I wanted to see if more of a unified pattern would emerge by layering multiple photos looking up at the canopy in the same spot but just rotating the camera.
There doesn’t seem to be too much of a pattern, but it does look more uniform than the single photo. I might try sketching it. AHH
I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing but I’m keeping going with it.
First set of drawing done here in the woods outside of LICA. I’m really familiar with these woods, I do a lot of my painting and drawing here, and so space is familiar.
I also went to a woodland near my house – somewhere I’ve never been before! I found it refreshing to be in a new space, and I found these four trees that made a perfect canopy-dome shape. I want to return to that space again.
I spun the camera around at the end of the video because I wondered what shapes and pattern would be made if I took an image of the trees on a long exposure so that the spinning blurred. I want to try this idea digitally, I might be able to find a pattern that I could use in a sculpture. Let’s see..!
Sculpture as a tool for my paintings.
My paintings have a focus on the dimensionality of the structures. After seeing Cassell’s sculptures, I see the potential of using sculpture as a tool to create 3D structures that tie woodland canopies and cathedral interiors together.
These 3D structures can then be what I base my painting structures on. This has the potential to make my paintings far more informed, refined and dimensional than before. But it will be a challenge since I don’t have much experience with working in 3D.
I need to consider what material would best suite my intentions.
Page comparing air drying clay and ceramic clay:
https://www.susiebenes.com/blogs/news/the-5-key-differences-between-air-dry-clay-and-ceramic-clay
Air drying clay seems appropriate for what I am doing. As long as I make a solid armature to support the clay, I don’t have to worry about the dangers and technicalities of firing and ceramic clay, since this term is short I want materials I am more comfortable with!
Also air drying clay can be reworked and rewetted multiple times, which means I can play around with ideas.
Page about the ‘armature’/ support for air-drying clay:
https://www.susiebenes.com/blogs/news/88058691-sculpture-foundations-i-constructing-a-solid-armature
^suuuper useful page
This image from that link made me realise how I can make delicate shapes using these kind of supports, and then adding air drying clay on top.
I think this could really work and I’m excited about the potential.
Next I need to do think about designs for these sculptures considering a number of things:
– woodland canopies – drawings of these en plein air – in ink, pencil, charcoal…
-cathedral interiors – drawings of these inside a cathedral – Lancaster one probs – again in ink, pencil, charcoal… whatever fits
– the artist Cassell – what was successful about her work in relation to what I want to achieve.
– the artist Emma Kunz (Serpentine Gall. exhib) – drawings inspiration for shapes, how could they be translated into 3D?
– what is technically possible
– what is time wise possible
OKAY.
I saw Cassell’s solo exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery over the easter break, called ‘Eclectica–global inspirations’.
Inspired by geometry, architecture, natural forms and foreign travel, she creates deeply carved forms in unglazed ceramic, bronze, stone, wood and cast glass.
http://manchesterartgallery.org/exhibitions-and-events/exhibition/halima-cassell-eclectica-global-inspirations/
One piece particularly caught my attention, this was Noir Rythm 2018:
http://www.halimacassell.com/piece/58c154ae51d21/Noir-Rhythm
The bowl shaped structure reminded me so much of dome ceilings in cathedrals I immediately wondered how I could think about her work in relation to the structures in my paintings.
My structures so far have been pretty simple shapes, but what would happen if I pushed the shapes in this direction? Using more specific geometric shapes that create more dimension and could resemble cathedral architecture better than previous shapes.
It’s fascinating to me that these simple sketches turn into such complex three-dimensional shapes. There were a few more sculptures from the exhibition, and more from her website that appear to me as these dome shapes. I am wondering what qualities make some of the sculptures more ‘dome-like’ than others.
SEMA
Dimensions: 24′ Dia
Hand carved, unglazed stoneware clay
http://www.halimacassell.com/piece/58c168d8ca622/Sema
MAKO
Dimensions: 18 inch D x 4 inch H
Mako, Hand Carved, unglazed, stoneware
http://www.halimacassell.com/piece/58dd327ff41f7/Mako
They all have these qualities which make the sculptures appear to me like architectural cathedral domes:
– bowl shaped
– always a point that recedes furthest into the bowl, where the shapes also meet at a point.
-shaping on ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ of bowl shape, like the inside and room of dome.
– no pigment added onto sculptural material, only light and shadow creates varying tone and dimension.
These sculptures have the possibility to be posed at an angle to be drawn from, since Cassell works on both the ‘outside’ and the ‘inside’ of the bowls shaped sculptures. It makes me wonder whether I should play with making some three dimensional structures that I then use in my paintings?
To begin, I want to do a series of drawings based on these sculptures, and then see where that takes me, maybe apply these shapes to canopies and cathedrals drawing en plein air.
