Niamh O’Dowd

Year one Painting

[k00321210]

LSAD anew

Beginning this project, I was apprehensive of the brief and tried my best to engage with it. I started by drawing aspects of the college that interested me or intrigued me, but a roadblock was how many straight lines there are (which makes drawing feels quite sterile to me). Once I began to stop thinking and just look, I started to notice the light pouring through the many windows, changing throughout the day. That is what I took to Eoin's workshop and began doing many colour studies of the same window. After a few hiccups, I then decided to take a painting of light, to sit in light and see how it reacts to it. I took a few photos, not quite knowing what I was doing, and I caught a photo of the tutor's hand in front of my piece, which looked very interesting. I then started painting hands in a similar position on to acetate, which I took to the photography studio. There, I had many happy accidents, leading to a lot of experimentation with reflection of colour and light. What really interested me was the interaction between the material I painted on, the paint and where the piece resides in the world. There is something exciting about art that is transient and literally cannot be seen in the same way in two different moments and movements. Although I know that my work has gone a very different direction from LSAD anew, I have gained a lot from these experiments, and I love coming across new techniques that I think have the potential to be developed further in the future. I do not necessarily like the work I have produced, purely because I don't think all of it is in line with what I find aesthetically pleasing, but even the fact that I could let go of that and create work to create work instead of it having to be perfect or pleasing, is something that I am proud of. The one thing I regret most during the process, is not using the photos I produced in studio as reference photos for painting, but it was challenging to have that time. I think this module has given me an understanding of how I want to develop my art practice and a new lens with which to view my work.

[k00321210]

I also painted on tinfoil today (by sticking foil onto white card), first with a more realistic blue and white (across a seam between two tin foil sheets, which I wish I realised how that would not look well) and then a line painting in white.

I took a few photos, both in and out of the photography studio, tilting the foil towards and away from light as well as using reflections of colours.

I think I am ready to round this project off.

[k00321210]

Some of my favourite results from the photography studio this morning.

Honestly, I find these are very interesting but I do not think I necessarily like them. I think the use of reflection as a technique in producing painting is something that interests me but I think these colours are very garish and nearly sickly.

Today I want to keep painting but onto tinfoil and see what I can produce.

[k00321210]

Getting started this morning again

I left this piece hanging for two weeks, and disaster struck, the acetate stuck to the paint on the reflective material. These things happen, and I can still happily experiment with these pieces.

I went down to the photography studio. I wanted to document these pieces using light and seeing what colours I could introduce through reflection.

Initially I just hung up the two pieces, the reflective piece nailed into the wall, and the acetate hand hanging in front on a stand.

Although interesting, none of these results really ticked a box for me. It felt one dimensional.

I was then introduced to this chrome like material which I was drawn to. I really like this, and how it produced so many fragmented colours.

I will put the results in a separate post.

[k00321210]

Uta Barth

Deep Blue Day (Untitled 12.1)

2012

Face mounted inkjet prints in artist frames (Diptych)

95.6 x 209.5cm

Uta Barth

Sundial (07.5)

2007

Face mounted chromogenic prints, 2 panels

76.2 x 146.1 cm

Uta Barth is a German-American photographer (born 1958) who tends to capture perception and “non place”. I can really see this “non place” in Deep Blue Day, something changes when the tones shift but the essence of the feeling is still left there.

What I really love about Barth, is that she captures feelings and creates a near liminal space in her work, (which at the end of the day are all photos of the real world!) Which I think is quite rare to be able to transform the world we live in, into something magical and ethereal. I see a sense of great respect and awe of the world and what it can be in Barth’s work, though it took me a while to understand it. I think another great example of this is her piece “… to walk without destination and to see only to see” (which I was unable to find a photo of online), which contains a little more colour, creating a playfulness and wonder.

Sources:

Uta Barth (b. Berlin) is a contemporary artist whose photographic works are exhibited internationally. She is based in LA and is a recent Ma

[k00321210]

Todays work

Today I painted onto a reflective material, that Paul in Photography gave me. I had been growing sick of the hand so I moved back to the window. I really enjoyed painting onto this material, the ridges were a great tool to measure and keep the lines straight. I do not think the paint looks good on it, when it drys it loses a lot of its saturation.

I then painted a hand onto acetate as well. I do not have the energy to take these to the photography studio today, and they may take a while to dry. But I would like to continue to photograph and mess around with lights and reflections in the photography studio at the next chance.

[k00321210]

Todays work within the photography studio.

Today I repeated the process I started last week of taking photos of the reflections in the material I painted onto.

I am a bit frustrated with the seam in the middle, as it really flattens and warps the piece in an unflattering way but there’s nothing to be done about that.

Today, I found the photos were not doing it for me. It looks messy.

If you blur your eyes a bit, especially in the monochrome photos, it almost seems like a shadowy room, it kind of reminds me of the bookshelf black hole in interstellar (not that I’m comparing my work to that!)

[k00321210]

Today I painted onto a reflective paper. Looking back, I wish I didn’t have a seam between the two sheets smack down in the middle of the paint, it really bothers me. I lay down white as a base first and then used yellow and red as highlights and shadows. I wanted to match the colour scheme of the fabric in the photography studio. Overall, I don’t think this is my best work but I just wanted the opportunity to take it into the photography studio before the end of today.

I’m not the biggest fan of working on this material, it’s hard to see what you are doing especially with a light behind you.

[k00321210]

Ira Cohen

Astral Projection

Photographic print

50 x 33 cm

Ira Cohen

Opium Queen

Photographic print

49.5 x 32.5 cm

Ira Cohen was an American poet, photographer and filmmaker. He was born to deaf parents, so he developed his sight earlier than usual and learned to spell through sign language. I wonder if that has informed the strength and power of colour and shape in his photography. Some of his most iconic work, came from the late 60s when he produced many Mylar photographs, using the reflective material to bend space and time. His colours are fabulous and really powerful. A lot of his portraits reflect a baroque era of painting, or a near orientalism in their composition (maybe came from some of his work in India and Nepal), though more intimate, personal and and a little bit graphic. I really enjoy seeing how people can be so creative with photography.

The Ira Cohen Archive – A Visual Journey

The Ira Cohen Archive – A Visual Journey

[k00321210]

I cannot share all of my pieces I produced today as tumblr has detected sexually explicit content.

Today, we had life drawing again. I only worked with a 12B pencil but I really got a lot out of it. I enjoy trying to capture the stretch of skin, and the muscle structures beneath the skin.

[k00321210]

These are my favourite results from today’s photography. I slightly changed contrast, brightness, saturation, highlights and shadows in my phone. There are some really interesting silhouettes in these photos.

This is another photo I took, in the studio on a reflective paper. What I want to do next to paint that hand onto this material and have a similar photoshoot with that next week. I really enjoyed this, I think photography and painting go hand in hand and it’s exciting to blend the two.

[k00321210]

Today I went down to the photography studio to try to take a few photos of what I worked on yesterday. Yesterday I took a really interesting photo when I went to the photography studio while no was there and I wanted to recreate that today and go with it

This is that photo.

I have a sketch of how I set up the studio today to create more interesting photos. I hung up the painted acetate on a frame with clamps. I then set up fabric and coloured paper in front of the acetate. I experimented with letting the acetate be straight on, concave or convex. I really enjoyed concave as it really distorted the room. Also the area around the clamps became really interesting focal points. I decided to just leave the bright light of the room on as it produced a better reflection. This is really a mixture of painting, photography and installation sculpture.

I am going to make a separate post of the results.

[k00321210]

Finishing up today, I attempted to take some photos of my painting casting a shadow but the sun had shifted into a position that there was limited sun in the stairwell, so tomorrow I want to get those photos as well as photos in the studio. For safe keeping, I put the two acetate paintings over each other, but it also produced a very cool image! A happy accident!

[k00321210]

Francesca Woodman

Untitled

Around 1979/1980

Gelatin Silver print

14.6 cm x 14.6 cm

Francesca Woodman

Space2 (Space Squared)

1976

Gelatin silver print

13 cm x 12 cm

I have used Woodman as a reference before but I am just really drawn to her work and use of stark contrast in her monochrome photographs. Unknowingly, I used similar lighting in my own photographs this morning and I wanted to circle back to her.

I find her photos look as though they’ve come out of a place of expression and experimentation, not necessarily a drive to create fine art. But she produces something very raw and real, that is remarkably vulnerable and slightly masochistic.

My favourite of her photos, would be her self portraits. They are mainly of her nude, incorporating mirrors and/or panes of glass. They are very haunting, especially knowing that she ended her life.

Francesca Woodman - Untitled, 1979-80

Title: Untitled. Year: 1979-80. Dimensions: 5 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches. Medium: Gelatin silver print.

Francesca Woodman - Space², 1976

Title: Space². Year: 1976. Dimensions: 5 1/8 x 4 3/4 inches. Medium: Gelatin silver print.

Learn about Francesca Woodman's life. Download Francesca's biography and CV.

[k00321210]

Today I used the photos I took this morning, and a photo of a peer’s hand as references to paint a hand. I mixed all the paints and then just applied layers of grey and finished with highlights of pure white and shadows of pure black. My plan is when this is dry to take photos around the college of this hand casting a shadow. I also want to take some portraits in the photography studio with it.

[k00321210]

This morning I decided to take my art outside of the context of the studio and take photos of it in natural light cast within the college.

I decided I wanted to take photos in the most difficult place to hang a painting, a staircase! Paul, one of the tutors kindly helped me hang it up safely. I took a few photos from various angles and I then changed the exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows and then added a black and white filter. Really happy with these results and I want to further experiment to create new reference photos without my painting.

[k00321210]

This afternoons work

I need to move on from light and I think I’ll work with colour on Thursday. I only used the leftover paints from this morning but they did not foster a clean slate attitude. This painting come out quite sloppy and my heart was not in it so I just decided to throw it out the window and have a little temper tantrum on it, hence the quote “how do I paint a place I’ve yet to grow in”