I anticipated a brief like this all year, and what a perfect one for me to end on. Working from images is something I do often, but processing images in this format was new to me. I enjoyed the process much more than I thought I would, as at the beginning of this brief I believed it would be hard for me to depart too far from the original images. Looking at my final pieces, I didn’t abstract them too far as this isn’t how I create work.
Creating work for this brief was therapeutic for me, and I’m quite proud of how these five short weeks have changed the way I view painting in regards to the marks made, the consistencies of medium used, and exactly what I choose to paint and why. Surprising myself, none of my third-stage “resolved” pieces work with watercolor, as this is the medium I tend to use. This is partially due to the materials I chose to paint on, as none of them would have taken watercolor the way I wished. The surfaces I chose to paint on were all new to me this year or this brief, as in high school and before uni I was very much an on-paper artist. When watching the first block of painting I was excited to use wood, and I’m happy that my pieces using it turned out how I planned.
Initially I believed the first stage of this brief to be not too useful in the long run, but I quickly realized that abstract marks can influence my usually subject-based works in interesting and explorative ways. This brief was all about exploring and strengthening my painting practice, and I am excited to continue this next year through my major and minor classes.