O'Keeffe inspired works

Part of my A2 exam included my photographing of magnified objects and producing studies of my photos in different media (including ceramics, acrylic and pastel.) Some of my pieces related to the works of Georgia O'keefe, which spurred me to replicate some of her art and also incorporate her style into my own work. The first two pieces were created from my own photographs of flowers. The last two images are my own replications of O’keeffe’s work.

GCSE Pop Art Exam Piece

This piece was completed as part of my GCSE exam. I began drawing a detailed version of my subject matter, then developing the drawing into a simplified version to form a pop art style painting. Inspiration for this piece came from pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein. Gouache, pastel, pencil and felt-tip was used within this piece.

Life Drawing

These series of works were produced in year 12 during my six-week life drawing course, with artist Lou Summary. I enjoyed experimenting with light and dark tones, pastel, chalk and graphite, and additionally using mark making techniques within my work. Completing several life drawing courses has really helped me develop my skills, as well as greatly impact my work and view of art.

Close and Saville inspired Photoshop work

These three pieces show some of my Photoshop work, in which I transformed my photographs into; firstly - the distorted image (Which relates to the deliberately distorted style of work by Jenny Saville.) The other two pixilated images were created with a reflection of the favoured pixelated painting techniques of Chuck Close.

Saville inspired portrait

This is another Saville inspired piece, in which I worked on top of a magazine image, using Saville’s rapid painting style to deliberately distort the picture. I did this piece in acrylic, using Saville-esque violent brush strokes, splattering and scraping techniques.

Jenny Saville replications

This is one of the numerous other pieces influenced by the works of Jenny Saville. In order to gain an understanding of the techniques she uses, I replicated these two pieces of Saville’s work using her deliberately distorted painting style. (These works were done as part of my development, before the carcass piece.)

Final response to the study of Jenny Saville

 During my first year at Sixth Form I was inspired by the works of Jenny Saville, which consequently impacted my work as well as my approach to art. Research into Saville’s work helped me recognise messages conveyed within art and understand reasons behind the nature of certain works. As with most of her work, Saville challenges the viewer's perception of her paintings by deliberately distorting parts of the work, and choosing subject matter containing shocking elements. Replicating her techniques; coupled with the life drawing course I undertook, empowered me to produce successful and engaging pieces of work, diverging from my usual style. 

This 5 foot canvass was my subsequent final response to the inspiration of Saville’s work. I used Saville’s techniques, including the deliberately shocking subject matter and rapid brush strokes within my carcass painting.

Final response to the study of Chuck Close (second portrait)

Inspiration for this piece also came from Chuck Close, however I followed his unique, pixelated style of painting, and produced my own version of his techniques. I used thick blobs of acrylic colour to get an almost 3D texture from the paint, making light and colour reflect better from the surface. Close paints in circular repeating patterns, cleverly creating a pixelated image of the subject matter. I incorporated his techniques within this piece.

Final response to the study of Chuck Close

This is a portrait of my baby cousin and accompanies the second final response to the study of Chuck Close. It was created as part of my year 12 portraiture coursework project. The inspiration behind this piece came from photo realism artist Chuck Close, and the more simplistic type of his painting style.

Chuck Close inspired portraits

These three images are parts of my strongest development based on the photo realist work of Chuck Close and his painting styles. Close creates a mixture of photorealistic portraiture, but most of his well known pieces include his signature pixelated painting style. As I had already done various other pieces using Close’s pixelated techniques, I decided to produce these more simplistic pieces.

Chuck Close replication

Here, I replicated a Chuck close piece, carefully studying his unique painting techniques. As with most of Close’s work done in his signature style, the portrait is very abstract with the use of mark making and repeated circular patterns, which create the final image. Chuck's painting technique is similar to a pixelated effect. 

When viewing his portraits from a distance, these squares appear as a single unified image, but viewed up-close, the painting can be visible in its separate segments of colour and pattern. Each square within the grid is filled with blobs of colour, and painted rings with a contrasting background which, when viewed from a distance - the eye blends the mixed colours and creates a 'visual average', revealing the painted photographic image. I used a mixture of acrylic and gouache within this piece.

Handmade Keep sake album

For my installation project, I intend to visually represent individual life stories (gathered from a variety of biography style media, e.g. magazines) as a collection of objects. (In a similar way to how historical items in Auswich Museum are displayed-each, holding their own story.) This will be done using symbolism from within the stories and a variety of existing and handmade objects-e.g. photo albums.

Inspiration behind the use of existing objects within my installation came from artists Tracy Emin, Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Cornell and Claes Oldenburg.  

My installation work also holds connections with zeitgeist artists such as Alexandria Sell, Florence Lazar and Walid Raad, (whose work is currently exhibited in the White Cube.) These artists' works are relevant to my current project, as many are based on documenting history/fictional history.

This is my hand made keep sake album which accompanies a cot death story within my installation project. I photographed family friends and their children over a period of a few months, and also used existing baby photographs to use within the album. I additionally used objects such as mittens, a dummy a lock of hair etc, to display within the keep sake album. These are images of just a few of the pages within the album.