I really wanted to work on something that wasn't paper and am really glad I did as these cardboard/multimedia paintings are much more exciting than the repetitive ink drawings I was coming out with. It also gave me a chance to work a lot bigger than the paper I was used to so I could really push the space and use bold full arm paint strokes.
A lot of this paint was applied using all sorts rather than a paintbrush like twigs to flaps of cardboard, stones and polystyrene. My favourite effect was from the polystyrene where it dotted and bits broke off and stuck on.
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Link to YouTube video of development of these paintings!
Egon Schiele
I'm looking at Egon Schiele's figurative paintings and drawings because I think he is more the direction I want to take from here. For a while I was comfortable working with the pretty horse form with inks in my A3 sketchbook but I think that is far from where I want to be.
So I'm looking at Egon's work because of his subject. Egon drew and painted people, mostly women and himself but what I find so important about his work is that unlike most of us he wasn't focused on 'societies perceived perfection' when he painted, his works are so organic and real. His subjects are in ways the supposedly 'less desirable' of society. He often drew prostitutes or anyone who would pose for him. He didn't draw and paint to create something that looked attractive and pretty for someone to hang on their wall and admire as a false representation of humanity. He wanted to show the real thing and so some of his work has it's uncomfortable bits that make it so real.
What I also really like about his work is that he uses himself a lot as a subject to draw and paint. He subjects himself to the same treatment as he does the women, so that he isn't exposing just women in all their naked, unmasked by society goodness but does the same to himself. He exposes his true self.
The reason I find this so interesting and relatable to my work is because that is where I want to end up with my work. Even if I don't get there by the end of this project I want to make a step in that direction. I don't want my work to be a pretty representation of the horse I want it to be the real thing. As real as Egon's slightly crude, nude paintings. I want to expose that true side of the horse that man has done so well to cover up and hide with a veil of perceived perfection.
I think theses paintings are one step in the right direction away from perfection and more into abstract feeling of the horse.
