Fiona Stapleton

First Year LSAD

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Movement

For this project I explored the theme of flight and migration through the mediums of painting, print and sculpture.

I focused a lot on birds, especially swallows and researched a lot about their migration to Ireland every year and the cultural significance of these birds. I also brought in the Irish landscape and nature, with the movement of water in rivers.

Swallow migration has been effected by global warming and a rise in temperature, last winter being one of the first in which the swallows did not travel back to Africa since the weather was so mild. I found this topic to be quite interesting as such a change may soon get rid of their migration all together.

I completed numerous painting workshops and created a large scale swallow painting, inspired by one that visits our home every year. With print I created screen prints, lino and relief prints with the help of the tutors and inspiration from different artists. For sculpture and combined media I created large origami birds and well as a mixed collage piece.

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Ideas development notebook

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Finished Sculpture Piece

I hung up a number of the origami birds I made onto a small metal frame with string. I wanted to hang them outside allowing the breeze to create movement. I think I chose a bit too windy of a day as it was a struggle to get them not to tangle up. I like how they came alive outside, and the sounds of birds in the background add to the atmosphere.

I did a lot of research on how and why birds flock which I found very interesting, mostly it is for a sense of safety and security in numbers. Some birds will start to swarm together when it is their time to migrate to a different country.

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Beginning of origami sculpture piece

I want to try capture the movement of flocking birds with this piece. I find the grouping of these birds to be fascinating, I am using paper as the material it is very light and will be easily moved by air.

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Screen Printing

I found the screen printing workshop to be very informative and learned a lot more about the different ways to print, for this piece I used a reference image of the Clare Glens waterfall. I wanted to capture the natural landscape and flow of the water in a more graphic design. Again i was very inspired by the Irish landscape and the beauty in the natural world.

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Finished Lino Print

For this print I wanted to showcase the significance of the Swallow in irish culture, the bird is seen in a lot of Irish art and music. One song in particular titled “The Swallowtail Jig” an Irish folk song reminds me of growing up in a traditional Irish household, the song is often played at Fleadh Cheoils which I used to go to with my cousins nearly every year.

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Artist research - Sipho Mabona

I was really interested in the art of origami for my sculpture work and did a lot of research into contemporary origami, one artist I found very interesting was Sipho Mabona. He takes the art of origami in a more contemporary way instead of it just being a craft.

This piece titled “The plague” conveys a swarm of locusts made completely out of dollar bills. His use of different materials is something I found quite playful. The intent behind this is show how money is a plague on our humanity, i found the meaning behind this quite impactful.

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Video of all the sketches I did from Mondays workshop with Eoin

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Lino Cutting

I started two lino cuttings, again going with my theme of migration of birds and the natural environment that surrounds them. I finished cutting these yesterday so I am looking forward to see how they turn out once they’re printed. I was inspired heavily by Jim dine’s prints of Crows for this piece.

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Life drawing workshop

On Mondays workshop with Eoin, we did a lot of thirty second life drawings using a model. He switched poses every few seconds so we were able to create a lot of movement in the sketches. It was more about the gesture of the figure rather than a more detailed sketch. We also completed a few ten minute sketches which I think I prefer to the shorter timed poses as I got a bit more time to focus in on the proportions.

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More Swallow Prints

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Artist research - David Lilburn

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Artist research - Jim Dine

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Mixed Media piece

I wanted to use the scraps from my prints to create a collage piece. I started this using watercolours and painting a river landscape, taking inspiration from a photo I had taken of the river where I live. For my project I wanted to incorporate the movement of the river and nature along with the flight of the birds above. I added the scrap fabric I had leftover from printing as well as a few fabric flowers. I then added details with pens and markers. I love how this piece turned out and really like the different textures in it.

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Print Workshop

I did the print workshop in which we printed with found materials, I wanted to incorporate the movement of birds and made stencils of swallows out of cardboard to use in my prints. I used fabric and dried leaves to create a background and printed over them with the birds. I really enjoyed learning this technique of printing.

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Finished painting

I finally finished my swallow painting yesterday, I used acrylic paint and markers to add some details. When I finished I ended up cropping the page a bit as I didn’t like how uneven the paper was when I first cut it and I think it made the piece look a lot more put together. I’m happy with how the birds chest feathers look, I spent a lot of time colour matching with the photograph I took to get the different tones right.

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Beginning of Painting

I found inspiration from a photograph I had taken of a swallow that used to sit on the wind chimes at our front door at home every evening. It would come back every day without fail. I decided to research swallows more as I find them to be very elegant birds and fascinate me. Swallows migrate to Africa during winter but always come back to the same next when they come back to Ireland. The massive trip they take twice a year just to come back to the same place is an idea I really loved.