Below will be weekly long of my progress in the BFA Painting Program at Indiana University
COMING BACK TO SCHOOL STARTING THE BFA PROGRAM: August 26- September 1
This week I was assigned my own studio space. I am so blessed and excited to be here and start working. My goals will be to be constantly creating no matter the outcome of the project, experimentation with mediums, and to learn as much from the students and professors around me. In class today, Aug 29th, we painted our first portraits of our classmates. Today was London. I am a little rusty from the summer so it didn't turn out the way I would have liked it to. However, I am just going to move on from that.
Wayne Thiebaud: -American painter -colorful works depicting pies, lipsticks, paint cans, ice cream cones, pastries, and hot dogs -as well as for his landscapes and figure paintings
" The figures... are not supposed to reveal anything... It's like seeing a stranger in some place like an air terminal for the first time. You look at him, you notice his shoes, his suit, the pin in his lapel, but you don't have any particular feeling about him." (Wayne Thiebaud)
Why I like him as a painter: Growing up I lived in Washington DC. I used the metro everyday to get downtown. There is only so much you can do when sitting on the train speeding through the bustling city. People read books, listen to music, or maybe even take a nap. I however, was drawn to observing people. Some may have thought it to be rude or annoying, but I never thought twice about it. I would observe so many different people. The quote above speaks to me because when observing someone you get a sense of their aura. Not every single detail. I also love his use color. Thiebaud is known for his optic illusionistic techniques in color rendering objects.
September 1-8 I want this week to be focused on making scenes for my stop motion and working on small portraits either in acrylic or oil. I have written out a story board for my stop motion now its just the production process. The portrait of the boy with the green background is an experimentation. I had painted a white tree on this canvas a year ago. I never fully appreciated it until now. I painted a portrait of my friend over the tree. I liked working on top of my own work. This was the first time I have done something like this before. I want to see where this new interest will take me.
September 9-15
After speaking with my Professor this week, she encouraged me to start working large. I am going to get a large canvas sheet without stretching it and pin it to the wall. I will keep a log through taking photographs of phases through the changing of the painting. Additionally, I would like to keep a bi-weekly log of artists that I am researching.
Cristiano Banti: -4 January 1824, Santa Croce sull'Arno - 4 December 1904, Montemurlo -Italian genre and landscape painter -He was a leading figure in the Macchiaioli movement of Tuscany.
"Although still shy of public recognition, he accepted an appointment as Professor at the Academy of Fine Arts and served on the commission charged with reorganizing the Uffizi. In 1887, he was back in London, studying the Old Masters at the National Gallery and making the acquaintance of James McNeill Whistler. Banti fathered at least eight children, at least one of whom is known to have settled in England. He died at his villa in 1904. Ten years later, his collection was sold at auction and dispersed."(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristiano_Banti)
Why I like him as a painter: In this painting above, I really notice Cristiano's paint handling. In the sky, the blue and the white blue paint is stroked on in a horizontal direction. The underpainting is peaking through which creates a nice contrast. Additionally, the size of the painting and the composition creates a motion and movement of the figures from the left to the right. Even though there is not much detail in the figures and the items they are carrying, the use of light and dark creates an understanding to the eye that, from a distance, the information presented pieces together to create a full image. I feel that sometimes I focus too much on the details and outlining features, that the organic presence is lost. I would like to use this technique of paint handling in my own work.
September 16-22 This week has been slow and I haven’t been able to get as much done as I would like. I did finish my biggest paintings. They are two 36 by 40 in canvas oil and acrylic paintings. This will be a series of four memory paintings. They will be based off of people I met this summer traveling to Israel. I am a very visual painter and I wanted to challenge myself without using any reference photos. This was the first time I did this. I liked the creative process that took place. Since I did not have any image in mind I was able to recreate and rework into my painting. I would like to see where this process will take me. However I would like I like my paintings from observation more because I am able to see more color. I feel like I was limited with the colors I thought would represent certain things.
Gustav Klimt: -Austrian symbolist painter - one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement -female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism Why I like him as a painter: He uses color and pattern in very beautiful ways. I would like to incorporate this into my paintings. I’m his paintings there are stacks and intertwining of human figures which I am also interested in with my work.
September 30- October 6
This week I am working on the third and fourth series painting for memories in Israel. I still need find time to make the stop motion. Another project I would like to start working on is the object painting that Eve has just assigned to us. In addition I am going to start working on a sculpture of a whale
October 7-13 This week has been a lot of preparation for the open studio night. We had crits on Tuesday. One comment that I will work on is that I need to use more paint on everything I do. Thursday we got back to painting portraits. I used this crit and applied more amounts of paint. I really enjoyed the process of the paint to canvas and the final outcome. It makes it look more alive in the fact that it has depth to the physical painting. I am working on 20 minute paintings of still life of vegetables. I decided to do 20 minutes because it forces me to work fast. The goal of this is to try and get as much information down as possible with as much paint as possible. I am going to try and do 10 paintings.
October 14-20 Last Friday was Open studios night. I had a great time and was so blessed to have friends come to see me in my studio. I am priming surfaces and getting ready to finally start my stop motion. I would like to first get my studio set up with lighting and camera. I have primed a loose canvas and pinned it to the wall. It is about 4 feet by 5 feet. I am going to be looking at Matt Bollinger.
Matt Bollinger: To the left is an image of one of his paintings in a stop motion. I really like his depiction of the figure and how loosely he is able to make that figure move in space. He is also very clever with his depiction of light. This can be seen in the square in the middle of the painting where one could assume that the light is traveling from an open window on to the figures face and then the wall in the back.
October 21-27 This week is a very stressful week for me. I am getting ready for exams and from Thursday to Saturday I have a weekend long training with ROTC. We will be sleeping outside and braving all the elements while in a high stress environment. I will use the experiences to my advantage for a stop motion painting that I am excited to start working on.
October 28- Nov 3 This week I am looking forward to my trip to Arizona. I am going to visit a friend that I met in Israel. He lives with his family in Tuscon. I am most excited about the nature and the different atmosphere of vegetation. Reflecting on my trip I learned so much and was grateful for the unique experience. Arizona holds so much mystical history and the earth feels sacred. I am artistically very fueled by experience. Traveling is an amazing way for me to understand the vast world around me as well as my existence and relationship to the world around me. For example this trip to Arizona let me become more aware of a plant world and species that holds a tremendous amount of respect in the South Western world. This is the Saguaro Cactus. It takes a saguaro cactus 100 years to grow an appendage. People in Arizona cannot cut a saguaro cactus down because it is against the law and they will be heavily fined. A saguaro cactus will grow as many appendages as possible until it dies becasue of the undistributed weight of the appendages. The bottom trunk of the cactus cannot support the rest of the cactus and starts to rip and eventually fall down. They also look like people with the weird appendages that grow from the trunk. Additionally Mount Lemmon is home to the rock structures known as Hoodoos by the native American. The interesting smooth rocks hold their own identity within the rocky rough atmosphere of the desert of Arizona.
Nov 3-10 I was out absent with Pneumonia so I was not in my studio. Nov 11-17 I was out absent with Pneumonia so I was not in my studio. Nov 18-24 This week I am back in mt studio and I am trying to get back on the working grind. After being away from my studio for so long, I missed just creating things with my hands. I have started a painting of my friend Gus. He came in and sat for me. I decided to paint in acrylic becasue I wanted to be able to layer and work quickly with a drying medium.
Andy Dixon: I am currently looking at the artist Andy Dixon. He uses intense color with compositions that may resemble old master paintings or renaissance portraits. I would like to understand his use of color and how he effectively chooses the different placements for such high chroma. I also enjoy his was of depicting foliage and wild life with the figure in a natural space.
Nov 25-Dec 1 I am on Thanksgiving break now and I am taking this time to map out my thoughts. I am doing a lot of drawing in color. I am using marker, oil pastel, crayon, and colored pencil to think about line markings, shapes, and color relationship. At home I am drawing objects in the house like house plants and my parents on the couch, I went to the metro and sketched people in their daily routine of transit. For these I used color pencil oil pastel and crayon. Then I went to the botanic garden in dc and drew the tropic section of the museum in marker. I am using this as a means of inspiration and reference when I return back to IU.