Project 3 : Mum (the queen) painting

Can't seem to photograph the colours quite right.  I'm sure it wasn't quite this green.  My biggest one yet.  Measures approx 4' x 5'5".  Measured it today to see if it would fit in the car.

Project 1 Extension.

I found it difficult to just switch off from my fist project in which I chose to do painting.  The four weeks didn't seem nearly enough as I felt I was only just getting into the ideas I wanted to explore and it was so nice getting back to painting at last!.  So I decided I would start another painting that could tick along as I get time and run alongside project 2.




After having worked small and fiddly with the Piper painting I decided I needed to work as big as possible.  This is probably as big as my kitchen and practicalities will allow.  (having become some sort of kitchen/office/studio hybrid).  It's on board and approximately 60 x 74cm and already I'm finding it so much easier to paint being a larger scale.  It still ties in with the project 1 theme which includes contemplating perception and sense of reality, a very subjective reality in this case.  Although not in my thoughts originally, I suppose it could be classed as a vanitas type painting and it does contain personal significance and symbolism. 

Painting so far:

Project 1. The Piper painting

This composition was based around the penny whistle player that sometimes sits on Queen’s road.  He looks to be a homeless person as his clothes are grubby and even his shoes appear to have been repaired with glue and hand stitching.

Original reference photo

I liked the idea of making him the focal point as this seems to be the opposite of the reality, where as a rule the public tend to ignore people like this who seem to be on the outskirts of society.  I was looking at the aspect that he is not fully involved in the system and for whatever reason he doesn’t fully participate in a usual or expected role in society.  However, to me he appeared quite content and happy.  He was more than happy for me to take photos, even playing more each time I brought the camera up to my eye.  So in my painting I wanted to portray this, him being quite happy, opting out, content while watching all of the others rushing around.  To further emphasise this point I put a businessman going up some steps to the side of him.  The businessman I purposely made nondescript, as he was representative.  I wanted to make him seem to disappear into greyness and darkness of office world by using flat grey tones with little definition and contrast around the top of him.  In the original reference picture he was carrying a red bag, which I considered too vibrant, so changed this to a more sombre brown one.

Original reference photo

 

I changed the original setting of the piper to coincide with the idea of offices and traditional official type buildings.  I used a picture I had taken locally of what was originally a cinema but is now an evangelical church.

 

I wanted to imply the consumer-focused world by means of the advert on the wall behind.  I wanted something advertising yet another thing we don’t need but work 9 – 5 to buy.  The TV add seemed a good choice in that the TV serves as a means to further impress and condition us.

 

Whilst wanting the piper to look colourful, I had to compromise this in order to incorporate the dirt on his clothes so that he didn’t become just a busker, but also homeless.  I wanted him to appear content as if to point out that you can be happy in other ways, with a more simplistic life that is not about possessions.

 

I’m sure in reality he has quite a personal story and toyed with the idea of making his money collection pot a felt army hat.  (A lot of ex army individuals sadly do end up homeless).  I was originally going to put a bag of chips on the ground with the Financial Times as the wrapper.  Having painted the newspaper though I decided it ironic to make this his money pot and painted some coins in.

The chips and a coffee cup were to symbolise his simple food needs having been met and I still kept the coffee cup.

 

I thought hard about the bag he was sitting on.  For a while thinking ‘Homebase’ would be a good choice in respect of the bag being as good as his home and possibly containing all of his worldly possessions.  The Homebase logo colours were no good though as based on my overall colour scheme I knew I wanted it to incorporate red.  I had already changed his trousers to brown due to the overall colour scheme as well.  I found a M & S bag for life image online with an apt message which I felt tied in with my general message and theme and so used that for reference.

I had intended to paint a fictional band flyer on the wall but before I did I realised it made more sense compositionaly and in meaning to have this on the ground.  The fictional band name ‘The System’ was used to further impress the idea of the system we’re are forced to participate in.  I wanted it to appear that the flyer had just happened to land on the ground and that’s why it was there, yet by having the tip of the piper’s foot on it, it would symbolise his rejection of this system. 

 

 One of my first thoughts had been the possibility of giving the piper a jester’s hat as I liked the idea he was mocking and laughing at the rest of us in the rat race rushing around while he had time to enjoy playing music.  This I decided deviated too much from my original character so instead, more subtly gave him harlequin patterned socks.

Project 1. The piper

I feel I want to call it a day on this painting now.  I put the fictional band flyer in today which was originally going to go on the wall but it had more meaning and was compositionaly better down on the ground I think.  The challenge I find in painting is always the challenge of creating a sense of depth on something that is flat.  I had been thinking along the lines of contrasts and complementaries but eventually remembered what I had learned by trial and error about colour temperature.  It did help and will be more in my consciousness with the next painting. 

Project 1, Work in Progress

When I started this course I was keen to continue from where I left off in learning to paint.  So although it's been a while ( 7 months), I was excited about painting again.  This is my work in progress.  It's about 14 x 18 inches, in acrylics and I'm using various photographic reference pictures, mostly ones that I have taken but other bits either made up or referenced off the net.  I think the biggest difficulty I am having in working in this pieced together way is getting tone and colour looking right.

 For example as I have put the figure in a different setting I decided to change the colour of his trousers which took me a while until I felt they were acceptable…… for now anyway.  I have been trying to create some sense of depth whilst also concentrating on the main figure by means of keeping the figure's colours more saturated than the background and using hints of complementaries in the background around the figure.  Something I recall Seurat did.  The guy going up the stairs I have tried to keep as nondescript as possible.  But looking at it on and off today in between the sunday chores and delivering Avon, (yes I confess I have another secret life as an Avon lady), I feel the background tones are not right and maybe I have kept some of it too grey and muted.  I wonder what Monet would have advised.  You know when you get asked those questions like: " if you had to get stuck in a lift with someone who is alive or dead?"  I think Monet would be a good choice,…….. along with Einstein.  Anyway, it's all part of the challenge and learning isn't it.