Studio Diary

Welcomes to my blog! I will be posting each week to show you my progress of work of my final year in University and hope you will join me on this exciting year of painting :)

Today I will be giving you an Overview my intentions for project and plan

The past week was my first official day (6th October-9th October 2020) of working on my project in my fresh new studio space, and it is all very exciting!. For my project, I have decided to paint areas in my home that are near and dear to me. I come from a town in North Wales called Blaenau Ffestiniog; therefore, my project's primary focus is to show my Wales.

My new studio 2020

To start this week, I collected all my sketches from my summer/lockdown sketchbook, mainly drawings of Blaenau Ffestiniog, because of the travel restrictions, mostly working with watercolors.

A challenge I also did the past week was creating a piece with any colours I desired then block the painting out with coloured greys (1x cool grey and 1x warm grey); this was so beneficial for me, and I learnt many things; such as how to take away and not to be precious about a painting. After creating numerous thumbnails, I decided to transfer my favourites into larger thumbnails using watercolours, again minimal palette. I decided I needed more sketches because the thumbnails I drew and developed didn't convey what I envisioned for Blaenau; I see my home like a rugged rural area; therefore, I didn't want my paintings to show a beautifully picturesque landscape; I want it to look realistic; in that I mean Wales I know and feel nostalgic when I see photographs and see my memories play in my head of the area. When people hear I live in Wales, they instantly think of the words farm, fields, and sheep, Blaenau does have its fair bit of fields, but my area is far from the apparent words you would describe Wales being.

Glanypwll, Thumnails, Watercolour on paper, Page is 21 x 29.7 cm, 2020

Glanypwll, thumbnail, Watercolour on paper, Page is 21 x 29.7 cm, 2020

Artist I have researched late that will inspire me this week will include; Kyffin Williams because of his paintings' grittiness and how he van put such simple marks down on canvas. It looks like he has smeared paint on a surface. When you look at his work afar, it makes sense! for somebody who struggles to take things away from my paintings, I feel Kyffin will inspire me to take risks with applying the paint. Another artist I have been looking into is David Bomberg for his realness; when I use that, I see the wales I know and love in his paintings. This is what I need to try and convey in my own work, a nostalgic feeling. To show my Wales to many who drive through places, I found so fascinating.

Until next time blog! Happy painting! Cerys

Lawrence Gowing,(1918-1991) Briar and Hawthorn at Savernake

Oil in canvas (1952)

Laing Art Gallery (1918-1991