Through my AS work, I used a range of different themes as
inspiration. I chose subject matters such as time and Darwinism, the body and
seascapes. The variety of themes pursued has allowed me to use a great variety
of mediums to express my ideas. For the project of time I used a mixed media
piece with a working clock and Darwin’s ‘ape to man’ to show the insignificance
of this particular evolution in contrast to the extent of time given by
intertwining cogs. I looked at Dali’s ‘Persistence of Time’ and ‘Soft Watch at the Moment
of First Explosion’ to see how others had depicted time in art. I took a
very different path when I looked at the body. Instead of looking at structural
aspects, I instead chose to add cloth to the body and paint in smooth lines,
giving an alternative outcome to my previous work. I attended many life drawing
sessions to improve my drawing and observation skills then developed what I had
done by producing oil paintings of the body and fabric. I concentrated on the
soft lines of both the flesh and the material that I had spent time observing
in life drawing to create Pre-Raphaelite inspired images. I transferred the
skills I have acquired in life drawing to new subject matter. For example, these
skills have allowed me to achieve detailed Biro drawings and etchings of nets
and ropes found in a harbour as part of my seascape work. I looked to the
minute details of the harbour, as well as the larger picture to achieve
seascapes, showing the
contrast between the smooth lines of the ropes, the
geometrical shapes on the masts of the boats and the gentle movement of
the sea. As I have looked at a balanced range of natural subjects and mechanical/structural subjects, through my personal study, I would like to look at the relationship between the two in art history.
