My third unit with the OCA, and the final one of my first level.

What can I say about myself at this point? Drawing Skills, and Practice of Painting, were very enjoyable and I definitely learned a great deal but I found I rarely had the time to let my learning gel — to really settle in and change my way of working. This last summer while the OCA transitioned parent institutions, I had a number of months off from studies during which I could pursue my own paths.

Here, during this undirected time, I found myself going back to what I had learned in those units, revisiting and reconsidering. I could see my approach to paint and drawing had shifted: I now rarely work in charcoal, or graphite, but almost exclusively in colour. Most of my drawing comes in the form of chalk pastel work during life drawing sessions, and here it verges into painting.

Another area of focus for me is to work through my process as it relates to oil painting. I’m trying to very intentionally consider the effect of mediums, and support preparation, on my method of working. I’m looking for the right combination of tools that will give me the rapid flexibility that chalk pastels do, or at least similar. I’ve hit on it a few times, but I need to work through this methodically so I can turn it into ‘practice’ rather than ‘accident’.

I tend to experiment via constraints: what if I only used 10×7.5cm panels, or what if I cannot use anything but basic primaries, etc.. I’m considering setting up a metronome and only allowing myself to make marks at the ‘note’ — I imagine this will change the type of marks I can make with my brush.

Who am I as an artist? I don’t know. In Practice of Painting I explored my own grief and anger at events happening in my life. In Drawing Skills I looked at my family stories and personal memories. I’ve already been toying with an theme around self image and self confidence. These are all very human, internal, themes — perhaps arising from my comfort working with the human figure. I’m hoping I’m able to find a through line, this year, that I find as fruitful and interesting as my project work in past units.

Going forward, I neglect landscape, and the built environment. I need to spend more time here, visually, and gain some level of comfort with the subject matter.

Paint making with foraged rocks

Recent Works