Artists:
George Shaw:
George Shaw is known for his drawings and paintings of suburban areas and mostly depicts the surroundings he saw in his childhood such as pubs, phone box's, blocks of flats and bus stops as well as graffiti done on semi-detached houses. He depicts the less flattering side of England as this offers a detailed study of the changing nature of social housing. These neglected landscapes make us think more as they are based on personal memories. For my work I also want to focus on the less documented and forgotten places in England. I also want to create a sense of memory and try and capture elements of the history the building has. I personally love his style of drawings and paintings as they make you feel like you could actually be standing there and he creates a great atmosphere to the image which is something I also want to do within my work too.
Johnny Joo:
Johnny Joo is a photographer that explore and photographs abandoned buildings that have been overtaken by the natural surroundings. He has taken pictures of old cottages, ferris wheels and schools. I will also be documenting how nature can so easily reclaim and take over the man made structures that where built. This relates to my own work as I am documenting how the building are just left to decay and are slowly being overtaken by the natural elements. He also like to research the history of the buildings that he goes to as he enjoys learning about them as do I. I think learning more about the building past and use is very important as he is documenting this old building almost like it a snapshot of its currents history. Overall I find that Joo's work connects to what I'm doing as he is passionate about not only the history but the afermath of the building being left to decay natural overtime and how these things remain un-used without a use.
Mike Ryczek:
Mike Ryczek is an artist that always wants to dismantle things as this is his way of making sense of the world around him. He says "In most of my work, I’m attempting a semi-realistic interpretation of an imagined environment, employing realism and abstraction in a way that gives the impression of a scene on the verge of collapse" he also says "The ideal result is a faint echo or a total reconstruction of what is observed, anchored by recurring themes of nostalgia". For my own work I also want to use this idea of recreating a reconstruction of the different aspects and parts of the abandoned . One thing I really like about this artist that I will consider when doing my work is the colour palettes he uses. He changes this depending on the piece he is working on. I also love how he creates a sot of atmosphere or movement in his pieces from his painting style. I feel like the way he does this makes us as a viewer feel like we could actually picture ourselves standing in these places.
Kathy Hildebrandt:
Kathy Hildebrandt is a painter who does work based on childhood memorabilia. I Really like the way she presents and arranges these items as they all fit together so well and are smart in the way that she uses the object. For example, the first picture she uses marbles to carry on the image from the magazine cover she painted. She also focuses heavily on using her photography of the things in these arrangement and she makes sure to play around with lighting and chose her background colours. I will also be doing this but more focusing on the natural lighting and natural positionings of the things I find in these old buildings. I will also be using the old documents I find and arranging them in certain ways so that I can work on top of them to capture certain memories/ elements of the past of the building much like Hildebrandt has done with her work. Overall I really like her style and colour choices as well as how she takes the time to compose and set up these images because this is what makes them so eye catching
Sara Landeta:
Sara Landeta is an artist that did a series where she painted birds on old drug/tablet prescription box's. I chose to research Landeta as I really liked the way she used recycled materials that are easily accessible but have a bigger meaning to them. She did an exhibition where she create a series of 120 of these painting of multiple different species and colours. The title of this exhibition was "Medicine as Metaphor". The drug box's represents all the patients that take this medicine to free. The birds act as a metaphor for the patients wanting freedom. In my work for this exhibition project I am also using recycled materials but I'm my case I used found materials from these abandoned buildings to represent and document the history that is contrasted by the state of the building is in today. Landeta also explores the idea of man made vs nature and this is something I am also looking into. Overall her work relates to mine as she focuses heavily on nature being a thing we need to survive and I think this fits well with my project as I look at nature is powerful and reclaims what it once had before.
Caroline Stanley :
Caroline Stanley is an artist that I found on Instagram. I chose Stanley as one of my artists as I really liked the way she used oil paints. She uses a very visually pleasing colour scheme that always fits/matches the piece she is painting perfectly. I also really like the different perspectives that she choses to paint as she normal picks unique or cropped section of trees or forests. This is as well as doing painting that look at these trees from a low angle. Over all her colour scheme and choice of the section that she choses to paint is why I chose her. I found her work after I started doing my own oil paintings and thought that she showed a fresh and unique style that you don't see that often and made me think more about the colours I use within my own work. This has really help me to create more impactful and more visually appealing pieces of work.
Dieter Roth :
Dieter Roth is a German-Swiss conceptual artist that is best known for using bio-degradable materials within in his work, such as food. He created large scale instalments and sculptures that where often made out of foods such as: cheese, chocolate and sugar. He was extremely interested in the structure of decay, for example: the form; play of colour; the natural maturation of things and aspects of decay such as mould. I looked into this artist as I really like his viewpoint and the way he shows decay within his work. H e plays on the idea that overtime this work will change in appearance, shape, colour and size. This relates to my work as I am looking at the effects of all these buildings, companies and objects that have been left to rot and decay overtime and knowing that even a week from when you last say the place it could look very different/change very quickly. I think Roth presents this very nicely within his pieces of work.
Gina Soden :
Gina Soden is a 30 year old photographer. She has a fascination and passion for old ruins and buildings. She has been to many different types of buildings such as : Hospitals, asylums, coal mines and churches. She talks about how finding and searching for these places is makes up at least half of the work process which I would agree. It takes a lot of time and research to find buildings that you can get into without breaking in. She manages to capture the unusual beauty that these buildings hold that some people may not even see if they where looking at the building themselves. Her work relates to my project as I am also trying to catch the beauty of these buildings that not many people see. Most people seeing these building look at them as a waste of space that could be repurposed.
FILMS:
ABANDONED BUILDINGS
ARMY BASE-Driffield
I decided to start, I would use the images that I have taken as reference to start some of my drawings. I first drew the outside of the army base with pencil and from here I used a craft knife to cut out the background. My original plan for this was to arrange rubbings of different shapes and patterns behind. I tried this and did not work out the way I wanted to so I decided it would be better to use blue tissue paper as the background as this way it made the drawing stand out more and made it feel more like the grass was overgrown and overtaking the decaying build. This reinforces one of my themes that suggests nature is powerful and can reclaim what was destroyed when the building was originally made.
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To make this piece more textured and be more boldly out-lined I experimented by using the craft knife to outline the piece scoring the paper. After I did this I used charcoal to rub into these score mark making the piece more textured and more intense in the places I wanted it to be. Overall I did like the piece but not as much as I originally thought I would as my plan for it changed quiet a lot throughout. Overall I think this experimentation helped me decide the thing I did next. For this I edited the pieces with different filters and editing effects to see what different vibes and atmosphere I could create and to pick which one was best suited for my project.
These three pieces/ edits are the ones I liked the most out of the six I did. I like the first black and white one the most mainly because it creates the sense and feeling of the past and time passing. I also think the black and white high contrast effect makes the image look more dramatic and intense making the piece overall more impactful and stand out more than the rest. The middle one I like because it creates a feeling of it being a dark evening. This makes the building seen quiet or even eerie and leaves the viewer knowing that nobody will be in the building anytime soon. The one on the end with different colour squares I liked a lot , mainly because of the feel it gave to the piece. It reminds me of the fact that there are only little sections and components of the building that are left exactly like when the building was in use. I think the different colours show the different tones or feelings that people could have about the building. For example some people may see this building as a useless wasted bit of land and other ( people who remembered and had connections with the building see it as a sad and upsetting feeling as they would have had memories there. Its almost like loosing pieces of their past brick by brick. The bottom two pieces I like because the first one is just a more enhanced version of the original and the second one creates more of a dull and sort of disgusting version of the building. Overall I like these different versions of the piece because they all create different atmospheres and energies to the building.
These test pieces where done on top of rubbings I did on brick walls. This was to create a a more interesting and unique background. I did these rubbings with charcoal which I liked because it gave a less accurate/ looser look . This meant the background wasn't too intense for the picture that i drew over it. However I also didn't like this effect because it created quite a dark background witch in the end made it difficult to see the drawing. Overall I decided that these rubbings/ drawings where not something I wanted to continue doing as it didn't give the effect I wanted or that I thought it would create. This is when I moved on to painting.
Test Pieces
I decided that by doing oil paintings would mean that I could use a more layered effect to create texture. I really liked the overall effects of both these pieces as I made the choice to crop down some of the images I was using as reference and find a more unique and interesting view point of the building. I think by doing this it really made the pieces work as it helps zoom in on some of the smaller details. Overall I liked using and working with this medium and I plan to do more of these paintings. The muted colour scheme i used for this first window piece really fits the atmosphere that I wanted to create and I think this is one of the biggest reasons that these pieces work. I especially like the way I layered and painted the red wall paper and where I used the darker red to create shadow. This is the bit I think was really affective. I will next start doing painting like these on found materials such as drift wood and found materials from the buildings its self.
Oil Paintings:
This is one of the paintings I didn't like so much as I feel like this one creates a more bleak feel to the building. This I like to a certain extent but also think I didn't capture the type of atmosphere that the building has and looks a lot less intense than the other two pieces. I decided to paint this picture as it was off a cleaning product that had gone mouldy. I liked this idea because i thought it was quite ironic and emphasises how much the building has actually been exposed to the elements and its level of decay. Overall I still like the piece but not as much as the two above. I think I would have helped if I had cropped the image and focused more on just the can as this is what I found worked the best with my other pieces and now know that is the way that I want to work on different materials also.
LordLine-Hull
LORDLINE-Hull
LordLine-Hull
Paper/Documents Found
LORDLINE BUILDING- HULL
Scanned in Document Arrangements:
I used the scanner on the printer to create a background for me to do digital drawings on. I thought this was a good way to incorporate the old documents into my pieces in a digital format and it brings back the sense of memories and history of the buildings past. I found that these where almost pieces in themselves and use some of these as final pieces. I then went on to develop these by using a graphics tablet.
What did I do with these scanned in docuuments?
I like the way both of these turned out and love the use of the document here as it is too much or overpowering and I really like the grid lines from the document as it makes it feel more structured and creates lead lines to make your eyes focus on the boat . The next thing I planned to do was overlay these backgrounds on top of my drawings.
I first of all drew out this outline on photoshop based on old images I found online. I used images from when the trawling industry was at its peak. I used black and white to create that sense of past and time passing. I overall this but wanted to add more to this so I used these backgrounds and overlaid it on the parts around the drawing. I liked the way that that this looked .
This image with the boat overlaid on the documents wasn't my favourite but glad i tried it out. I think this piece although not one of best one signifies the past of building fading and being forgotten. I think this almost signifies the decline in the trawling industry all together and the faded memories for the people who used to work inside these buildings on on the docks. The second piece I firstly used my drawing and erased different section of the image such as the sea and the bottom section of the boat. I think that this idea worked but not with my drawing so I decided to use an old photograph and do the same to it.
This is one of my favourite digital pieces . By using the old photograph with these documents I have I think it really reinforces the idea that the building is at the point of no return and will never be used the same way again. The fact that I am using documents found in the building today shows that there is less and less of the history and past of the building and soon there will be almost nothing. Overall i really like the pop of colour that the document has given the sea as this almost showing a peak to the future as it is not in black and white, this just reinforces again that there isn't much time before the building is repurposed .
Old Motel-Scotch Corner
I decided to try and do a few different water colour paintings to see what sort of effect that it would have. I overall really like the way these turned out because although they are softer than the oil paintings I did before. I almost like this muted and delicate style more as it matches this building more. This is because this motel had recently been abandoned so it was cleaner and less decayed. This is why I think that the oil paint was a good choice for the Lord Line building and not this one
The first one of these pieces was done with water colours. I enjoyed experimenting with these as it allowed me to use a more muted colour scheme and build multiple layers up to create a more textured looking effect. I used very minimal colours and kept it really simple to make it more visually appealing and be easily recognisable. Overall I really like the effect that this created but thought it would be good to make this piece in a different medium as I wanted a more textured look.
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The second one I did using the same image as a reference but for this one I decided to do the piece in a more zoomed in section. This piece was done with oil pastels as I really like the texture and layered effect that it created. This is a much heavier looking medium than the water coloured and overall liked the effect it gave off so will be doing more experimentation within this medium on other pictures i have taken.
The oil pastels piece wasn't my favourite but I do still like the textured effect. I don't like this colour scheme as it is a lot brighter than the other two versions I have created with the other mediums. I do still like the overall effect but think my favourite out of these three is the water colour paintings
The piece below is done with filler, I really liked the over all effect that I managed to created , I really like the texture and 3D effect that this medium created. I also like the black and white effect as it creates more of a contrast, which almost make piece more bold and stand out a lot better. I used oil pastels to.
This is a water colour painting I did of a set of light switch's that I found in this abandoned motel. I overall like the water colour effect more on this piece because I think it really fits the object well. I like the way I used more solid colours to create more prominent mark making. I also think that the background really adds to the overall effect of the piece and creates a more dramatic atmosphere. I still wanted to try this in other mediums as I though this would change the mood or feeling of the overall piece.
This piece is also a water colour piece but I decided to outline this one, I think this fits an outline and I think it adds another element to it and making a lot more clean and precise. I think that makes this piece look too neat and doesn't fit as much with atmosphere I wanted to create for this piece.
This is a piece that was also done with oil pastels, I decided to a zoomed up version of of this picture like I did the the other one. I really liked the colour scheme that I used with this piece and it creates a really dramatic and intense contrast . I really liked the overall outcome,
This is also a water colour painting based of my photography from the abandoned motel. I really liked the overall colour colour scheme. Think this piece also really matches the one I did of the light. I think they make a good pair as they are done in a similar style. I also think the background really makes this piece as the splats create more of unique and visually appealing effect that works well with the overall atmosphere of the work. I think the minimalistic colour scheme makes it more bleak and dull looking which fits with the overall feel inside most of the abandoned buildings that I have been in.
This piece above was also done with acrylic paint but I decided it would be a good idea to at least do one piece with a white background as my original watercolour piece was done on white paper. Overall id say that this piece is less impactful than any of the other ones that I did on the black paper. I didn't like this one as much for this reason. I also didnt really like the composition as much as others.
This piece was done on black paper like a few of the others I did but I thought I would experiment by using more white paint to create this sort of subtle shine effect on the bulb. This piece is an extreme close up of the wire inside the bulb as I thought this would give the piece a unique overall look and add to the uneasy feeling that these buildings have to them.
These pieces are done on black paper and I used acrylic paint. I did a few different versions from different angles and some just more zoomed in and cropped down to create a more interesting and abstract effect. For this one I did a more of uncropped depiction but still slightly zoomed in. I overall really like the amount of picture I cut it down to as you can still tell what it is even if you didn't have the original photograph it was based on next to it. I think the black and white contrast of the piece really make the piece bolder and more impactful. I also did all these pieces more messier to make it look more chaotic and to match more of the atmosphere that these abandoned buildings normally have
This piece was one of my favourite out of the four I did. I like this one the most because I think I used a good composition and it has a nice balance between the black and white used. I like the fact that it is really clear what it is. I also like the plain black background as this is what really creates that bold contrast. Overall I think all of these pieces where effective in creating the look and atmosphere. I didn't like the one I did with a white background as it didn't create the impact I wanted to.
This is a picture of these tiles that I saw throughout this abandoned motel. I saw that most of these tiles had lots of weeds, grass and different plants coming through the middle sections almost reinforcing my idea of nature reclaiming and taking back what is rightfully there's. I decided to do this by taking a few of the loose tiles I found near the building . This is almost like capturing a moment of history of how the building was at that current point in time when I went to look around. I really liked the idea of drawing the weeds and plants on it as a way to document the decay and overgrowth within the building. I really liked the way this turned out and especially how I put all the tiles together and first drew out and planned how they would all fit together. I first prepared the surface of the tiles by using sandpaper to get a nice base for the acrylic paint to stick on. I then drew my outline and painted the leaves. I used a white pen to do some random squiggly lines within the big black plants. After I painted everything I then sealed it all in and created/ Brought back the layer on top, which finished it of nicely .
Old School-Mappleton
This is a piece I did in acrylic paint. I did this piece slightly bigger than my usual work work. I decided to try out A2 as this is quite out of my comfort zone. This isn't my favourite piece I have done . I think my colour scheme for this piece works well but if I was to do it again I would have used a more muted colour scheme. I like how messy/rough the painting is at it matches the theme of decay and reflects the actual current state that building is in. Overall I think it was good that I tried working bigger but like the effect of my work on a smaller scale although I will be practicing and experimenting more with scale. I really do like the overall composition that I have chosen for this piece as it capture the room from a unique and slightly zoomed up section. this piece is not like a lot of my others as its a lot more free and messy which I kind of like , but do still like my smaller neater ones more.
These are not my favourite piece that I have done but These shoes are based of the photography from the abandoned school, I like theoil pastel piece a lot more because I think the pop or red really adds to the overall effect of the piece and makes it stand out more and I like the overall layered and textured effect.
This piece I did to be more textured and wanted it to be co completely black and white to give it a sense of past and history. I like this object in particular as it represents an old personal item that someone would have used and have personal meaning to them but with it being disregarded and abandoned symbolises the loneliness and seclusion that the building now represents.
This piece is even bigger than the last one. I did this one A1 as I thought It would be good to see. I wanted to make this one quite rough and simplistic. I overall really liked the effect that this piece had with the chaotic and sporadic brush strokes as this gives the painting an uneasy feeling almost making the piece/room look unwelcoming and isolating. I really like the colour scheme of the piece as I tried to keep it quite muted and toned down to create the feeling that the room is bleak and almost washout connoting how is just been forgotten and left to decay overtime. I also edited one to be black and white and slightly more cropped to give it a more secluded feeling,
Glass Factory-Doncaster
FOR THE DRAWING MODULE:
These are 2 pieces I made for the drawing module and this is what inspired me to turn these into watercolour paintings as well as some of the photography that I got from inside this abandoned glass factory in Doncaster. I think these pictures really display the amount of decay and abandonment as well as the overall state that the building has been left in. These pictures and drawings where some of my favourite as this building had a lot of open space which really emphasises the seclusion and abandonment. I really like the way I have edited these images too as it creates a darker more sinister feel the image and overall atmosphere of the building.
These two pieces are watercolour paintings that are based on these drawings and my photography. The wood piece was done on a piece of driftwood I found on the beach. I thought this would work nicely with my theme of decay. I think with the wood being more textured it really added to the overall effect. I chose to do barbed wire as the piece as I thought it would fit nicely on the wood and is something you think about when you think of abandoned and bordered up building. Overall, I really liked the way this turned out.
UPDATED NLP:
EXHIBITION PIECES:
These are the three exhibition pieces that I submitted. These where all A4 and painted with oil colours. They depict 3 different rooms in an old abandoned school. One think That was really successful is the colour schemes that I used for all 3 even though each one was slightly different. The top one was I used muted browns, yellows and blacks.
The middle one I decided I would keep mostly black and white with pops of more pastel colours. I used white to create the light streams and I did this quiet thick to create more visible texture and I think this worked especially well. For the bottom one I used muted green, browns, black and white. I really liked how these three turned out and think this really brought all my work together and was a representation of my favourite work that I made in my portfolio as I though some of my more successful pieces where the old paintings I did.
I think these pieces represent my theme of history and decay as they showcase rooms within this old disused school at that point in time. The decay and rubble is clearly displayed shows the progression of what happens when a building is left to decay naturally overtime. Overall I think these pieces of where a good ide to use for the exhibition but next time I might 1 or two bigger pieces of work to allow me to add more small details.
MY ROLE:
For the exhibition I was in the poster group. We decided to make one design between us. We first planned and talked
about the design and then put one person in charge of making a draft. This is how the poster came out. We ended up deciding to use the university colours.
