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This is my first lot of ceramics from the kiln. I’ve continued to paint and draw on these as planned. I decided to draw a long blue line across the bottom to accentuate the width, but mainly to represent a river, lake, or other water source adjacent to the mountain.
After I painted them in a light green and blue underglaze, I don’t think they match well against the terracotta colour, and probably would have been better with just a complementary colour glaze such as the one below. We’ll see how they turn out, but will make good experimentation regardless!
This is the piece I definitely want in the exhibition. I really like the tactile quality from the first firing. I think it has character! I’ve drawn on colourful details with my underglaze crayons. I didn’t want to colour the entire piece in, instead selected areas, to suggest the idea of a hazy recalling.
Dream Recollection
‘Trying to remember and describe that landscape, but what did it look like?’. Your brain pieces the jigsaw together, but perhaps mistakes two different landscapes, and hence a new one is created of your own experiences. This is where the excitement lies for me, the fusion of actuality and experience, which builds a real landscape but with even more character.
This piece is being glazed with turquoise blue, similar to this pot, which I found online.
- May 24, 2024
This post is a personal insight, explaining why I chose this subject for my project. As I keep painting, drawing, and creating, I mentally keep harking back to the same original inspiration, my rural youth, travelling, and playing video games that are built within natural landscapes, maps, or platforms. I have touched upon the deeper contexts such as video game graphics, but I want to explain on a basic level what these so inspiring to me.
Video games were my escape growing up, when I struggled with friendships or conversation, a major introvert, and always believed I was the 'weird' friend. This was my place to explore and experience digital worlds through characters who were capable, developed, or just silly like me!
The screenshots below are from some of the many games I was lucky to play. I got lost in a variety of representational, and fantastical worlds, urban, rural, domestic, or otherworldly.
2000's Video Games
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Underworld. 2008. PS2 [Game]. London, UK: Eidos Interactive.
James Bond 007: From Russia with Love. 2005. PS2 [Game]. Redwood, CA: Electronic Arts.
Super Farm. 2003. PS2 [Game]. Bordeaux, France: Asobo Studio.
Mashed. 2004. PS2 [Game]. London, UK. Empire Interactive.
Star Wars: Battlefront. 2004. PS2 [Game]. San Francisco, CA: LucasArts.
Professor Layton and the Curious Village. 2007. Nintendo DS [Game]. Fukuoka, Japan: Level-5.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Legend. 2006. PS2 [Game]. London, UK: Eidos Interactive.
Conversely, away from a screen indoors, I have been lucky to travel abroad during my teenage years. Visiting these places at a young age gave me a lust to travel and see even more. I think this heightened my sense of adventure from a child, and only kept growing. I chose film camera as this beautifully captures the location and marries it with visual equivalent of recalling an positive memory.
Photos from abroad, 2014-2016
Tallin, Estonia
Copenhagen, Denmark
Los Hervideros, Spain
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Ã…ndalsnes, Norway
Las Palmas, Spain
Together, these environments, digital and physical have made me curious and excited to see new places and cultures, and experience what the world, and fantasy worlds, have to offer, and their potential for exploration, and physical or natural construction.
- May 23, 2024
I asked my fellow artists for feedback on the work I've been making. Before I go further, I would like to know if they are visually reflective of my subject, and that they connect in some way with the viewer. I presented the following questions:
Key:
Me/Questions = Black
Responses = Purple
Responses to my canvas’ works
How do you think I could add to my canvas piece?
Artist 1: Both pieces look amazing!
Artist 2: I love that there is a wooden part. I think if you felt you needed to add anything else maybe another wooden panel, but I enjoy the simplicity of the shapes and marks made. Crisp/clean. I really like the colour palette and the wood that creates depth. It would be nice to add more texture like the cartoon Charlie & Lola.
Do you think the colours, shapes, and textures work in unison? What do you think to the composition?
Artist 1: I think the colours work well together, specifically the blues and greens. I enjoy the variety of shapes used.
Artist 2: Each section I feel suits and compliments each other. I mention the above Charlie & Lola for the texture. They use wallpaper and real life patterns in a cartoon. I like the composition and the shapes. I can see they are to do with the landscape, but am I supposed to know what each piece is?
The work is about deconstructing images, particularly landscapes to their raw form, inspired by memory recollection, digital graphics, and collage aesthetics. Do you think this has translated well? Any other thoughts, what is reminds you of?
Artist 3: I love the big block of colours and shapes. I can see houses and roads from your paintings, and I never saw anyone with the same style as you. Your works already have your signature.
Artist 4: I love your works as they make me very happy. They are full of life, joy and energy. You have a distinct visual style that would work well across various surfaces and places.
I received very positive and generous responses. It's great to know that people have a positive reaction to my work, owing to the naïve aesthetic and colourful choices. Artist 2 mentioned if she was supposed to recognise the images. I'm torn by this comment, as the work is interpretive and not true to a place, yet they do pull from different references to make a new landscape altogether. Perhaps in future works, experiment with one reference and see if the viewer can better connect with them.
Paper record of Feedback