Visual Illusions//Still Life

I have been reminiscing about my foundation course and looking through some old work, so I thought it would be good to post about it and start writing about my work again. This work was produced in the second stage of the foundation course, where we were given a few briefs to choose from. I was most interested in the 'Visual Illusions' brief, as it was the most 'fine-arty' and would allow me to explore in more depth the way in which I liked working, using a subject matter but manipulating the materials used to turn it into something more interesting and not at once obvious.
I decided to work with a subject matter that is very traditional, yet simple, to allow myself to show what I wanted to show, 'Still Life'. Over centuries artists have used still life as a way of presenting fine observational and painting skill, usually in a very true to life manner, where the objects in front of them were reproduced exactly as they saw them. I wanted to add a twist to this and turn Still Life from something very traditional to something a bit different and more thought provoking. Artists use everyday objects in their Still Life works, for example the likes of Cezanne and Juan Sanchez Cotan painting mainly fruits and vegetables, so I wanted to stick with this everyday theme and use simple objects that I found around me. Turning the mundane into something  much more interesting.
At the start of the foundation course we did a short Still Life project to work on our drawing and observational skills. It was during this project that I found (with thanks to my tutors) that I had an interesting observational and drawing technique, and that I often didn't use perspective or 3 dimensions as a main feature in my work., much more like Patrick Caulfields work. This was another reason I chose to work with Still Life in my Visual Illusions project, my way of observing and recording my observations would allow my work to look 'quirky' (as my tutors often called it) and thought provoking.
I love using oil paints and strong colours in my work, which also added a different and not so traditional look to my work.
Throughout the project I produced a large A1 book of observations  using oil pastels, and a series of painting and prints in different materials, as well as research and photograph books to back up my ideas and research.
I was extremely pleased with the project, as I think I achieved everything I wanted to achieved, and it was the project where I really felt myself starting to grow as an artist and change as a person. I started to be more willing to explore and research and more open to other peoples ideas and ways of thinking, after numerous deep and meaningful conversations with my tutors. I felt a little unsettled up to the start of this project, but this project really helped me settle in and, without wanting to sound cliche, find myself.

Oil paint

Acrylic paint and biro

Monochrome paint and biro

Colour Monoprint

Monoprint

Monoprint