I've been sick with a cold for over a week now and have barely had energy to think about, let alone work on anything art related. I still have application forms to complete, that is to say the application for the Art Academy in Oslo, and it scares the living daylight out of me. It's like being on Idol. You send in documentation of your work and after they've reviewed the applications they choose a 2-digit number of lucky people who have to come to Oslo for a week and work with a given art project. All the while they will walk around and observe your working methods and there is also an interview in front of a "jury". Then they eliminate people again and are left with 25 lucky applicants who will be accepted into the school.
In a way it all seems too...big. It seems just too far out there to think that I will ever get to the 2nd round of the process. But at this point in my education I have no choice but to apply for such prestigious schools, if I want to continue doing this...
wish me luck everyone..:)
Friday, March 2, 2007
Sunday, February 11, 2007
"Room for squares"...
I'm currently working on two projects simultaneously, both in the photo-realistic technique. (Heck I don't even know the English term for it, but it'll do). It sounds rediculously simple; you take a photo, divide it into squares and copy it onto a surface as large as possible. When seen from a distance, the result will look more or less like a photo. But the process of painting it is not as straight forward!
First of all, after 6 hours of painting your back is aching and your eyes sting from concentrating too much, and you look up and discover that you've managed to fill 7 squares out of 100. (Some teachers have told me that in order to achieve the right effect you have to paint each square separately - so that you're able to distance yourself from the motive and not get too caught up in the details) I experienced that first hand this week as I clearly was a little over-ambitious and convinced myself I'd have it finished by Friday. Nope. By Friday afternoon the painting was nearly half finished and I felt like I'd been thrown off a horse.
Second of all, there are so many decisions to make - dry brush, wet brush? Retarder or no retarder? round brush, flat brush, thick or thin brush? I'm still inexperienced so I get a little freaked out by all these decisions but I guess that later on it will be a little easier.
But the joy of this technique is to see each square fit together and reveal the motive little by little. It's a lot like doing a jigsaw puzzle, only you can't unscramble it and put it in a box when it's finished, thank God.
I'm looking forward to finishing the painting at home, and I'm also very excited about the other project, which I won't reveal just yet cause it's still in the early stages.. in the meantime I'll go listen to John Mayer who. without knowing it, gave me the title to this post. :)
First of all, after 6 hours of painting your back is aching and your eyes sting from concentrating too much, and you look up and discover that you've managed to fill 7 squares out of 100. (Some teachers have told me that in order to achieve the right effect you have to paint each square separately - so that you're able to distance yourself from the motive and not get too caught up in the details) I experienced that first hand this week as I clearly was a little over-ambitious and convinced myself I'd have it finished by Friday. Nope. By Friday afternoon the painting was nearly half finished and I felt like I'd been thrown off a horse.
Second of all, there are so many decisions to make - dry brush, wet brush? Retarder or no retarder? round brush, flat brush, thick or thin brush? I'm still inexperienced so I get a little freaked out by all these decisions but I guess that later on it will be a little easier.
But the joy of this technique is to see each square fit together and reveal the motive little by little. It's a lot like doing a jigsaw puzzle, only you can't unscramble it and put it in a box when it's finished, thank God.
I'm looking forward to finishing the painting at home, and I'm also very excited about the other project, which I won't reveal just yet cause it's still in the early stages.. in the meantime I'll go listen to John Mayer who. without knowing it, gave me the title to this post. :)
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Sunday, Sunday people...
If Sunday People are the kind of people that love Sundays and get up bright and early to fill the day with constructive and creative activities, I'm not one of them. Unfortunately. Sunday is the day where I have most free time and during the week I have this over-enthusiastic idea that whatever needs to be done, I can do it on Sunday cause "I'll have time".
This happens every week cause, needless to say, nothing actually gets done on Sundays.
At the moment I'm very frustrated about my school project, which I received some not-all-too-positive feedback on - constructive criticism of course but I'm just not sure what to make of it. I have no idea how to turn my project around, and though it's (according to all the teachers) necessary to be frustrated and not know what to do, it doesn't feel good to be standing right in the middle of it!
To add at least SOME positive news to the post; I recently finished another religious painting and my mother is unofficially hired to try and find potential buyers for it, as she is in the Church choir. Wish me luck!!
This happens every week cause, needless to say, nothing actually gets done on Sundays.
At the moment I'm very frustrated about my school project, which I received some not-all-too-positive feedback on - constructive criticism of course but I'm just not sure what to make of it. I have no idea how to turn my project around, and though it's (according to all the teachers) necessary to be frustrated and not know what to do, it doesn't feel good to be standing right in the middle of it!
To add at least SOME positive news to the post; I recently finished another religious painting and my mother is unofficially hired to try and find potential buyers for it, as she is in the Church choir. Wish me luck!!
Friday, January 12, 2007
Here we go again...
Since I discovered the world of blogging I've created and posted in several blogs.. This one will be mainly about art and other creative stuff, much like the web site.
I'm embarassed to say that the first post in this new blog will be a vent post.. but I guess it's bound to happen a lot cause there are soo many frustrations and unforeseen obstacles in the process of painting. Our current school project is about simplifying a chosen motive to create a more abstract painting - sounds simple but I can assure you it's not! There is a lot of fun involved cause I like to express myself through the brush strokes and go a little crazy, but working that way means I spend a lot of time thinking and let the idea evolve until I eventually let it explode unto the canvas - then I paint for about 15 minutes without thinking at all and after that my head is kind of empty. The drawback about this method is that at school I'm supposed to work slowly and steadily at the same painting from 9 am to 3 pm every day, in this case for 8 days. That makes me unbelieveably restless and fidgety which is embarassing cause I don't want people to think that I'm lazy or that I don't WANT to work.
In think I'm frustrated about it cause when we're doing a nude study or a still life it's easy to work for longer periods at a time cause you know beforehand what you're going to do -transfer something standing in front of you, to the canvas and make it look as real as possible. With abstract and/or expressive painting you have NO clue what to do and you have to make it up as you go. That's where the problem lies with me I think. One of my favourite teachers once said to me that if you know beforehand exactly what you're gonna paint, then there's no point in it -the journey is the destination. I guess I have to trust that.
I'm embarassed to say that the first post in this new blog will be a vent post.. but I guess it's bound to happen a lot cause there are soo many frustrations and unforeseen obstacles in the process of painting. Our current school project is about simplifying a chosen motive to create a more abstract painting - sounds simple but I can assure you it's not! There is a lot of fun involved cause I like to express myself through the brush strokes and go a little crazy, but working that way means I spend a lot of time thinking and let the idea evolve until I eventually let it explode unto the canvas - then I paint for about 15 minutes without thinking at all and after that my head is kind of empty. The drawback about this method is that at school I'm supposed to work slowly and steadily at the same painting from 9 am to 3 pm every day, in this case for 8 days. That makes me unbelieveably restless and fidgety which is embarassing cause I don't want people to think that I'm lazy or that I don't WANT to work.
In think I'm frustrated about it cause when we're doing a nude study or a still life it's easy to work for longer periods at a time cause you know beforehand what you're going to do -transfer something standing in front of you, to the canvas and make it look as real as possible. With abstract and/or expressive painting you have NO clue what to do and you have to make it up as you go. That's where the problem lies with me I think. One of my favourite teachers once said to me that if you know beforehand exactly what you're gonna paint, then there's no point in it -the journey is the destination. I guess I have to trust that.
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