STUDIO IN REVIEW

When I first started my second year here at Sunderland University, I had a clear idea of what I wanted my project to look like; I wanted to stick to portraits, something I enjoy painting, and continue using oil paints and canvas. The first few weeks of my project I tried incorporating a nature theme within my portraits and then moved on to using real flowers in my work and experimenting with how I can use flowers and plants in my paintings. It was a flower painting on canvas that I was working on which first gave me the idea of moving on to something more contemporary. I spread the paint from the flowers across the canvas after deciding I didn't like the painting and ended up liking the outcome and decided to make pieces focusing more on the application of paint rather than the overall outcome. From this I started working on acetate and glass and began my fluid painting series. I have really enjoyed stepping outside of my comfort zone and have started to enjoy actually painting again and the process of it rather than thinking about the final outcome. When I was mainly producing portraits I was always thinking about how realistic it is and that it has to be true to the image, whereas now I am enjoying the process and thinking about the application of the paint and the colours. A very cliche quote I can resonate with, particuarlly throughout this year, is ''creativity takes courage'. This is a very simple quote by Henri Matisse that rings true for me. I wasn't being creative when I was producing my portraits, but now I feel I have let go of the belief that I have to create realistic images to be a good artist and I feel creative again. This year has taught me to try new things and to be more spontaneous with my work instead of planning every aspect of my project.