The Last Seminar

A little over due but last Wednesday, to mark our return to the Slade after a rather long Easter break, the painting department held an all day seminar.  Since I've managed to escape showing in a painting seminar all year, I felt obliged to put myself forward to show in the final one of this academic year.


So I got to work and decided to paint from two displays I photographed while I was away in Boston. I wanted to paint on a large scale again as I got an interesting response from my last large painting in the first year's crit. I also had in mind all the ideas I had been reading about while I painted, mainly these were thoughts on the uncanny and how I could paint these displays in a way that makes the viewer feel something isn't quite right about them, or that they can feel as though they are looking at something familiar. I made the effort to keep the colours clean and not paint on wet oils, letting the paint dry before I worked on top of it.


Here are the results...

I was quite nervous about people's responses to my work, but was pleasantly surprised when one tutor commented on how she found them familiar even though she wasn't able to clearly identify some of the objects.  A comment was made on the 'generation' of the objects and I was questioned on whether I was commenting on something about the objectsof desire from the past as they greatly differ to my generation's loved possessions.


It was also suggested I look at some of Martin Parr's work from his 'Signs of the Times' series of photographs, along with Craigie Aitchison's and Winifred Nicholson's paintings.


So looking at their work will be the next logical step for me, not long until the term ends so hopefully I'll get the chance to make some more work before the school shuts for the summer!