Retrospective For Life

These are the last two paintings that I did in the semester prior to my exchange in the States, the first of which was an exercise in transparent/flat/broken colour, and the second a collage project. I was happy with them at the time and I'm still quite pleased with them now but it's strange to see how different they are to my last batch of projects.

3 Sachel Youths, 60 x 84 cm
Oil paint on canvas board
Painted May 2009

Baby Irma, 42 x 30 cm
Oil paint and mixed media on canvas
Painted May 2009

I only started painting in about August 2008 -- involuntarily I might add, since at the time I was only interested in the 'drawing' portion of my Drawing & Painting major. That semester was an exercise in brutality, too, as we were forced through the monotony of dozens of still lives and technical exercises, the results of which were predictably abysmal.

But over the summer break I made it my goal to actually learn something about painting and worked on a couple of canvases for fun (it also happened to coincide with my need for an artistic portfolio for my exchange application). Here's an early example:

Lupe the Fiasco, 42 x 30 cm
Oil paint on canvas
Painted January 2009

I look at this now and it seems so rudimentary. But at the time it was a huge breakthrough for me -- I was actually having fun while I was painting. One of the best pieces of advice I ever received from a teacher at art school was, in response to my whining about how I wasn't used to handling a brush, to paint as if I was drawing; to make the medium one that you were familiar with. That's probably why all of the above paintings are characterised by these bold linear outlines. Eventually, I progressed from a paint-by-numbers approach to something with a little more tonal variation and textural qualities. And these days, I feel like I don't need that crutch anymore.

It's surreal for me to see the exponentional difference in my paintings and approach to the medium from this time a year ago. Technically, I feel a lot more confident, and aesthetically, a lot more willing to experiment. It's definitely encouraging. Because as much as I learned and grew in 2009, I'm greedy enough to want even more this year.