Venice Fellowship - Findings and Conclusions

The past month has been very beneficial to my practice upon my return from the five weeks in Venice. I have had time to reflect on myself as well as the work that I make and how I take inspiration from the environment, other creatives and my experiences with them.

I have had to submit a short essay detailing my research findings and conclusions, and this has been reflective on my thinking and also the development of my project and artistic practice a month on from returning.

Here is an extract from the essay, highlighting the development of my work.

The critique was very beneficial for me at this critical point, as I discovered that the most central part of this experience has been Collecting - collecting images, thoughts, connections between people, experiences, ideas, and materials. I am now comfortable within this project and within my work as an artist that it is abundantly acceptable to research visually - collecting images, textures, lines, colours, objects now forms the larger part of my practice.

Upon my return, I took some time to solidify my thinking and then got back to working. Initially, I made a small series of Monoprints on Newsprint entitled ‘Laguna’, working from a Drawing I had made looking towards Guidecca at night. It was very dark at the time that I’d drawn, so I focused solely on using a Graphite stick and chalk to emphasise the light. I wanted to relate back to some of the elements within the Drawing, recreating the light/dark contrast, the jagged shapes and swurving lines I had drawn, the water around me. I did this by using only black, water-based ink and continuously laying tissue paper over the top so that I could recreate the positioning of the shapes.

‘Laguna’. A2. Monoprint on Newsprint. 2018.

The final prints came out very well, and the water-based ink reacted different to oil-based, leaving pooling effects on the sheet. But I noticed on the tissue paper, the drawing had become so bold from drawing over time and again that it had it’s own beautiful qualities. This led me to the idea of using tissue paper to layer sketches, prints and paintings onto a support. For example,  ‘Leonardo’ contains copies of my drawings from the Da Vinci Museum and the Polish Pavillion.

‘Leonardo’. Work in Progress. Tissue, Pencil, Acrylic Paint, Pen, Oil Pastel on Board.

This was a very important moment for my practice and this project, as I was able to collect all of my research drawings and find a way to bring them together within my work. The Art works are still in the process of being made but this is a great conclusion to my research project and a new beginning for my artistic practice and I am very excited to continue it.