Combining two ideas- Alasdair Thompson and Alison Watt

Ever since looking at the works of Alasdair Thompson I have tailored my reflections project to personal reflection and have come up with the idea of memory preservation and reflection on the past. By looking at the garments which Alasdair has produced in marble as part of his 'identity' collection, I have become increasingly intrigued by this idea of preserving a special item which will last forever, perhaps something from the past. However, although I have practised carving into stone, I am not specialised enough to do such a piece on a large scale. Therefore I have improvised and have decided to preserve garments in plaster. I prefer this idea as the garments remains inside of the substance which is protecting it. As a result the garment remains alive forever. I have used Alison Watt in combination with this idea as she looks more closely at the folds in the fabric and their delicacy. As a result, the plastered pieces that I produce are both in the style of Watt and Thompson. 

To create the plaster I used 3 parts water and 1 part plaster as well as PVA glue to allow the combination of both substances to bond easier to the fabric. 

I wore protective clothing including an apron and dust mask to prevent the fumes. I used a bucket of water and gradually added a handful of plaster and sprinkled it over the top.

I mixed the plaster in using my fingers to mould it together.

This is how I created the practise pieces which appear on my Alison Watt A1 page. Once I had created the plaster mix, I needed to decide quickly which garments and pieces of fabric I wanted to use, before the mix set solid. I firstly coated a large piece of Calico in order to show the folds in fabric and experiment with position and texture. This can be seen below: 

Once the fabric had been dipped in the mix, I moulded it into place and added the folds that I wanted. To create depth and added texture I placed screwed up pieces of paper underneath to add height. I left the fabric to dry for at least 48 hours before mounting it onto a plain white board to give the fabric a presence like Alison Watt. 

Once I had completed these practises of using just fabric, I tried using a personal garment. I decided upon a baby grow of my new-born nephew. I thought this would be an emotive piece as there are many emotions surrounding such a garment. 

After seeing such a garment preserved beautifully with all of its natural features, I decided that this is definitely an idea to use in my final piece. I like how the garment just looks as if it has been thrown on the floor and is in a natural position. This is what I aim to portray when creating such pieces. By using such a technique, I want to preserve articles of clothing which have a personal meaning to me. And then from there I hope to draw from these pieces. Therefore I can begin to build together an idea of a final piece which surrounds the idea of preserving objects/garments and drawings memories. 

Alison Watt: Capturing fabric

After Visiting Alasdair Thompson's sculptures at the on form exhibition in Burford I have become increasingly intrigued by fabric and the way it hangs and looks in different mediums.  I have seen Alasdair do this in marble and now I am looking at Alison Watt who paints it on a large scale. Alison Watt is a Scottish painter. Her first works to become well known were dryly painted figurative canvases, often female nudes. An exhibition entitled 'Fold' in 1997 at Edinburgh's fruit market Gallery was the first introducing fabric alongside these figures. Watt became fascinated in painting folds in fabric and draperies of the kind often used as props by life models. Watts new painting evoked the human body in its absence. Watt paints these fabric pieces on a large scale on canvas using acrylic paint. Her paintings are thought provoking and intriguing. I have created an A1 page to express her work and I have added my own annotation:

The title has been created using cut offs of folded ribbon:

I have been drawn to Watt's vast drawings due to their presence. Her paintings tend to zoom in on the natural folds of the fabric and tend to be in white which gives a sense of purity and cleanliness. I have decided to use Alison Watt as I have become increasingly interested in fabric and I wish to draw it and paint it. More specifically I wish to capture fabric and preserve it like the artist Alasdair Thompson. Therefore I wish to use these two artists in combination and preserve fabric using plaster. On this page there are small examples of such preservation of fabric in plaster. I hope to create this on a larger scale and use garments in the style of Alasdair Thompson. 

However, by using Watt's work as inspiration I hope to become more comfortable when drawing fabric, specifically when drawing the folds in fabric as this I find is incredibly difficult. 

This is an example of Watts work, the folds are easily distinguished and have been created with delicacy and detail. Light and dark are easily identified and the colour pallet is the same throughout: black, white and grey. I'm attracted to the scale at which her work is painted on, this gives the fabric a large presence in a gallery room. As Watt has stated, she began drawing nudes and then became fascinated by the fabric in absence of the human figure. I feel I have taken a similar path to this artist. 

Also on this page is a small study in chalk and charcoal of one of the small plaster examples that I have created. I have started to draw fabric and I aim to draw on a larger scale. 

Drawing a model faceless...

As it may have been recognised, I have chosen not to draw the faces of the models in many of my life drawings. A French Sculptor that chooses to do this is Hannah A. Laoust who sculpts dancers using clay. A video of her talking about her work can be found here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6T_Pw0jWV8 

Her reasons for not creating the face are for the benefit of the customer buying the work. When a customer buys her work they can see the model as themselves and so the sculpture becomes a kind of transference for the customer. Therefore the customer can see themselves in the position/expression/emotion that the sculpture is portraying. 

I have similar reasons to this artist, however I have chosen not to draw the faces of the life models as the models are not personal to me. I am simply drawing the models to practise drawing the human form. I will concentrate more on the face when drawing people who are personal to me such as friends and family. A few examples of such work can be shown below: 

This graphite pencil drawing is of my sister when she was a toddler. This is just an A3 pencil drawing. I could choose to work into this more using watercolour or soft pastel pencils. 

This graphite pencil drawing is of my late nan. This one has only just been started and is not finished. I need to add tone and finish off the line work. 

Looking at life drawing through history; Edgar Degas

As well as using Jenny Saville for life drawing inspiration, I have also looked at the historical artist Edgar Degas. I have used him when looking at drawing movement and using a subtle colour pallet. Degas was a French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings. He is especially identified with the subject of dance. He is particularly masterly in depicitating movement as can be seen in his paintings of dancers. I am using this artist to focus on how different compositions can portray different movements and I hope to use this in my own life drawings. I have created an A1 research page in the style of him to analyse his works further:

I have chosen pictures of his works which each show a different composition. As you can see I have chosen to focus on the dancers which Degas has painted. These are beautiful pieces which show natural and unusual positions and movements. I have been attracted to the works of Degas for two main reasons: the first for the compositions of the dancers and the second because of the pastel colour pallet that Degas chooses to use. Degas tends to paint in oil paint, however when drawing my own figures I have used soft drawing pastels and charcoal pencil. This life drawing was drawn on a recent visit to the jam factory in Oxford. I have chosen to draw more complicated positions and this one I found particularly tricky. The figure is foreshortened meaning the vanishing point is at an angle and the legs appear larger and the head smaller due to the angle which it has been drawn at. 

Using Degas as an inspiration I have drawn this more complicated composition. Unlike my other life drawings which I have drawn in the style of Jenny Saville, I have added a stroke of colour to these drawings. I have chosen a pastel pallet like Degas and have used soft browns, yellows, blues and greens to create a subtle and dim light. I have not coloured the whole model in as this was only a quick sketch and we were not given long to draw this pose. I have added in tone and shading by using hatched lines. You may notice that my lines are also relatively heavy. Degas has also done this for a few of his own sketches of ballet dancers. 

This A1 page is double sided, there are other drawings on the reverse side which I have done with inspiration from Degas: 

I have added annotation about my drawings and the artist, there are further drawings which I have done including another life drawing of the same model. This time the model is in a sitting position. This position was difficult as the left leg was very hard to put into place. I have added a small amount of colour to this picture and a large amount of negative space.

There are also small studies of hands on this page drawn in graphite pencil as these are areas of the body that I have needed to practice. 

These show movement of the hand in different positions. I have found it important to practice every aspect of the human form when attending a life drawing class. Using Degas and Saville as inspirations I will continue to attend life drawing classes to practice drawing the human form. 

Life Drawing - improving the art of drawing

Since embarking on a journey of personal reflection I have decided to improve my skill of drawing people by taking up life drawing art classes on a Tuesday evening at the Jam Factory in Oxford. During my project I am hoping to draw members of my own family to relate to personal meaning of my project. I feel that attending life drawing classes will help to improve my technique of drawing people by focusing on composition, movement, lines of construction and tone. Furthermore, I have chosen Jenny Saville, a contemporary artist from Oxford to relate to the drawings that I do. I have chosen this artist because I find her work intriguing. I have decided to focus more on the drawings that she does rather than on her own meaning behind them. I have created an A1 page with my own response to her work to show my intentions: this A1 page has a watercolour was as a background and the title have been written in black felt tip pen and then washed with water to create a bleeding effect which can be seen in some of Saville's drawings:

Saville focuses on the life form and particularly the female body. She creates pieces that are often larger than life size. She draws both in graphite and in oil paint. I have completed most of my responses to her work in graphite pencil. Saville draws in great detail, picking out certain features of the model which I really like. I am attracted to the detail and depth of her work, particularly her tone and line. Some of the lines she uses are dark and weighted. I have tried to show this is my own response on this A1 page. I have focused more on line to create a form rather than tone. However, I have added in hatched lines to add some tone to the drawing. 

As you can see, I have decided not to draw the models face as I have wanted to concentrate more on the body of the model rather than certain features of the face as this is not necessarily what I wish to practise. I will practise more on the face in future drawings. This is a simple drawing of the female body, however It has given me great practise when drawing certain features and practising with composition. I quite like the pose of the model. I have tried to portray the movement of the hair as the hand ruffles through it and the angle of the hips and legs. The simple drawings of Saville have influenced me, these ones I have been particularly attracted to: 

This is a simple composition and I like how Saville has drawn in and left the construction lines of other poses. However she has decided to work into one main pose.

This graphite drawing is interesting. It focuses more on the models face and zooms in on the top half of the model rather than the whole body. This is perhaps a technique I could try.

This drawing has been developed into colour; oil paint. Like the other drawings, Saville has also chosen to leave in the lines of construction to show movement. The colours are highly pigmented but stay realistic. 

I will continue to attend life drawing classes to add to my collection of observational drawings. However I also aim to draw from old photographs of my family and photographs that I have taken to add further practise. Jenny Saville's drawings are emotive and do have some powerful meaning behind them. Like her, I aim to put my own meaning behind the drawings that I also create. And as stated before, this will be of personal reflection and memory preservation. 

The Saatchi Gallery- London

Earlier this year, my art class visited the Saatchi Gallery in London for inspiration for our 'reflections' project. We took special consideration for the 'Pangea' exhibition which was being shown. This allowed me to obtain a cultural value and meaning for my work. Rather than creating an A1 page for this exhibition visit, I decided to draw and cut into a small sketch book which was provided upon arrival. I also integrated bits of the exhibition guide into the book to add extra annotation on top of my own.

I have taken time on this book, sewing into it, cutting into it and drawing into it and I have picked out a few artists that really captured my attention. This included the likes of Aboudia (work shown below) who paints complex visual universes on vast canvases which bring together many fragments which each work through the trauma of the reality of children in war. This is an example of pop and abstract expressionism. However I liked this work due to the meaning that have been put behind the pictures themselves. 

Another artist which had a particular impact on the gallery was that of Rafael Gómezbarros who took up a whole room with an installation of ants which symbol human skulls to address the plight of millions of displaced immigrants who are constantly crossing the planet in search of asylum. I liked this idea a lot by using one thing to symbol another, I.e. using the ants which have a natural aptitude for hard labour and complex social organisation to resemble the immigrants. This is a similar idea which I have used for my stone carving, I.e. using my family's initials carved onto what could be interpreted as a baby's block to symbol family unity and preservation. 

This artist had a real impact on me and so i decided to research him further. I therefore created an A1 artist research page: 

On this page i have provided more indepth detail about the artist himself and i have explained why he has had such an impact upon my work. His concept of symbolism complements my stone carving of my familys initials. I have been able to obtain inspiration from this artist and now i feel as if my stone craving has become more than a block of stone. It has true meaning which i feel this artist illustrates in his work. 

Whilst at the gallery I also took drawings from some of the works of Vincent Michea who is a pop artist. I found the compositions of his work interesting and poignant, specifically the image of the man and women in a close embrace. 

Another artist which I particularly liked was Ben Quilty. He is a recent artist who has won numerous awards this year which giving him a place to show his work at the Saatchi Gallery and I found them mesmerising. His inhabit series challenges ideas of Australian colonialism and identity through oil paintings of Captain Cook evolving from a devil into portraits of the artist. 

These paintings were exceptional in that there were so many of them, two walls were filled. The idea of building something up and then taking it apart is an unusual idea. Ben had also taken the time to spray paint the back wall with black surroundings which really added to the impact of the images. A further painting Ben had painted was a self-portrait from 2009. He has squashed another piece of paper on top of the picture to create a mirror image in acrylic. This is powerful and moving and forces the onlooker to analyse the painting carefully to see what it is trying to show. The image is in fact of Ben himself 'smashed' as the painting is called. It is again a symbol of himself and self-reflection and this is what I like so much about his work. 

An artist which fitted in perfectly with the title of my project 'Reflection' was that of Richard Wilson who has used the entire bottom floor to create an installation made of recycled engine oil which has completely flooded the entire floor space. It transforms the gallery into a site of epic illusion which absorbs and mirrors the gallery architecture. It has been shown in the gallery since 1991. It is the only permanent installation and is incredibly fitting for my project. 

Finally and for possibly my favourite artist of the entire exhibition come from a modern taxidermist named 'Polly Morgan'. Whilst none of her large works were being shown in the gallery, I came across some of her smaller pieces being shown in the gift shop and they took me by breath taking surprise. I don't usually take fascination by taxidermy but these works showed a true meaning with deep thought and that is what drew me to them. Each piece was displayed in a glass bell jar which is already a symbol of preservation. The first resembled a tiny chick being pulled up by a single red balloon. It is poetic sculpture that captures the essence of the living spirit with a chick being gracefully lifted from death. This piece has been named 'still birth'. The pure nature and concept of this piece is moving. It is a way of capturing the dead in the most graceful way. I see it as a beautiful work of art and preservation. It is preserving a moment in time and I love that idea. 

Many artists have inspired me in this visit to London and I hope to take with me their cultural values and personal meaning and morph them into my own work as I continue forth on my own journey of reflection. 

Design ideas for a 'reflective' sculpture...

This is my finished design ideas page for the Joslins Stonemasonry visit where I created my personal sculpture. I have used the idea of stone texture and created a sandy background for my A1 page. It consists of a watercolour wash and then sand on top which has been fixed with PVA glue. I have chosen to paint the title in black which adds impact to the page.

 I decided to create a sculpture in the shape of a cube and I wanted to make this cube personal with a real meaning behind it like the one behind Alasdair Thompsons work. I have annotated my page, however I shall elaborate further on this blog. The reasons behind choosing the shape of a cube came from my wish to incorporate reflectivity into the stone. I wanted to use a shape that had both true meaning and is a symbol in its own right. I decided to allow the cube to reflect every member of my family by carving the first letter of their first name into each side. But looking closely, this cube also resembles that of a baby's building block which would normally show the letters of the alphabet or numbers. By doing this, the cube is no longer just an object but rather a symbol of unity and family connection and this I feel shows true personal reflectivity. 

To show my journey through carving this piece I feel I should state that I have done repair work on the cube. During its construction, when carving the letter 'R' I hit the mallet with two much force, causing a section of the stone to fall off. I have never repaired stone before and it was tricky. Luckily I had managed to collect some of the stone dust which had come from the sculpture and I mixed this with Aradiate to form a paste to stick the big section back on. To fill the gaps in between I mixed the rest of the dust with PVA glue to form a paste. I sanded down the rough edges and now it is hardly noticeable.

Since I have decided to tailor my project towards personal reflection I wanted my piece to reflect this. I have added the initial of my mother, father, sister, myself and nephew and I have left the bottom of the cube blank for when the family extends. The concept of preserving the family unit in stone, forever is a message that perhaps I would like my project to follow: preserving memories in a particular way.

To perhaps extend this idea further, I would like to put a face to each of the initials by drawing each family member either as a baby themselves or the age they are at present. 

Visit to Jostlins stone works- stone carving practice

Recently my art class took a trip to 'Joslins Stonemasonry' in Long-Hanborough, Oxfordshire. After visiting the On-form exhibition at Asthall Manor I was keen to practice stone carving for myself and so it was arranged for us to try it out. Before we visited the workshop we were asked to create design ideas of the object that we wished to create and carve. I will upload these after this edition. We were briefed on our safety and on the work that the organisation had done previously. This included stone carving work at Exeter College in Oxford. We were taken to see this work after the workshop.

After being briefed and having our designs checked and ready to use, we went outside to choose our stone.

We had a choice of a variety of offcuts of different types of stone and this one that you can see me handling in the picture is known as Portland stone. This is a limestone which looks very smooth and very white. However, for the design that I wanted to achieve, a sand stone would prove to be more appropriate. (You can see this sitting on top of the Portland to the left). Once I had picked my stone, I needed it cut as I seeked a cube shape. This was done using one of the industrial cutters inside of the workshop. Before we worked on our own designs, we practised using some of the tools which can be seen on my A1 page including a mallet and chisel. To practise we used an electric chisel on an off cut of Portland stone. I also practised lettering on an off cut of sand stone using a mallet and chisel to practice the technique. This involved creating a deep 'V' valley in the letters whilst carefully pointing the chisel down wards and gradually tapping away the excess stone. The trick is to not tap to hard in order to avoid breaking the stone. 

Once I had practised, I printed out the letters which I wanted to carve  and I traced them on to the stone. I have chosen to use the first letter of every member of my family's first name which I have put on to each side of the cube. I will explain this further when I upload my design ideas.
 

Once the lettering had been copied I began to chisel in the letters using a chisel and mallet. This was very hard work and I would have to rest every so often as my arm would ache. I didn't manage to finish the lettering at the workshop and I so I had to finish it off at school. Once the lettering had been completed I sanded and washed the stone using warm water to give a smooth finish. To show this on an A1 page I carved out the lettering 'Stone Carving' and used a grey watercolour wash for the background. I created a scroll in coffee wash to create a scroll of instructions. I also drew, in pencil two of the tools which could possibly be found when stone carving including a chisel and hammer. 

I also draw in watercolour and soft pastel, my final outcome from this workshop. This has been drawn to scale using straight lines and then worked into. 

Once I had finished with the water colour and pastel I decided to use sand to create the texture of the 'sand stone'. I thought this would be a clever idea. 

This brings out the shadow of the stone and makes it darker. 

This is the overall finished design drawn in watercolour, soft pastel and with the usage of sand to create texture. Overall this trip has gained me a new experience as well as a new medium. I thoroughly enjoyed stone carving and I appreciated the true nature of detail. I would really like to use an aspect of this in my final piece. 

Response to Alasdair Thomson

As an artist response to the stone carving artist Alasdair Thomson, I have drawn one of his works in Biro and white acrylic. When I saw this work at the On-Form exhibition at Asthall Manor, I was attracted to its personal meaning. The idea of preserving an exact replica of a garment is a poignant idea which holds much emotion. As a result, I have decided to draw my favourite garment from his 'Identity' collection in my own media to give it a new meaning.

These photographs show a progression of my work and show how I have gradually filled the gaps in with Biro. Looking closely the viewer can see where I have highlighted points with white acrylic to show the light hitting the fabric. The viewer can also see the strokes of my pen and it's direction. Although this drawing is not yet finished, I feel it is important to show progression in my work and I will upload a picture of the finished product. I also hope to draw my own garment once I have used plaster to preserve it.