Digital. Art?

a. Monet, National Gallery #2 (2011), a photo by kelise72 on Flickr.

Yesterday I plonked myself in front of Monet's "water lillies" (Room 43, National Gallery, London), iPad and Nomad brush in hand, and had a go at copying a couple of the paintings...

First a word on the experience of painting with an electronic device -- not as easy as one might think to "get it just right". I mean, the app I used (inspire pro for iPad) *was* quite simple and easy to use...but it took a few tries to get the knack of desired mark-making, blending, loading the brush with colour, etc.

So above is my first try... I think it's not quite great, but then as with everything, painting with an iPad will just take practice.

The best thing about the afternoon though was the FUN of it, and the FUN of sharing this experience with the other museum-goers. More than one kid (and adult alike) paused to watch what I was doing, comment to each other and even ask questions (about the iPad, the app, the Nomad brush).

I think Apple might be missing out on a marketing/sponsorship opportunity here? ;) Especially since there's an Apple store in Covent Garden... hmm...

Anyway... I'm further convinced that technology is firmly a part of my art practice... either within the source material/images, the sketchbook work, or the finished piece...

Using technology to assist the artist...

venus (2011), a photo by kelise72 on Flickr.

Here is a painting (from a set of 5) that is slated for my year-end assessment. (60 x 60 cm, oil on canvas).

For all the readings that can be made of this piece (it's about emotion, colour, faces, self-portrait or what-have-you), I think there's something just a little more that can be said... and it's about HOW the painting arrived to THIS particular point that interests me the most...

First of all, it *is* a self-portrait, of sorts. I took a photo of my own face as seen pressed up against a pane of glass... then I worked out the shapes and colours I wanted in my sketchbook... and finally sketched the shapes on a primed canvas, mixed up oil colours, applied paint to canvas with various brushes. And away I went, pretty normal stuff so far.

But after a couple of days, something wasn't quite working with the colours yet I felt near to the "done"...

I wasn't sure what to do next so I stepped back and I took a photo of the progress of the painting with the same camera phone as used for the original source photo, loaded up the photo in a little phone app called "Scribble" and tried various combinations of colours and lines... until I found something that WORKED.

Back to the canvas, mix up the new colour and in one more session I was DONE.

I think I found a new way of working that really WORKS when I'm "stuck". The final piece will be more-or-less "traditional" painting on canvas but getting there with a technological short-cut or two.

Hooray for Sony Ericsson Satio and Scribble! Thanks for the helping hand!

study (light painting)

study (light painting)
Originally uploaded by kelise72

I made all these "scribbles" with a light pen, and then cut them up and here's the collage I made with them.

winter light - 2010

winter light - 2010
Originally uploaded by kelise72

This used to be "gray nude" or somesuch - that was before I expressed myself all over it with Payne's Grey... I thought "noisy" was much better than the very quietly deliberate previous version. However, my tutor deemed it immediately "a disaster" - and in an assessment, too - with 4 other people present.

I didn't take it badly (in fact, I only laughed) - I *did* state before showing it that the Autumn term for me was all about "experimentation" (so it's OK with me if some of my experiments fail horribly).

The only thing is - now I am looking more carefully at this image as I'm cropping it for Flickr... and I wonder to myself, *what* exactly makes this "a disaster"? My tutor has never said anything of the kind in the 4 tutorial sessions, and has only seemed to be encouraging and mentoring during the session - but then he's never given me REAL feedback during the tutorials - instead he has done two things: 1) point out what he thinks is "my way of working/thinking" and 2) suggests artists for me to look at and off I go to the internet or library to try and glean something useful by looking at someone else's artwork.

He's never ONCE said by looking at my projects and any of the 4 times we've met, "This works" or "that doesn't work" (for me, my way of working, for what I'm trying to do, etc.)

So, he's deemed my "expressive brush strokes don't work" (for me) and now I'm a little uncertain about experimenting further, doing things "out of character" (like trying to be LESS controlled, LESS planned, MORE spontaneous etc.) - because I sense he wants me to explore, go deeper in the analytical, logical side of me.

And frankly, I quit the IT biz because I'm *SICK* to death of analysing, being logical and planning ahead.

Hopefully, it's not too late for me, hopefully I can find a balance (and soon!) of free creativity alongside balanced and thoughtful work.

halfway through year 1

I survived my first formal assessment... even when my tutor (one of two in the room) took the session as a learning opportunity for me, confusing "tutorial" with "assessment" missing the point of the session entirely.

Not that feedback is a bad thing, I just felt under the microscope a bit while at the same time, sensing that I was Missing Something Important. There were two other students undergoing assessment at the same time, and so when my "turn" was up it was somewhat of a relief. Then he kept coming back to me with direct and significant comments, so the relief was short-lived.

E.g., the pieces that seemed to "hit the mark" artistically speaking were not paintings at all (a film and a fabric/quilt-y thing) while the painting experiments were deemed a "disaster" (his words, not mine), particularly awful apparently is the one where I tried large, expressive brush marks...

Yet what I *really* want is to be a painter... I don't see myself as a photographer, or a film maker or even one who makes installations... I am stubborn and I want to paint...

So the one helpful thing I took way from the assessment was the comment that the work that *worked* were pieces that I really analysed and followed through logically, maybe even methodically... i.e., made up some kind of *system* (can I say rules maybe?) and then followed the system....

I have to think more about this later, when the builders next door have stopped using loud machines :( :(

city map (2010)

city map (2010)
Originally uploaded by kelise72

60 x 90 cm
cotton duck (canvas), cotton cord, hemp, and silk

This piece is one that I submitted for a critique in the final weeks of the term.

I suppose it might make more sense with some of the other pieces I've also done recently and if I'd taken a better photo (which when I do, it will replace this one).

What I was going for here was the idea of representing a connection or relationship between city and rural (or nature) only not so directly.

With that in mind, I've sketched a city, often composed itself of concrete and steel but in this case, I've alluded to bridges and roads with "natural" materials - hemp knots, and cotton cord, respectively, all stitched onto a cotton canvas fabric. The river then is expressed in silk, a sort of "flowing" fabric that fits the idea of a river - another kind of opposite - where a river is a naturally-occuring thing, silk fabric is a manufactured thing.

In the whole piece there are layers of conflict and tension - the clean, calm, soft "natural" feel of the materials against the idea of a dirty, busy, polluted city... the well-known profile of the river against the anonymous roads... the bridges so distinctive in real-life repeated in the their right locations on the river but with a meaningless sameness (so you could know what each bridge is named though it looks the same as all the others)... the city made to look much like a slice of something quite organic as perhaps skin stiched together and forming a scar...

It may take a moment or two to recognise this map, but once you see what is familiar, you will ALWAYS see it.

It is this idea, this little bit of subterfuge, that I plan to incorporate in the next piece or two... I might be on to something!

bridges/water: 1990, 2003, 2010 (2010)

bridges/water: 1990, 2003, 2010 (2010)
Originally uploaded by kelise72

ink, paper (metal and plastic frame)
6 feet x 6 feet x 6 feet (approx.)
2010

I've had my first group critique...errrm... I mean, crit (why does it bug me that people call it "crit", like they're trying to sound hip and with it but instead sound like something else...)

ANYWAY... So I've had my first crit, and somehow, I feel like I've done something not-quite-right but I can't quite put my finger on it... until I figure it out though, I won't worry about it.

In a nutshell, here is how I presented this piece:

This piece is about getting to know my new city, my first glimpses as a tourist, then settling in as a new resident. In the beginning, I am an outsider, capturing only brief moments of London, struggling to find my way around… an exciting city, it can also be dizzying, overwhelming, confusing…

It’s about getting lost and learning to find the way with the aid of familiar landmarks. It’s also about never being lost when you can see the Thames from here.
Seven years have gone by, and I’m pretty comfortable in my city now.

Time and experience give me an insider’s view… I’m not the one getting lost anymore; it must be that I’ve gained confidence - these days, strangers are asking ME for directions!