Chelsea Downey

“What a caterpillar calls the end of the world we call a butterfly.”

[theartsyfartsypart]

END OF TERM SHOWCASE

For the second half of the semester, we worked on 4 different projects.

Colour Wheel and Albers Colour Mixing. This assignment was fun and a great interlude into the second half of the class. I am still in shock over the Albers exercises. I did the 2 appears as 1 (yellow) and 1 appears as 2 (red) on one canvas. I then did the ugly colour combination. My colour wheel came out great and was a great reminder of colour mixing, in my opinion.

Warm and Cool Colour Painting. This painting was fun but also a little unsettling. My original colour scheme wasn’t my favourite. BUT I did realize something just look at the two versions again. The purple Medusa appears farther away than the green Medusa. I don’t think I changed their sizes much but I went from a warmer colour to a cooler colour. I like both version but I think my eyes appreciate the yellow/green Medusa more than the purple Medusa.

Abstract Discordant Painting. This painting didn’t come out how I imaged and that is okay. Discords was easy when it was on a small scale just mixing enough to test the discord quality. Mixing discords on a larger scale is honestly the hardest or one of the harder things we did this semester. Once I got out of my head, this painting was less stressful and I got at least one true discord set of colours.

Reverse Plexi Painting. This is my favourite project from the second half of the class. I honestly finished this painting in less than 24 hours over the course of 3-4 days. That’s kind of how excited I got. But I would stay up back 1am and it kind of messed up my sleep patterns. I would painting in reverse on plexiglass again but I would have to get a better handle on creating thin lines with paint brushes. (Really struggled to get a good picture of this! After multiple attempts, I think these are the best three that shows the painting the best!)

[chelseadowney]

Holy shit! Your plexi painting is incredible. Love all of the different elements combined here that you tied together so well. Great job on everything ☺️

[chelseadowney]

Final Projects

This class was great! Although I am more for the in person on these types of classes, I do believe this was the best way to collaborate with one another during these circumstances. It was great to virtually work with you all this semester. 

<3 

Here are my projects from the midterm to now:

Color Wheel & Albers Exercises:

Warm/Cool Photo Collage:

Discord Abstract:

Reverse Painting on Plexiglass:

[chelseadowney]

Midterm Projects

Word Contrast Painting

Transparent Oil Painting

Opaque Oil Painting

Glazed Oil Drapery

@annasfall2020painting​

[chelseadowney]

*Reposted to bring to the top

[spicycurrycrab]

Plexi Glass Painting

Soooo... remember the first assignment we did, where we had to pick out favorite vocabulary term? Well I chose Alla Prima. Here's why.

I work well under pressure. My brain goes into panic mode and thats when I get some of my best ideas.

I was inspired by my laptop case, and it got me thinking about sea creatures and such.

So I found some images, provided by my good friend, Google, and did sort of a compilation. Ill see an image and start rearranging it in my mind, adding and taking away things until I'm satisfied. Here's the sketch:

The painting process was very trial-and-error. I probably had to wipe off and restart about 3 times before I figured out what worked. I started painting around 9PM and I didn't finish until 1AM. I was very focused and I thoroughly enjoyed the problem-solving I had to do, especially regarding the waves, and making it read well.

I feel as though I identify with the Kraken. This year was so... crazy to say the least but surprisingly enough it has awoken a determination in me to be the best I can be, and to devour anything that's blocking my path!!! Muahahauaaaa

[chelseadowney]

YESSSS, This looks amazing! You did so good on the colors and I love the overall composition. Stunning!

[chelseadowney]

Alice In Wonderland: Through the Plexiglass

And she is complete. 

This was a fun and very interesting project. Learning to paint in reverse was much more of a challenge than I thought it would be. I chose Alice because I when thinking of plexiglass, I kept thing about Alice In Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass and I thought about how I could incorporate her with how we have been using plexiglass during the pandemic. I painted the outside of the keyhole to make it look like the outdoors as if she is locked on the inside of the keyhole to depict the quarantine situation. 

I am showing the first image because I caught the reflection of the outdoors and behind the painting is the inside of my house, so it goes with the theme. 

The second image just has a white poster board behind it so you can’t really see the transparency or any reflection of light making it appear less glossy.

[chelseadowney]

Just some progress made on my plexi painting. Goal is to have it complete by today...

Sketch on the left which I used as my guide🦕 the reversed painting on the right... Almost there

[kechengbart]

The main objectc is a giraffe. As you can see the shadow and the lighting shapes are the discord colors between yellow and brown, When I finished that, I found it is kind of boring for the main colors is yellow and brown. I want the darker and cooler to make a contrast. Therefore, I use blue. However, I forget to uses discord in blue. In conclusion, I am satisfied with this.  

[chelseadowney]

Absolutely love this! I would totally hang it in my house

[chelseadowney]

Alice In Wonderland: Through the Plexiglass thoughts

So, while pondering on many different ideas about this plexiglass painting, there was one idea that was consistent. I kept thinking about “Alice In Wonderland; Through The Looking Glass”. So I am rolling with that idea because Through the Looking Glass is an exploration of the underlying rules that govern this world. I thought this was fitting with today and my personal struggles that I have overcome during the pandemic and recent election. 

I am thinking of including Alice inside of a keyhole wearing a mask and with her other hand that is not shown here, she will be spraying Lysol or something... Then I will use a spray bottle to create a sprayed plexiglass effect with the paint like the image below...

[chelseadowney]

Research Post: Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude

This week, I decided to do research on an artist that caught my attention because of his protest against our current political leader. Earlier this year, Christo died at the age of 84 from natural causes, but before his soul left his body, he made a huge political statement. 

Christo Vladimirov Javacheff (1935–2020) and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (1935–2009), known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, were artists noted for their large-scale, site-specific environmental installations, often large landmarks and landscape elements wrapped in fabric, including the Wrapped Reichstag, The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Running Fence in California, and The Gates in New York City's Central Park. 

About 3 years ago, in 2017 Christo walked away from an art project titled “Over the River,” that he was working on because the terrain was federally owned and he refused to support the landlord who was Donald J. Trump. According to the New York Times, 

His decision is by far the most visible — and costly — protest of the new administration from within the art world, whose dependence on ultra-wealthy and sometimes politically conservative collectors has tended to inhibit galleries, museums and artists from the kind of full-throated public disavowal of Mr. Trump expressed by some other segments of the creative world.

I chose Christo as a comparison artist to the 1960′s because he lived through the 60′s and was making art the entire time. His final decision in the last few years of his life to refuse what to do what he loved because it did not support his views made a vital impact on how I view the meaning of art. 

Christo and Jeanne-Claude The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris, 1975-85 Photo: Wolfgang Volz

Resources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/arts/design/christo-protest-donald-trump-colorado-artwork.html?_r=0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christo_and_Jeanne-Claude#Christo

[chelseadowney]

Discord Painting Complete

So, the weirdest thing happened after I turned this painting black and white... It no long had the same shade. I am not sure if it is because I did something wrong while mixing the discords, but originally they did have the same tone, or if it is the contrast on how it is painted. 

[vivian-aps]

I am terrified to paint on it I don't want to mess it up 😭😭

[chelseadowney]

This is coming out great! I wouldn’t be so scared to paint because you can fix it. I think you got the hard part down. Keep it up girl!

[orisegbubenefall2020painting]

Introduction to Painting Week 13: Masking Technique- Opaque colour- Discord

Masking

Discord

Final Painting

This week we had to complete a discord painting using the masking technique. The colors I chose for my discord were dark green and dark blue. I created my painting after following the steps from the week 13 slideshow. The four coats of gesso took about two hours to dry because I made sure to cover the entire surface of my canvas paper. The discord colors were easy to apply but I used a lot of pthalo blue and cadmium yellow deep hue. When I had to apply masking tape to each square, that process took fifteen minutes. Also, when I had to paint each square pthalo blue that took thirty minutes because I made sure not to add too much paint to avoid bleeding edges. Painting the hearts and circles took thirty minutes. One change that I made was making my hearts close together instead of having a small amount of space in between them. That was one of the challenges I faced because I wanted to meet Monday's deadline. This assignment was fun to create and took me 11 hours to complete. I look forward to next week's assignment.

[chelseadowney]

Looking good! Yeah, I can see the time you put in it and was well worth it. :)

[chelseadowney]

Discord Painting Base Coat

Applying the base. I found that the medium did help spread the paint enough so water was not really needed. Totally wish I had a better way to store the paint though because it was a bitch to get it out of a sandwich baggie lol.

[singh-push]

These are the colors that I mixed and created to make my discords. I used the ultramarine blue, the darker yellow and the red that was close to it on the color wheel. I had to add a lot of white to both the blue and red to create a color that would be similar to the yellow when converted to black and white. I took me numerous tries and a lot of failed mixes to create these colors so I hope I did it correctly

[chelseadowney]

Wow, can’t believe you got 3 of the same. That must have took a lot of time and messiness haha. The colors look great together too 

[chelseadowney]

And where there is discord, I may bring harmony...

It took a long time to mix, the most difficult part was settling on the right amount of paint to save for the painting itself, but I finally got it down so the colors look the same in black and white 😊

[chelseadowney]

Warm/Cool Painting Collage

And it is complete. 

This was a fun assignment. 

It took a lot of work on the hanging jeans but when it came to the shirt, I have to say that I used some of the techniques we learned from our drapery assignment but in acrylic so that was interesting.

[chelseadowney]

Paper Collage