Tag: Experimenting with painting

There were three options for this exercise, I chose option one, which was to produce a very large-scale drawing of a landscape.

Brief

For this option you should produce at least one very large-scale drawing of a landscape, either real or imagined. This should be at least A0 (84 x 119cm) in size (and ideally larger) either by sourcing some very large sheets of paper, or a roll of paper, or by taping a number of sheets of paper together.

You can choose to produce an observational drawing of a landscape or you can produce an imagined landscape using more abstract marks. You can use pencils, brushes and ink, or any mark-making implements using the medium of your choice.

Visual Skills 2: Visual Exploration: p95

Keywords from the brief

• Produce a very large-scale drawing of a landscape real or imagined.
• At least AO
• You can use pencils, brushes and ink, or any mark-making implements using the medium of your choice.

There were a number of places I had in mind for this landscape project. Luckily, living in the Forest of Dean I am surrounded by stunning scenery. With this in mind, I ventured out on a walk and took photo’s of areas I thought would make a beautiful painting.

Below are photos from my walk.

During a research task titled Large Scale Image-making, I looked into various artists and how they used different materials and their unique approach to large- scale image making, This inspired me to be more experimental with the materials I decided to use for my own making. One of the artists previously researched, is John Vertue. This artist is recognised for his large-scale landscape paintings in black and white. With him in mind, I chose the final photograph above because it was in black and white and used it as a reference for my landscape painting.

Unfortunately, I am located in a small village with limited amount of shops and sadly, there are no local art suppliers. Knowing I would need good quality paper for this exercise I drove twenty five miles to my nearest Hobby Craft. Here, I purchased two A1 mixed media pieces of paper and some acrylic paints. Once, home I was eager to start work but was apprehensive because the paper is so large. I didn’t know where to put it, I considered putting them on the floor, but I didn’t think it would help with getting the scale correct and I thought the work may get damaged either by my pet dogs or children.

Instead, I taped the paper together using masking tape and then tapped it to my lounge window.

Next, I began making swift marks with flowing motions from the whole use of my arm.

Sadly, the paper wouldn’t stay stuck to the window and the sunlight started to shine through making it difficult to see the work. Thinking about this more I took the paper down from the window and placed it on my drawing table in the other reception room. Continuing to work I regretted making such large dark brush strokes so soon and wasn’t happy with how the work was going. Therefore, I decided to leave the image and start again.

However, I showed it to a family member, laughing at how bad it was and was surprised that they actually liked it and said they knew the place of which I was painting. This made me feel a little better and more confident to start again. Unfortunately, I no longer had good quality paper and had to settle with what I had in the house, which was a roll of printing paper. This time I cut the paper to size again taping two pieces together and stuck it to the playroom wall using masking tape.

This time I was a little more cautious and decided to lightly sketch out a plan for the painting. Once all the landscape was planned out I began painting.

The mediums used to create the landscape painting were:

• Acrylic paint
• Selection of sponges
• Charcoal
• 2B pencil,
• Pencil crayons
• Chalk pastels
• Oil pastels.
• My finger
• Different size brushes

Final painting

Reflection

What did you find most challenging?

There were a number of things I found challenging about this project. These were:

• Working at a large scale (100cm x 100cm) and trying to figure out how to scale up each element correctly.
• Using my house’s wall to place the sheets of paper was not ideal, and as my husband pointed out, it would not be advisable to do so again due to the marks left behind by charcoal dust. However, I was fine with using the wall because it was time for redecorating anyhow.
• Working on thin sheets of paper was also problematic as it wasn’t a good choice when using mixed media. If I was to do this again I would make sure I purchase more of the mixed media sheets of paper incase of mistakes.
• The photo I used for reference was not very good quality, so a lot of the painting I had to imagine and interpret in my own way. If I was to do this again I would either like to draw from life or have a better quality photograph.
• Last but not least, I have never drawn or painted a natural environment other than a sea scene, thus this was the most difficult challenge of them all!
• What made it even more difficult was trying to interpret the different elements in monochrome.

Is this an area of art practice that you have worked with before?

There has only been one time I have worked at a very large scale and that was twenty years ago when I worked for an aquatic shop as a tropical fish manager. At the time my boss wanted the shop to have a mural so I offered to paint it for him. This was a very large landscape scene, that showed rolling hills and rivers and covered the whole back wall of the shop. Unfortunately, they refurbished and extended the shop since then and it no longer exists. Sadly, I do not have any photographs of it anymore.

Would you attempt this again and, if so, how would you change or develop your approach?

Yes I would attempt this again. It was fun to be experimental and paint a landscape scene. I was quite surprised at the work I produced since it is my first time painting trees. Although it is not perfect, I am going to have it printed and framed to hang in my studio.

As said before, if embarking on a project like this again I would make sure I have quality paper and good reference photographs.

List of illustrations

Fig. 1 Fowler, G (2024) Edgehills Bog. [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 2 Fowler, G (2024) Edge hills view point. [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 3 Fowler, G (2024) The Cyril Hart Arboretum [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 4 Fowler, G (2024) Old oak tree [Photograph, Portrait] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 5 Fowler, G (2024) Working forest, logs [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 6 Fowler, G (2024) Speech House Lake [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 7 Fowler, G (2024) Landscape Painting set up 1 [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 8 Fowler, G (2024) Mark making [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 9 Fowler, G (2024) Failure [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 10 Fowler, G (2024) Failure [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 11 Fowler, G (2024) Painting process one [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 12 Fowler, G (2024) Painting process two [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 13 Fowler, G (2024) Painting process three [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 14 Fowler, G (2024) Painting process four [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 15 Fowler, G (2024) Painting process five [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.

Fig. 16 Fowler, G (2024) Finished landscape painting of Speech House Lake [Photograph, landscape] in possession of: the author: Forest of Dean.