Painting 2, Part Four, Project 2: Paint as a material

Exercise 1.1. Exploring form.

We have to experiment with acrylic paints distributed on plastic or acrylic sheets as a base in this exercise. We have to experiment with building up the surface of the paint to a point where we can peel it off the plastic sheet. We are asked to manipulate the paint material in various ways: drape, crease, layer, exploring several methods and creative approaches, which can lead us to some interesting outcomes.

Link 34: I have tried to open Link 34 published on the Resources page of the OCA Learn website, but the link was not found. So I checked Anj Smith’s artworks on the internet.

Anj Smith is a contemporary British visual artist born in 1978. She lives and works in London, UK. Her formal art training includes a BA in Fine Art (Painting), Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London, UK, 2002 Postgraduate Diploma, Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK, 2003 MA in Fine Art, Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK, 2005.

Anj Smith is interested in investigating our modern life experience and a retrospection to the past. She is aspired to show our current life challenges in her artworks, such as proliferating anxiety on personal and global social levels. She believes it is imperative for any contemporary artist to reflect on the present, but it is also equally important to think about our past. She produces very detailedly, sometimes called “forensic”, and visually rich artworks, often combining different techniques from impasto to fine brush strokes in one painting, mixing contemporary with archaic. “I am interested in a place where language runs out”, the artist says in the YouTube video about her, just published on Hauser and Wirth’s Youtube channel.

Below I put some of her artworks, from left to right.

S.O.S., 2016-2017, Anj Smith, oil on linen, image via http://www.wallpaper.com; “Night Haul”, 2017-2018, copper etching with aquatint on Somerset paper, with watercolour, pencil, ink; photography Alex Delfanne, image via http://www.wallpaper.com; False Steward, Anj Smith, 2019-2020, oil on linen, photo: Alex Delfanne, image via http://www.thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk

Bibliography: “Anj Smith. If not, Winter”, 19 Mar 2018, Houser and Wirth, Youtube, [accessed on April 15. 2022]; “Anj Smith. Set in Amber”, 14 April 2022, Hauser and Wirth, Youtube (Accessed on April 15, 2022]; “Anj Smith”, online on http://www.houserwirth.com, [accessed on April 15, 2022];

Research: Lynda Benglis Link 35 and Link 36

Even though the video of Lynda Benglis discussing and demonstrating adhesive products and her creative process of making her own paint medium and pouring it on polyethene structures was interesting, it was totally horrifying and unappealing to me. I am a big supporter of sustainable consumption and environmental thinking, so anything which is not in line with this philosophy is not valuable to me, including artworks. In the video, she wears protective gear on her face since the medium is toxic. I think this video is outdated in a sense of environmental crisis we are facing, and OCA needs to set up sustainable creative approaches.

Bibliography: Lynda Benglis discusses adhesive products, Tate website, online on http://www.learn.oca.uk, [accessed on April 15, 2022]; “10 eco-friendly artists who will blow your mind”, Eluxe Magazine, Articles, Culture, Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, Feb 24, 2022, online on http://www.eluxemagazine.com, [accessed on April 15, 2022];

Below I placed some photos of the exercise we were required to do with paints.

After I peeled of the dry sculptural pieces of paint, I started to arrange them. I played with silver pieces on grey coarse paper for dry pastels. The dry pieces of silver acrylic paint reminded me some sort of calligraphy and hand writing.