Celebration of the Feminine

Notes from the tutorial today with Sarah, Ian and Paul.
Silkscreen printing Theresa May (now with gorilla head - Guerrilla Girls ref.) and also an anonymous body wearing underwear for my miniprint examples were not well received. My intention was (and is) to produce a fun and colourful personal commemoration of the female form, rather than a perception that my work has 'Benny Hill or Carry On film' style undertones. All the creative work I produce is not intended to be superficial or derogatory nor offer a subliminal feminist message but to convey, using drawing and print, my own interpretation of what it is to be a female. 

The intention for my future work will be to create a series of female portraits, looking at famous and iconic women, created using silkscreen, relief print and digitally with my drawing skills as the thread running through the work. My reference will include Master drawings (Italian Renaissance) and a combination of vibrant colour and pattern expressing female forms in a looser, more energetic manner - Matisse, Schiele, Klimt etc.


" We use humor to prove that feminists can be funny… We could be anyone; we are everywhere".


Taken from 'The Guerrilla Girls’ Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art'. 1998

MINI PRINT MAYHEM

DEADLINE 17TH NOVEMBER

Theresa. May I ?

My initial thoughts were to develop the links I've already made with  'Renaissance' and beyond' - a series of digital feminine experimental portraits (see my website www.clarewyattart.com). 

I was attempting to produce a piece of work that combined new Prime Minister Theresa May with pieces of my drawn nudes - a female amalgam if you like  - with a series of tiny flags breaking away from the halo of her Britishness, indicating 'Brexit'. 

However, I dislike the test silkscreen print. The colour palette is limited and the overall design is too precise and formal. This piece feels uncomfortable I want more fluidity and a looser interpretation for a finished print.  Also, I now realise that this design should have been digitally printed, so all the complex overlays would have been printed with precision and avoiding problems with tight registration. The application of a silkscreen keyline as a final layer would have added a more fluid 'Matissey' feel to the design.

My favourite design taken from the series of images I produced incorporate more of my nude drawing and graduated colour. 

GIF-Tastic 

The definition of a GIF is "a lossless format for image files that supports both animated and static images". Lossless? Here are my GIFs, experimenting with layers and timelines. These were created using scanned hand drawn images in Photoshop. My examples are Linda, Little Lady and Longfellow.

RWA ONLINE SUBMISSION AUTUMN EXHIBITION 2016

" I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade... And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party. 

"Ron White - comedian


Well, I actually love this painting - it's got glitter, buttons and everything!! Unfortunately, it appears I am the only one who does. Vodka anyone? 

NOT SELECTED FOR RWA OPEN SUBMISSIONS

FRENCHAY CAMPUS LIBRARY DESIGN COMPETITION

September 2016  Theme: Community

Here is my design for the Frenchay Campus Competition (the deadline for which was August 26th). It was created in Photoshop and Illustrator.  Obviously I didn't win but my creative work was commended by the panel both for its concept and the use of their chosen colour palette. Close but no cigar!

My Design for the UWE Library Competition

INSTANT Publication Workshop

Mark Pawson

The assembled group (a mixture of MA students, past and present, artists and children) were shown an eclectic range of Mark Pawson publications and badges which were made from newsprint, envelopes, found ephemera, fabric and fashion posters, covering a diversity of subjects - plugs, household bills, weather conditions, Japanese fashion etc etc. These designs were printed, repeated, and printed into patterns which were imaginative and highly original.

Mark uses a range of techniques including photocopying, silkscreen printing,  rubber stamping and repetitive haiku-dic style typography to elevate the simplistic pamphlet, leaflet and 'zine' to iconic book status. He also produces packaged badges combining silkscreen print again with found imagery, fabric and kitch logo design. 

Embarking on this workshop at Spike, I had imagined we too would make use of photocopiers, rubber stamps, logos, type, random imagery etc.to make exciting artwork which could be used for publication and we did create our own books, using a range of papers which were folded and bound by stapling and stitching techniques, but these were empty. Unfortunately, here there were no rubber stamps, photocopiers and logos; with our resulting blank paged books having value, but disappointing me overall as I had already been shown most of these book making techniques during my MA at UWE. 

In spite of this, Mark had made and shown us some ingenious book and badge designs and listening to an artist who was passionate about his creations using 'random stuff' collected from the minutae of daily life was imaginative and inspiring.

Mark Pawson
Spike Island
August 2016

Leonardo, Leiter and Lempicka

August 2016

The female form (see 'the human body is the best work of art' Blog - April 2016) is the starting point for the next slice of my creative pie. This 'feminine' theme is relevant as life drawing has always been a large part of my work, so using my sketches, more refined coloured chalk and charcoal images and nude projections as patterns, to create something original makes perfect sense. 

For me, women are an interesting subject to work from, are more pleasing to look at and I am a woman so this 'body' of work (see what i did there) will relate with relevance to me and how I wish to be 'interpreted creatively'. Women have curves, layers and overlaps which repeat and evolve, whereas men are straight, more angular and less rounded.  

Initially looking at the 'top ten' most 'popular' artists in Western culture, I have started choosing the 'recognisable' imagery containing a female subject (which may or may not be the obvious focus in the work). I am hoping that from these choices there will begin a series of digital and printed interpretations of these images. The female subject is the only commonality shared but the chosen images will be ones that are personally inspirational, multi-faceted and beautiful, taken from the Renaissance and beyond.

The intention is to produce a series of outcomes, each containing a part of or all of one 'popular' painting; highlighting aspects of colour, symbolism, female forms which are depicted within and combining repetitive drawn patterns, life drawings and photographic collage to exaggerate the feminine themes. Miss Bugs style and Urban Art has been and will continue to be another inspiration for this. My new work will be interpreted both traditionally, as silkscreen prints and also manipulated digitally, printed on fabric and paper.

Perhaps finding my own 'mythic themes' may be the conclusion for these feminine images, however, for now, I am working with sketches, models, colour and curvaceous forms that have potential, but are constantly shifting and layered like Donald Trump's hair.