I collected plants and natural products from the gardens at Brookes to create tools with. I enjoyed this project more than I originally thought as I think the string I wrapped around the plants is very effective and gives the tools a figurative and almost magical aspect. This work reminded of Joseph Cornell’s work as it has the natural rustic aspect but there is still something mystical and childlike about both works.
Joseph Cornell:
These marks were created with the handmade tools and indian ink. I really enjoyed the freeness of drawing these as you could use the tools to inspire how you wanted your body to move on the paper. This created expressive marks and I want to use this physical mark making technique again as it feels very unapologetic in the way the drawings look.
This work reminded me of Richard Long’s paintings as they have the same free and physical aspect to them. It also made me think of performance artists such as Carolee Scheeman as she creates marks with her body and this is what I want to chanel within my future drawings and paintings.
Richard Long and Carolee Scheeman:
These are some pieces I made inspired by the mark making project. These consist of ink on photographs, bleach and acrylic on material and bleach on photographs.
I was inspired by the marks made in my last experiments with the tools as I thought they came out really well. This inspired me to create marks using accidental mark making. I did this by freely splatting ink or bleach on the chosen material or finding materials with marks already on them and using these shapes to be the base for this piece.
A strong example of this is when I accidently spilt ink on one of my photographs then wiped it off and thought the shapes that naturally appeared were very interesting.
Artists that inspire me with this sort of accidental mark making is Jackson Pollock and Gerhard Richter.
These are some larger acrylic pieces I created on canvas and canvas material inspired by the marks, patterns and tools project. I looked into abstract expressionism for all backgrounds of these pieces as alike to Pollock I wanted the process of how the paintings were made to be clearer and I really enjoy the idea of bringing the media and art together so when you look at it it’s clearly paint boldy thrown on a canvas. Jenny Saville always influences me when creating large portraits as I love her large brush strokes and I’m very happy with how my self portrait turned out. I’m also pleased with how my ink and watercolour painting turned out on the canvas material. I don’t usually create pieces like this but I really enjoyed the quick way of mark making and listening to your body to make these expressive marks. I think this turned out very pretty. I will experiment further with not having a clear idea of what to paint then deciding while you’re in the action of painting. I also think this piece is alike to CY Twombly’s work as it’s got the free aspect to it and almost looks sculpture like with how fluent the marks are.
Lastly the pink painting I thought came out well but looking back on the photos of the process I preferred it when I’d finished with the background before I’d added on the 2 girls. This was one of my main experiments with abstract expressionism and using the techniques I used with the tools and creating the marks with my entire body and I think this came out really well and I discovered a style I’ve never tried before and want to try again. This made me realise I need to stop with the piece when I think it looks good and not add too much to make it a clear painting of a person or flower, it can just be the marks I’ve created on a canvas.
Jenny Saville, CY Twombly:
