Below, I place my two works for Parallel Project (PP). It took a while for me to understand the “flower” direction to follow. I tried different flowers and painting techniques before I came up with a clear understanding of what would work for the PP. The drawings below are the outcomes I have reached after series of preliminary flower studies/drawings and research I did since April 2023. These studies are posted separately in different posts.

While I have been working towards these two outcomes, I have been focusing on the following:

• experimenting with medium and techniques to develop and manifest my personal artistic painting and drawing style;
• researching different flower painting techniques and different artworks on this theme; 
• At some point, I focused on irises since they came out in my sketches as the most promising.
• Another reason was the fact I connected the PP with my Critical writing piece, as my Tutor recommended to do. My Critical writing project was about “Japanese painting traditions in works of Ogata Kōrin and Kano Ryokei”, the paintings Irises, early 1700 and Pheasants Under Cherry and Willow Trees and Irises and Mist ( first half of 17 century) respectively. Linking together my PP and Critical writing project was one of the most valuable advice because it allowed me to concentrate on artworks I resonate with and study them in-depth, researching essential Japanese traditional painting concepts. Because I had to understand and review a profoundly intelligent set of painting laws, carefully observing details of two great artworks, I had to reflect on all aspects of my paintings: compositional decisions, medium, colours, and technique from a new perspective;

As a result I have developed two different Irises paintings presented for the PP.

Final outcome:

The Irises I are painted with “ink-pulling” technique, which I learned during the experiments. After all previous trials I decided to use the watercolour inks Eclats from Herbin, using Japanese bamboo brushes. I wanted to bring some contrast to smoothness of inks and aquarelle and used my soft pastels from Sennelier for the background. The streaks of yellow pigment behind the flowers create some dynamic and give a movement effect. I also used dark brown for part of the background to emphasis the yellow/golden space, as well as accentuate the warm earthy note surrounding the fresh green stems. The brown colour is uniting the green and yellow elements in the painting. In regard to composition I placed the irises slightly diagonally across the surface following the “ma” concept I studied, in order to avoid excessively straight lines and centred objects and bring a “breathing” element into the painted space on the surface. I made each flower individual, giving each of them its own shape and posture. That brought an element of Furyū concept, the irises don’t look conventional and boring. I made them bold, not timid at all, trying to implement the “ki in” concept I have learned.

Irises II.

The painting for the PP below is more complex than the first one in terms of technique. Here, I experimented with placing inks on the layer of soft pastels. The soft pastels absorb the ink in a particular way, producing “impasto” “-like effect. Also, there is another super exciting effect I used, which is inks on an acrylic base. I painted the background with gold shade acrylic paint after I started to place inks on it. The acrylic base absorbs the inks unevenly, which gives shades and different depths of colour to the outcome. This absorption effect is seen in the photos below, especially on the green stems. I exploited these effects in this painting. It is very much multilayered. This work was most time-consuming because I had to wait for each layer to dry so I could put another on to obtain a rich texture, profound colours, and complex, unconventional iris bulb shapes. It is a genuinely inventive work for me. I also decided to try a different approach to the composition, making an accent not at the central flower but on the side ones, shifting viewers’ attention to the sides of the composition.

I deliberately made side flowers prominent, as I am inviting a viewer to embrace all the flowers, and try to shift his/her focus of attention from the central part. Thus I think the final effect comes out stronger because when a viewer notices a bit odd shapes of the flowers. These impudent left and right-hand side flowers might enhance viewer’s perception, making it more extensive and more profound. Another important aspect about this painting is that the medium was supporting my idea of the image to be built by itself. The ink goes freely over the acrylic surface, taking unexpected directions and creating new areas for shapes and details. Basically, on many fragments I just followed the ink, the image was developing by itself.