Cornish Blossom

February 3, 2015

I started a new drawing on Sunday afternoon but suddenly felt inspired to paint and use the linen canvas that I had bought a few weeks before. The light was fading quickly so I dug out my old oil paints and found the paints and brushes that a friend from my MA gave me before he returned home to China.

I found a photograph that I took last spring on a trip to see my dad in Cornwall, pink blossom and blue sky. I mixed cadmium red with titanium white as a base for the painting before slowly adding in greens and browns. I used a stick of charcoal to scribble into the wet paint and to write on the linen itself. I built up a few layers of paint using thin washes and thick splodges of paint before wiping parts away to get the composition that I wanted. A gentle cascade of colour.

Cy Twombly is an artist that I've admired for a long time, the book Cycles and Seasons highlights his painting process. Swirling colours with scribbles and writing, beautiful painterly marks. Twombly has been a big influence on my perspective as an artist but his influence hasn't been particularly visable as I've been making detailed drawings in pen. With oil paint I've been able to channel artists like Cy Twombly and Tracey Emin as well as artists from the Impressionist movement.

This painting is 30cm x 30cm and is the first in a planned series of floral 'impressions'. It's my first attempt at painting since I gave it up in the second year of my BA in 2009 when I felt uninspired with paint and decided to focus on drawing. Since my MA I've realised that as an artist I don't need to specialise, I can have freedom to use any medium that fits my vision.

Tabula Rasa

January 4, 2015

Each year BA and MA students at Winchester School of Art are given the opportunity to exhibit at the Bargehouse which is a fantastic and unusual exhibition space on London's Southbank.

One of my highlights of 2014 was exhibiting my work at the space alongside fellow students in July. It was the first time I've exhibited in London and the first time in such an unusual space.

I decided to take four drawings of the Forest of Dean to exhibit, I'd been working on them for a couple of months prior to the exhibition and they'd not been exhibited before.

The woodland drawings were made in response to themes of childhood memory and my connection to the Forest of Dean.

I visited the Forest of Dean to take more photographs. I took the photographs from an alternative perspective, getting low to the ground and looking up. The trees loomed overhead and made me feel small, like a child lost.

I drew from the photographs utilising the technique of small circles and shapes to build an image. The slow and controlled method of drawing is a meditative process for me, allowing me time to reflect.

The detailed drawings displayed in frames contrasted with the exhibition space. The walls were full of character, peeling plaster, scratches and holes. They reminded me of a Cy Twombly painting.

The experience of travelling to London over a week to set up, invigilate and take down the exhibition was a rewarding one. The exhibition as a whole was very strong and allowed me to meet great artists from the BA and forge stronger bonds with my MA friends who participated.

The drawings can be found on the 'woodland' section on the drawings tab.

Amsterdam Art

December 17, 2014

I spent last weekend in Amsterdam and managed to fit in five museums - the Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk museum and Van Gogh museum were among them. If you're an art lover then Amsterdam has to be on your list of places to visit.

In the quieter Stedelijk museum we were able to get very close to the pieces and take our time observing them. Without the crowds of the Van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum we could take photographs of the work without fearing being in somebodys way. I enjoy taking photographs of people and in this case ourselves and the work to show the scale and interaction.

The photographs feel artistic in their own right, like a self portrait in reverse as they show the backs of our heads, an alternative perspective.

Felix Gonzalez-Torres - Untitled (A Love Meal) and Converse

I came away from Amsterdam feeling incredibly inspired. Not only by the art in the museums but by the place itself. The bitterly cold air, the faint aroma of cannabis and the lights reflecting in the canal waters.