portraiture and figurative project..

I've started a new project at the moment and am unsure of where I am going with it, these are the photographs up in my studio at the minute as I'm thinking I want to deal with the elderly in this project. Hopefully they'll inspire me tomorrow. I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Shauna x

more paintings..

These painting I displayed mostly together because I felt they complimented each other. I used Anselm kiefer as my main influence throughout my project. I wanted to recreate something similar to his without the darkness of his paintings. I used a varied range of materials such as rice, dirt, cif, cumin, all spice, pepper, chilli powder, stones, soup mix, plaster, tissue paper, yacht varnish, emulsion, coffee, sugar and plant seed..

 They're all done on wood panels..

Please let me know what you think

Shauna x

paintings..

I  decided to use the materials I'd been experimenting with in my sketchbook in some paintings, mainly painted on panel..

Above, and below right: I used white emulsion, tissue, blueberries, strawberries, coffee, cumin, water,all spice, dirt, and cif.

Experimental piece in sketchbook: I used curtain lining, paint, dyed latex, steel wool, and pva glue.

Below left: I used dirt, coffee, pepper, white household paint, cumin, all spice and water.

Close up of the experimental piece below, stones, rice, soup mix, latex, and white emulsion on brown paper. I like that the weight of the materials ripped a hole in the light weight, fragile brown paper.

Close up of the first painting, blueberries, coffee and all spice are visible.

Full shot of above photograph. (again, soup mix, stones, rice, latex, white emulsion)

Close up of painting with dirt, coffee, pepper, all spice, cumin and soup mix. Dirt and grains are visible.

Different angle on the experimental sketchbook piece seen above...

Please let me know what you think....

dirt mania!

I feel these pieces work well as a duo, I stained the tea towel heavily with watered down coffee and interior varnish, the effect of which I love. The piece on the right is died latex with raison wheat cereal and sugar crushed into it. I think they compliment each other well, Feel free to let me know what you think...

experimenting with materials.

I continued on playing around with various materials...feel free to comment :)

Died latex, navy/dark green fabric and Steel wool.

Closer look..

Masking tape, sheet of asitate, coffee and wanter..

I love how rich, and bubbly the coffee grains dried.

Close up of an experimental piece using grey paint, tissue, coal and pva glue...

More sketch book stuff...

Right: household emulsion and cif. Left: the effect of closing the page when it's still wet.

Right: white household emulsion, dirt embedded into it, and grass. Left: Yet again the effect, which I prefer. 

The effect of tinted wax being dripped onto the page then picked off.

Cream household paint and sugar.

Left: coffee grains, used tea bag, dirt and water. Right: Cling film, coffee, dirt, and chilli powder.  

When we initially started the project, we explored photography. The pictures I took tended to focus on a gritty, dirty urban environment . I'm currently living in Limerick city which meant my source was easy to come by. I liked the idea of the trodden ground engrained with dirt, rubbish and its daily wear and tear so decided to replicate this gritty filth in my paintings. These are some sketches that I worked on to create such an effect. 

I also decided, as this project was all about materialisation I'd pick materials that were accessible (anything i had to hand), I decided to throw in some ingredients I found in my cupboard, cause food's rarely far from my thoughts :)

This is latex, sugar, raison wheat cereal and coffee.

This is a melted plastic bag i experimented with, and coffee stain.

This is white emulsion, cif, cumin and coffee.

Chilli powder, emulsion, coffee, peat moss and pepper.

the stain that seeped through from cif, white emulsion, grass and dirt which i thought was more interesting than the original.

Pepper, used tea bag, and dirt.