For the first two exercises I changed my normal support material from paper or mountboard to hardboard and plywood. These supports were prepared with a household paint emulsion to seal the timber fibres.
To increase the body of the acrylic paint I mixed it with a gel medium. This helped to maintain a sufficiently thick layer of paint as I applied course marks with medium sized brushes. I found that brush marks still had a tendancy to smooth out the paint and easily enabled a degree of blending on the support. I was not satisfied with the colour rendering of the pear which highlighted my tutor's comments regarding recreating seen hues. As a result and as a side execise I have gone back to some basic colour mixing exploration. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the impact of the apples painted in this looser courser manner.
I have already experimented with painting knives in earlier exercises so had some fun with this exercise. Initially I applied a glaze by mixing a blue acrylic paint with glazing gel. The painiting knife enabled me to create a wave inspired pattern as the glaze was scraped across the plywood surface leaving thicker/denser edges as the blade was lifted from the support. While the paint was still wet, I scratched some marks into the surface with the edge of a painting knife exposing the white under paint. Once dry, I added a small amount of unmixed colour with a different shape of knife. I particularly liked the effect created with the glazing gel where the paint has picked up the texture of the support resulting in different density of hue.
Returning to a watercolour paper support for the next exercise, I used a medium thickness gel medium mixed with acrylic paint. I started by applying the paint with old business cards and then dragged through patches of colour across each other creating broad areas of blended colour. While the paint was still wet, I added some additional paint onto the surface then dragged these into each other and the underlying paint using a plastic comb. This created peaks and troughs in the surface which dryed hard due the acrylic gel medium.
Reflecting on previous work I can see opportunities to enhance my paintings by applying these techniqes. For example the first exercise above using impasto with brush marks could be applied in portrait painting to free up my approach and capture a geater range of hues paticularly in skin tone. Similarly I can see the potential of using palette knives and glazing technques to create greater depth and interest in landscape, townscape and seascape studies as well as in still life work. The same can be said for applying scratching techniques. I feel that all approaches but particularly the last two exercises could lead to more spontaneous and serendipitous outcomes.
Exercise dripping, dribbling and splattering
This exercise was pure play and, I discovered, that this was obviously what I had been saving all my old decorating media for. Using wallpaper lining paper as a support and a mixture of ends of household gloss and emulsion paints, I dripped, dribbled and splattered from ground level and via a step ladder. The range of hues was restricted in this example to available old paint. However, the outcome was interesting and the process cathartic! The types of mark were influenced most by the properties of the paint and the force applied to move the paint from various sticks onto the support by dropping or flicking from various heights.
I repeated this exercise at a smaller scale, in my sketchbook, using acrylic paint mixed with a clear tar gel medium. Using Series 3 Daler Rowney acrylic paint, the mixture did not flow off the painting knive as readily as I had expected and not as running as household gloss paint! I was able to drag and lift thin lengths of paint from blobs and smear the mixture across the support. The mixture dried with a gloss finish and textural thickness.
Looking at examples of work by contemporary artists' in various small galleries, I have noted that some have used these techniques sparingly to express movement, lighting effects, or the random planting of wild flowers in landscapes. It appears to bring a degree of serendipity into their work and provide an impression of the atmosphere of their subject matter.
Research point:
American Abstract Expressionists and European Tachist artists appeared following the World War 2 period. This "action painting" approach of working straight onto the support surface with bold expressive, energetic marks enabled an emotional reaction, idea and/or response from the artist to evolve without any specific reference to or attempt at illustrating reallisticaly a single observed subject. From my initial observations of works by artists such as Hans Hartung, Franz Kline, De Kooning and Jackson Plock, together with my experiements decribed above, I can appreciate the appeal of just allowing something evolve somewhat intuitively as serendipitous marks are developed. I particularly like the mark making and associated textural qualities of Hans Hartung's work and note that Franz Kline found household paint more fluid and therefore suitable to his approach than fine art quality paint (as I have now discovered).
I feel that by continuing to experiment with a more expressive approach may help me to loosen up my own style taking me beyond my comfort zone of expected outcomes and lead to more interesting works. Looking back at my sketchbooks, it is those situations where I have just spread paint either from rubbing my old palette onto the page or using up left over paint and letting the colours mix by chance that I have produced more relaxed sketches/studies.
