Produce a group of paintings, drawings or other images that describe aspects of your environment. The number of images will differ depending on the nature, combination of the media and materials that the individual chooses to work with.
Covid-19 has been everpresent in our lives and my work since I started this section of the course. It seemed only fitting to use this as my inspiration for my final assignment.
These images are all snapshots of images from my memories of lockdown, mainly from as I cycled around North London for my daily exercise. The final images above are laid out to scale as I would display them as a collection. All the paintings are done in oil paint, thin layers building up to thicker layers on top refining the detail.
BBC 1 News
The first significant communication about the Covid-19 pandemic was on my TV, broadcast morning, noon and night to the pay of any other news. Compositionally the TV is set at an angle to give the impression that it is being viewed inconsequentially as one passes the screen. I photographed the screen and tried to replicate the dusky blue tinge that you often get from the TV. I delibratly left off any numbers as the pandemic is ongoing and I did not want to date my painting in an ongoing situation.
I firstly painted up a number of canvasses in a variety of colours and sizes that I would appoint to one of my memories depending on how the image is engrained in my head. The BBC1 News is the smallest of the collection of paintings. I have an orange wall, so this was my base colour for this image on which I roughed out a light wash of the composition. I built it up in layers, the text and fine detail being the last. I also had to think about what I would put in the straplines, settling on highlighting just UK Deaths and Clap for Carers which was a weekly event for 10 weeks.
Muswell Hill
Every day that I cycled up to Muswell Hill the socially distant queue for Sainsburys went around the block in front of all the closed shops (which did not have metal shutters as the shops in Holloway had), past the only other shop that was open, the grocers, and all the way back down the high street. It did not matter what time of day, there was always a queue. Some of the people wore masks, many wearing them improperly under their chin or on their head. Older people that you might expect to be shielding under government guidelines were also queueing. As I would be cycling past the memory in my head is somewhat fish-eyed, although the road layout does bend around a corner, I wanted to emphasize this by applying some curved exaggerated perspective to the architecture. Muswell Hill is notable for its architectural features, red brick with white lintels and masonary features, and distinct windows.
It took a couple of goes for me to get a curve and perspective that I was happy with and would clearly illustrate my memory. The pavement planter was removed under artistic licence and I had captured an ambulance in one of my photographs, this was a good metaphore for the ongoing crisis. Once I had got the background pretty much as I was happy wit it, I then put in the detail of the people, the lettering and the barricade that blocked a side street and protected the people in a queue way longer that the baricades anticipated. The emphasis in this painting is the queue, so I left out the street furniture and parked cars, just hinting at a couple of shadowy vehicles in the distance of the empty roads, excluding the blaring ambulance!
I used quite a selection of brushes, mainly flat head brushes throughout these paintings, but some round headed brushes for fine detail.
No Contrails – Alexandra Palace
My cycling route of 15-30km generally takes me over the hills of North London, Alexandra Palace being the last, longest and hardest hill, often we would take a breather at the top and take in the beautiful view, looking south over the City. The park was mostly empty bar a few determined joggers, some doing HIT training running up the steps, and fellow cyclists crusing the top before their prize of a fast clear ride down the other side of the hill. The weather was fine, and for the first time ever I could appreciate the natural cloud formations over London as there were no planes flying and therefore No Contrails!
I have done some sky exercises in a previous part of my course, and tried to draw some lessons from that time. I layered washes for the sky and built the clouds up after, I envision the images to be viewed from a distance, so the impression of the swirling clouds that I wanted to create was done in a painterly way, the detail being reserved for the strip across the bottom that details the park its self. Again it was the detail of the people an the lights that brought my memory into focus!
The Bus Stop – Holloway Road
This memory took a couple of goes to get right. My first attempt did not give the desolate impression that was in my head. I wanted to get across the fact that the small amount of working busses were designated as full due to limited capacity for social distancing, meaning waiting at the bus stop could be a long and lonely experience. Including the bus did not give me the distance that I wanted or the mood that I was trying to achieve so I started again! My second attempt I feel is much more interesting and emotive, it feels desolate, sad, lonely and wet, which is much more accurate to my memory. The other aspect of the image that was important to communicate was that all the shops were shuttered up. Holloway Road is notoriously full of take-aways and fast food, with a few beauty treatment salons thrown in, all forced to close for 3 months in lockdown.
My choice of buildings is not accurate, but a collection of examples within a 360 degree view of the area, that epitiomise my memory.
This painting was made up of many layers. I worked on all of the paintinigs at the same time in rotation, allowing them to dry somewhat before applying the next layer. The dripping diluted paint gives this memory a different feel to the others, yet the detailed areas are consistant and tie in with the series.
The Kerb
Cycling around I was shocked and dismayed to see how much PPE, gloves and masks found their way into the street and littering the road side. In previous exercises in this part I studied the gloves and masks that I have found in the street and this assignment allowed me to do a painting that put them into context. I wanted to get the feeling that the items had been there for a while, so ensuring that small details such as some gravel, dirt and leaves were present on the items settled them into the environment more realistically. The drain was an important aspect of this composition as there is a new problem created by disgarded PPE in that where as wet-wipes used to be the main culprit in material blocking the sewers, masks and gloves are now the main offenders.
This painting was also built up in layers, the tarmac in particular took many layers of colouring to get a 3 dimensional feel to the texture. I have discovered that there are many many different types of tarmac! I got quite excited by the different quality of the yellow painted lines, depending on the amount of layers of paint and traffic wear that they had suffered. I wanted a solid yet imperfect line! I think of all the memories that I have chosen to depict, this is the most memorable!
Covid-19 Hairdressers – North London
On one cycle ride on the day that Hairdressers were allowed to re-open, a fellow cyclist and myself both had a similar reaction of adjustment to the ‘New Normal’ as we passed a hairdressers who were dressed as if in a lab adhering to new government guidelines. The memory was as this in my head, I tried to find it again by cycling the same route, but I couldn’t find it, I had to amalgamate reference from other hairdressers to fulfil my composition.
This was also my second attempt at my composition. THe first one I did was smaller and landscape, but I wanted the figures to be a particular size and framing of the white top and bottom was also important to my memory, so I redid the composition on a larger canvas. I did all these paintings on canvasses as I wanted them to be able to be hung freely on a wall without a frame to help convey the feeling of a snap-shot rather than a defined item as a framed painting. I didn’t want the lettering to be too prominent, so I went for a simple descriptive word ‘hair’ in very thin letters and some over-paint distortion. The loose horozontal white brushstrokes are there to give the impression of a glimpse while whizzing past at speed.
PPE – Mask
I had to collect reference for my paintings in earlier exercises, so I felt it would be a fitting addition to this collection if I were to include some examples of those items. By isolating and placing the item in a box frame it gives it a sense of importance that is reminicent of the importance of preventing the spread of the virus.
PPE – Glove
I collected a number of gloves, it is definately the blue ones that epitomize Covid-19 best for me. I really like the way that the material sticks together in a random way when the glove is removed, a result of the properties of the plastic, the sweat of the wearer and the static electricity or friction that is created as the glove is removed. It retains this configuration even when picked up – it has become something else!
Jelly Masks – Underwater pollution
Of the different types of masks, the elasticated hooped ones are the most prevelant, yet occasionally one with ties would find its self in the road. I was struck by the similarity to jellyfish that the dead mask with its tariling ties resembled. Aware that worldwide, the amount of PPE that has found its way into the sea is quite horrifying, this is my final memory in this series of Covid-19 Memories. It is not exactly a memory, more a vision that is a combination of what I see in the road, to what I know is happening in the sea.
This final image took a lot of layering to achieve the effect I wanted, I am considering re-visiting before assment to work on the sand some more, on reflection I am not entirely happy with it, The masks swim in their school while a few stray gloves look like chubby octopus on the sea floor. I opted not to include coral or rocks, I wanted to give the feeling of abyss.
I enjoyed exorcising these image memories of my time in lockdown and am pleased to have recorded the pandemic in a creative and individual way. I have experimented with different painting styles and combined together are diverse and consistent enough at the same time that they sit together in the series.
I also wanted to take my time over these images, I have not been able to spend as long as I like as the restrictions that the course puts on you to complete the course in a set overall timescale dictates that I have to move on. I have done the best I can in the time I have! Also the images in this blog are taken with two different cameras which is why the colour in not consistent, appearing darker in the final images.
Niki Gibbs
19 August 2020
Reworking of Jelly Masks following tutor comments.
Following comments from my tutor I have reworked one of my assignment pieces; Jelly Masks. On reflection I agree that of all the pieces this was the ‘weakest’. The main comment was that I should not do all the work for the viewer in my painting. The concept that I imagine the amount of masks that have made their way into the oceans and waterways and that the tie-masks look like dead jelly fish when they are spralled out disgarded on the road need not be spelled out so obviously in my work.
Having put the work down for a few days, I took a fresh look at it. I decided that there could be more depth in it, the masks could look more like jellyfish, and the water surface and sand could do with a makeover.
I first painted the background in darker and the water surface softer and slightly more designed in nature. I wanted to darken the sand so that it did not jump out so much. I then referenced jellyfish and studied how I might incorporate them into my masks. I used a painterly approach to depict the shapes and had to do a lot of blending to do in order to create the impression of transparency.
I also changed the shape of the foreground blue glove to give the impression that it is ballooning as it is filled with water and looks more like an octopus, as well as adding a larger white glove in the foreground to add another layer of interest to the composition as well as helping to draw your eye from the bottom left of the canvas, up throught the direction of the jelly masks to the top right. I placed a glove on the artwork to photograph it to see if I preferred it with or without. I chose with, it told more of the story that it is not just masks that are littering the seas!
I have tried to keep a fairly limited palett as I think this is appropriate for my subject matter. I am much happier with the re-worked piece, it is much more rounded and interesting to look at, and a good opportunity to apply feedback from my tutor while it was fresh in my mind.
I am happy that I took the time to rework this piece. It is a much fuller image now and slightly more confusing and complex to look at. The message is still there, especially with the addition of the foreground white glove which is being lightly lifted off the sand as the water flows underneath it. The problem of disgarded PPE in our waterways is an evergrowing problem.
Sketchbook Reference
Photographic reference
Niki Gibbs
04 September 2020
Niki Blue Sunflower OCA coursework 