Crit #2 with William and Andy
After speaking with the tutors about the lack of relevance and feedback during my first crit session I was offered first pick at having another go so I was glad of this chance to get more peer feedback and was also happy to be able to view my larger paintings in the Shaun Project Space, rather than just in my studio space. As well as exhibiting my two larger canvas paintings I also chose to show two smaller pieces alongside them. All of the feedback I recieved from my peers was positive and supportive of my ideas and some of the suggestions for furthering my research and work were to try exploring with a bolder and more vibrant colour palette instead of just using pastel shades, to maybe stray away from the 'sweeter' themes and add some contrasting aspects to balance out the cuter animals that show throughout my pieces. I also had a documentary on Francis Bacon and how he put together his imagery suggested to me for something to watch because of how I am interested and controlling over how I build and design the compositions of my paintings.
Next we looked at Willam Ramsey's work where he has been exploring with two different styles of work; Digital and Painting. He presented us with 5 large (A1) sized paintings that were created by dragging acrylic paint across the paper with a window squeegee which creates expressive and colourful patterns, yet also shows some control as to where each colour will have been origionally placed before being wiped across the composition. The digital pieces that William created and showed to us were some drawings of dogs, one being his own, where he had used a more limited colour palette that he had used for his large paintings. The technical (photoshop) drawings are more of a 'simple' design and representation of the animals yet they still manage to show a lot of detail through the lines that depict the fur coats and then the different colours show the tonal differences and add a bit of depth to the pieces.
We also looked at Andrew Parkins installation piece where he had turned one of the enclosed studio spaces into a prison cell, linking to his ongoing theme that is based on famous criminals e.g. Charlie Bronson. To create this replication of a cell Andy had painted all 4 walls, the floor, installed a cell door that acted as the prison cell bars as well as painting what looked like an escape route in the floor with a transcription of Edvard Munch's The Scream in the centre. He had also made it quite life like by installing a small camp bed and placing a sculptured figure piece in the bed as though it were a prisoner sleeping there and then he also invited other students to write on the walls as though it was just like doodles and engraved messages that you would see in prisons.
