Studio crit

 

I bought this painting into the crit - It was unfinished and still wet from the day before,which wasn't helpful. The intention was to add grey floor and white walls reminiscent of the gallery space - although in hindsight, this would not replicate the scene that the artist found herself in orginially making the work - which I was essentially trying to create. 

This is the first painting with a mattress and I've included the whole figure but I'm annoyed with it because i feel the perspective is off and the arms are too long/ legs are too short. I'd used the projector to scale this and i think its distorted. 

Notes from crit taken by Becky Nunes - below

Ended this crit a little dissapointed that the painting wasn'd doing anything differently to the sculpture - BN essentially still read this as a problematic painting.

I did go back to the painting to add the backgrounds after the crit - and focus in on the face in a similar way to ' A picture of all the children together' .... WIP...

 

 

CRIT NOTES

Figure looks like she is trying to detach herself from her face

Plinth feels more literal and “there”. Body has receded a bit. (Not finished)

Lack of detail in figure makes you notice other elements..

Yasmin prefers the background colour in the new work. Figure more prominent. Enjoys texture of brushstrokes going down under plinth; gives upwards movement to figure, tensions between that and the pulling of the veil.

Lorna gives some context: green has been dropped as no longer trying to connect visibly with discourse on nature/the witch.

Figure could be lying on a mattress.. trying to recreate the life model scenario. This reads differently to a floating figure.

The problematic muse. Tension between agency  of subject and objectification.

Issues around gender norms. 

Thinking of the muse in the moment of sculpting makes it more real, different from the anonymous figure.

Is there a difference in looking at the painting? Yes, painting is more human.

Yasmin: Veil is being yanked, but is also suffocating. Vulnerability. Earlier paintings seem unfinished compared to this one.

Kitt: The more you know, the less vulnerability there is; the idea of showing herself off. So the question of context is important? 

Conversation around the historical context around the muse; problematic figure in history. 

Have you considered not painting the figure? I haven’t, because each time it is different. You only realise new things through painting it; puzzle is to turn into flesh, make veil work, lie on mattress…

Why don’t you paint her as you see her, not as the sculpture? Paint the muse from a photograph? From your feelings and knowledge? Retain the symbolic elements?

Am interested in the sculpture primarily, and wanting to acknowledge the other thing you don’t automatically think about when you look at the sculpture, like the strangeness of the veil. 

Think about the different positions the artist would have taken when casting her? 

Ultimate sign of expertise to see features through the veil in a sculpture

Mirroring of muse and sculptor, enjoying validation

Made in the foundry that Rodin used. 

Restaging would be interesting? Was going to paint out and then scratch back. But this does not shift the content away from the central conversation about representation/objectification/agency

Could you include paintings of some of the contextual/archival material to create context?

Or moving away from the sculpture and heading into more symbolic/expressive territory, as the representational aspect is holding you back. Don’t be so faithful to the material??

Lorna question: do you all find the sculpture interesting?

Kitt; all sculptures are interesting, but can only go so far without the context..