Summary

Through the foundation course much of my work was based around the process and experimentation. Trying to attach meanings and preconceived ideas to my work before I made it only held back my progression. This was very similar to the work I was producing early on in the year.

In these pieces I was focused around completion not progression. I was attempting to include subtle meanings to the work by the choice of text (whether you could read it or not) and I was too conscious on how I was applying the paint in turn it made me over think about every slight detail and it created some very forced and flat work. Although I felt these pieces were unsuccessful, they did make me take a step back and bring my work back down the basics that made my previous work successful.  Once I had taken my work back to being very simplistic and I had removed all preconceptions towards what art I should be producing. My work began to move forward and develop. I started to focus on my process and the relationship between different components within my work.

 The work I've been producing in semester 2 is a commentary on my position as a painter and the position painting holds in contemporary art. Therefore I am creating paintings about painting. When I was producing work in a photo realistic style, there was no place for expression due to my technique. But, when talking about paintings in general, stereotypically you would expect the work to convey a sense of expression. However is there a place for purely expressionist art anymore?  For example if I started making work that was similar to Jackson Pollock my work would seem dated and unoriginal. So therefore it leaves my work and my position as a painter in a state of doubt and unease. Yet to make the pieces I need to paint them with conviction and confidence. So when looking at the brushstrokes/ mark making you are not looking at marks that represent my mental energy or my emotions, but the doubts I hold over the position of my painting in contemporary art. I have created a series of three canvases each being made with a similar formula of structure mixed with spontaneous elements. In each piece I increased the gaps between the shapes in an attempt to further fragment patterns that could be identified if the void between islands of colour were smaller. I have also chosen to keep the width of the white the same throughout each piece so that the pieces do contain a structure. This prevents the work from collapsing into a completely nonsensical bundle of shapes and colour. Now I have completed this series I intend on moving away from this method of working before my work becomes too gimmicky. However working in this way has helped me to convey my ideas and theories through abstraction.

Next year I would like to experiment with similar processes to Gert and Uwe Tobias. This is because when I visited their exhibition in the white chapel gallery, I had an instant appreciation for their work and the processes involved in creating their work. I became very interested in the way grids were used as a consistent foundation when it came to constructing the work. Also the quality of line was not dissimilar to printing which I will be very involved with next year.
I will also continue to strive to keep a fresh feeling about my work and prevent frustration from taking over. Continue the processes I have developed in and out of sketchbooks will be my main focus.