Frankenstein Project//London

The project we have been set to complete during November is based on art work and exhibitions we saw in London. The idea is to take ideas, inspiration and techniques from artists and pieces of art work that we liked from our trip. My favourite exhibitions were the Late Turner at the Tate Britain and Tracey Emin at the White Cube gallery, so since we returned I have been thinking of ways I can combine these two very different artists and creative processes to produce a piece at the end of the project.

I have decided to use the subject matter and techniques seen in Turners late work, with strong colour, light, nature and landscape, combined with Tracey Emin's ideas of identity and self-acceptance. I am going to use photos I have taken from Park Hill in Sheffield over looking the city and paint in the style of JMW Turner using both watercolour, acrylic and oil paints to experiment with the effects the different paints have on the colours and light produced. I will use this location to link with Tracey Emin's idea of identity that is shown in a lot of her work. Having just moved to Sheffield and started to settle in and discover a new life here, I feel it is a big part of my identity, so it is only appropriate to use in this project. This also links to the other drawing project I will be working on where I am working with memories, nostalgia and identity.

Today we had a painting workshop as part of the next step of our course. We experimented with oil paints, painting on primed paper and MDF board, using turpentine to experiment with using thick and thin paint. The workshop was very helpful in decided what to do for the Frankenstein project and where to take it. I used to paint a lot during A-Levels and my Art Foundation, but since moving to Sheffield and not having much time or space to paint I haven't painted nearly as much as I would have liked; so this workshop has definitely inspired me to keep painting and mainly use painting in this project.

Park Hill

Primed MDF board and paper

Charcoal drawings to mark out subject matter before painting

Palette with mixed oil paints

Oil paint thinned out with turpentine on paper

Oil paint applied thickly to MDF board

Another artist that I am going to try and incorporate into my project is Frank Auerbach, who's work we saw at the Tate Britain. Auerbach paints with oil paints applied extremely thickly to a surface to create a fascinating texture. I love the thickness of the paint and the texture created by this technique, and I love oil paint so I would love to create a piece like his.

Auerbach