This year's challenge!

Most of you who follow my blog know that I’m an art teacher by day and an aspiring artist by night. Last year my goal was to pick up a regular art practice and to build my skills in colour pencil. I haven’t been posting much of my work lately, but I have been busy. I’ve decided to step it up this year and deepen the concept behind my work. Although I adore drawing kookaburras and chooks, inspiration is calling me to bring a bit more meaning to my work. In order to put my ideas to work I’ve decided to give myself the ultimate challenge (for an artist-teacher): to complete my own curriculum.

My Studio Art curriculum is a tried and tested process-based course. I believe in it, I’ve seen it produce great art and now I’m going to practice what I preach. I’ve always liked the idea of being an art student again and completing my own curriculum. With only 3 year 12 students this year, I thought it would be a good chance to do it. I’m hoping to foster a collaborative studio environment where we can help and learn from each other in a small supportive group. I guess we'll see how it goes!

The first item on the curriculum is to complete and ‘exploration proposal’ – a document that outlines your intentions as to what the focus will be throughout the year.  Now that I’ve had January to wrestle my bramble of ideas into a cohesive statement, I thought I’d share it will you.

Warning – it is a tad long (1000 words, as per specified in the curriculum!) I’m going to sign off here, but if you’d like to know what I’ve been working on this month, read on.

Until next time,

Erin

Exploration proposal 2019

The inspiration for my work this year has come from stained glass windows and lead lighting. Although I don’t follow a particular religion, I have always admired the leadlight windows in churches and the way sunlight illuminates the multi-coloured panels and casts their patterns onto the walls and floor. It has always evoked a sense of reverie and wonder, and seeing any stained glass anywhere always felt very special and opulent to me. I wish to explore the aesthetic of stained-glass panels while changing the religious icons to suit my own spiritual views.

In recent months I have discovered a range of artists who are also inspired by stained glass. Nadine Keegan is an Australian leadlight artist who depicts Australian flora and fauna. She explores the idiosyncrasies of native plants and our human connection to the natural world. I admire her use of line and pattern to create textures seen in banksias and ferns. Her use of colour is bright and flat, and she usually composes her artworks asymmetrically. I plan to emulate her vibrant use of colour and textures in plants and animals.

Nadine Keegan

Nadine Keegan

Kehinde Wiley is a portrait painter from New York who appropriated European masterpieces. He recasts African-Americans from off the streets and places them in power poses to challenge the socio-politic issues facing African-Americans. Wiley’s stained-glass series gave me the inspiration to also work in this style while also altering the figures and the message of the work to suit a more 21^st century audience. He also includes decorative borders seen in leadlight windows and I plan to use this in my work.

Madonna and Child, Kehinde Wiley, 2016

Mary, Comforter of the Afflicted II, Kehinde Wiley, 2016

Alphonse Mucha is seen as the main influencer of the Art Nouveau movement. Art Nouveau was a revolt against ugliness and therefore highly decorative with a focus on beauty, nature and the seasons. Mucha’s paintings of beautiful women are highly detailed and adorned with floral patterns. There is a flatness to the images that echoes the style of stained-glass windows. The style deliberately omits shadows and contrasts in order to accentuate the 2-dimensional picture plane. It is this style as well as the subject matter that interest me. I plan for my work to be highly decorative and feminine with a focus on natural elements.

Daydream, Alphonse Mucha 1911

Soap Factory of Bagnolet, Alphonse Mucha, 1897

Stained glass windows and the Christian associations have led me to consider the question: what is sacred? For me, more now than ever, the answer is nature. I adhere to no religious faith but rather see signs of the Devine and miraculous in nature. Unfortunately, our natural world is being destroyed and many plant and animal species have been endangered or extinct at the hands of man. This is a crucial time in history for mankind to take responsibility for its crimes against nature. There are a few conceptual possibilities within this theme, the first being to personify Mother Nature and perhaps depict her in place of Christian religious icons such Jesus or Mary. I hope to communicate the importance of nature and show it as sacred and godlike. Another possibility is to depict the magic found in nature, such as the Aurora Borealis and sacred sights on Earth such as Uluru, linking nature to mysticism, and to communicate the unseen forces that create life. A third conceptual possibility is to flip the script and show man at the mercy of nature and it’s cycles, perhaps indicating that mankind has outlived its welcome and will be eradicated by nature’s fury if we can’t learn to live sustainably on this planet. I want to communicate that nature should be respected and revered.

I will explore subject matter that explores these themes with an additional focus on Australian flora and fauna and endangered species to show my connection to place. I may include goddess-like figures and halos (such as seen in Byzantine icons) to indicate sacredness, as well as important Australian landscapes that need protecting – such as Uluru, the Great Barrier reef and the Murry-Darling precinct. I would like to depict different seasons in my work, as this ties in with the Art Nouveau philosophy. Subject matter that may help to communicate the impact of man on the environment include air pollution and rubbish.

The artform I wish to explore is drawing, as this is my field of expertise and I wish to find and develop my own style. I will be focusing on using colour pencils, although I may use ink or watercolour for washes and luminous effects. I may use hatching, cross-hatching, scumbling, shading and burnishing to build up layers of colour, possibly using mineral spirit to blend pigments together for a more even look. I will be exploring Prismacolour Premiere colour pencils and comparing them to Faber-Castell’s Polychromos colour pencils, possibly using these together for a full spectrum of colours. In the past I have liked to work on black paper, as this can intensify the colors, although I will explore a range of paper colours and investigate Vellum papers for a smooth texture.

Being inspired by leadlight and Art Nouveau, I aim for my work to be stylized, decorative and brightly colored. Curvaceous use of line will provide a feminine and soft aesthetic while cutting up the panels into organic shapes such as those seen in stained glass. Keeping in this style, forms will be flattened and simplified with little in the way of tone and texture. I aim for colours to be rich and vibrant to evoke a sense of divinity and magic. Panels will have a certain amount of symmetry with the use of borders, ‘tracery’ and ‘roses’, although compositions will be more organic and asymmetrical. Use of complementry colours will help to provide contrast and emphasize important figures. I want the work to have strength in vibrant colours and defined lines, while overall appearing soft and feminine.