Aoife O'Neill

For the last two weeks I have been focused on the painting workshops, especially the self portrait ones as portraiture is something I enjoy and I think its an interesting way of capturing a time and telling a story of where that person is at that time.

My Artist Research notebook (A5) for the Story project

Some still life drawings from this morning’s workshop with @eoinmclsad 

Building on what I’ve been doing in the life drawing workshops I tried my hand at a longer self portrait. I used oil pastels as I wanted to focus on using colour. I spent about an hour and a half on it.

This morning I took part in @eoinmclsad ‘s portrait workshop. I wanted to build on what I did last week and I tried out drawing on different materials like cardboard and acetate. In a way I found this week harder as I stood further away to accommodate the larger scale so I had to wear my glasses to see my reflection in the mirror and it was hard not to start with drawing them every time. I ended up really focusing on my nose instead as seen in the pencil drawing.

Here’s a selection of the drawings I did in this mornings painting workshop. We did bits of self portraiture and still life drawing. I used a different mediums including graphite pencils, acrylic paint and markers. I really enjoyed the workshop as it was a nice way to get stuck back in after the break. Doing lots of quick exercises is a fun way to structure studio time and come away with a decent amount of work. I definitely found that the more I drew myself and the objects, the more comfortable I got so I tried to change it up a bit by taking off my glasses and switching back and forth between a jug with flowers and an old lamp.

I made a lino cut with text based around the idea that historically, we gathered around the fire to tell stories. I printed the lino onto out of focus photos of the candle on my desk.

I’ve been saving the matches I use to maybe draw with them and I noticed that they had burned down to different points. I carefully burned some more and then arranged them as photographed here.

I wanted to again do some painting but this time I experimented more with colour and texture. I stuck tinfoil onto my round canvas for its reflective surface and then I put on some watered down gesso so they paint would adhere better. Then I used a sanding block to make some tears and extra texture. Again I didn’t want to spend too long working on this but when I was done I peeled off the acrylic paint that had dried on my palette and stuck it on.

I could have spent hours and hours painting my water bottle but I decided to stop as to not put too much focus on finished pieces. I took some photos and then started digitally editing them. I find this helpful as it gives me inspiration for ways to further explore painting in a way that pushes elements like colour and composition. 

I had some round canvases so I decided to do a painting based on the dented metal surface of my water bottle. The drawing I did earlier is what made me notice how the dents told the story of how I bring this object everywhere with me and how much I drop it. Painting it allowed me to really zero in on the reflective surface.

I was also inspired by Rose Wylie’s use of text in her work and tried to use it to add to the story behind each drawing.

As a start to my research, I have been looking at the work of Rose Wylie. She is a painter yet her works can be quite illustrative and she uses text in an interesting way. I want to take inspiration from her work and apply it to my own project.

I looked at Hazel’s (@k00259005) page and made some quick drawings inspired by the story of their work. The concentric and linear patterns stood out to me and it was really interesting to read about a different way of researching and developing a project. I tried to use the text in a way that reflected the meaning of the words.

Throughout my project I also tried to use movement as a way of creating work.