My final assessment from the oil part of my course. RMIT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ART OPEN UNIVERSITIES AUSTRALIA VIS13 EXPLORING PAINTING DATE:17th June, 2013 STUDENT NAME: Joanne Coleman STUDENT NUMBER: ASSIGNMENT TASK NUMBER: 4 & 5 TUTOR: Gracia Haby TUTOR COMMENTS: Hello Joanne, Thank you for sending in your four intimately proportioned painted studies on paper and one resolved painting of an interior setting (still upon existing frame). In addition to this quintet, I have also received your written essay outlining how you have grown and become increasingly aware as an artist, all of which hereby completes your course requirements. Congratulations on completing this course in painting; I have enjoyed both receiving and discussing your work with you. This final submission ends the course; however, you will have your supplied student study guide, my feedback received throughout, and your own visual diary of thoughts, reflections, and ideas, to use as an ongoing resource. Allow now for it to serve as a rich mine of information and technical assistance that will help you negotiate your creative future, with brush in hand and easel before you. It is now up to you where you run with it from this point. Regardless of the path you now head down, you will find yourself in an entirely different place to when you initially began. This is an achievement in itself. You are now looking at the works of other artists with new eyes. Van Gogh is to you is no longer labelled “messy” and collage has merit. An open mind is best to keep, always. You can learn much from all other artforms and it is important to understand not just what we like and don’t like but why we like and don’t like something. It is not sufficient to say I like something and not say why. The same applies to dislikes. To really understand, one has to look deeper and to constantly question. Yes, working from home can be a struggle. It is hard to paint with oils at home, but to sum up oil painting as suitable for those “mainly of retirement age” is to not see painting’s merit and undervalues the skills and dedication of those who paint. It may not suit you at present but it is not to say that this will always be the case. As per your essay, pencil is where you feel most at home. Try to see how you can blend the two mediums. How can one inform the other? Colour mixing takes time and perseverance. Expect to ‘waste’ paint in trial and error experiments as you endeavour to mix the colour before you exactly as it appears, or in case of this submission, exactly as it feels. The beauty of oil is its slow drying nature. Its so-called ‘slow-drying time” negative is actually a positive. It gives you greater time to mix colour as you desire it. This is something that faster drying acrylics cannot offer. Perhaps you will consider revisiting the assessments here but with acrylic to note the difference? The quicker drying time may suit your approach and “family commitments” as it less smelly. Water-based is a definite advantage. As someone who also works from home, this can be a help. Try whatever you can in order to ensure that you keep working, looking, practising, feeling, dreaming of things to paint and works to make. “Out of [your] comfort zone” can be a very great thing, as you highlight in conclusion. The “flora and fauna” subjects you paint – can you find a way to include this with works such as this interior? Is this where collage can help you join the areas? Or is it important to keep them separate? Yes, I expect that living in an isolated area, as you describe, in your essay, is hard. How could it not be? Try to turn it to your advantage in your work, where possible. Materials might be harder to come across, true, but what positives can isolation give you? Working in isolation is hard however it is important to remember that artists all work in isolation n (chiefly). It is a solitary pursuit. It can be lonely. It can be why some like to share studio spaces, working side by side quietly. But it also means you have great time to work, to think, to experiment, to play. It is a hard slog, a career as an artist, and like any career/pursuit it is dotted with highs and lows. I do not know where you live, but perhaps there is a drawing class like a life drawing class in your area that you could join? A weekly class with other like-minded souls may be just what is needed. Or perhaps, if there is no such local class to attend, you could set one up in similar way to people who set up book clubs? Or move online and bring the world to you. A blog about your art may well put you in touch with other artists within Australia and further afield. I began my own blog in 2006 in order to have a place to put my work to share with others and to communicate with people. The “classroom” you long for is one you can make. Also, you were at liberty to converse with me about your work to greater extent throughout the entire study period. I was happy to answer any small or large queries, to view photos of your process. (Thank-you for the example of your drawing work that you emailed through.) As you comment in your essay, your view of artworks has grown and changed. Where possible, try to see examples of Van Gogh and others with own eyes. I, myself, am consider saving up to grab a cheap flight to Canberra to see the Turner exhibition (though this may not be possible – fingers crossed). When next you view a favourite or familiar or new artwork, preferably with your own eyes (as opposed to reproduction), you will be able to ‘see’ new things. Each time something new is revealed because each time you view it you yourself are different. How we read a painting does not need to be so very different from how we read a book. In writing this, I am reminded of the following quote which may apply to your work in some way too: “A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.” ― Franz Kafka Yes, to be able to communicate with another through a painting is a marvellous thing. To be able to bring about feeling, a wonderful thing. Standing before one’s favourite painting is similar, that feeling that this was almost painted just for you at that moment. That only you really see it. That is speaks personally to you. Reflects just how you feel. Serves as a mirror. Or an axe. Though, here, I am taking Kafka’s words out of context and bending them to suit my own intentions. As referred to in your essay, you have developed new skills and new ways of seeing, and conversely interpreting the world around you. It is frustrating not to be able to paint what the mind’s eye sees, but perhaps it is this quest to do so that ensures we keep working. That we keep trying to paint that painting we so clearly see but each time we do so it comes out less than right or great or perfect. You are aware that with different brushes you can achieve different marks (and that one can “never have too many brushes”). You are aware that holding your brush near the tip lets you attain the neat precision you favour. And you are aware that a more lyrical stroke can be made if one holds the brush further back from the tip. You are also aware of the importance of working drawings and preparatory study. These are no small recognitions. Looking at these works before me you will have discovered that armed with a brush, some paint and a workable surface, there is little that would not serve as ideal subject or starting point. As you have found with these four interior based studies and one resolved canvas depicting your private, domestic world, even the most commonplace or familiar or close setting can be put to use, can provide inspiration or become entire subject. Focusing on feel, expression, as opposed to a realistic representation of what you see before you has suited you well. Working in a manner that reflects a little of or feels suggestive of your own experience is heartening to see, and the colour throughout tells the story. Now is perhaps the time to build upon the ideas and concepts you have had but only a chance to address. Extend upon these ideas, thereby shaping them into something entirely other, something that conveys your message or interest. Due to various time constraints placed upon you, and the need to transport your finished artworks for assessment, there may have been certain elements raised throughout the course that you feel warrant further attention and exploration. Now is the perfect time to do so. Consider working on an even larger canvas than this one, if agreeable and you have access, now that you no longer, and for the foreseeable future, need to send work by post. Relish the chance to work on a grand scale, but still with the detail you are drawn to. Perhaps a large painting on paper. Consider, too, working on more than one piece at a time as a way around the issue of drying time. As one piece is drying, another will be ready and waiting your attention. Many artists will have several canvases on the go at one time. Another idea would be to revisit earlier projects covered, but flesh them out. A concept raised may prove a good starting point for new works on board, paper and canvas, too. Above all, play and enjoy what you do. Remember to not become discouraged by outcomes as you work in your studio; there would be few artists who liked everything they did or tried in their studio practice. I hope the ideas remain clearly visible for a long time. For enough time in which to catch them. Equally, if you feel like handling a smaller, more intimately proportioned work, please do so. Looking at these four studies before me, the more intimate scale of the paper suits you. All in all, the time for experimentation is ripe, whilst ideas are swirling freely in your head and you are feeling more confident with the medium. Equipped, as you are, with your confidence and technical skills steadily increasing, there is no doubt you will be surprised at the outcome. In short, the best thing is to keep working. Perhaps you will come to love oils too? The four painted studies are confident, essentially detailed, and hold the attention. The reduced palette suits your intent, and is well handled in the first study. Your awareness of colour as a vehicle for expression is evident, especially in the fourth bold study where pattern rules. In all studies, and final painting, mark making is descriptive and holds visual appeal. The painted studies are fresh and immediate and suggestive of the subject and room. There is a drawing-like quality to the studies. Build upon this. Perhaps these will form an ongoing series of studies of the one domestic home painted different ways, or so as to suggest different times of the day. The room in the morning will look considerably different to the same room in the late afternoon or early evening. Perhaps cushions have become mussed, or a kitchen is a mess of dishes to be washed. Perhaps it is raining outside, or the sky overcast. Perhaps a coffee cup sits in wait in a garage, giving clue to the home’s occupants or winking at its recent use. In all, a sense of the space is more than provided and this is no easy feat, I am aware. Throughout this introduction to painting you have learned to see colour both analytically and as a means to express your own creative and personal vision; colour viewed from two completely different perspectives. You are aware that warm colours will tend to optically advance in the picture plane whilst those of a cooler base will tend to recede. A feeling of extension, of visual depth provided in the final work. The fridge just off centre serving as entry point to composition. The viewer, engaged, and by the similar yet different representations of an interior shown four ways. In all works, you have kept your palette clean and avoided overworking areas thereby creating a refined finish. Your direct observational skills have enabled you to essentially capture correct perspective. Your colour palette feels considered, and simple though it sounds, you have experimented with the different strokes you can make with brush. This final painting is indeed a challenging one. You have successfully created the sense of different spatial planes on a two-dimensional surface, and you have experimented with colour. The four painted studies in which you have embraced this quickened means of working and the final painting before me demonstrate that new techniques have been tried and you are to be commended for this. A sense of enjoyment comes through in these pieces and I believe this to be an important part of the process. You have tried different styles, and in the process loosened up your approach, experimenting with mood and atmosphere, with varied mark making (from visible stroke to employing a green wash to describe flooring) and colour. Keep exploring such things. This final painting of an interior would not have been possible at the beginning and its strength is testament to your growing skill level. It is apparent that you have understood the technique asked of you. Keep painting! I hope it remains an enjoyable and brilliant challenge for you. Kindest Regards, Gracia Haby
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:22:26 +0000
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