Part 4: Assignment 4 – a circular or oval painting

Brief

Make a circular or oval painting of an area in your house, either from life or from a photograph. Refer to the work you produced in the exercises to choose a subject and composition that works well. Use heavyweight paper, card or board as a surface to paint onto.

Again, you’ll find it helpful to cut out a circular shape to frame your image so you know how you’ll paint it on the circle. Think about the following while you’re planning your painting.

• How would you like the painting to look?
• What it is about the image that appeals to you and how can you represent this visually?
• What types of brushes will you use to create your painting?
• What textures/density/hues will you use?
• Will you use gloss?
• Thin/thick paint?
• Will you paint a coloured or a white ground?

Process

For this assignment I decided to return to a practice piece that resonated with me. I wanted to expand the original idea and image to create a larger interpretation of our front porch jumble!

Boots & basket in front porch (thinned oil paint on black gessoed card – 10cm diameter)

I made a quick sketch of the scene using pencil and InkTense block ink and water brush:

Assignment 4 – idea sketch

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Assignment 4 – porch scene – thinned oil paint

Using a 30.5×40.6cm canvas board I prepared an acrylic wash as a background for my tondo. The light comes in through glass window on the left of the scene and for this larger picture of stuff I included walking sticks, the top shelf, with the boots sitting on newspaper, the basket, blankets, and the barometer. This was painted with oil paint thinned with Reeves Painting Medium using a size 1 and a size 4 round brush. The colours used were Cerulean Blue and Ultramarine; Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber and Yellow Ochre; Brilliant Red and Medium Yellow; along with Titanium White, Lamp Black and Payne’s Grey.

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Assignment 4 – porch scene, with painted overlay

I wasn’t very happy with the way my acrylic brush strokes had petered out at the top and bottom of the canvas board and I had thought of cutting them off. However, I wanted to experiment with something a bit more unusual to add another dimension to this image of a domestic interior. So, using a cut-to-size piece of white foam board, I overlaid the canvas board image and added painted extensions to the barometer, the boot laces and the blankets – hanging, dripping and overflowing the picture.

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Assignment 4 – porch scene, with painted overlay – bound and opened

Like a book, telling a story, I used Gorilla Tape to attach the foam board to the canvas board. Let’s open the book and see what’s inside.

Assignment 4 – porch scene, with painted overlay – bound and closed

This is my closed book on my front porch adventure.

Stuart Brownlee – 512319
25 April 2017