A-Level Art: 'Abuse'

Medium: Oil paints, Varnish and Conte

 This year, I have chosen to go for a topic within violence so that I could challenge myself further. So far it has become one of the most stimulating aspects of defining conceptual art. I looked into the contemporary meanings behind the abused victims and with it studied bruised and injured parts of the body. I felt that instead of painting images of injured faces/ body parts it would be more interesting to look at it from a different perspective and thus putting me out of my comfort zone. Eventually this led me to paint the structure of raw meat (image taken at a butchers) to convey a deep and 'grotesque' image that defines what being abused looks like. Since this is part of my coursework this year, it still needs adjustments and enhancements before it is fully completed. Jenny Saville has been my main source of influence while composing these pieces; I tried to study her impasto techniques while incorporating them into my own work in my own self expressive way. Throughout this topic my main use of media was Oil Paints however I did use a paintbrush for the majority of my work, instead I used a scraper in order to overlap and blend different hues together (creating different tones of red). In order to create drips (which is much harder to achieve with oil paints) I mixed varnish with red oil paint together, this then highlighted the drips and juxtaposed successfully with the scratch marks.

Medium: Oil Paints, Conte and Varnish (95x60cm)

Medium Used: Oil paints + Varnish (to create drips) (95x60cm)

 The Process from the beginning to end was recorded in my sketchbook as shown, I started with a brainstorm to get an idea of what I could go into or enhance. From this I then went onto looking at Artists as shown below, mainly centralized on Jenny Saville.

 Jenny Saville's techniques has been a great inspiration to me, I mainly experimented throughout my book and used different mediums however i focused on using Oil Paints and then incorporating scratch marks on top to create texture.

Medium: Acrylic, Conte, Oil Paints and Aluminum Background for texture

This page explores different mediums in terms of composing a final piece. Because each image focus's on different parts of the human body it allowed me to define different areas and not only focus on one. It shows mediums such as 'Acrylic+ Conte and Oil Paints'. This gave me a brief overview of what I could develop into in terms of media.

Skethbook: My initial idea was to look at moods of the abused victims.

Close up of varnish onto oil paint to show texture

Final Developed piece, this time using Prussian Blue (95x60cm)

As shown, I developed my pieces further during the process of my project as i began to study raw meat in depth and used more inspiration from other artists including Chaim Soutine and Francis Bacon. I also improved the painting by adding texture using varnish on top of the scratch marks and the thick paint as shown in the close up above. (The images taken are not very clear because they are still in the process of development and improvements as part of my Art Coursework.)

Sketchbook - Medium: Acrylic

 As part of development and Inspiration, I looked at the artist, Chrissy Angliker who although is not yet well known has a very dynamic and natural flow with her work which grabs my attention immediately. Her drips (which is a main theme throughout her paintings) have influenced me to show this in my own paintings - thus enhancing the drips on the raw meat.

Sketchbook: (Not Completed) Medium: Oil paints

The blue incorporated into my work has been influenced by artist Chaim Sountine as shown above. I Copied most of his work in order to get the idea of his techniques and then used this as inspiration to develop my work. Soutine has become one of my favourite artists amongst others due to his raw and expressive visual materials and images.