Abstract Painting

  I collected these objects in Nuneaton Park and took some photos to contribute to my journey idea, however today i focused on using the objects i collected. I got some different sized, shapes and coloured leaves that grabbed my attention. I  also picked up a piece of bark that i thought would be interesting to use as a scraping tool. Using the sticking page i picked up random dirt from the grass, i did this as i thought it would be quite natural and uncontrolled. Amongst the dirt was the end of a cigarette butt which was quite disgusting but i thought it added to the dirt look and would make people think how we pollute the natural world. Lastly i picked up a dirty string that could be used to spread paint and a broken brick for printing on the page. On a piece of paper i used a pencil to take some rubbing of different textures. Some of these textures were bricks, the ground, bark on trees, scratched on a broken cone and the most interesting to me was the steps in the gazebo as it made some interesting holes/dots on the page.



   Before i started painting i stuck tape on the page, one horizontal and the other vertical to hopefully make an interesting effect when peeled off at the end. Also i stuck down one corner of the page to make the piece have less of a straight border as there is no limit to the imagination. I stuck to a blue/purple colour scheme as the colour connotations are quite calm, peaceful and beneficial fro the body and mind. Additionally purple also has connotations of magic, power, and creativity. I thought using different shades of these colours would work well in layers. For the left top corner i used the brick to print and overlapped it into other sections. The bottom left i used a small leaf branch and a darker blue. The top right was dark purple with a large leaf and the bottom i used a sponge to print and scrape on the page. Then i began layering the colours in the middle in a cross hatch technique, that i think Van Gogh used and i would quite like to work on this technique as i found it quite fun. I haven't finished this yet as there are more colours i need to layer to make it have more of a gradient. I liked using the objects for printing in the background as it shows how reality creates the basis and influences our dreams.
   Once i pulled the tape off, the lines were very powerful in the layered colours. The tape pulled up some of the white paint showing the brown paper, creating a rough cracked look that was ideal when viewing the white lines as reality. It showed how restricted people are, trapped by jobs, societal expectations, etc. The coloured paint therefore are their dreams and creative ideas that are then forgotten as they are never given the chance to be played out. The way the lines fade out around the edges, like the prints do, shows how those people feel empty and lost in life, powerless even. The white is also limitless like how thousands of people are trapped in jobs they don't like instead of the career they wished for because they weren't able to have the same opportunities as others who have more power.
  To improve this piece i would spend more time layering the colours up, more visible brushstrokes and shades that help it fade out from the centre but also appear more bolder in the centre. I would change where the lines are and add smaller lines coming from the main ones, these lines would be thin and short to show when people get close to catching their dreams but for many reasons don't get the chance still.