These are works I have done in the last 2-3 years, through lockdown up to present day.
Down the Road
This was the last of 3 paintings I did in the 2020 lockdown. This was more spontaneous than the other two with lots of the ideas being thrown onto the board as they came into my head. I used a large panel of dry plasterboard which I primed and then used acrylic paints. This painting was about what it was like living in the lockdown on 2020 and how I felt in the place I was. The foundation was based off of the picture to the left and built upon that picture, I saw the power lines dissecting the picture in a great way and incorporated it into my painting. I used block colours to fill large portions of the canvas to show how our life in this moment is filled with things that would usually be seen as menial and boring.
I included hidden figures drowning to show the hostile environment of your own head in the lockdown.
With a heavy theme of mental health being explored in the painting, it was important to me to have most, if not all of the images on the canvas be straight from my mind and not have much planning before hand. On the right was the original plans for this painting with a figure similar to some kind of mafia boss or gangsta of some time in a typical restaurant or bar with a large painting of a man on the ground, I found this to be a good idea, but it lacked much meaning and only really reflected a time in lockdown where I watched lots of Martin Scorsese. I really like how this painting turned out, but I feel some sections look unfinished, which could lend its self to the feeling in lockdown with constant boredom and leaving things unfinished.
Beholder
This was the second painting I did in the first lockdown, on a shaped piece of insulation board which was cut for use in a room, but wasn't needed. I primed it and used acrylic paint. This painting is about beauty and love, it's about two girls who look almost opposite who could both be seen a beauty, but with the top element being an eye, looking at the right woman in a more favouring manner, as shown by the three thick black lines. For the women in the paintings, I used real life people- but the painting isn't about the individuals I chose. I chose to use primarily black and white paint, apart from a small amount of blue and orange to connote individuality and beauty. I wanted this painting to show that even in beauty comes bias and everyones own opinion and taste, even if you see someone as black and white or in colour, everyone can see something differently. I planned this piece in a sketchbook quite accurately as I had a very strong idea as to what I wanted to do with this painting, as you can see on the left.
Totem of Living
This was the first painting I did in the first lockdown. As you can see on the left I used a thin and long plank of wood to paint this piece. It was my first experience painting on a large scale outside of school with my GCSE art course. This is my favourite of all of my paintings and it took me a while longer to complete than the others I did in the 2020 lockdown. This painting is about 3 emotions lived through in life, anger, fear, and contempt. The first head being anger, the next fear, and the last being contempt, I took heavy inspiration from Picasso in this painting, with lots of the facial elements coming from his paintings. I used a lot of expressive colours and paint strokes in the background around the heads to help portray the emotion that each head represented. I adjusted the skin tone of each head also to greater connote that emotion. I really enjoy the shape of this painting and I feel I used the space well in this painting with the 3 heads in a line, similar to a totem pole which inspired its name. This painting developed a lot from sketchbook to the board and helped me develop the meaning, making the painting look whole and competed. The grain of the wood help put texture into the painting which I love as well.
For Eva
This is my latest painting I've done, and was originally for my friends birthday last year, I have worked on it on and off for around a year and a bit to get it done late into 2021. It was based off of a picture of my friend crying. It is a thin plank of wood that came from a cupboard that I repurposed for the painting. The meaning behind this painting is about struggle with mental health and overcoming it. I tried to make it my most colourful painting to show how colourful life outside of your head can be, even when you are at your lowest, I tried to show how colourful and great the figure is, even with them crying. The shapes around the outside make the face pop, even with the outside of the face being outlined by the hair. This painting was very close to my sketchbook as I already knew what I wanted and it was also influenced by the fact that this painting was for someone else.