Payne's grey @aaronhutchins - Tumblr Blog

Summary

The primary concerns of the project are memory and my remembered experience of adolescence. By engaging with words that we use to describe the fidelity of our remembered past I have constructed ways to display the internalised image of memory. Through this depiction of memory, I have coupled it with emotive gesture and colour to convey the subjective emotional trauma involved with adolescence. I have engaged with visual devices such as the blurring and streaking to communicate the imprecision of memory as well as the delicate edge of remembering and oblivion. These devices also reference the cinematographic qualities of the source movie Kids. The subsequent flattening of the pictorial plan, that is a result of the blurring, makes it impossible for the viewer to penetrate the pictorial plane. The subsequent exclusion that is forced upon the viewer references the internalised worlds that teenagers inhabit.

The small sized canvasses will be displayed evenly spaced in no specific order, referencing the small fragments of detail within memory. They will be spaced far enough apart as not to read as a linear narrative, however through the proximity of the paintings to each other, read as a larger disjointed narrative of adolescence.

I used this image because the two boys appear quite elongated and lanky and are holding a odd pose. This painting was done in tones of red in a similar fashion to under-painting however the paint was removed rather than painted on to form the painting. The idea was to paint another field of red over the top of this one, which was slightly different in shade.the top layer would obscure the paint underneath and only give a faint hint of what was underneath. It worked however i don't feel it was a very strong work. i think the paint work was a little bit under done and i really didnt have any time left to add the red over the top slowly in multiple layers which would have allowed more control over the final result. However i did it anyway and basically took an educated guess at the amount of paint required within the medium remain semi- transparent.

The final layout for the show was concluded on the floor. I basically pick what i thought were the stronger works. I did have the sequence of paintings sitting of my studio wall prier to the final submission. The three seem to work in close proximity to each other. So for the final submission i kept them together, this also references the way memories are accessed. Sometimes one memory reads into another and another memory is invigorated by the other.

The painting with the teens back turned to the viewer was put onto its own wall because the space separated it from the others (largely different in approach) but also heightened the sense of obliteration of the memory. The wall in fashion, becomes part of the painting as it matches up with the painting. This is what prompted me to include this in the final submission (previously the green and yellow painting was in its place).

The heavily saturated (red, yellow, green) painting was also spaced away from the sequence of three paintings. This was spot lit to also separate it form the others.

I used flood lights to light the other 4 works, which makes the lighting quite intense in comparison to other areas of the gallery (not including chris's work). I was happy with it being like this as it links to the heightened sense of adolescence.

This painting focuses on limited detail rather than just blurring the image i have rendered it so that forms almost mould together. The back ground is limited and only a faint hint of the information is left. I found that the pinks and greens heightens the scene. I moulded the colours from a photo that was shot with infra-red film. I posted a similar image earlier.

This is the image after i had finished rendering it. i have then applied the streaking to the image which gives it a sense of movement. Memories can be quite vivid and strong however still they are consolidated and only the essential information remain. Key features remain, however the city scape is not so clear.

The original intention for this painting was to move the paint later on to make it soft and fuzzy. However there was unforeseen problem with the the dark areas. It contained a considerable amount of ivory black in it and it set faster than i was hoping. The result was paint that couldn't be manipulated later. I finished rendering the painting and decided that if i sprayed a thinned version of oil over the top that would be enough to re-activate the paint so i could then drag the paint across. This worked too well (i put way to much oil on, flooded being the key word). Because of the amount of oil on the surface i had to let it drain off, so i let it run in the same way i wanted to run the brush. I then dragged a soft wide brush down the painting and i was surprised with the result. Normally if u make the paint oil heavy the paint beads after you drag it. In this case the paint had time to fix to the support. This allowed me to drag the paint further across than i could normally. The result is a state rapid movement, a bit like a quick panning shot. In hindsight i wouldn't have rendered the image so well had i known that i was going to blur it so much, as the rendering time is wasted on blurred images.

The resulting blur leaves little detail yet we can still make out the figures.

Examples of the colours and palettes i have used in some of the final work

Trying to work out the colours to use in the painting

This image was heavily saturated and uses the qualities of the green and red to create the tension within the painting. the two teens stand in a awkward position which is what a was looking for within the imagery. The distant background is simplified

Again, with painting i manipulated the colours through photoshop. This started as a test as the grey backgrounds are relativity new to the project.The original image is quite blurred as the figure are moving quickly. The edges are vague in detail and represent the edges of memory or where the detail of the memory loses clarity. the pace of the image has been reproduced through the streaking of the paint which is achieved by dragging the paint with a rake brush (profile like a comb). As i spoke about in my exegesis the dragging of the paint renders the paintings flat which is a key strategy in excluding the viewer from the inner worlds of the teen. I found that the magenta tones along side the pale blues create tension and a sense of anxiety. This is one of the stronger works and went into the final submission.

This painting was a failure, and i painted over it. It resembles coagulated blood which i was not after at all. I didn't mind the top left hand corner and this prompted the approached in the later pink and green painting that ended up in the final install. The paint work in the top left id very basic however you can make out a figure walking into the distance and the shapes of buildings which represents the the consolidation process of memory where the less important information is sent on its way to oblivion.

The image i used for this painting had a group of teens sitting down at a park. The body language of the teens is closed off and yeah are heavily focussed on what is happening with in the group. The viewer is shut off from the discussion as one of the youths has his back turned to us. The viewer can not penetrate the group or even given the opportunity. The colours were edited using photoshop by adjusting the levels and shifting colours to extremes which was causing colours to change and drop out (white area). The colours that remain are almost are intense and bright. The left the areas of white clean to break up the images integrity. The image gradually gets becomes more generalised towards the edges. This painting went into the final show. The white wall almost consumes the painting because of the white that is present in the painting. It lingers in a space that is seemingly dissolving away. The image represents both the gradual dilution of memory through consolidation as well as the intensity of adolescence.

I found that the solid colour grounds appeared quite static (which is not a problem however i wanted to investigate other options). Here i have applied turps with a brush to certain areas to remove some of the paint. I used a rag to removed and blend it so there were no hard edges left from a brush

I was experimenting with grey by combining red and green together adjusting them heavier to the green side and also to the red side of grey. the idea was that the eye would pick up the subtle differences. As an image it might have of worked to represent memory that had faded but because adolescence is a key feature of the project (which is often displayed and referenced through heightened colour) i found that the subject matter was lost. Also i don't think the image itself was very good at communicating the inner worlds of teens, where they remain in a bubble and the outside world is of little concern to them.

After painting the an earlier painting (blue, orange ground) i wanted to apply a strong blur to one of the images. I felt that the scene couldn't have much going on (no fighting, things that would really stick in your memory) and i would brush back and forth with a brush to really obscure the information like it was a memory on the point of oblivion. You can make out that there are figure in the scene however the faces are very obscured. The candy like pink colouring leads to the state of adolescence, sugar high like intensity, of both extreme highs and lows.

This the palette for the grey image. split up into the green heavy side and the red heavy side. with an example of the two sitting in close proximity at the top

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