home IG: @_lucyartwork artwork statement
Colours
Oil pastels on canvas board, A5. Playing with colour and form.
These artworks, most recently documented under my Incomplete column, were made with oil pastels when investigating this incomplete nature carried in artwork, such as through Christina Quarles abstract paintings. In my research of Christina Quarles, I applied her dispersed imagery and vibrant colours to my own work by combining collages of previous drawings to printed images of adolescents, mostly of myself. In these particular drawings, I created dispersion through brash and unblended shapes of colours broken up by layers of white pastel. I applied this to both a still face and figurative form, one carrying emotion and identity through its expression and features and the other carrying a different, more lost emotion through its ambiguity and movement. As affective as I find portraiture, through its exploration of human features and expression, the first drawing seems to lack movement, whereas the second drawing seems to lack detail. As I start to consider my final ideas in this project, working detail and movement together into my artwork would create a sense of movement expression that would fit into the moulds of Bodies and Identity.
In the images below, I continued experimenting with collaging, as done under my Incomplete research by printing out images from my adolescence and scrapbooking them in my sketchbook. I then used oil pastels to layer over the images with different colour pallets, as done in my research on Bodies.
This drawing demonstrates colour theory through complimentary yellow and purple to give the effect of a 2D print. I added red and orange to the skin tone to aid the high saturation and warmth of the drawing. I found the dark brown features of the face creates an ambiguity while still keeping detail and expression in the drawing which works as a good compromise between the two themes explores in the artworks previously explored above. Additionally, I like how the dark shade of the purple contrasts the negative space. However, this contrast in colours could be more effective if the negative space was darker instead, to create a lost sensation in the artwork, linking back to the idea of Identity in the liminal stage of adolescence.
The experimentation above explores the interplay of movement and detail, as well as the effect of light and darkness in artwork centred around adolescence. These rough collage artworks continue this idea of complimentary colours, not to have them work together in an artwork, but rather to see how warm and cold hues change the atmosphere. Although green is a secondary colour, certain shades are considered cold and in comparison to red, is considerably so. The red creates a more dominant and self-assured mood not idea in expressing the adolescent mind. However, the cold hues, especially in the blue shirt, creates a fluid and malleable feel. These cold colours matched well with the orange highlights on the skin- bring depth and emotion into the artwork. In my final piece, using this warmth in the skin of my artwork could be effective in showing the life and vibrancy of adolescents, while keeping the fluid and undeveloped nature in the negative space.
These next two sets of artworks are more experimentation to explore this feature of having a dark and cold negative space. I chose these images to focus on the effect negative space has on vulnerable bodies. I printed images of a large body- as explored in my research on Jenny Saville- found online and small body taken of myself. This particular artwork compares how the atmosphere of an artwork changes when exposed to both a white and black background. Although both created an Incomplete feel. Immediately, the white background felt optimistic and as though the artwork itself is actively developing, symbolic of adolescents. However, my research on Identity and Bodies looks in the mental struggle of this liminal period that is better demonstrated with the black choice; it also makes the artwork itself look more purposeful.
Similar to the experimentation above, these explore darkness and brightness in artwork but this time with positive space. As I consider my final ideas, the concept of blacking out certain features of the face to anonymise the person is interesting to me (and could also be effective in losing the sense of identity often captivated in the eyes or mouth, etc.). As much as I like the ambiguity the black foreground brings, the peach skin tone allows for more colour and therefore movement and expression in the artwork.
This artwork is an experimentation work visualisation the concepts I have explored, such as cold and dark colours, movement, layers of colour, and anonymity. This artwork is a photograph taken of myself. In my exhibition artwork, I intend to use the exposure of skin to symbolise the vulnerability and discomfort of adolescence, and nature of our ongoing process of growing into our own bodies. The accidental contrast rough texture in the background and smooth finish of the skin is interesting in creating movement in the oil pastel. However, applying this texture directly into the skin (rather than the background)- similar to Jenny Saville’s work- could possibly be effective in enhancing this message into the skin. The dark blue detail on my back is my necklace and tattoo.
These artworks bring all my experimentation in my further documentation together to finalise my ideas as I begin to plan for exhibition piece. The stature of the adolescent girl (myself, aged 13) brings forward my research from Rineke Dijkstra and applies her ideas on body language to increase movement into the artwork (to promote feelings to growth and aging) and awkwardness to tap into the psyche of these young individuals. The first drawing plays around with composition and disfiguration and the second image is an oil pastel drawing working in the colours I intend to use, both A4 in size. For my final piece, I want to bring these ideas forward but also extend the abstract disfiguration in the composition as well as the cold theme in the colour theory. I also intend to show more skin but appreciate the scale of myself compared to the more zoomed in image of me above (allowing for me to show more movement in my body language).
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