Part 1 - Project 1 - Ex 1

Expressive lines and marks

For this exercise I'm required to capture a feeling and make marks evocative of the emotion I am experiencing.  I have been given three feelings to work with; joy, calm and anger and I have to think of a fourth one of my own.  I have made four drawings for each emotion.  My work is on 110 gsm white paper.

Calm

I love music and it helps to create a feeling or mood so Mozart accompanied my drawing.   I am quite a calm person (my name means peace) and love the tranquility of my country home so I was very content to draw "calm".  It is a happy emotion.

I imagined bubbles floating on a breeze and doodled to music using pencil crayons.
I don't think this hits the mark; far too constrained.

I used a pastel on it's side and just swirled freely.
It reminds me of the ribbon gymnastics I've seen recently.

I used my viewing frame again and the images remained calm and peaceful.  I like the way the pastel skims the paper leaving a considerable amount of white showing.

This is less successful.  My idea was to use pastel again and see what would happen if I wet it then dragged a feather through it.  I thought it would give an ethereal quality.  My lines were too thin and strong and although the feather worked to an extent I really wanted more blending.

Pastel -  wetted and marked with a feather

Feather marks

Feather marks

Gentle, bubbling sea using pastels with some conte in the background

Isolating images works well ...

...and retains the calm

Images going through my mind while I was working on this were of the quietness of my garden (very important to me), the sea and general feelings of summer and being warm and comfortable.

Joy

Whilst I was thinking of "joy" I played Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto and it worked a treat.

Conte crayons laid flat and twisted remind me of dancing and twirling

Joy sometimes just erupts and I tried to capture it in wax crayon

Vivaldi reaches a  joyous crescendo with charcoal

Reacting to music with Sharpies

This image responded to the use of a viewing frame and created several independent joyous images like this one:

Using a viewing frame to create dynamic joy.
 Negative shapes are important here.

I was aware of being really happy while I was working on these drawings.  I found myself reacting to the music and its exuberance.  Sweeping motions seemed an obvious way to make joyful marks. Words like bursting, fun, laughter and dancing came into my mind and most of all I wanted bright colours that my instructions denied me.

Anger

The third emotion I was given is anger and it is probably the most difficult to conjure up on a warm summer day when I am happy and I have just looked at more positive feelings.  I've tried thinking of things that make me angry like the conflicts in Gaza, Syria and Ukraine but I can't separate out the sadness right now.  I don't feel ready for this just yet.

Two days later...

I've realised that my difficulty wasn't really with accessing "anger" but with the media I was considering to express it.  Once I started thinking imaginatively it got more exciting.  I decided to use black acrylic paint (watered a little) and soak balls of rolled newspaper in it.  The idea was to throw them at my paper from some distance and with force.

Angry - newspaper fragments are stuck  on the middle right

My pigment wasn't really dense enough and the newspaper began to disintegrate on impact but the general idea of forcefulness seemed to work especially if parts of the image are isolated.

Next I bound together some strap like leaves of a plant that I anticipated would make a whip like mark.

My "brush" was about 75 cm long

I dragged it though my watered paint and whipped my paper very hard.  I thought of the protagonist in my current book and I think this shows how I feel about him!

White paper whipped with leaves

A particularly angry snip

My next idea is a bit of a change from the way I've been working.  I began by painting my paper black and  I gathered some foam and a sharpening steel.

My paper, foam and sharpening steel

I put the paper on the foam and stabbed at it from the back repeatedly and got a variety of marks.  The paper creased with the force I used, creating texture.

Using aggressive, stabbing motions

An oblique angle showing how the texture of my page changed

I think this is quite successful.  Whilst the holes made by the steel show anger it is the creased paper that clinches it.

Anxiety

Before I retired I worked with people who exhibited chronic anxiety and described it it many different ways and I think that is bound to impact on my images.  I found that some of my work was tightly controlled and hard edged; it looks "afraid".

Spiky, controlled and forbidding in black felt pen.
  I've no idea which way is up.

Charcoal covered paper with smeary shapes made with a putty rubber.
Nothing is distinct; there is no clarity.

The next one looks quite angry and in my experience anger and anxiety often go hand in hand.

Anxiety that has tipped over into anger.

The viewing frame probably captures more anxiety than the whole image

I was surprised that I could depict anger so readily under the guise of anxiety when I couldn't do it in its own right!

My final image for anxiety doesn't really fit the brief very well.  I wanted to use my new drawing inks. It's probably over five decades since I used ink so I wanted a bit of a try and thought that the harshness of black ink and small nibs might work.  I underestimated how hard I would find it to use the pen and I got cramped shapes.  I certainly need to practise this particular skill before I need to use it for real.

Anxiously trying out my pen and ink!

My tutor has encouraged me to investigate the effect that sound can have on mark making.  She gave me this link
             http://www.mefeedia.com/watch/40147195

The recording shows adults of various ages making marks in different ways but always to the accompaniment of sound made by another member of the group.  One lady described her amazement at being able to lose herself in such an activity.

I've also learned about synesthsia.  This is "a neurological phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

An article in the Telegraph (10.06.06) talks of Kandinsky's probable synesthesia.  It is an interesting piece of writing that somehow makes Kandinsky's work even more vibrant.  It seems there is some debate about synesthesia but the main thing I deduce from the article is that someone sensitive to colour in art is almost bound to be very aware of the colours of music and be influenced by them in their own discipline.  There is a list of significant length towards the end of the article highlighting other "amazing technicolour dreamers".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3653012/The-man-who-heard-his-paintbox-hiss.html

This has been an interesting exercise that has prompted some quite deep thoughts.  For instance it's much easier to conjure up the more pleasant feelings than of anxiety and anger.  Anger particularly needs a bit of aggression to get it to work.