Evaluation of my project.

My project started as a closer look at elements of the street in the Stokes Croft area of Bristol, however during the project my work began to revolve around the theme of found texture within a city setting. I’ve looked at this within my sketch book by taking rubbings and photographs of textures on the streets of Bristol, I developed my sketchbook work further through painting and drawing.

I feel like looking at simply textural and abstracted elements of my life in the city helped me to free up my working style as I wasn’t trying to be realistic or work to the conventional appearance of the city. The first time I adopted this looser approach was with this painting; I started it without a plan, it was simply to play with mark making with paint, I then drew into it with two one-line portrait drawings taken from my sketch book. I still feel like this could be worked further into to add more depth, however it totally changed my approach to creating a piece, I no longer feel like I have to have a completed idea behind what do, which takes a lot of pressure away from starting fresh pieces.

I’m feeling much more confident within my work in this project; and have managed to find more focus and motivation to this term. My sketchbook has been integral to keeping my work moving forward as it tracks my development of my journey from looking at Stokes Croft; to my new-found interest in Texture within a city environment.

I think this abstract landscape painting is one of my favourite pieces I produced during the project. The lines and dots in the painting relate to patterns and textures I found all over the city. The leading part of the painting is the white lines at the top of the frame which are a representation of the bending bridge over the river in Castle Park. The background colours of green and blue are to symbolise the river, the river is relevant to me because it reminds me of home in Devon, and homesickness that I’ve been feeling while living in the city.

I found the painting workshop with Julian very helpful to the development of my work as it pushed me to experiment further with the application of paint. It also provided me plenty of artists to be influenced by! I especially drew influence from Zebedee Jones’ generous application of paints to create texture, Robert Rymans use of the colour white to show how texture alone can give work meaning. I also really enjoyed looking at the work of Johnathan Lasker, and his use of scribbled lines and colour to create structure in within his pieces.

In reflection on what I’ve done so far, I don’t feel like this project is over, as there are so many more approaches to representing abstract landscapes and texture that I would like to experiment with. However overall, I feel positively around the progress I’ve made in during the project, as being able to adopt a loose approach will probably change my creative process forever.