TRASH/RUBBISH: Week 2
1. Selection of Verb(s) from Week 1. BRUSH, CURVE, MIX, MERGE, STREAK, SMEAR, PULL, SLIDE, STRETCH, SOAK, SPREAD, SQUIGGLE, WRIGGLE, DAB, DOT = layers of verbs.
2. Chosen Drawing from Trash/Rubbish Brief: Week 2. Figure 2: ‘LANDSCAPE WITH GREEN SEA’ Ink/Paint.
Week 3’s goal is to combine Weeks 1 and 2 experiments together. Firstly, I selected my favourite drawing (below) from Week 2’s Rubbish/Trash image: (old mattress and bed base).
Figure 3. ‘Landscape with Purple Heart’. Painting = Verbs from Week 1. BRUSH, CURVE, MIX, MERGE, STREAK, SMEAR, PULL, SLIDE, STRETCH, SMOOTH = layers of verbs.
For this painting, which I titled ‘Landscape with Purple Heart’, (I do love to make up titles!😀) I quickly free-hand drew the same lines and shapes from ‘Landscape with Green Sea’: Figure 2 above. I introduced stronger colours.
Figure 4. ‘Tree Landscape’. Painting = Verbs from Week 1. BRUSH, CURVE, MIX, MERGE, STREAK, SMEAR, PULL, SLIDE, STRETCH, SMOOTH = layers of verbs.
Extending this verb-image process I began by using an ink pen to draw the shapes and lines of the above artwork, yet I simplified by having less lines. Then, using a brush and paint, I used numerous verbs to paint over these lines.
Unfortunately, I lost a lot of my first squiggly verb lines (especially in the left hand bottom corner above), because I layered numerous thin washes of bluey-green turquoise paint. I watered the paint down to a light consistency, so my acrylic paint was more like watercolour.
After using the verbs: brush, mix and merge, by pulling the brush over the linear ink lines, I used the verbs curve, pull, smear and smooth. The painterly effect I do like is how I created these long vertical lines moving from the top of the painting paper to the bottom using the verb: streak. I streaked and streaked, stretching and pulling lightly the paint down over the whole surface. My desire was to soften the whole surface, and to give the painting an overall seamless effect of lines, like rain.
Figure 5. ‘Tree Landscape’ (Close-up 1) Painting = Verbs from Week 1. BRUSH, CURVE, MIX, MERGE, STREAK, SMEAR, PULL, SLIDE, STRETCH = layers of verbs.
Next, I cropped the painting by zooming into parts I liked. It was good to see the deconstructed landscape emerging as just a few lines and abstracted shapes.
Figure 6. ‘Tree Landscape’ (Close-up 2) Painting = Verbs from Week 1. BRUSH, CURVE, MIX, MERGE, STREAK, SMEAR, PULL, SLIDE, STRETCH = layers of verbs.
Figure 7. ‘Moon Landscape’ Painting = Verbs from Week 1. BRUSH, CURVE, MIX, MERGE, STREAK, SMEAR, PULL, SLIDE, STRETCH, SQUIGGLE, WRIGGLE, DAB, DOT = layers of verbs.
For my next experiment using the same ‘Landscape with Green Sea’ image as a model, I used addition and subtraction. I added paint to my ink lines and used the verbs again to brush, curve, swirl, mix, merge, streak, smear, pull, slide and stretch over the linear lines, and in between the shapes and spaces. Then I subtracted by using a dry sponge to wipe some of my verbs off to lessen the paint. This revealed the first layers of colours, which gave it a more 3-dimensional quality.
Next, I introduced new verbs such as squiggle and wriggle, dab and dot on the lower left bottom (originally my imagined sea, and harbour entrance) that meets the landscape.
I worked fast with this painting, because I want to quicken my painting pace. It is just another experiment, exploring mark-making and the vocabulary of verbs.
Figure 8. ‘Tree Landscape.’ Painting = Verbs from Week 1. SOAK, SPREAD, SMEAR, LIFT, LAY, CURVE, MIX, MERGE, BRUSH, STRETCH , DAB, DOT = layers of verbs.
Before starting my outlines I gave a smooth green wash over the whole paper. I introduced some new verbs, adding only small, rough marks with a small brush, instead of creating larger, more obvious lines, or refined lines. I soaked parts of the paper with small amounts of watered down acrylic and gently spread them into place. I dabbed and dotted to continue the lines, and left spaces in between to create a sketchy quick painting.
The subject matter of the rubbish trash has developed from a broken mattress bed photograph, to a painting of a landscape with a sea. Then a more simplified linear landscape arrived. My final experiment has resulted in the landscape turning into a sketchy tree, or whatever the viewer wishes to see. 😀