Newspaper and Paint

After starting experimentation with masking tape the idea of layering and using collage as an aspect of the work became the way I wanted to develop my work. I began with trying to incorporate magazine cuttings with paint with I thought was incredibly unsuccessful. The work lacked meaning and form. This was probably because I didn't know what I was trying to achieve when building up the work. This was problematic because even if I start a piece not knowing what it will become or what my intentions are they usually become apparent whilst working on it.
This is when I tried working more systematically by using grids and simple shapes such as squares when constructing work. I still wanted to keep the element of collage in my work so I started using strips from newspapers. This brought out some new issues in the work. This is because when you add text to something you automatically give it meaning, whether it is to show the piece has no meaning or to convey a strong and obvious message to the audience. This made me experiment without text and by covering the text completely in paint. However I felt the headline text was the most effective and it broke up the evenness in the painting and highlighted the grid like form.

After my first piece I tried I experimenting with very vivid colours. This didn't work well as it made the painting too loud. Along with this the work began looking like a checkered distasteful table cloth due to the way I had applied the paint.

 Looking back at the previous pieces I'd made I decided to limit my colour pallet and see if this made the end result more predictable and successful. In this case I feel it did create a more successful effect. However the use of text was more of a thought in the back of my mind and at the end it seemed to consume the piece. While choosing the text I was looking through so many different newspapers and they all had the most ridiculous headlines. This is when I decided to cut them up and put them in a set order within piece giving an intentional meaning.

In the next piece I moved onto I focused more attention on the text used and I continued to limit my colour pallet. I also increased the scale to see what effect this had. I did find this piece was the most successful but it had taken practice and experimentation to get to this point. I was worried about over thinking my process and knowing when to stop layering was vital. So in this case I documented each layer.

 In this piece one of the main issues was knowing when to stop. This is because as I increased the canvas size there was more canvas to fill and in the previous pieces each layer would take up a specific area. I ended up stopping after 4 or 5 layers because the work was beginning to drown in itself. Overall I feel the end piece was successful however my tutor felt that the piece was too even which through me slightly. Because that was my intention and the beginning however it has given me a motive now to maybe bring indecision and unevenness into my work as an element.