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I am calling my final piece ‘la città increspata’ this is Italian for the rippling city. I wanted Italy to play a part in my end piece as it was my first source of inspiration.

The Rippling city

Dawn Eloise McClung

what I'm trying to communicate

I feel there are so many concepts that have arose from this project, and it is a very personal journey i have gone through with my painting, sometimes i have found myself continually painting and knowing what i am trying to communicate within the artwork but not verbally able to talk about it because it is only through paint that i can truly communicate and somethimges i need to step back and let people respond in their own way.

responding to the environment - the power of the city vs the power of water/nature

therapeutic form for myself and the audience - creating a visual experience

final piece- preparing

i knew the time had come to make my final piece, i made the canvas by hand and through experimentation on smaller scale i knew the style and compositions that were most successful. it took alot of time and patience and comitment to the painting because of its scale. i wanted the painting to be as emmersive as possible so that it is not just a painting but an experience and hopefully when the painting is exhibited people can spend time and feel a sense of peace and joy as they disover the painting as these are the emotions i belive i have injected into it.

development stage 5

i started working with oil paints and noticed such a difference in the rich colour i can achive with the media. i had previously worked on portrait style (rectangle) canvases, but i felt that working on a complete square or series of squares were practically turning out more succesful pieces of art but also the square aspect of the painting reminded me of the windows in my flat and this whole project is about me looking onto glasgow from my flat, so the square shape is like representing what i see when i look out the window almost.

development stage 4

At this stage, i was figuring out backgrounds for my paintings as i have a tendancy to leave alot of the white canvas in the painting, but i wanted to change this, so i was experimenting the best colours and washes to prime the canvas with.

development stage 3

because my paintings were becoming darker...due to my mood i suspect, i felt unhappy and it was winter so the cold dark weather didn't make me feel very inspired. other people in my class had started to notice this too, so i found a way to add colour to my dark paintings. after seeing a rainbow emerging from the buildings in gasgow one day i decided to try incorporate this into my painting and by layering this over one of my dark paintings it made me really encourgaged to paint with colour and with intentional colour rather than just colours of the rainbow.

development stage 2

I had been working with spray paint as I loved the freedom of movement and how easily and swift it is to make unique organic shapes on the canvas. I really liked what the results were but the paintings i was producing were becoming very dark and almost sinister/urban street looking, this but it took me time and observation to realise this so then i made a conscious effort to not use spray paint. so that i could paint and blend to create depth within the painting. it also didn't feel that the painting looked like a water ripple because of the prominent line..however.in my next work I planned to eliminate this and make the painting more of a blended and fuller composition.

development stage 1

at this stage in the project, i was sketching lots, developing observational drawings into organic abstract water ripples. these drawings were not intricate, they are just line drawing sketches for me to look at when painting the final painting.

Concept

put simply, My concept Is about how I am responding to my surroundings, instead of painting Glasgow the way it looks( geometrical ) I have interpreted it in a different way by turning the structures into water ripples, this has been a way of discovering glasgow and a way to stay connected with a source of nature by painting it. and through further research and developing my skills in painting i have discovered many things along the course of this project that have kept me inspired and excited about this concept.

shape

the shapes and compositions of my paintings are abstract forms of glasgows geometoric buildings, i have organically formed them so their shape is unrecognisable and like waterripples on the river ( i studied these forms alot last year in my project looking at the concept of impermanence of venice, so making these forms has become second nature and it is something i love to do as the outcome is so unique and personal)

colour

the colour in my paintings are inspired by the buildings that surround me each day living in glasgow. the colours of blue are brought in to influecne the perception of water to further emphasise that my paintings main inspiration is from rivers and oceans.

Arte Institute presents "Emotional.Landscapes" by Paulo Arraiano. Watch the interview with the artist. Arte Institute Gallery: Visit Paulo Arraiano…

“Seeking society even before the reference “man”. A territory, a body, a drift through flows of energy. Paulo Arraiano's visual work has been focusing on the immaterial territory and its connection with the physical territory – emotional cartographies where the body acts as an extension of nature through a medium based on the motion and fluidity of the connection to the root, trying to bring to the city the energy it tends to forget. In the video Emotional Landscapes, the visual artist's work extends onto the body of performer Diana Coelho, where the detachment for the original work sets off the emotional wandering in a new dialoguing body. The shared journey points to a convergence between urban cartography and the meridians of the human body, in an alignment of premisses for a work of “urban acupuncture”. Points of conflict and blockage, emotional and energetic flows will be sought, which then will be worked in a performative action to be returned to the geographic space.”

http://www.pauloarraiano.com/emotional-landscapes

Inspired by Paulo Arraianos paintings. ‘emotional landscapes’ the artist uses the body/canvas and paint to connect energy from the city into nature(being represented as the body)

i also love the way the artist paints the side of the canvas, this is done because of the large amounts of paint that easily drip off, but within my work to get this flow i need to paint the sides of mine ( i need to keep remembering to do this as i go because its hard to go back and get the same pigments of colour)

the artist here wraps and forms his paint around every object, instead of defining it to the canvas... if I had planned for my canvas to be flat on the wall i had thought of carrying on the paint onto the walls which i feel would create an immersive installation but with the amount of space i have for people to step back and view my work i want there to be a focus as it stands out and holds a presence of importance and authority.

In reference to the image below (tree behind bars) within my painting, the BLUE represents the tree(nature) and the other warm colours(city colours) surrounding represent the bars that suffocate the tree...

Because in this painting I am holding a conversation about what has more power and authority? is the city colours taking over the blue(nature)/pushing it away or is the blue/nature flooding over the city or just fitting into the spaces left by the city?

As i was walking home, i came across this sight... i felt it represented alot of aspects of my concept...

has the man-made city materials built around the nature...or has the tree grew up and taken over the city??

it to me is a very sad image of a tree being trapped and constrained by the city. the city is changing the trees ways of growing.

the black colours ...very geometric are made organic by the tree...as it moulds them...they mould eachother relating to my concept as i have been trying to portray the city and nature as one in my painings. although i struggle to see this as an image of harmony...this is more how i felt at the start of this project that the city was dark and suffocating so i painted dark colours and geometric forms.

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