Painting on Destruction by People/Decay

I wanted to portray decay in a painting as i thought a painting was the best form of media to show decay. I also wanted to incorporate the idea of how people build things just to break them down. To do this i slashed a canvas and ripped it in such a a way that the canvas material was crumpled up but not completeley taken off. I then attached another canvas underneath it where i painted on bricks and also painted the bricks onto the canvas frame from the first canvas. Then i painted the crackling of the paint onto the crumpled canvas in green and red-orange to show a contrast in the colours. I wanted to have the bricks underneath the decayed paint to show how the decay has taken over the bricks.

Wood

One day while walking into college i noticed branches that had fallen on the road and were flat because of cars that had driven over them. I thought this was interesting as it sort of represented the way that people take nature for granted and rarely take it into account. I collected quite a bit of it and dried it out for a couple of days. I did struggle for a while with ideas of what to do with all the wood. I had an idea of sticking all of it together and then varnishing the wood to create an image and after I had stuck all the wood together I realised that it wasnt very visually appealing to me. So i started working out different ideas and the one that i settled on was a painting on canvas where the wood represents a rotting city. I used black, ultramarine and white but then decided that it was too dark and didn't compliment the wood so i painted over it in brown, yellow,white and ultramarine. I then stuck the wood on in such a way that it looked like the viewer was looking down a street and i made the wood smaller as it went in towards the centre of the painting to add perspective.

Peeling Card

I was inspired by the way paint peels off of objects over time due to weathering and the elements. From this I decided to get card and peel off the overlayer to reveal the whiteness of card underneath. On one piece of card i peeled off bits in such a way that it looked like cracks in wood. The overlayer i painted blue and then i chose a complimentary colour to paint the underneath.

On the other piece of card i designed a small city and peeled off architectural details like windows and bricks and underneath the city shows the way that it is rotting the earth underneath. I showed the rot in how the way paint cracks on wood.

Prints

I decided to do some printmaking so i chose a design that i took from a photograph of a gate at Kate O'Brien's House. I did many prints on different materials and in different colours. I decided to isolate the centre of the design so that it was a circular design and i did approx 150 prints as I intended on doing a hanging fixture or a chandelier. The base colours were red merging into yellow and the second print on top of the base was a jade green. I then cunt out the white parts. I then played around in the construction and drew out designs in my sketchbook to decide what design was most appealing and viable. I then decided on a fan design and it was quite strong and i liked the look of it.

Photographic Research

I became quite interested in ivy and i photographed it in late autumn (november) so it was full of rich reds, oranges and yellow colours. Ivy interested me because it is a flora that grows out any little nook or cranny on buildings that it can and it just spreads.

Haven't updated for quite a while as i'm not the best with computers. My project went on to a point where i began to look at how decay and dilapidation begins and grows and to be it was because of how people build things up just to knock them down or let it destroy itself  from being exposed to the elements, weathering, grafitti and other causes by nature and my humanity. I tried to come away from this negativity by focusing on colour, texture and the natural design that decay and mould creates.