Bottled Beauty

At the exhibition in June, one of the other students used glass bottles with images inside that said something about her life.

I really liked this idea but (so far) instead of putting images inside the bottles I decided to use some flowers that I had dried just for my own interest. I have done four bottles so far and think it will be really interesting trying to find different ways to display the flowers using the bottles.

The first bottle was inspired by Demi's bottles from the exhibition (they were attached to a piece of wood using ribbon). The second was inspired by the way the first dried flower lost some of its buds (when I was hanging it inside the bottle) and I used all the lost buds I could find to fill the base of the bottle. I then carefully put in three flowers with their stems still attached into the bottle and used the buds to keep them standing. The third bottle was an attempt to create a simplified version of bottle 2, this time using my glue gun to attach the flower to the outside of the bottle. The fourth bottle used the idea of the lost buds from bottles 1 and 2 but instead used the spikey leafy bits from the flower stems.

The way the flowers are displayed in this bottle inspired me to use the other flowers on a canvas. I started by covering the canvas in tissue paper (as the flowers are pink I decided to use a pale pink).

I really liked the texture that the paper created on the canvas but I felt it needed another colour so I used a piece of white paper to test out a few possibilities.

 

In the end I decided to use a butterfly-print white tissue paper to make a hill shape before adding the flowers.

I then worked out where I wanted the flowers to be placed but thought the image looked very flat so I decided to use a small strip of a darker pink to give more depth. Finally, I used my glue gun to attach the flowers to the canvas.

I really like the result and I am thinking of using this and other ideas for my extended specialist techniques unit. Now I just need to find other artists who use similar things in their work...

Sam Cornwell

Unfortunately I have been unwell this past week so I missed out on seeing Sam Cornwell's presentation, however I have since looked at some of his work and the following two photographs are my favourites... 

 

Jupiter rising over Kielder water
26th September 2014

 

I really like this photo because of the simplicity of the landscape along with the incredibly starry sky and the reflections of the light on the water.

 

 

Mars, Venus and New Moon Conjunction
20 February 2015

  

I really like this photo because although there are only two stars, the colours/lighting in the photo are amazing. I also like how the branches at the right hand side have been included.

 

I think I particularly liked these photos because (and bear with me here) they make me feel so small in comparison to the rest of the world. I know that sounds really strange but next time you see a perfectly clear (or starry) sky -as in no clouds, quite rare in Scotland- look up and clear your head and just think about how far away everything is from the ground and how much further than that all the planets are... It's still really strange how I actually like to feel that small/insignificant but I suppose if I am that insignificant then it means I don't have to please or impress anyone and that means no pressure or expectations.

  

 

Order and Chaos

Last Thursday we were split into two groups and each group had to make a sculpture with the title "Order and Chaos".

The group I was in decided to make our sculpture using table frames, chairs, yarn, and a selection of other random objects.

Order

Chaos

 

Last year we did something similar at the beginning of term but I found it really hard to join in and take part in making such a strange "sculpture". This year however, I found it much easier to take part and even (kind of) enjoy it.

 

 We also had to make a video that showed what the sculpture was about. The group made a video together but I had some ideas of my own so I made a 20 second video showing the order and chaos of the sculpture. I decided to film the "order" part just slowly walking around the sculpture and then moved the camera around to create a chaotic view of the "chaos" part of the sculpture. (sorry about the angle - there doesn't seem to be a "rotate" option).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oliver Reed

Last week, artist Oliver Reed came in to the college and spoke a bit about his work.

I particularly liked his painting "Thicket" which was created in 2012 using oil on board.

I love the eerie, mysterious atmosphere in this painting. I think the dark shape in the centre is haunting in itself but together with the thin trees and the sharp twigs and branches of the thicket it is utterly mesmerizing. It's almost as if something is going to jump out and attack any second.


There were quite a few paintings in Oliver Reed's presentation that I liked but as he only put the sizes, I can't easily find pictures of them online. I tried looking at his website but the paintings are all split into different titles/categories so it's very hard to find the image(s) I was looking for.

The Migrant Project

This week we had a "2 day project" to do. We had to make a poster, banner or a t-shirt that said something about the migrant situation.

I decided to do a poster inspired by a picture I saw (a few days before we got the project) of a sand sculpture by Indian artist Sudarsan Pattnaik. The sculpture depicted the drowned Syrian boy lying  face down on the beach.

I then tried writing "Save Us" in the shape and colours of this sculpture. I also thought about making a collage out of newspaper headlines and articles but in the end I decided to use whole pages instead of smaller pieces. For my final poster I used coloured paper for the letters that represented the boy's clothes.

 

I positioned the "save us" so that the pictures of the drowned boy could be seen in the articles behind.

 

 

 

 

 

 I think these images make the poster more thought-provoking and also give the poster more depth.

 

If we did this project again, I would work out how to make the "S" more legible while still suggesting the shape of the boy's head.

 

 

Inspired by King's work

One of the things I particularly liked about Anna King's technique was how she painted areas of colour and then used a pencil to draw the lines and shapes into the paint.

I experimented with this idea by using acrylic (instead of oils) and a charcoal pencil (instead of a normal pencil).


First, I tried this in different greys...

Then, I tried different purples...

I think the paler purple at the bottom gives the idea of mist on the fields.

30 Seconds of Nonsense

One of the things we had to do this week was make a film of "30 Seconds of Nonsense". This could be anything from weird to boring and that meant we could be as creative as we wanted.

I thought about filming my cat, Smudge, in our garden just chasing dog toys or pinecones or following a stick that we dragged through the grass. Although this was fun to do, it wasn't really nonsense.

So I tried getting my little sister to talk as quickly as she could (when she talks that fast no one can really understand a word she says) but she was talking so quickly that she ran out of things to say.

She also didn't want to be on camera so I spun around while she spoke; but spinning around on the spot for 30 seconds made me so dizzy I couldn't walk in a straight line. I even fell over once after 20 seconds...

Due to the fact that my sister couldn't talk fast for 30 seconds, I tried the same spinning idea but without any talking (or laughing) in the background. I spun one way for 10 seconds, the other direction for the next 10 seconds, and then back the first direction for the last 10 seconds to avoid getting too dizzy again.

I also had the idea of writing nonsense on a bit of paper and filming that and then I thought it would be even more nonsense if it was in a font/typeface that was symbols instead of English. So I typed "Nonsense" then changed the font to Wingdings 3. I then printed it out and filmed it for 30 seconds.

 

 

I really like this idea because I think it is funny as it is literally 30 seconds of "Nonsense".

 

In the Summer Time...

In 2002, Damien Hirst created "In the Summer Time" using household gloss paint on canvas and dead butterflies to create the idea that they simply landed  in the paint and got stuck.

"In the Summer Time"
2002
Butterflies and household gloss canvas
Diameter: 1600mm (63inches)

I really like the colours and the cloud effects in this painting. The colours and patterns on the butterflies wings are also incredible and look very life-like (despite being dead), almost as if they would fly off any minute. I think the round canvas also creates the idea of eternity/infinity with the never-ending skyscape within the never-ending circle of the canvas.

I think the simplicity of this painting is what makes it so eye-catching.

Wire Work

Another one of the things we had to do this week was "draw" a 3D object using wire.

This was an interesting task because we could use the wire to actually make it 3D although we had the option of doing 2D.

I chose to do a paint roller without the sponge part and I made it 3D as well. My favourite part of the roller that I made was the head part because I managed to make it movable - I was so pleased!

I used a couple of small pieces of masking tape to help make the join between the handle and the arm stronger.

I was really pleased with how the "drawing" worked out and I would be interested in working a bit more in wire.