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Belated Update

November 20th, 2013 by

Good Morning!

So, it’s been a while.

In my defence, I’ve been absolutely swamped with life at the moment- it gets in the way sometimes. I work 24 hours a week (at H&M and an Ale House) whilst going to University full time.. so blog writing isn’t always at the top of my agenda.. But anyway-

This academic year, there is a module entitled Professional Practice- this basically is assessing our familiarity and interest in the ‘Art World’ (As in- how galleries work, what careers are available, how to write an artist’s CV etc..)… and writing an Artist’s blog can be submitted as evidence of an interest in art and ‘selling yourself’ as an artist. So, here it is-

What’s been happening since I last posted?

I’ve written and submitted my first essay- which I previously stated, ‘I really wanted to do’. It was entitled ‘Can Art Be Taught?’- a very very very difficult question and hard to fit in a 2000 word limit. I came to the conclusion that obviously it’s down to matter of opinion- as art is very much subjective. In my opinion, the answer is very much split 50/50- yes it can be taught to an extent- how to use materials, introduction to different styles, art history etc.. but then no it can’t be because you could argue that some children are born with natural talent, not many ‘great artists’ have graduated from art school etc.. In order to attempt to answer the question, the word ART needed to be defined and one thing I wrote in the conclusion was ‘if Art is considered to be all about ‘beauty’, ‘emotional power’ and aesthetics then it doesn’t need to be taught because it just exists. However, if art is defined by the level of technical skill of using specific techniques, then yes, it can be taught.’ – entirely subjective and a tricky essay to write.

My practical work has been somewhat of a roller coaster during the past few weeks.. I’ve had ups and downs, with my project going in all different directions- but at this stage, it doesn’t matter too much. Second year is meant for development, experimentation and finding your niche. I haven’t found mine quite yet. Since I last posted I’ve gone down two different routes:- 1.) Health, fitness, figurative, sketchy work and 2.) Colourful, landscape-like, mark-making, brushstrokes, expressive work. I want to combine the two. Previously, I stated my interest in advertisement and printing- but right now, I feel the need to get out the painting and drawing first- I want to make marks and splash colours everywhere! Then perhaps later on in the academic year I will focus on more precise print work. I also miss sketching people, random people, people on buses, couples holding hands- candid moments. Perhaps this will come up later on too.

In the Professional Practice module, we are also required to carry out a 1-2 week work placement in a relevant place. I’m very interested in a career in creative design/digital design/advertising/direction.. despite having little experience in the field. So, I have a digital agency half lined up so that I can shadow a creative director to see what they do and how they do their fantastic job! I’m also in need of the photoshop/illustrator programs- because if I want a career in digital design or art direction, I need to be familiar with them. Can’t wait to play around with them!

So, that’s where I am now. My head is a little tangled up with all sorts of ideas- but this is a GOOD things. I have many paths to go down.. I just need to decide which one and whether or not I should merge some together in order to make one GREAT path.

Here’s what I’ve been up to:

    

Motivation and Positivity

September 26th, 2013 by

So yet again.. I’m guilty of being a bad blogger.

On a non art-related note.. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot on my plate; Started a new job at H&M (whilst continuing my job at the Ale House), said goodbye to my beautiful bestfriend who moved to Florida, travelled to Greece for a quick holiday, managed to miss my flight home through sheer disorganization (costing me my whole summer savings) and welcomed a new puppy (Rambo) to the family. Currently, I am running the Howell household, as my parents take a 2 week trip abroad- so I have the joys of picking up mountains of puppy excrement, extracting numerous foreign objects from a certain mouth (rulers, stones, plastic chunks, newspaper, moss- you get the idea..)- as well as having the responsibility to care for,medicate and take wee samples from our 16 year old lab, Barney (who Rambo cannot help but nose dive and launch himself at constantly- leaving Barney not impressed at all.) Anyway, as well as having this huge responsibility, I’m juggling two jobs and conveniently starting my second year of Uni.. So, I’ve been very busy, too busy to be a fantastic blogger- heck, I can’t even think to be witty or correct my grammar/punctuation mistakes.

Anyway, lets talk arty things- I’m now beginning my second year.. It’s finally arrived- despite the fact this feels very much like I’m starting my 4th year of University (due to previous wrong decisions..), I’m actually excited. I’m starting to feel the want to paint things, print things, write things- I even said the other day that ‘I CAN’T WAIT to write an essay!’, it sounds crazy.. but I’m itching to get my brain into gear- because lets face it- I’m fed up with the backache of retail and the beer stench that comes with pub work (yes I will still be working for now, but hours will be reduced..). I want to actually THINK and use my brain, not be in robot mode.

Over the summer, the task was to come up with a proposal of what ideas we have for our projects this year.. My previous blog post stated my initial thoughts and ideas- I still very much want to create a project which is personal to me, something that reflects my personality and what things I’m passionate about.. So, I thought maybe I could create motivational pieces of art which give messages to others about the things I think are important in life, like exercise, well-being, health, happiness, positivity (these are all things that I am working on personally in life right now, so it would be great to show my peers my progression and perhaps even persuade them to step back and think about what’s important to them). Right now, it looks as though I want to develop this idea through the means of photography, painting and screen-printing in an ‘advertising’ style. Andy Warhol has inspired me to use bright colours, text and printing to emphasise the importance of the messages I’m trying to put across. To put my own spin on things, I might take photos of people exercising, paint the scene in an abstract unique style (that I developed from first year), then screen print something on the top… not too sure what yet. Obviously my thoughts and plans are slightly clouded now.. things may change.. it’s early stages! Baby steps.

That’s all for now.

Key things are- to keep motivated and stay positive

Approaching Second Year.

July 11th, 2013 by

So.. I’m bad at writing blogs. I always plan to write loads of posts and get really excited about it.. but everytime I open up the ‘New Post’ page I stare blankly at the screen and end up on Facebook. From today onwards I will try to be a good blogger. I need to be more open-minded about things and allow myself to be inspired by everything around me enabling me to write more interesting and regular blog posts.

Anyway, as I have now finished my first year of Fine Art (with quite pleasing grades), I now need to focus on what things I’d like to do for my Second Year project. I’m assuming it will pretty much be all in my hands in regards to the topic I will be focusing on.. So I have a lot of thinking and planning to do. My first instincts were to create a spider diagram and brainstorm all my instant ideas.. I wrote down things like skies, politics, society, music, personality, culture.. to name a few.. but nothing really stood out to me. It really got me thinking that I’m writing down things that I’m not particularly passionate about.. I was writing down very general areas of life than perhaps other people cared more about.. so I asked myself.. What do I like? What do I care about? What am I interested in? And to be perfectly honest (besides the obvious- my boyfriend, friends, family..), the two things that drive me at this moment in my life.. is  my health and my desire to travel. Those two things are what make me content and excited for the future. So, perhaps I could focus on one of those or even find a way to merge the two together?

I want this project to define me and to show others what makes me who I am and how I intend to make the most of everything I can. I want to try and transfer my interests, my opinions, my flaws and my thoughts into a body of artwork, which can show others what epitomises me.

 

But hey, due to my indecisiveness, everything I have just written may be disregarded completely and I might end up painting something ludicrous, like dragons. You never know. That’s what makes Fine Art so exciting.

 

Those are my thoughts for now.

Hello

April 30th, 2013 by

My name is Emma, and I’m a Fine Art student at the University of Gloucestershire. I’ve pretty much just finished my first year and I’ve decided to set up a blog in order to show some of my work and track my development. It’s been extremely difficult for me to be able to discover a ‘niche style’ in regards to Fine Art because prior to starting the course, the ‘scientific’ side of my brain made me attend (then drop out of..) two other Universities studying two very different and unrelated subjects (Psychology and Forensics). So, as you can probably guess.. I’m a very indecisive person, which causes a lot of inconvenience at times.. (e.g. trying to decide which chocolate to buy in the supermarket.. which is cheaper, which has lower calories, which contains less sugar etc..)- epic faff. From that, you can also probably guess that I’m health conscious.. Yes, I’m an obsessive calorie counter and gym goer.. and what?

Anyway, this year I’ve created a variety of things.. (mostly paintings and drawings) and thanks to the tutors/lecturers here, I’m actually learning quite a bit about different mediums/techniques/styles and most importantly learning how to find my own unique style.. (I’m not quite there yet.. that’s very much IN PROGRESS.) Let’s see how things change in the three years.

 

Below are a few paintings I’ve made this year. First two are acrylic paint on canvas and the second two are ink on canvas. I’ve focused a lot on people and cities.