Unintentional Artwork

The idea of this work entitled 'Unintentional art work' is that it speaks exactly of that. There was no preplanned idea of this proceeding to become a work rather such an arbitrary process. 

By using this board as a surface beneath the construction of 10 experimental canvases, where constant exploratory gestures of mark making are concealed with intimate details and affection to figurative elements and more superior overwhelming freedom and energy created through arbitrary gesture. 

This work contradicts any attempt to mimic process driven ideas rather is the result to the process of these exploratory works including pouring on paint, scraping off paint and manipulating the surface composition causing slippages and excess paint disposed onto this board. 

I think this work essentially becomes so successful because it is not process driven ultimately being unintentional and derived from any artist presents in the work.

Inspire Me

Throughout the year 3 presentations last week I was instantly inspired and provoked to change or fundamentally develop my territories of my art practice. 

Social networking was used in a few presentations through social networking precisely but touched and interlinked through other topics being such a broad extensive conversation. 

The key idea is that social media is changing the way we view ourselves and the world that surrounds us and humans are changing with it. Giving ourselves new names, new faces and a false sense of security as the anonymity of the internet masks a morphing layer to reality. As always being an interest through such a relevant and challenging concept in my own life trough the play of social media, I feel that this would drive an on-going extensive art practice for the year. 

To keep developing this idea I want to to explore the boundaries and find ways to execute this into my art practice. Through implementing into ideas I have already initiated this year I feel I have a good starting point for a exploratory and engaging art practice. There is extensive conversation around social networking that relates to the every day, how we interact and the collapse between art and life.

So my concept is to implement my figurative elements into a starting point of precise detail and execution of the figure itself. Through layers and layers of gestural painting over the precise truth of the human figure evolves something much more abstract, something no longer definable as a figure will become the work. This idea I am ultimately trying to mimic layers of untold truth and loss of identity, through the gap between reality and perception through creating ourselves into something completely abstract, which I am trying to illustrate through my work.

Looking at how I will execute this I will explore possibilities of using photographs rather than the end artwork to show the process, or maybe not, maybe I will leave these layers out for the viewer to distinguish the ideas?

Or the relationship between foreground and background. Transparency and opacity. Through layers allowing viewers to define the essence of the work under these multiple layers?

I also had thought to how this idea of social media is relevant through painting process, and how I could use relevant materials to illustrate these ideas through animation or photographs for example of the process of the work rather than the work itself which would be read completely different to the viewer.

These are all possibilities I am wanting to explore.

Painting Concepts
 Last Thursday we talked about Painting Concepts and a few interesting key ideas brought to my attention of ways I could go about research and executing my work to portray and illustrate these ideas successfully.

- The first key idea was that humans have the ability to discriminate. In your brain you can cancel out and correct things with the knowledge of the world that surrounds us.

- This idea of concealing out could be an interesting concept in this work in terms of thinking of changing the DNA makeup of photographs which conceals out information. Just as the gap between truth and reality acts as through social media we have the ability to correct and conceal information about ourselves appearing more desirable or superhuman. Much the same when you alter the DNA of photographs, such as example of exposure, you are essentially loosing the exact original as you have altered the DNA of that photograph no longer representing truth, illustrating my idea of social networking.

Artist that inspires

 120x180cm

 Mixed Media on canvas 180x120cm

Polptych of small canvases 04x158cm 

Cristina Popoivici

Cristina has inspired my similar technique and mediums such as layering and pouring a range of materials. Familiar materials in my own art practice such as oil paint, acrylic combined on various supports, such as canvas, board. Other constant methodology and technique she constantly develops exciting new ways to depict passion, deep conviction, directness and openness in communication within the composition. These attributes in my own experience seeing the works in flesh captivate the viewer long after the exhibition is over. Through her creative process she seeks to find 'new' to reveal and distinguish hidden emotions and give them such tangible form. She manipulates the canvas surface through gestural arcs of colour and building a harmonic layer of vivid colour, line and texture.

Her ambition is to reconfigure and construct abstract elements in a believable way so they essentially appear or become credible. 

These works about which she entitles experimental drawings inspire and engulf my ambition to create a large work made of 20 small experimental works which explode to the eye to intellect, engaging and provoking they eye to drag from one canvas to another.

Points of connection

Looking to develop and explore my practice I want to add inventiveness and ambition into each work.

By building on these foundations of sensation from last year I want to play on the extremity’s of these such as scale and the interaction with the viewer. 

To engage my interest and enjoyment back into my art practice which I feel essentially I lost last year I want to reemerge figures into my work. Without loosing the sensation of gesture, freedom and energy in my previous territories, I believe figurative elements will create sensation and conversation for the ciaos that the gesture creates. By essentially just capturing the essence of figurative elements to let the eye rest and create dialogue between these two completely different controversial approaches to mark making which will hold the structure of my work. I want to explore the boundaries conceptually and technically between figuration and gesture by harmonizing the two approaches, using the subtlety and delicate intensity of detail within the figurative elements contrasting the exploitative, gestural ciaos and often a sense of loss of control the gestural mark making creates. 

Looking at the works above the first one was an exploration of colours generally speaking not used in my colour vocabulary somewhat I tend to avoid. This was my first attempt to challenge recognizable habit within my work exhibited last year. Looking at various new artist I really pounded over the work of Pippa Blake who is concerned with the physical nature of paint and the tensions and dualities created between light and dark, horizontal and vertical, shape and line. Her work has a gestural freedom and energy but a stability of these tensions and dualities mentioned above which illustrate and explore her subject matter of landscape. This work a mimic of her approach to creating a sense of figuration through these dualities of essentially shapes and line in my own work was one that I also explored my own territories of using oils rather than acrylic house paints. The oil have an amazing luminosity and life that the quality of house paints don't portray through comparing to other works so this is something I need to keep in mind when understanding how the viewer will read the work. 

The other comparison to my previous works is the flatness of the surface and the artist presence in the work which many of the others don't have that artist presence as my gestural exploration mark making approach takes the matter of chance into the work. 

The second work is part of an idea of employing small canvases into one large complex composition, this creates a sensations which explodes to the eye and intellects, engaging and provoking by dragging the eye from one canvas to another through pathways of vivacious colour. This idea I am undertaking will be made up of 20 canvases each 250mm x 250mm, which gives me the potential freedom to create each piece as an experimental drawing but unified with the other canvases. Each piece creating an intimate experience with viewer to draw the eye to detail and figurative elements which hold purpose and conversation for the ciaos of gesture. 

In this work continuously exploring the boundaries of figuration and gesture I have used photographic images as artist influence Ian Mekeever. These photographic images which cannot be seen apart from the essence of opacity and delicate details of colour and figuration. 

The final work which was my initial work starting this year was a starting point of impulse to get my art making underway. The work which is made up of layers of acrylic on board, oil, and various drawing tools has an interesting opacity and delicacy between these layers of scraped back paint and the charcoal gesture which the viewers distinguish a landscape which may be ironic in terms of the composition of the being landscape also. I do question my self, does this leave any work for the viewer? I have basically told them everything apart from them having an intimate experience with detail. In further developments of my small canvases I have purposely only allowed the essence of this figurative element to peer through so the viewer is not struck with an immediate figure.

Response to these works in year 2 and 3 critiques was highlighting most of these points I am trying to create. A lot of interest was brought to the detail of the small compositions spanning the viewer into the detail which was suggested would be interesting on a large scale but the detail still remaining the same scale becoming an interesting experience for the viewer. Viewers interpretations of the work picked up figurative elements or suggestions of earth art or reminiscing satellite images. A key comment was that I need to find a purpose or convention for the images or materials I use rather than using arbitrary images or materials of impulse as I have been using.

Points of Departure

My art practice is an exploration of trajectories which will start with a point of departure where I was testing out various territories and finding a points of connections. These points of connection will be exploring these territories to find trajectories which project a successful on-going art practice. To keep an ongoing art practice I need to be critically engaged in exploration and finding potential to keep extending, connecting, deepening and opening out these points of departure.

I had previously been focusing on colour and energy after exploring colour as a final brief in 2012.

Playing with colour I wanted to create a conversation to the viewer as 'colour as an event', using a selective field of colour, primarily only one colour and potential various tones. This creating an interesting conversation to how powerful and overwhelming this colour sensation becomes, over establishing any dialogue of field or composition.

I played with extremity’s of both scale and surface as an overwhelming sensation. I played with the materiality conventions such as lean over fat rather than convention of fat over lean to create an organic sensation of the surface displayed to the viewer. This created an interesting play on the viewers sensation of scale to become close and intimate with the work to see and experience these organic fields and to step away from the work and feel the overwhelming gestural scale of the work.

Self directed aims and objectives for 2013

To operate as a critically aware artist

• When do I know I have achieved this?
• What is a critically aware artist?
• How does a critically aware artist look like, how do I become this?
• Why is it important for me to become a critically aware artist?

To develop and explore potential trajectories

• What trajectories will sustain my interest and drive my art practice?
• How will these trajectories continually develop, explore, connect and keep spanning out to create an on-going practice?
• Who will influence and develop my on-going art practice?

Who Am I doing this for? my self or the viewer (lectures, family, friends etc..)?

• Am I creating something for the viewer to find aesthetically pleasing, rather than questioning, challenging and exploring this concept of what aesthetically pleasing means?

Provide critical feedback and to be analytical in critiques, discussions and tutorials

• How do I create a critical framework, and why or how do I have this perspective on the work? How does this perspective raise questions, cause debate, or make evaluations on the work?

Use exploratory drawings to extend my studio practice.

These are some initial objectives for this year which I want to develop to become a critically aware artist when making, discussing, evaluating and analyzing art. Each of these objectives have different potential standpoints or ideas of how or why they are crucial to my art practice. These sub-questions create constant analytical discussion and thought when considering them in context which will essentially help to become more critically aware as an artist.

Blog blurb

My name is Gabriella Challis and am currently an undergraduate student at AUT studying in my second year of BVA.

The direction in my study I am undertaking is Paint and Print, with my objective to find trajectories that will sustain and endure a life long art practice through exploration and growing not only as a person but becoming a critically aware artist.

By incorporating a blog into my art practice I am confident I will become more analytical and critically aware conceptually and technically about my own art practice and the art world that surrounds me.

My blog will consist of constant updates of current work, analysis of these works, ideas and potential trajectories for the year, artists and works that inspire my practice, and general interests of the everyday that intrigue, question myself and my place in this world and also motivates, excites, and inspires me to do what I do or become who I am.