SW7

this is a painting on a canvas using both oil and acrylic paint.
 * What were the artistic and/or cultural influences for this project? Who/what influenced either the composition and/or the style.**

For this project there are two main artists that had the most influence on my work. First I looked at Terry Rodgers, and the different messages he portrays in his oil paints. Continuing on from my previous projects, I looked at the ways in which people live behind their faccads. This came from the way Red Indians used symbols and objects such as feathers in order to enhance their image and portray a sense of truthfulness and beauty in their culture. Terry Rodgers takes photographs of different contemporary art scenes. The scenes involve nudity to some extent, perhaps giving the idea that they have nothing to hide. On the other hand, they never look directly at one another, almost as though they are too aught up in their own problems to focus on other things. I then decided to look at Francoise Nielly, a French artist who portrays the joys and energy of life through her bright, vibrant colours. This artist is pretty much the opposite of Terry Rodgers, however I found that they both have a way of portraying the ways in which people live behind their faccads, even though they both approach this idea from different angles. Even though I found Francoise Nielly’s artistic techniques fascinating, I did not use it in this piece, however I will use it in my upcoming pieces. I used more of Rodgers technique by using oil paint, however I did paint some areas using acrylic paint.


 * What materials/processes did you use and or experiment with, and how?**

In the actual final piece, I did not experiment with many materials, I just used two different types of paint. However, in my IWB I did experiment with many different materials to portray a rushed atmosphere. These materials included tissue, a glue gun, red tape, wax on fabric, and candle wax. This gave a nice texture and made the uncomfortable ambiance of Terry Rodgers work really stand out. I didn’t use many materials in the final piece however the piece was made up of all my own photographs. In order to make the pupil in the center, just like Terry Rodgers, I combined several party scenes on Photoshop, and added white areas in order to make it look like a real eye.


 * How do you think you have responded to advice and criticism during this project (and during the term), from fellow students and the teacher. Did you actively seek advice? If so, was it useful?**

Quite frankly, I did not seek for much advice for this project, because I was able to set my mind to what I was going to do. I did listen to other points from my peers and teacher as guidelines, however I had five to six ideas in mind.


 * Explain clearly the weaknesses/areas of improvement -**

My weaknesses in this final piece are probably the fact that I experimented with so many different materials, and only used oil and acrylic paints. I believe it was also rushed, and I could have spent more time on it.


 * Clearly explain the strengths of the piece -**

The strengths of the piece are that it has a lot of meaning to it. The choice of me using an eye portrays a metaphor of the iris being the outer image, the coloured part of the eye, which presents a happy outer image. Whereas, the pupil, is the dark area, and center, this portrayed more of the truth. The contrast of bright and dark colours contributed to the differences and the message of the piece. Over all, the most thing I liked about the piece was the fact that it was meaningful, it was made up of my own photographs, which made it personal and orginal.


 * What could you take through to the next project and develop further? This could be anything, from a technique to an idea, not necessarily just the theme.**

Im going to continue further with the idea of people living behind their faccads, andi will extend this idea by looking at other cultures and other artists that approach this idea. As for painting techniques, I will certainly experiment with Francoise Nielly’s ways of sculpting her paintings using oil paint and knives.