I have made a number of sketches and study paintings for a project in mind, however I abandoned it because it got complex and it stuck. It should have looked like a garden in a palace but I gave up on it. Anya Gallacio's (Preserve 'Beauty') comes to mind, a painting which relied on audience senses as well as vision, Gallacio used the natural decay process as part of installation, however, I do not intend to rely on same elements in this painting. A proposed name was "Bahçe / Bahja", a Turkish and Arabic name in the same time, in Turkish language it means "Garden"; in Arabic it means "Happiness". Like Gallacio's, this name bear two meanings, but both invoke the same feelings.
I am process-oriented and like to give it some time, I tend to tint the acrylic gesso with a bit of an acrylic colour to set-up the mood, and I also like to experiment and try new material. Ad Reinhardt was also largely about the process. I enjoy the process of making the painting itself as equally as the finished work when I read about Cy Twombly, I found that he too enjoyed the process.
Making Recipes
The making of the wax medium by mixing bees wax with turpentine and damar varnish. The wax medium adds body to the paint and gives it a matte look, but if the recipe is not done in the right proportions, then the paint will never dry. My painting has dried but would smudge your hand.
Sketches and study paintings for "Muhteshem"
A number of galleries I visited from October through January 2017 had shaped my unit 1 practice, including O'Keeffe whose, work inspired my first flower paintings. Whereas Tate Modern and The Mall Galleries inspired my colour works. This is because of the striking contrasting colours that were a common feature in most of the works.
Unit 1
The Development of my Work over the year in relation to the galleries and places I visited
Sketchs & Study Paintings
The Process
Visting the Holland Park, Kew Gardens and the Chelsea Flower Show helped me to zoom in my practice and focus my practice on my ideas. I use water colour, pastel, oil pastel and pencil for sketching like Cy Twombly. Also, Peter Doig, as well as Hockney, come to mind they respond to the daily experiences in their paintings. Most of the sketches are from Holland Park. I was inspired to sketch the portraits after following an American artist (Jennifer Healy), also Frida Kahlo used to paint similar images. However, I do not think this is a kind of line I wish to follow.
Unit 2 & 4
In unit 2, I was exploring the flower motif in several settings such as a wall paper, textile, etc.. In the V&A I found that flowers were popular in ancient civilizations such as the Turkish and Iranian empires, where you can find the flower motif on ceramics and textiles. In response to that, I painted a number of flower images; for example "Wall Papers" and "The Child Colouring book". There were also miniature paintings, which is also an area of interest to me because it is not a common form of art these days (please see gallery unit 2 and unit 4).
In Unit 4, I was more affected by the visits I made to Kew Gardens, Holland Park and the Chelsea Flower Show. It made me think why a man would put so much effort to display a flower, and this is when I zoomed in more on the idea that the flower resembles the man in many aspects, and that is why I started painting flowers so big, one flower in each painting (please see gallery --> unit 4).
I have also explored works by other artists such as Henry Fantin-Latour, Beatriz Milhazes and Marc Quinn and found that each one of them has formed a different idea about flowers. My idea is different also.