04/12/2008

In my studio space.

04/12/2008 cont. Sean Scully

I am interested in the work of Sean Scully; the blocks of colours he uses in square and rectangular shapes on canvas etc. I will experiment with this on jigsaw, and see what develops. I painted individual jigsaw pieces with acrylic paint, in various colours to get the ball rolling. When dry, I stuck them to a sheet of cardboard.

04/12/2008

I used another board to "sandwich " my jigsaw, I previously had measured and glued the precise area where my jigsaw had to be positioned, it was then just a matter of flipping the boards over.It worked out exactly as I had planned. (which is nice!) I then watered down some white gesso to size the jigsaw. ( some of the jigsaw pieces have to be visible in order for it to be recognisable as a jigsaw. This presents a challenge, as obviously, subsequent layers of paint will have to be used, this will fill in the jigsaw joinings. I believe I can overcome this obstacle by scraping back the paint in some areas. It is crucial to the painting that it is recognisable as a jigsaw, in fact its the most important part, so it has to work one way or the other! failing this, I will leave the missing pieces blank,(I was going to fill them in), maybe it will be better with the missing pieces, we'll see.

02/12/2008

03/12/2008

Attended the fine art department meeting today. The cost cutting by the present government means there is a deficit in the budget allocated to schools. This has led to the professional practice module withdrawn from the curriculum, and also a loss of the visiting lectures . The chairman, and most, if not all of the tutors, saw this as a great loss to both the fine art department, and especially to the students. I know it has been reconstituted in a watered down version, as a video presentation for marking purposes, nevertheless, it is not quite the same as the real thing. I believe this will have a detrimental effect for the college and students alike (I would wager NCAD would have a professional practice module !).Finished the jigsaw today at long last ! Took some photos of same. I have placed some blank jigsaw pieces on top of the jigsaw and photographed it. It looks visually very effective, and adds a sense of enigma to the puzzle.

02/12/2008

Photography this a.m. quite intriguing, especially to hear about the temperature of light. Apparently, the "flash " temperature is set to 12 o'clock noon. We were introduced to various aspects of the digital camera. I took some photos of one of my sculptural jigsaw piece, unfortunately, there was some problem with the computer there and we could not get the photographs. Had tutorial with Alan today, it went well. Alan has suggested that I have enough concepts, ideas, and methods, and that these should be acted upon, less thinking more do , make, say. Fair comment, I should let the work dictate the ideas, rather than the ideas dictate the work.
Did some more to the jigsaw, the end is in sight !

1/12/2008

1/12/2008

I like the way the missing jigsaw pieces add a sense of the surreal to the images, I am sure this is something I can employ in my studio practice.

1/12/2008

We had a seminar with Aine this morning, it was intriguing to say the least. Dumas, Tymans, Richter were the three artists we looked at/discussed, I was amazed at how apparently banal images-photos etc can be used to create such wonderful artworks. With such diversity, I know that it will be impossible for me to ever say again that I have no material to inspire me. I like Dumas's painterly style, and her 'outspokenness' so to speak, in her source material. In my own work, I will explore the loose and fluidic paint strokes that she sometimes employs. Tymans, different but the same, eg, how he uses images from photographs to realise his social and political commentary. I like his 'conservative' less is more approach to his use of paint, highly effective.
Richter, again the same but different again. More photographic images used as source material, highly skilled painter, making the painting expound upon his social commentary, more so than what a photograph ever could. Excellent seminar.
P.m. carried on with jigsaw, stayed until 9 p.m. have made good progress.