So, what do I say, as I type with a sliced open finger resulting from one of my pieces falling off the wall yesterday - that I need some major improvement as far as my professional practice goes! It's true, but trying to square up 13 pieces into one large piece is easier said than done. This time our project was headlined, "Around the block". So me being me, I was inspired by the dirtier parts of Edinburgh. For some reason, the space under scaffolding intrigued me - goodness knows what people thought as I huddled underneath the scaffolding, hoodie on drawing madly. The first week I did a large painting of the scaffolding, but to be honest, I didn’t have enough information and it just didn't work. While I learnt a lot from it, I thought next time around it would be better to do smaller pieces to make up a large piece. I went out again the next week, felt the need to draw some people, so asked a couple of construction guys if they were okay if I sketched them and the scaffolding for a couple of hours. They were fine with it, I think, but I am sure they felt a bit uncomfortable after a while. Who doesn't, when you're trying to work and someone is looking intently at you! :)
Inspired by Jenny Martin, a local Edinburgh artist, who had a print exhibition at Leith School of Art recently and who likes using fluorescent colour in her work, I painted the ground of the boards in fluorescent yellow and orange (representative of the bright yellow of the construction workers jackets and the orange of the traffic cones). I think this especially freaked out my tutors who thought, I am sure, "Kirralee, not again!" as I have a tendency to pitch my work at the very bright end of the spectrum. I was told by a fellow student yesterday that the colours (when it was purely 13 bright fluorescent boards) were painful to look at, but after all, I am from Australia and the sun is very bright out there, so I honestly think it has influenced my tonal views! :) Anyway, here are a few images, from sketchbook to my final piece, which is currently showing at our first year exhibition at Edinburgh College of Art.
