Elżbieta Feliksik

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My Progress in Painting (March 9th - April 29th).

During this time, I focused on improving my life painting and life drawing skills. I worked on capturing forms more accurately, but I also started experimenting with new tools.

I really enjoyed using a palette knife. It allowed me to create more texture and be more expressive with the paint. Michael's Friday seminars also helped me think differently about my work. I used my sketchbook to test these new techniques and ideas.

Looking at my work from March and comparing it to April, I can see that my skills have improved and I feel much more confident. This experience showed me that consistency and experimentation in daily work are of key importance.

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SKETCHBOOK

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MIXED MEDIA STUDY: PENCIL AND ACRYLIC

In this piece, I experimented with contrasting techniques. I used pencil for a detailed, realistic portrait and a palette knife with acrylic paint for the background. I really like how the heavy texture of the blue paint frames the face and adds energy to the drawing.

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LIFE DRAWING

Drawing people is hard for me. Every time I practice I try my best to get the body shapes and proportions right. My sketches aren't perfect, but they show how I am learning and improving.

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LIFE PAINTING

I think it turned out much better than last time. Slow progress is still progress.

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Penti Menti by Sarah Dwyer

I visited the Limerick City Gallery of Art today to see Sarah Dwyer's exhibition. Her work is an amazing mix of colours and textures. I really liked how the layers of paint overlap to create something entirely new, while still leaving a trace of what was there before. So inspiring.

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Artist Research: HASHIM AKIB

Hashim Akib is contemporary portrait artist whose style is instantly recognizable due to his incredibly bold approach to the human face. Rather than focusing on minute details, the artist deconstructs the subject's identity using simplified, almost geometric visual forms.

What sets his work apart is a categorical rejection of smooth blending. Akib relies on "colour blocking" - constructing the structure of the face through distinct, saturated planes of colour. This gives his portraits a sculptural, expressive depth. Light and shadow do not merge softly; instead, they clash as contrasting shapes, giving the paintings a remarkable sense of energy.

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A2 piece. I started by applying paint with a palette knife to create a raw textured base. Once dry, I sketched the portrait and finished it using black and white posca markers, adding depth with pencil shading.

I'm really happy with how the background texture interacts with the lines of the face.

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I really enjoyed using a palette knife,so I decided to experiment more with the technique and color.

To me, it looks like a forest - I see tree trunks in those vertical lines, with so much energy hidden between the colours. I love the effect and the texture.

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On Monday I finally gave my presentation on ANSELM KIEFER.

I mainly talked about how Kiefer deals with German history. I showed his massive paintings where he uses unusual materials like lead, ash,straw, and earth. It's all about how destruction and new hope come together in his art. Really powerful stuff, but I'm glad it's done!

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COLOR AND TEXTURE EXPERIMENTS.

Recently, I've been testing some new color combinations and texture in my sketchbook. I loved the process so much that I decided to bring it to life on an A2 scale.

I painted the whole thing using just one large brush. I'm really happy with how it turned out - it's an abstract mix of colors that reminds me of a landscape. It has that moody, sunset vibe.

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On Friday, Michael showed us several films featuring contemporary figurative artists. The work of JENNY SAVILLE resonated with me the most. Her pieces are the total opposita of "pretty" nudes-they offer a raw, fleshy and monumental look at the human form.

Artist Research: JENNY SAVILLE

• Unfiltered Reality: She paints bodies with fat folds, bruises and scars, focusing on biology rather than idealized beauty.

• Scale: Her canvases are massive. Standing before them, you feel small, almost overwhelmed by the painted flesh.

• Clinical Inspiration: Fascinated by plastic surgery and anatomy, she spent hours observing surgeries which translates into her almost "sculptural" way of applying thick paint.

Her style is a mix of obsession with the body and brutal honesty. Absolutely magnetic.

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On Thursday, I visited the Hunt Museum for the painting exhibition. I really enjoyed it, and I was most impressed by the painting of a woman's face, which looks like it's cracked and joined back together with gold lines. It has such a peaceful feel to it.

There were a lot of people there, so it got a bit crowded at times, but I'm still glad I went. It's great inspiration for what's coming for us next year.

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My art experiments(inspired by Bernard Frize).

Lately, I've been playing around with Bernard Frize's style to see how different techniques change the vibe on paper. Here are two different approaches:

1. First piece: Focused on softness. I used a brush and very gentle strokes to make the colors flow smoothly into each other.

2. Second piece: All about texture. I applied the paint, covered it with a plastic bag, and pressed down hard. It created these amazing, unpredictable patterns and a relly cool structure.