Acrylic Painting

The second task was to paint with acrylic in a smooth style, and the third was to use it in a rough, textured way. I decided to focus my attention on painting, where I created a opposing dynamic between the two techniques. I’ve always wanted to paint a dancer, and since belly dancing is one of my passions, it seemed fitting. I primed my wood panel with black gesso as I have never used it before, and imagined the red to really stand out in comparison.  Painting the smooth skin was challenging as I felt that acrylic doesn’t maintain fleshy colours as well as oil paint does. The shape of the belly changed significantly over the duration of the course as my lecturer pointed out that I didn’t get it anatomically correct. I painted the hair with a lack of detail as its in the back, and didn’t want it to be a focus for the viewer. I then layer paint (impasto) to create the outfit. This resulted with an interesting 3D texture, however, I struggled to be carefree with my stroked, and so failed to capture the movement.

 

Acrylic Paint – Jigsaw

The next type of paint we experimented with was acrylic. Another presentation was given, this time focusing on how the paint was applied. There were three tasks given. For the first task we were given jigsaw pieces of a large image. The whole class had to paint the given tile, and then it would be joined together to create the composition.

Watercolour Painting

The first type of paint we were going to focus on was watercolour. We were given a presentation on examples of artists that use watercolour. We then had to rip an image from a magazine and make a palette of all the various shades of colours present. After this, the task was to paint 3 versions of the same composition, where the colour is different. As I am surrounded by the natural environment, I decided to paint a lake and trees, but during different times of the day.

For my first attempt, I painted the day sky. I didn’t like the way this piece look at the end because of several reasons: The use of wax as a resistant created to large of a contrast, I used watercolour like acrylic when painting the tress, and I spent way too much time trying to perfect it where instead I should have let the watercolours spread and do their own thing.

With the second one I aimed to correct these mistakes. I painted a sunset, and really enjoyed letting the different colour blend in the sky. During my feedback session I was told how I quickly improved with the way I used the paints. The way I painted the water was really complimented. I gave myself a couple of hours to complete it so that I wouldn’t scrutinised over every error and I think that paid off.

For the third one I definitely more confident as the previous one went well. I challenged myself to paint the auroras, partly because I was inspired after seeing them in real life. I found it hard to make vividness of the greens and yellow appear, especially when the dark blue and purples kept blending with them. However, this was when using watercolour had an advantage as I could lift the colour with water. I then added little white dots with acrylic to represent stars.

Anj Smith

As an artist, I have never felt confident with painting. The lack of control always stresses me out. When I saw this course, I had to pick it as I eagerly wanted to hone on these skills.

We went to the Sara Hilden gallery to see her painting in order to gain some inspiration. Sara Hilden, a businesswoman in the line of clothes and fashion, devoted her time and money is collecting one of the biggest and important collections of art in Finland. Her career in fashion allowed her to be “sensitive to visual beauty and enabled her to see the value and relativity of contemporary phenomena, as well as given her the ability to concentrate on contemporary art”. It was these unique dispositions that allowed her to have a “prominent position in the cultural life of Tampere in the 1940s”. The city of Tampere is home to the Sara Hilden Foundation, which had been agreed to act as a permanent space for artists to hold exhibitions. The catalogue represented artists from different backgrounds. She was eager to create a space in Finland, for international artists to exhibit aspects of their cultural identities through their art. This created an interesting dynamic between the works of Finnish nationalities and foreigners.

Currently the works of British artist Anj Smith are being exhibited in the museum. Her art directly examines her identity and its direct relationship to the land. Her rural childhood was empty of popular culture and media. The landscapes she paints are ridden in psychological meaning. “In her latest paintings Anj Smith has addressed issues related to the fragility of identity” and the ever so fluctuating sense of self. She states that the “branches and the way the folds of the garment have been arranged and the stitching all form a sort of rhythmic pattern and so the landscape is more metaphorical.” “Within her remarkably detailed works, wildly feral landscapes, ambiguous figures, textiles, and rare and exotic flora and fauna are used” The viewer is invited to really focus on these symbolic objects that have been littered throughout the canvas.
The chemical toxicity, created through the technique of impasto, using luscious colours suggests that some sort of ecological disaster or “something unspecified but catastrophic has happened to the environment”. The body of her work investigates the psychological territory of mental health and the wider social anxiety we as a community are living through.