Following on from my research into people hiding in the war, I looked at air raid shelters, where people used to hide to protect themselves from bombings. They used shelters in gardens and underground stations, which people packed in to by their thousands. I find it interesting that the idea of hiding for protection is timeless. Even now, we hide away in lockdown to protect ourselves from coronavirus. However, the nature of this hiding is now different because we are isolated from other people and there is less of a sense of community.
I started the week by exploring texture further and used newspaper to recreate the textures of my den and woodlands. I painted onto these shapes with more unexpected colours, which I experimented with to try and make my work more contemporary. I worked back into these with charcoal and thread to add isolated figures. I looked at Hans Sieverding and was interested in his silhouettes and background textures, which I incorporated in my paintings.
^ My texture paintings
^ Hans Sieverding painting
I decided to research the woodland setting further and wanted to record the sounds and movements so I could use these as abstracted elements in my future paintings. I then combined by two settings by projecting the woodland videos onto a den. I thought about making a den in the woods, but this was impractical and possibly unsafe. I like unexpected flip of putting the woods onto the den rather than the other way around and I like the relationship between the vulnerable and safe settings.
^ Woodland videos
^ My projections
Finally, I started making collages on cardboard to work out compositions for my final outcome. I used images from my research and placed them onto different coloured backgrounds. I worked back into them with colourful paint and I like these abstract elements. I looked at Brian Harte and I like the depth of his compositions. I also looked at Stephen Chambers' work which is flatter but also uses block colours, which I prefer to a fully detailed background. Next week, I will work on bringing these qualities into my compositions, based on my cardboard collages.
^ My cardboard collages
^ Brian Harte's Subbuteo collection, 2016
^ Stephen Chambers
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