-photo-manipulations.html, I was then interested in further combining the idea of technology and nature. 

I am intrigued by how our generation is so de-sensitised by the Internet; how we can easily recognise anything, pixelated or not, because more likely than not we have seen it online. However, how much have we seen in real life? From this, I would like to culminate in an abstract painting, which vaguely resembles the natural world - we have to get up close to recognise even our own environment.

a sketchbook excerpt - a study of fragmentation I created using my photo collages. We know what it is, yet it does not look as it is meant to --> we are desensitised by the Internet as we regularly do not see things in real life

 some mono prints based on photographs

I drew into the mono prints with oil pastel to bring colour and life into the experiments

I then began collaging some of my photographs together. I wanted to create something that from afar seemed recognisable, but one has to get up close to realise that everything is not what it seems - again, how we seemingly immediately recognise something we have not originally seen in person, over Internet. I then edited the colours on my iPhone to further bring into use the idea of technology

I then began collaging together my prints, my photographs, and my charcoal drawings. The idea here was to take original artwork, emphasise scale, and to bring in the use of technology to create one large collage which was made purely from print outs - no first source artwork. This is to represent how data and images are manipulated and spread through the Internet, whilst we remain oblivious to how things have been altered. 

A close up, showing how the print can sometimes seamlessly blend into the photograph

Essay published for Vane Gallery!

I recently had an essay discussing Sheyda Porter's Idea Generating Machines published on the Vane Gallery website!

Read it here, or follow this link: http://vane.org.uk/essays/idea-generating-machines
Sheyda Porter's exhibition page: http://vane.org.uk/exhibitions/idea-generating-machines

Hockney inspired photo manipulations

As I move into semester two, I am interested in continuing some landscape artwork I made during my artists' residency last summer. As a starting point, I ventured into Leazes Park, Newcastle, with just a digital camera (its cheaper to experiment on than film!) and was inspired by Hockney's photo collages. I took many photographs from slightly differing viewpoints which I could then collage together to make a fuller picture. 

taken on a sunny day. I love the accidental flare on the middle picture. I think I could work well with the colours shown in this collage


a wider view of the landscape, however this was taken on a cloudier day and the colours aren't as vibrant. I do however quite enjoy the slightly jarring feeling of how the trees appear to never end or begin


sadly taken on a very cloudy day, the beautiful yellows and reds did not show up with any vibrancy. However, the beauty of Photoshop allowed me to manipulate the colours to something more appealing for me to work from

semester one - painting strand

As the final section of our three-part induction into university, we were told to create up to 20 paintings - completely from our imagination, no observational material to be used. This for me is incredibly difficult, as I find it a lot more stimulating working from life or from photographs, so I know where my end point shall be.

my studios

We were generously given unlimited paint and canvas, and were also encouraged to employ other materials, used in a painterly way, such as string, poly-filler, tape, etc...

oil paint on canvas

oil paint on canvas

oil paint on canvas

oil paint on canvas. I tried to push myself out my comfort zone with this piece by moving away from my usual bright palette and using earthier tones

oil paint on canvas

oil paint on canvas. 

as you can see on the two paintings on the left, I also experimented with layering, using fluid washes and heavier lines and curves to build depth in the paintings, as well as juxtapose harsh edges with looser ones.

                       

(top) oil paint on board (below) oil paint on aluminium

oil paint on aluminium

oil paint on aluminium. This one was achieved by layering paint thickly then scratching back into the surface to create features using a pencil or pen nib

The following pieces were inspired largely by Robert Rauschenberg's 'Combines' series. Using found scraps of wood or various bits of discarded items around the studios, I assembled the pieces in a painterly fashion to create these works.

A mixture of board, poly-filler, bubble wrap, tin foil, oil paint, electric tape, magazine collage and polystyrene 

Oil paint, paint tube lids, sticks of wood, magazine collage, newspaper, string, canvas, flannel, electric tape, bubble wrap and a jam jar lid mounted on cardboard

 cardboard, string, electric tape, magazine collage, bottle top, egg cup holder and oil paint on canvas

oil paint, scraps of wood and electric tape on cardboard

oil paint, electric tape, cardboard, magazine collage, poly-filler, tin foil, polystyrene and board

The Courier

Since being at university here in Newcastle, I have got interested in working in the media, and so have lent a hand to the university newspaper, The Courier. I have written for the Arts section, and here you can see two opinion pieces I wrote concerning Brexit and the Museum of Modern Art's (NYC) recent Emoji exhibition.

Semester one - printmaking strand

The second strand we completed is one in printmaking. I'm not a massive fan of printmaking, I do not enjoy the lengthy process and the unreliability of it - how you can spend ages on a plate and for it to turn out nothing how you expected!

Below are just some example of hard ground etchings and chine-colle collage.

a collaborative chine-colle and etching piece. All photographs found in POP magazine.

Semester one - sculpture strand

As part of our first semester at Newcastle University, we have to do three of four strands - printmaking, painting, sculpture and performance. Thankfully I managed to be in the group which doesn't require my dire performance skills.
The first strand for me was sculpture. This is the finished product after three weeks:

The brief: we each had to take a number from the hat, and each number corresponded with a random object the tutors had chosen. We then had to make something that would "exhibit in a future museum."

I was given these. I knew immediately that I wanted to taken this rigid structure, cut it all up (which meant using a band saw and getting to know woodwork technicians very well) and attempt to make a fluid shape. Why not make it difficult for yourself?

I then began using the block to create something of a sphere. 

I then had the idea that, to give this the futuristic theme, I would fill this "sphere" with discarded rubbish - also very cheap and easy materials to source! My idea was that the dystopian future had run out of landfill on land, and was having to hang it in the air. I also had to figure out how to suspend the  sculpture. 

I decide to use some of the unused structure I started out with to hang my piece from. I liked the juxtaposition of seeing where I started out, and where I had ended up, side by side in the same sculpture. 

I spent a fortune trying to figure out how to hang the sculpture. I bought various lengths of wire and cables, but settled on this white electrical cable, which I secured into place using the small white cable clamps on top. I was upset as I wanted to the sculpture to be hanging as if from nothing, and the white cable was quite visible. It did however create a nice link between the starting and finishing point. If I had more time and money, obviously I would look into it harder. I would probably hang them from the ceiling and create many of them, perhaps casting them in plaster so they were entirely white, devoid of colour in relation to a dystopian future.