Year 2 Painting Work

In the second year of my course at Canterbury Christ Church University we are encouraged to persue a mostly self directed practical project, in a medium of our choice.  I, personally, consider myself an abstract painter.  I am very interested in the relationship between colours and shapes, especially that of close up images.  My influences for this project include Jenny Saville, notably her photographic series Closed Contact.

Closed Contact by Jenny Saville:

As my images became more abstracted began to take influence from the Abstract Expressionists, especially Philip Guston.  He has influenced my use of colour and led me to choose a more limited palette which features a lot of grey.  Below are examples of some of his works.

North and Prospects by Philip Guston:

 

The lines and shapes of my work have been influenced by that of hands and skin, as well as root vegetables such as carrots and parsnips.  Some of the work started out as literal studies of both these things, but I have then gone on to use these ideas to create very expressive abstract images made up of ambiguous biomorphic shapes.  There is a mixture of oil paint, acrylic paint, watercolour and biro here.