Independent Project
Influences:
For my artwork, I was inspired by the Group of seven. Specifically Lawren Harris’ painting Mountain Forms. His style is smooth, simple and typically monochromatic. What really piqued my interest about this piece was how smooth it looked, all of the colours were defined but flowed so well. I tried to incorporate that into my piece. Something unique to my painting is the texture of it. I was inspired by real mountains and their rocky plains. Although Mountain Forms was my main source of inspo for my colour pallet, I also took from the weather outside while I was painting it. I could see the dark cloudy sky outside and the colours I choose reflected that.
Main idea:
The main purpose of my art piece was to experiment with new techniques. I wanted to go outside my comfort zone and branch out. I enjoy trying new things and taking risks. This project was definitely a risk because building the texture was tedious and time consuming and was not guaranteed to work or look good. I wanted to do a piece with a mountain because their rocky plains are also unpredictable. This connection between the medium and focus of the painting is the main purpose. This connection is meaningful because it adds a tad of realism to a more impressionist style. The viewer should be engaged by their surprise once they notice that my painting is more than
Steps to completion:
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Sketch Mountains: I first sketched what I wanted my mountains to look like onto my canvas
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Build mountains: I built up the 3D mountains by taping tissues to the canvas
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Primed the mountains: after all the texture was on the canvas I primed it with Gesso. I did this because Acrylic paint wouldn’t sit very nice directly on top of paint
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Painting the sky: Before painting the mountains, I first painted the sky. I did this first because it was the background of my painting- which is always a good idea to do first. I used black, white and cobalt blue in the sky. I used a flat tipped bush, and used the colours all together- not fully mixed to add depth. Then used a wet sponge with all three colours again to add more definition that looks like clouds, or snow.
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Painting the mountains: I used the same technique of using all three colours but not completely mixing them. I then added shadows and highlights in the peaks and crevices to give a more realistic look.
Artist Statement:
The initial idea behind my artwork was to have the canvas landscape style and to have wider mountains rather than taller. I also had planned for the painting style to be more similar to that of Lawren Harris’ Mountain Forms, and have it be monochromatic, in all greys or blues. But the project evolved, I accidentally started my mountains on the canvas portrait style, I wasn’t inspired by a monochromatic style anymore, and when I tried painting in Lawren Harris’ style, I just couldn’t get it to look similar in any way. Despite all of this, I still think I completed my main goal of this project: achieving the right texture for the mountains. I really only cared that my plan for building up the mountains worked, and it did. With this in consideration, I do think there are some things I could have done differently. I wish I had stayed with my original plan to make the painting monochromatic. I think this would have given a more sophisticated look and looked more sleek. I also wish I hadn’t added the snow/ cloudy area in the sky. I personally think it just looked a bit messy, as it clouded over the other colours in the sky. Although, I do think that the mountains were done fairly well. The highlights and shadows make them look even more 3D and they really are the star of the show. WIth all of this in mind, I definitely have some takeaways from this month long project. I learned to not be afraid to take a risk and try something new, because it might turn out good. I also learned that I need to give myself more time if I ever want to use the same method to build texture. I had to take this project into my own time.
Materials:
- 1 Canvas
- Painters tape
- Kleenex Tissues
- White, black, and cool blue acrylic paint
- Sponge
- Gesso
- Exacto Knife