Critique of Sculpture Painting

At first I was quite apprehensive about tackling an object this large. However, I was made more confident by the fact I enjoy objective work and especially painting.

When I have tackled objective pieces in the past, I have always made lots of sketch references and often detailed drawings of the subject before beginning the painting. However I was conscious of the time limitations with this so I began by doing a rough charcoal sketch onto the unprimed canvas and then using it as a guideline for the painting. I also took a photograph to work from at a later date.

In many ways the experience of painting large scale was similar to any style of painting. As you work on a smaller section however, you have to be aware of the painting as a whole. It is much more pleasing when you stand back from your work to see the pieces collaboratively. I also feel you get a fresher eye and much more freedom with larger pieces, because you are forced to move back and survey your work much more regularly.

The surface was extremely hard to work on but on reflection I think it may have made us work more fastidiously. Indeed, the frustration itself, made us more likely to step back and view the work as a whole.

The sheer amount of white oil paint I have gone through- two tubes and counting – and all diluted with one bottle of linseed oil, really is incredible but then I suppose, so are the works in progress.

I can see that making us not just put paint to the usual surface made us “think outside the box” as it were. It definitely opened my eyes to the various ways of making a painting.

At one point Laura told us that she didn’t feel any of the paintings were complete. An interesting point and one that refers back to the Berger essay: “once in a Painting”. In the essay Berger states that a picture is finished “not when it finally corresponds to something already existing – like the second shoe of a pair – but when the foreseen ideal moment of it’s being looked at is filled, as the painter feels of calculates it ought to be”.

Although I think probably everyone felt that their paintings were not finished themselves, it does make a worthwhile point; Do the artist and viewer always have the same view of when the picture is complete. Obviously here Laura had an advantage that she knew what we were aiming for, what our starting point was, as well as her own mental preconceptions of what the pieces should look like, but I just wonder if I’d have seen, say, Edvard Munch’s “Scream” all the way through it’s development, if I’d have preferred it at a different stage.