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About Me.
Shop and Commissions.
Achievements.
University of Reading Degree.
Collaborative Work.
Public Exhibitions.
The Caversham Print Club.
Autumn Term Independent Studio Project: Animals and Nature.
My Formative Exhibition Pieces:
Memories Exhibition Piece.
In my work I focus on my memories through photography of animals, landscapes, and nature, in particular flowers, trees and beaches, and including close up drawings and paintings of them.
To develop this work, I have focused on the environment. I am researching the importance of nature and exploring how nature is a concept that is often taken for granted, for example researching other art works that incorporate nature and texts. During lockdown a vast majority of people connected with nature and wildlife and insects more, and many people enjoyed being outdoors more compared to before lockdown, as the BBC article ‘Nature ‘more important than ever during lockdown” states that “More than 40% of people say nature, wildlife and visiting local green spaces have been even more important to their wellbeing since the coronavirus restrictions began”. This shows that nature has a huge impact on our lives, as it provides us the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat. Memories and nature are important as a way to relax and reflect and a chance to escape from work and to enjoy the calmness that our gardens and green spaces bring to us. The MentalHealth.org article ‘Nature: How connecting with nature benefits our mental health’ states that “Nature can generate a multitude of positive emotions, such as calmness, joy, creativity and can facilitate concentration”.
I have been particularly inspired by my memories from past holidays and trips to the Natural History Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum. These have helped me to develop my project and influenced what I draw by allowing me to draw from my own photos and the colour pallete that I use in my work, because of the variety of insects, flowers, and landscapes. The opportunity to capture landscapes on previous holidays will help my future work. Additionally, artists such as Jennifer Bain, Alex Katz, William Morris, Kurt Jackson, and Georgia O’Keeffe have been very influential and important during the process of my work and final piece, although they present their work in a different way compositionally compared to me. From both Jennifer Bain and Alex Katz, I have drawn on their use of colour, subject matter, composition as they create abstract paintings influenced by natural forms and landscapes, and Jennifer Bain often explores layers in her work. This influence is seen in ‘Flowers’, ‘Flower On Patterned Card’, ‘Pink Rose’, ‘Waterlily’, ‘3 Flowers’, ‘Red Flower’, ‘Nature Photo Frame’ and ‘Rosemoor’ where I have experimented with creating more abstract style flowers and layers in my work using similar colours to them. From William Morris, I have drawn on his use of repetition of patterns and images in his work which influenced ‘My Publication Pieces’, where I took his concept of repetition and created my own repeated pattern using my work from my formative exhibition piece. From Kurt Jackson I have drawn on his use of working on larger scale canvases and often using the sea and beach as his subject matter. This influenced ‘Wissant Beach Sunset’, ‘Sunset’ and ‘Rosemoor’ created on a larger scale canvas to normal and influenced by my own trips to the beach. From Georgia O’Keeffe, I have drawn on her use of drawing flowers close up and sometimes drawing them so close up they lose their ‘flower-like’ structure, which influenced ‘Pink Rose’, ‘Waterlily’ and ‘Red Flower’.
I have incorporated a combination of landscapes, flowers, and insects in my exhibition piece, connecting them to the different seasons through the use of colour, mixed media, textures and scenes. Colour is vital to me for emotional responses, which is reflected in the use of muted colour and softness of application, highlighting the peaceful, dreamlike quality. The brighter bolder colours represent more recent memories whereas the more muted colours represent memories from a long time ago that are fading. Furthermore, the inclusion of painting with leaves introduces texture and emphasises the internal and external literally but could also be considered from a psychological perspective as different colours and textures represent different emotions. My exhibition display highlights a range of memories and experiences and the spare postcards in the memory box encourage other people to anonymously share their own memories.