'Every painting i've ever done has like 100 paintings under it' - Amy Sillman, 2020
Recently I have been developing my skills as a Teacher and a Researcher, but I am first and foremost an Artist.
My current artistic practice consists of colourful and gestural abstract paintings inspired by the movement of figures and the spaces around me. These paintings consist of a bright and playful colour pallet and the gestural marks are influenced by the movement of the figure as well as the surrounding space. My chosen medium is acrylic paint, posca markers and ink on both canvas and sketchbooks. I document my thought process through these small sketchbook studies. This is where I create the initial plan for my larger canvas paintings in studio. Using materials such as acrylic paint, gouache, ink, paint markers, and pens, I create a range of gestural lines and shapes helping me achieve a busy composition. These drawings allow me to develop larger scale works on canvas. I focus a lot of my attention on developing a range of colour and mark makings within these A5 sketchbooks.
Through the course of my practice, I aim to create a sense of colour and space through loose and playful paintings. I have always been greatly influenced by the figure, particularly the movement of the body. I represent the body and the space through gestural forms, Taking reference from many contemporary abstract artists such as Laura Owens, Amy Sillman, Diana Copperwhite, and Albert Oehlen.
Colours, Materials and Process
There is a strong focus on the use of colour within my painting’s. I choose a colour pallet that is bright and playful. I also work in layers. Adding quick layers of paint to the surface, diluting it, possibly removing it, and applying something else to discover new possibilities as my work evolves. I use the movement of my whole body to make these gestural marks. Not only do I use paintbrushes to apply the paint, but also express myself creatively by using pallet knives, scrappers, materials such as cling film as well as my own hands to apply the paint. This is my way of achieving a sense of movement as well as texture and depth in my abstract compositions. A lot of my earlier paintings have a bright colour pallet with very little darker tones, and no black. Yet lately I have been experimenting with darker shades in order to create depth within my paintings, especially those on larger canvas.
Contextual Inspiration
My artists research has been based around two artists in particular. Laura Owens and Amy Sillman. I explored there two American painters in depth my undergraduate degree in Fine Art Painting and continue to do so in my artistic practice today. I really enjoy Owens use of bright, colour-infused imagery that depicts images of the landscape, figures, and blooming flowers. What makes me most interested in her work is the playfulness they have to them as, well as her use of gestural marks. My work has hugely informed by how Owens uses large, gestural, and exaggerated marks to represent and inform the figure of the landscape, as I too break down these shapes into much simpler lines and paint them as quick gestures of colours across my canvas. The scale of Owens work has pushed me to go bigger as I can see how a larger surface can help capture more movement, sense of space and playfulness.
Amy Sillman work ranges from cartooned figures to abstraction. I was initially researching Sillman work in relation to how she incorporated the figure into her work without being overly suggestive. Her work is full of large swatches of colour as well as sharp lines. These blobs and splashes of paint are interrupted by a form that could be a hand or a face, the viewer cannot be sure. I particularly took inspiration from Sillman work when I was in my final year of Fine Art Painting, in order to identify how I could add elements of the figure into my paintings, and I still look at her work for inspiration today. Other artists what have been of interest to me include Fiona Rae and Albert Oehlen in relation to use of colour line and space. Diana Copperwhite and Michael Van Ofen in relation to figurative elements.