eval.

             A feeling of uncertainty was present throughout the majority of my project, despite the research I had carried out; my project was to document my time in London, take photographs, and play around with cinematic imagery to make my work bolder; I had observed, drawn from and thought about a variety of films, and had used up at least seven rolls of 36-exposure film before I knew my main focus. My methods for what works would turn out successfully were “trial and error”.

I began by documenting where I had travelled, and social situations I would find myself in. I kept a log to keep a note of where I had been and my thoughts at the time. After a talk with tutors, I realized my work was far too broad and it needed a focus to have continuity between each painting. From there, I have focused on the reason I moved to London: the vibrancy of the city. I create loud, messy paintings, and I wanted to link this in with the experience I have had. I began to take photographs embarking on specific journeys around busy areas, most being by foot.

The methods I used for creating the paintings were not far out of my comfort zone, the main variant between each one being the material I was painting onto: either canvas, cardboard or wood. I prefer my paintings’ waxy texture when working on wood, however quite a few of the canvas paintings had been successful. Each painting would consist of composing the photograph(s), surrounding and layering these with oil bar, and then drawing and painting onto acetate to top them off. The resulting painting would be a glimpse of the urban fabric; the gestural abstract paintwork, the use of colours and shapes interact with each other and the sharpness of the photograph, showing human interaction and movement I had come across.

            Influences from other artists have helped shape my work; I feel I have drawn a lot from Merlin James, Dawn Mellor, and Willem De Kooning stylistically.  

            I didn’t refer to my action plan much throughout the project, because I knew in my mind what I would need to do after each step, as well as there being different obstacles that could change specific dates, for instance, if I could only afford so much film to be developed in one week.

            Overall, I have learnt that it’s better to try to focus on a stable idea from a week of thorough research, allowing more time for that idea to develop further, rather than working on broad ideas for a lengthy time. I will improve upon this in later work for the fact that I have grown in confidence and I have a better idea about which of my works turn out more successful. All in all, I’m very proud of my FMP work, it being my strongest collection of work yet, and I cannot wait to grow from this point.