I am part of a group of fellow second-year Open College of the Arts/Open University students. We decided in 2023 that we should collaborate and create an online virtual gallery exhibition. Due to pressures of family life and what not, we pushed the dates forward and we are now looking to have this project completed by the end of February – there are eight of us involved at the moment. I have created a separate blog where the artworks that are completed thus far are detailed. Eventually these will be included in the virtual exhibition, which is a work-in-progress at the moment.
The theme for our exhibition is ‘Man-Made‘ and we have allowed ourselves the freedom to interpret that brief as best we see fit. I am commenting on this learning log on my own piece – however, the link to the blog for ‘Man-Made’ is here: https://manmadecollaboration.wordpress.com/
‘Genesis’ – Man-made (soft pastels on 60x60cm stretched deep edge canvas)
I am particularly fascinated with neolithic structures that were around thousands of years before the Pyramids – these monuments are the precursors of modern-day architecture. I chose to use an internet sourced photograph for this piece, as I felt the dramatic almost primordial sky lent an air of pre-history to the scene.
This is an overview of the process:
For this piece, I initially drew a rough sketch with charcoal onto the primed canvas. I then used acrylics to block in an orange underpainting of the sky area. I was going to use water-soluble oils for this project and started laying in the sky. After a while though, I could see that this medium was not behaving the way I wanted it to, so I scrubbed off the oils (easy to do with Cobra water-soluble paint). I then applied about 8 layers of Golden pastel ground to the surface of the canvas (including sides) – using first a brush and then a foam applicator, so that there were no streaks and the surface was level. Once this was all dried, I used a variety of soft pastels to complete the piece.
Janice Heather Scott 