Beginning experiments

Once I had established that abstract expressionism was right for me, I began to focus on three artists. Jackson Pollock, Ed Moses and Paul Kessling, all of which kept to this genre within their artwork. Therefore I created an artist analysis on each one of them;

Then began to ease my way of more figurative artists into my current ones, so I created really small experiments using mediums such as acrylic paint, gouache paint and pencil crayons accompanied by photographs of the artists work. This gave me a starting off point to begin more experiments but overall I found that the acrylic paint provided the best texture, colour and durability.

After I had done this, I then started my experimental work. These were primarily based upon the practice of colour application and which hues worked well together and which didn't, but some also involved textural references, I used acrylic for these experiments.

This piece was aimed directly to show mark making inspiration from Jackson Pollock, with vast dripping and splashing techniques intertwining with each other. Although, the colour used resembles more primary aspects of Ed Moses work. Over all  I didn't really like this piece as I thought it was too simple - lots of white area around the edges. This book is sixed A3 which is some of my biggest scale works so far.

This piece on the right was one of the first where I discovered a new technique which would make me completely unique from any other artists. By applying acrylic to a large garden paint brush and then dipping it into water, I was able to then drag the brush across the page in one movement which created texture at the beginning but then followed on to a wash of colour streaks and transparency.

Although this isn't one of my favourite pieces, it provides a variation in scale (A5) and it shows where I first began in terms of experiments.

The composition on the right is one of my favourites as it best demonstrates all three aspects that I am aiming for: good colour combinations, tone variations for contrast, the use of my new technique and a strong sense of texture. Therefore I plan to interpret these experimental features on future pieces. 

I intended for this one on the right to be an interpretation of Paul Kessling's work. I tried to feature the straight line elements as well as dripping techniques and neutral; colours with contrasting ones. I used gouache paint for this but I feel like other materials would have been better for creating textured drips such as white emulsion which I could vary in colour by adding inks. 

(piece on the right) - Despite of the marks being really quite simple, I think they work well together. And in terms of texture, the large yellow section on the left really does it justice. The colours match perfectly, and not only this, they also represent as firey element which relates directly to my Fogo Volcanic eruption theme.

Here on the left was one of my attempts to use a different side of Ed Moses work - the geometric side. Using a combination of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines . This technique was specifically good for demonstrating my new technique to it's fullest and the transparent areas create good contrast with the dark blues.

These pieces are some of the few which made me question if I was keen on the colour at all as you can see they really don't work well together here. Although I think the marks don't do it justice either so that is what I want to focus and work on next.

Due to creating all these experiments on paper I thought that it would be best for me to try applying colour onto a different surface so I looked back through my previous year and remembered how well ink worked on canvas material and how I enjoyed creating these experiment. Therefore I began some coloured ink style practices but this time in the style of my current artists.

Although I have only created this small set of this type of experiment, I think they worked really well. I attempted to show a gradual progression from dominant colour to pure black areas by adding little bits at a time. I want to create more of these experiments or even carry on just using ink, potentially as a substitute for other mediums that aren't as liquidised e.g. acrylic paint.