Studio: 23rd March

The three figures were made to explore how colour can make something recede or become more dominant, after a conversation with Caroline. I have tried looking away and glancing back to see which pops and I think it is the red one, followed by green. However, as they are linked physically, not separate, it is difficult to imagine them at different distances from my eye as they appear like can-can dancers (not deliberate).

This was a very focused studio session based around exploring colour. I needed to get on quite quickly with the primary colour canvases to make my colour research relevant in the development of my ideas. I have been doing research into glazing techniques and discovered that Old Masters would create a tonal 'ghost' painting underneath the colour painting to fix composition, areas of shadow and light. The three paintings show exactly this - I have used burnt umber and white paint to mock up the figures. The figures are extracted from a sequence of falling film footage - I haven't decided whether they should hang separately or together as they are similar but not the same size, but I quite like seeing them in relation to each other.

Reflection

This was really useful in terms of investigating colour and technique. As the work is quite small scale, I haven't had to make the same time commitment to explore ideas. I need to research the work of Euan Uglow to see colour reflected and used subtly as I tend to automatically be drawn to more vivid shades. Inadvertently, the interaction of the figures has also become very important and certainly now I think it is important for me to consider this in addition to playing with light and shade. In particular, the figure in stages which implies each almost falling into another works - although I have not captured the gaze which is essential in my work.

One month reflection
My research into Euan Uglow's work that I did post this blog entry are still in my mind for when I start working in oil. As I have a natural tendency to work with primary colours, I think this technique should help me to balance the saturation without become too generic. The use of shadow is become more important - I'm enjoying the idea that it might be free-spirited and move independently from the figure. The response to these pieces was much more positive than I felt about them at the time which I struggled with; however it was a good process for me to go through as it made me reassess how open I was actually been to experimentation and it raised some questions from me other ways I could communicate my intentions. 
This is the link to a later entry with some of that feedback...
http://alexacoxreflect.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/group-crit-15th-april.html
I can also see how the ghost painting was useful in cementing the composition but it ended up being slightly unforgiving when it came to applying layers of colour over the top so when I use this technique again, I will definitely use it to accentuate shadow and creases, but not all contours as it appears too harsh and ironically seems to flatten the paintings.