Contemporary Painting Studio Week 5

Week 5 of Contemporary Painting Studio  started  with  a  structured peer review session   looking at each others work : project  development  and experimentation processes;  paint application methods.  

I was paired up with someone   with a very different  style  to mine ( process driven,  painting in oils,  responding to the surface ,  diving straight in without a great deal of preliminary planning). Quite a contrast to my 4 weeks  of developing ideas - she couldn't comment on my painting methods as I hadn't really done any!

I'd already written on my  review sheet ' halfway through, get painting!!'  so I did.

 

I started by  having a go at the techniques that Amanda had demonstrated the previous week : priming a sheet of paper with diluted PVA and layering  glazes of transparent  paint mixed with various acrylic media. I brought my own Winsor and Newton professional paints in as  they were truly transparent  and some unopened Golden  mediums  I got in a set years ago. I  began quite systematically  but then when some accidents  started to happen  ( dribbles and bubbles - perhaps due to a brush not being properly washed?)  I got a bit carried away seeing how far I could push the layering.  I confess I got a bit giddy using colour after so  many weeks of  monochromes and neutrals.

After lunch I returned to working with a more sombre palette,  mixing greys to match the colours in the collages I'd chosen to work with ( without using black).

In this case I'd printed a copy of the collage onto t shirt transfer paper and ironed it onto some primed canvas  and   worked outwards  trying to replicate the marks.

 Still a work in progress, trying hard to work slowly to retain the freshness of the collage.

This collage again was printed on t-shirt transfer paper but applied to a painted canvas.

 I can see I've already overdone it  but have made some copies I'm trying different things with  to see if I can rectify it.

 I discussed with Lucinda some of the outcomes from my mentoring session with   Christine that were relevant to  painting particularly use of collage, moving into abstraction  and scaling up. The painting above is only A3 and I've currently only  worked up to A2 in size.

Lucinda  suggested I build up to at least 1m ( they have paper on a roll) , taking advantage of  the large screen easel I have. 

Our 'tea break' in the afternoon consisted of Prosecco and cake ( it was several peoples birthdays)  and looking at our preliminary work hung in the corridor of floor 3 (it's on for another week)  

I finished off making up another sheet of collaged newspapers  as backgrounds for the following week - A1  this time!