12 Images for Leeds University

'I long to escape my boring life' 

Creating Controversy in Sheffield

As a part of a previous topic, Absence and Presence, I went on a journey which lead me to dressing eccentrically around Sheffield in order to provoke a reaction from the public.

My inspiration for this experiment was a newspaper article with the title 'I long to escape my boring life'. As well as looking at how Grayson Perry and Lady Gaga use their dress and appearance in order to create reactions.

Masking my identity 

A series of photographs of myself masking myself
with smears of paint.

These photographs also formed part of my Absence and Presence work, with them representing feelings of suppression and being lost.  Using the seduction of colour to portray my intense emotion, and using it to mask myself, essentially taking the focus off of myself.  My main inspiration for this were Yinka Shonibare's patterned costumes which use explosive colour and delicate pattern to mask the subtle, yet dark undertones.

'Artists can colour the sky red because they know it's blue'

Red life drawing for the British Heart Foundation

Part of my Foundation course consisted of weekly life drawing classes, which were my favourite part of this year. Here is one of my paintings from 'Red Week' as the main point was to create beautiful Red paintings for the British Heart Foundation.  My painting is currently being exhibited as a part of the British Heart Foundation Exhibition in the college gallery.

Creating Prints

Drypoint print of Chairs

Colour Collagraph of Ilam Landscape

 Another key aspect of my Foundation course has been the Print making qualification where I have learnt a variety of techniques that I wish to use in the future.  Here are two of my prints that are going to be reprinted for an auction and exhibition in March. I will also be reprinting two more for the same auction. I love the different effects you can get from print, it offers an interesting take on these drawings and colour studies that I had done previously whilst on trips to Calke Abbey and Ilam. 

What the Water gave me

One of my water photographs

My working process

Experimental painting using bleach, ink
and fine liner

My most recent project was based on the four elements, after visiting Magna and researching the different elements, I wanted to focus on water. Therefore I immersed myself in water and began taking photographs. This lead to a series of photographs which I then created as a series of paintings using experimental methods, continuously working on top of the image to create an interesting effect that portrayed the effects of water.  The process was documented in my sketchbook with my thought process and grids of attempting to create this on a smaller scale before committing to producing large pieces of work. Furthering this idea, and conceputalising it to represent being trapped in our bodies, and looking at how we compare to models; I have then created a Fine Art film, which improves upon the original images.

Venice in the Rain

A watercolour study of  St Marks Sq in Venice

Novemeber 2011 I took a trip to Venice to see the spectacular Biennale, which was very inspiring and lead me to fill my hand made sketchbook full of water colour paintings of Venice in the rain and drawings of the exhibitions which I found particularly interesting. My visit to Venice has propelled me to create more art whilst travelling in different countries, perhaps Amsterdam and South America. 


Producing Art whilst travelling

A selection of gestural drawings of passengers and customers

Furthering the idea of producing art on the go, I began creating gestural drawings of passengers on bus journeys that I was on, as well as customers in coffee shops, in order to capture their expression and perhaps their thoughts.  I want to do more of this in the future, as I find human form fascinating and the idea that it could be possible to capture their thoughts in my drawings and paintings.  I'm visiting London on the 9th February in order to see the galleries and to find inspiration for my next self directed project, therefore, I will definitely be looking at people in London, hopefully creating drawings and using my film camera to capture them.

Experimenting with Photograms

Photogram of a dolls body

Perhaps one of the best parts of my Foundation course is the  use of unusual methods and techniques which add different elements to your artwork.  Here is one of my photograms, which used a dolls body and a semi transparent scarf to create unusual images.  What makes these fascinating is the fact that the plastic lets light through, leaving an X-ray type image.

Revisiting the past

Drawings of childhood photographs

Leaving conventional drawing techniques behind, I've adapted a more gestural  method of drawing; consisting of layering different materials and using a variety of techniques to produce visually stimulating images. Here  I have used my childhood photographs as a stimulus.  I find that I have grown as an artist since starting my Foundation course, it has lead me to experiment and find unusual ways to express my ideas.