Alternative Miss World

Contrast: In Colour

For my experimentation work, I want to look at how I can create contrast using specific colour palettes, while also creating a contrast between the materials used. 

I want to experiment further into colour so as to gain additional knowledge into something I have been experimenting with for a while, while using the colours in a sophisticated manner. This then allows me to use the research I have done to create a piece that is pulled together by the colour I have chosen, rather than me just including colour for the sake of it.

I have begun my exploration by looking at artists such as Patrick Heron, who works predominantly with colour to create an abstract representation of the environment around him. I particularly like his piece 'The Brushwork Series' because of the contrast between the yellow and the violet.

Because I had started trying to come up with a sculpture rather than letting myself work freely, I had stopped my progression, and had once again found myself in a slump.

Initially, I had decided to step back and re-visit fine casting plaster, a material I was comfortable with. However, because I was trying too hard to come up with ideas for sculptures, I wasn't actually going anywhere with my plaster work, and was quickly losing motivation.

I also encountered an issue with the plaster while experimenting. I thought I was simply over-saturating the mix of plaster, and that it was completely my error, but I found out that no matter how much I changed the ratio of plaster to water, the plaster wasn't setting, and was even taking more than a week to completely dry. This shouldn't have been the case, but its nature meant that I was still able to work with the material if I didn't like what I was doing. As a result I broke up two of the sculptures I had made, and re-constructed them into something else. The more I played with the plaster, the further away from setting it became.

As I was experimenting with the plaster, and after I had pulled down one of my sculptures, I decided to try and mimic an artist who I had looked at previously in the year: Yago Hortal.

I had been pouring different colours of ink into the plaster, intending to let the sculpture dry, however because the plaster wasn't setting, I decided to flatten out the sculpture. 

When flattening it out, the colours that were originally really high in pigmentation and were really saturated became more toned down to pastel shades, an specific colours became more prominent.

I decided to flatten it by covering it with clingfilm and going over top with a rolling pin. It wasn't as effective because the rolling pin didn't move over the clingfilm to well, and as the plaster started to seep through the gaps, it stops the rolling pin from moving at all.

I really liked the outcome of the piece because of the texture and because of the marble effect created by the colours being pushed about it the plaster. I tried creating something similar by laying the plaster straight onto a board and throwing ink into it, and then rolling over top, but the results weren't the same.
I realised that if I were to do this again, I would have to work very fast if I were to use a good batch of plaster, which would be impractical. One coat plaster dries a lot slower than fine casting plaster, but it isn't as clean looking, and so wouldn't have the same effect.

From here, I started thinking about focusing on colour experimentaiton alone, while still including elements of my sculptural work. I thought it would be best to work on a flat surface, and eventually move onto creating strong sculpture work once I had found my footing.

I looked at creating texture with inks by blowing a mixture of soap and ink onto a page, however the bubbles dragged the ink when the popped, and didn't really leave any texture. I then started thinking about creating reliefs, much like John Ernest.

I liked the idea of creating suble sculpture, as usually I had opted for intrusive sculpture. Working with reliefs would allow me to focus more on the colour side of my experimentation, and gradually build my way back into sculpture. An artist who does similar work to Ernest is Ben Nicholson, although I prefer his paintings to his reliefs, as I like the imperfect and lop-sided nature.

For reference of uses of colour, I found a video on the internet that shows various different uses of colour in film. While I am not looking at film, I felt that it could be useful, as it shows properly how certain colour themes in films are used to convey the messages, or to narrate the story in more depth than using words alone.
As it is my goal to develop my understanding of colour and how to use it to its fullest effect, it shows me how best to use certain colour schemes, brightness and saturation's of colour to best achieve or give more depth to a piece of work.