Category: FMP Year 2

Over Easter my experiments and explorations have become much more focussed, as I have now gained a much clearer idea of what I would like to produce through this body of work. Focussing on my theme reflection, I have been drawing and working primarily in paint this week, on compositions reflecting my surroundings, and feelings in my surroundings, working towards creating a painting on a broad based reflection of my mind.

This study is a slightly distorted version of my room and reflects inner dark feelings that feel don’t always show on the outside. The portrait of myself dressing is a reflection of myself feeling fragile where the lines dragging accross the figure allude to how I feel so trapped and attached to my room at present. The larger portrait reflects the version of myself that isn’t so put together and often appears as a sort of character in my head, the dark angry part, that I feel looming my head from time to time. I like the way many elements of the drawing look as though they are lying flat on top of the rest, it lends the composition a sort of chaos and broken structure that represents the sort visuals I see when I close my eyes.

The light shining through my curtains one morning created a sort of airy atmosphere throughout my room and so I made these studies, from life, attempting to capture that light. I was also experimenting with oil paint and trying out different glazes, so although I admit these are not my most rendered works, in creating them I learnt lots about the medium and so they are all together very useful.

I looked some more at works by Brigitta Kocsi, I appreciae the way she layers her colours and directs her strokes in certain ways to suggest the shape of rooms, while also maintaining a sort of jagged, broken structure to her paintings- like I wish to include in mine. I began making studies from life of my own room attempting to include some of Kocsis’s techniques.

I ventured off into some new waters through these studies, as they’re almost abstract- like , and very different to much of my other stuff. I worked on these from life, which I find much more thrilling than working from photographs especially when trying to distort/ enlarge elements for seeing the real thing helps me visualise these distortions and I find I’m able to draw, often not looking at the paper but instead, following the real object with my eye , while allowing the pencil/ brush to move along the paper – I find I get such interesting results. I slowly built up layers and marks, starting first with light washes of ink to loosely plot out the elements. I am not so fond of how they appear alone, but perhaps if I were to include sections like this in a painting, alongside more detailed, rendered, parts I would have a strong composition.

This is another study of my room, but this time in oil paint, based on the abstract-like versions I produced, shown above. Painting on a piece of tinted grey, gesso primed paper, I used turpentine as a thinner, and was again, attempting to explore how colours and glazes work on top of one another. I still have a lot to grapple and learn with oil paints but I am most definitely enjoying the process

Above are some words that come to mind while I reflected over a roll and so I wrote them down. I am unsure yet, whether I wish to include writing in my paintings but I wrote them down nevertheless, for they prompt ideas.

Above is another very quick sketch I made from life right after waking up, I am fascinated, lately, in the way my duvet scrumples and by the way my curtains hang.

In developing my studies a little more, I came up with this composition idea which I may very well use to inform my final painting lots. I like the way the elements are piled together in such a way that they almost look, along with the wobbly lines as though they will collapse at any moment. I am beginning to think I may work in mixed media for my final piece for I am able to work in such a flow while using mixed media, and I find different mediums support each other while creating an eye catching terrain. The rug is inspired by a rug from my childhood, my childhood being something I often reflect on and think about.

This is another composition idea I drew, mostly from life from the mirror. The background features younger versions of myself, as quite often, while reflecting on myself I think back to my younger self, and I wonder what little Aisha thinks of the older Aisha I have become. I feel, sometimes that she is watching me. I think including different versions of myself in the composition lends the piece a narrative, and much more depth and so I want to explore this a little more. The swirly smoke is inspired by the way John Byrne paints smoke:

These studies were exploring different techniques, the top concentrating on light and dark across the face and a way for me to get back into the flow of painting with acrylic. In the bottom study I was attempting for an almost translucent drawing, as though it’s a literal reflection in a mirror, and was influenced by the image below. I need to try the bottom study again for I can do better, the colour and line work is too bold for it to appear reflection-like.

After last weeks exploration and idea generation I realised I was drawing lots from my surroundings. And, seeing as I have been spending so much time in my own company and thoughts lately, due to lockdown, I have settled for the theme ‘reflection’ for my FMP. I will explore reflection both literally but also through the means of self-reflection and through my reflective thoughts. I wish to somehow explore and visually express my mind through my work, and through a sort of narrative. I read some interesting essays on a website called ‘Every Painter Paints Himself’ and this one specifically discusses mirrors/ reflections as a recurring theme found in many great paintings : https://www.everypainterpaintshimself.com/theme/mirrors. This gave me some food for thought and so this week I began thinking a little more complexly about the subject matter and elements I should perhaps like to work with, also prompted by the artists whom I have been researching.

This was a spur of the moment sketch I produced after coming to the realisation I would use ‘reflection’ as my theme. I jotted down quickly, some specific ideas I could potentially use for a painting composition. As you can see on the left, I redraw the scene I drew from my window last week, as well as some mirrors and various versions of myself, each a sort of different character of myself reflecting different mindsets and feelings I come to find myself engulfed in lately. I purposefully attempted to make the elements overlap as I wish to express business of the visual reflections and imagery that runs through my mind. I feel cabin fevered and trapped in my room, seen as I am forced to spend so much time in here at the moment. When I close my eyes I often see objects from my room that I am constantly surrounded by, and so I tried to represent that here, which I continued to develop in the drawing below also.

Within this study, a development o the drawing above, I was inspired by the painting below, by Brigitta Kocsis. I am drawn to the way she layers and merges the room together through layers of paint yet still succeeds in suggesting space and perspective . I also like the comparison of the detail in the portrait and in the patterns on the fabric compared to the more suggestive strokes. The soft, sensitive colours that are beginning to emerge through this drawing are inspired by the renaissance styled paintings I have been looking at, which are shown below, but also I think I’m choosing colours that most suit my mind at present; soft, airy, fragile colours are what I am finding myself drawn to using as of late. I will develop this drawing and make more studies of my own, in paint and attempt to layer paint in a similar way for I should like to achieve a similar affect in my own work.

This snippet of a large painting, which I sketched down in my drawing above, prompted me to start thinking about potentially including a literal but thought provoking element symbolising ‘reflection’, such as the shell, which perhaps I could replace for an oyster or some other symbol, within my composition, and I like the colours and delicacy of the piece for it creates a dreamy, contemplative atmosphere.

This piece too, influenced my pastel and pencil drawing above through its green and pastel pinks alongside one another, as well as the influencing my lines through the range Melntyre uses. I find the combination of very simplistically painted/ drawn lines alongside detailed areas of painting, interesting on the eye, and the vigour of quick lines alongside detail lends the piece energy. In painting / drawing this way I feel I am able to be quite expressive.

Above is another study continues on from the previous, again inspired lots by Ally Melntyre’s piece, in which I’m further exploring things from my surroundings and attempting to play with their proportions against one another. I quite like the effect of the spray paint along with the thin lines of pencil and pastel, I may experiment more with using spray paint.

I found I wanted, now, to make a more refined version of a portrait reflecting my current self to fit in my loose sketches of my room, which allowed me to visualise composition ideas a little more by laying them out alongside all my other studies. I stumbled upon this portrait below, painted by Picasso and I instantly found myself craving to work in blue for it expresses a sort of solitude that I relate to at present.

I first made the sketch of myself, which, while making the words ‘hold on’ came to my mind as I feel at the moment I can see a strong version of myself growing but I am not quite there yet. I see her in my mind, it’s as though I’m grasping her but she’s just a meter ahead and so upon reflecting on this situation I’m feeling, I find my mind telling myself to ‘hold on’ to her and to keep her in sight, for eventually I will get there and become the strongest and most grounded version of myself.

Next, I developed my drawing into a ink/watercolour painting, using a similar pallet to Picasso’s portrait, I am quite pleased with it for the darkened areas support and draw attention to the lighter areas, while I have also managed to lend the study some life and shape, compared to the oil version I attempted on the right, which appears a little too flat for my liking along with the colours muddying into one another a little to much. I am still learning to work with oils and need to experiment a lot more with them, for I am far less familiar with them than I am inks.

I have been watching interviews of the Scottish painter and playwright, John Byrne lots recently and these two self portraits of his, with his cat, really capture my attention, they come across so expressive. He seems to capture the thoughts and feelings he and the cat share. I admire also, the jagged lines he uses, they certainly bring forth the image very quickly.

When reflecting on my childhood, very precious to me, was my cat called Charlie. Her and I were ever so close, wherever I went she would follow me, whether it in the garden in the house, we were always side by side and she would even lay alongside me in my cot. I often think of her and speak to her in my mind from time to time when I am lonely for I think she is listening to me somewhere. I drew her multiple times from photographs I have of her and then I painted version from my drawings, I find I create much looser and expressive paintings when painting from my own drawings as opposed to from the photograph. I used very thin washes of oil paint, diluted with white spirit, on cartridge paper primed with gesso. I enjoyed working in thin washes for I was able to sort of merge the stripes of her fur subtly. I tried to be very deliberate with my brush strokes, especially in the coloured study, changing which direction I made my marks in order to mimic her fur. I like the way the brush marks show in using thin washes, I notice John Byrne’s cats detail brush strokes and so I bore this in mind while trying these.

As I didn’t quite know what direction go in, or subject matter I wished to explore for my FMP yet, I began by drawing from my imagination and from observation. Proceeding my last project, for which I worked primarily in monochrome , I felt an urge to use strong colour in my drawings, which was also brought on by my going back and looking at one of my favourited artists, Jean Michele Basquiat.

I am drawn to the works of Bryant Giles and Loribelle Spirovski, for I am fascinated by their exploration of space and their overlapping of objects, lines and people. Presently I find my mind to be busy and wish to somejow represent this, it would be an idea to do this in a similar way to Spirovski and Giles. I also like the way both artists leave parts of their drawings and paintings unfinished, and so I produced my own study below, inspired by theirs, using my room and my mind as my muse.

Before commencing my study inspired by Spirovski and Giles, I made the sketches of my room shown in the image above from life, trying to draw in a deliberately and delicately, in a similar way to the study I made of the view down below from my window. I enjoyed drawing in this careful manner, I find it extremely calming, and drawing constructively as opposed to very suggestively (which I do a lot) helps me visualise my ideas more clearly as sometimes I get a little lost and confused if all my drawings are all loose.

For this study, inspired by Spirovski and Giles, I tried to distort parts of my room by enlarging some objects while making others smaller. I like the delicacy of the line drawing alongside the thick paint and areas of pastel, but I would like to keep working with colour and find my way with it a little more for the colours I used here clash a little too much for my liking.

The two drawings above are quick self portrait sketches I made prompted by my disaster with a printer and the screwed up paper I found myself surrounded by. I may implement these into a larger study later on.

The stance I drew in my study above along with the colours I used, was inspired by this painting by Lisa Wright, whose work captured me for the figures seem to be almost cowering in fear, an all round powerful piece that I intend to look at some more and perhaps borrow more from, as my body of work progresses.