Translucent Scapes

Below are the Art Deco posters (top: Photoshop version, below: Acrylic painting)

The End

Tomorrows the due date for my paintings and last day of my independent study...

I really enjoyed this project. I was able to experiment with mediums and add my own style to my artwork through the experimentation. It was a real learning experience that Im glad I accomplished.

Below is my artist statement for my series:

Individuals travel daily around the world to visit specific destinations. The vacation becomes a time to relax and explore all the monuments, activities, and food the “city” has to offer. Whether exploring with family, friends or by yourself, the adventure you experience is an exciting and memorable moment. When one returns, they recall the activities they performed, while the cityscape is a hazy memory; rather, they remember the name of the destination and the famous landmarks or entertaining attractions they participated in. The body of work I have created encompasses highly visited cities that are known just for their city name; the provenance is small because it is not needed. The series involves an outline of the cityscape with no particular attention to detail, with an “object” that is associated to that particular city. The posters possess a water theme in relation to the specific cities that are located around water. The objects have bold colors that immediately come to focus at first glance. The particular style is influenced from the 1920s Art Deco artistic style of sleek straight lines with elements of boldness. The palette of each painting embodies the colors that are related with the city, as well as the attention of both warm and cool colors being represented. Beginning this project in a graphic design class, I decided to translate these travel art deco posters into acrylic paintings because painting them would make the project personal, rendering my own interpretation of the graphic posters. The challenge, and also enlightening understanding I encountered was how transforming this artwork onto canvas became a separate unique series on its own. The posters on Photoshop are flat and made for graphic purposes; while, on canvas the posters become expressionistic among the brushstrokes and mediums, allowing a sense of dimensionality and form. Acrylic and mediums such as fiber paste and soft gel gloss, as well as Photoshop were used to generate this series of artwork.

Happy late Fourth of July!

Finishing up my Venice painting...For my last painting I will be doing Scotland with a castle as the cityscape and perhaps a unique "Scottish?" boat to connect with my water theme. Last meeting I discussed my indecisiveness on the last poster. I wanted to use green and yellow as my colors and wanted a country that represented or what though of with those particular colors. I narrowed it down to Ireland and Scotland. The most difficult with the design was what to put as the "object" in the water. At one point I actually photoshopped the Loch Ness Monster in the water. I decided on a "hooker" boat that are used daily on the ocean. The city in Scotland I picked is Galway and is known as the "city of the tribes."

I will sketch Galway on the canvas this weekend and will begin painting.
I am not where I wanted/expected to be by this date. I expected to be done with them by the 8th and then use the rest of the week for touchups.

I will update on the 13th after I have turned in my posters and they have been graded. I will post pictures of the four posters and my artist statement along with it :)