26th April, Incremental Shift Catalogue and resolving paintings

Put some information together for the Incremental Shift catalogue that level 6 are producing with print bureau.

Read back through the statement that I made for marketing but everytime I look a a statement, it gets a bit clearer around what I'm trying to do. I'm slowly filling gaps in my knowledge in relation to patriarchy and the environment, and my interest in the witch isn't born from a fascination with modern witchcraft - its more to do with the erasure of nature and matriarchal relevance. 

Incremental Shift catalogue statement 

Lorna is interested in the societal impact of patriarchal norms on women and the maternal, and how this may be connected to our growing disconnection with nature.  Her artistic practice reflects her research into the erasure of natural belief systems and matriarchal validity.  Her paintings feature iconography in the form of apples, witches’ hats and apotropaic marks, known as “witch marks” alongside relatable family portraits. This collision of visual language is intended to reference a historical co-existence of belief systems and the emergence of the non-complicit female as the villain, whilst connecting historical ideas with the contemporary world.

Found another article about the origins of the witches hat. 

Finished Spent Fruit -  happy with the outcome.. I could probably keep going and going with this but I need to stop and focus on all of the paintings I have for the exhibition and I don't want it to be too different from the partner painting as it's a pendant.  I have spent more time on it because part of the point of it is that there's beauty in things as they go through different life stages, and nature is just doing its thing - the daisy apple core is still there. 

I've left this painting for a bit as looked really wet but realised today that it's got lots of shine but its actually dry, finished the edges and cracked on.

  

Rewporked the face on this - I just wanted it to have the right tones and to be soft and reflect the expression that I was after.  At one point the eyes were really dark, she needed lids but not pupils, changing the topography around the mouth changes the expression massively but I'm happy with the final face.  

Getting a good photos going to be a challenge - I really like how this one came out because its picked up additional colours in the background but its not true to the painting. 

Happy with the details in the final piece too - took a while to figure out the feet and the legs still look short if I take a photo from the wrong angle - but the shoes are now solid shiny shoes despite minimum detail and I'm really happy with how the hand came out, because its just random paint brush strokes every time I had a colour that I thought would work to pull out a shape that isn't really there in the reference or detailed on the painting.

 

In the final painting I've pulled some detail in the hair back to the front - added a few strands and brought the dark tones back where I'd lost them detailing the face.

Masked sections off in this painting so that I could re work the dress - I wanted some textured brush strokes, and I also scratched sections back with a pallet knife - happy with it but clearly too impatient to let it dry - will now need to tidy it a little.