Sunday 27th March

New photos of latest paper sculptures. Struck by similarity to shells, although not conscious intention when making.

That last is a real shell!

Saturday 26th March

Busy at college this week:

• Bloggers on Portfolio course are going to follow each other, and comment on work - good to have feed-back! Chief Blogger expert has shown me how to get stuff off Media Share into You Tube so Mac users can view my film footage. Ta, Sam!
• Tom suggested "Waves" by Virginia Woolf as poss inspiration - will read. Loads of useful ideas which I need to absorb!
• Wendy said photos of form through stream looked like marbling. Also asked if I was going to paint them - realised that they've been abstracted as far as they can go - "wrung dry"! Any more and it would be a mess. So you've got to know when to stop!
• Final Cut Pro induction. Surprisingly easy once you've set up folders and sorted your scratch discs. Enjoyed editing cheesy detective soap! Have started on my film footage but aware of its shortcomings:

1. Too much exposure makes light harsh and glaring - how to soften?
2. Clumsy zoom
3. Need to get rid of staples on perspex
4. More close-up footage needed on organza.

          Low budget soap uses only one camera and films same scene lots of times from different angles. Had the idea that I could do same for beach film, and do soft dissolving transitions between each angle? Need to go back to beach!

•  Back to Textiles for first time in ages to make handmade paper form. Used loads of loo roll and silky threads. Wrapped plaster forms in cling film, pressed paper over with J cloths. Also added Angelica fibres. In some I sandwiched pulp with thinly stretched wool tops for felt-making. Worked really well! Easily slipped off moulds, nicely thready. In the one I added wool, it had meshed with the paper and felted. Also broken away in places to give a lacy effect. Will show the light through well. Can't wait to photograph them.

Friday 25th March

Two painters of the sea

1. Kurt Jackson

Contemporary Cornish painter. Emotionally charged sea-scapes. Am blown away by his work. Full of energy and movement. Jackson paints on giant canvasses weighted down by pebbles. Always outside to absorb the feeling of the setting. He incorporates detritus from the beach in some of his work. So much vigour! Really captures the sea and weather. Love his paintings. I want one!

Want to do some sketching on the beach - big, loose, looking at the similar shapes that are repeated in rock fissures, water currents, tide marks in sand, seaweed, shell patterns. Also would like to try big abstract painting in situ. Feel that I haven't done enough mark-making lately. Hopefully it will inspire the new sculpture I'm making. Also connect back to beach.

http://www.kurtjackson.co.uk/

  2.  Claude Monet


Love the sense of light and atmosphere of his sea-scapes. Went to the Monet exhibition at le Grand Palais, Paris in the New Year. His works are so commercialised and familiar that you don't realise how huge some of his canvasses are, or how fresh and alive are the colours. Beautiful sea-scapes of Brittany and the Riviera. 
Monet was obsessed by the sea - "I should like to be always near it or on it, and when I die, to be buried in a buoy." He always worked directly outdoors, absorbing the atmosphere and capturing the fleeting impressions of light and weather. He believed that "everything that is painted directly and on the spot always has a force, a power, a vivacity of touch that cannot be re-created in the studio." (Boudin).

I like the way you can't always tell where the rock or sky begins and the sea ends, the blurring of boundaries. Lots of light and movement. Somehow, I'd like to capture this sort of feeling in my sculptures and photographs.

21st March

Four Photographers:

1. Love Saul Leiter's work. Worked in the 50s and 60s, producing "urban pastorals" of Manhattan. His photographs are like little snips of poetry, fleeting, abstract, soft.  He often shoots through a rain-misted window or shows his subject via its reflection, so there's a dreamy quality. I like these:

They almost look like paintings; I love how he plays with light and perspective. Sort of what I was trying to do on the beach, photographing through the stream and filming through the sun and rain.

Art critic Roberta Smith wrote in 2005: “Mr. Leiter was a photographer less of people than of perception itself. His painter's instincts served him well in his emphasis on surface, spatial ambiguity and a lush, carefully calibrated palette. But the abstract allure of his work doesn't rely on soft focus, a persistent, often irritating photographic ploy, or the stark isolation of details, in the manner of Aaron Siskind or early Harry Callahan. Instead, Mr. Leiter captured the passing illusions of everyday life with a precision that might almost seem scientific, if it weren't so poetically resonant and visually layered.” 
Have just found his abstract paintings:

Beautiful colours in these - wish I could see them closer up.

   2.  Thomas Graics is also a painter as well as a photographer. He pilots planes over Iceland, and takes abstract aerial photographs, vivid in colour and light. He is mostly concerned with aesthetics, rather than just documentation.

"The absence of a horizon, of spatial depth, produces the focus on forms and colours. It is as if the photographs were abstract paintings, for they are enlivened by formal contrasts, or dominated by the harmonious interplay of colours and forms." Christian Schoen, Abstraction of Nature.

See sketchbook for photographs.

  3.  Andy Hughes photographs trash on the beach, but zooms in closely to blur the boundaries and make his objects beautiful and abstract. He focuses attention on what would normally be passed by and disregarded. Unlike my photographs, his have an environmental message to give out, but otherwise very similar compositions. andrewhughesphoto.blogspot.com/

I like how he uses the setting to create a mood, and uses light to give a magical quality to his images. Mostly it is by zooming in close that he transforms the object from the mundane to something almost beautiful. Like my photos! However, I'm starting to wonder how much I need the beach setting for my stills.

  4.  Henry Horenstein does surreal images of sea-life in its underwater setting. Black and white images, soft focus and mysterious. They seem to concentrate on form , and often zoom in extreme close-up giving an abstract quality. They are taken through glass and have a diffuse appearance. V. moody and mysterious.

www.henryhorenstein.com/

Sunday 20th March

Here's the link to the video footage of my sculptures in Penbryn Beach:

Friday 18th March

Have brought sketchbook up to date. It seems obvious now I want to go much more abstract than Goldsworthy.  College today. Used Windows Moviemaker to upload/ select footage and saved in Media share/ Neptune. Can't use laptop as no firewall? firewire? Took a long time to upload!

• quality of focus poor - need to refocus whilst filming.
• Always use tripod
• Sound???
• Need to make another form. All are bedraggled, squashed and/or covered in dog pee. (Basil had a go, too!)
• Water movement and light is important.

Friend suggested have 2 projectors overlapping in final show?

Had my tutorial. Discussed having slideshow presentation -"aimless, seamless". Need to consider whether location for still photos is needed or not; but definitely required for videos.

Next week will create a new sculpture. Am thinking handmade paper, very thready, maybe with some Angelica fibres meshed in.

Have piles of photography books from library to read.

Beach diary cont'd

Wednesday, 16th March
3pm. Beach. Spring day, mist clearing, sun breaking through.
Set up camera in sand - filming on tripod this time so no shake. Filmed wire-form. Horrible little border terrier came and peed up it!
Moved camera to stream by edge of sea. Took some footage in ripples as before but no shake this time. But all feels flat. No magic today.
Have finally got to grips with camcorder though. Have realised got Movie Maker on lap-top so can play with footage.
NB Best camera day has been worst weather!

Beach diary continued

Sunday 13th March
10.30. Beach. Sunny blue skies. Clear Spring day. No breeze. Many dogs.
Held up paper Tyvek form to see if it caught the breeze more easily than organza. It didn't.
Liked the way it toned in with sea and skies. Goldsworthy waited for sea to wash over his sculptures but I don't want mine destroyed just yet! Definitely needs string, sky, another person and wind!! Too many people and dogs. Felt silly!
Re: Andy Goldsworthy. Am thinking his influence is maybe a distraction from what I'm really about. At the end of the day, his photos are used to record almost scientifically, and aren't in any way abstract. A means to an end, whereas my photos might be  the end. I find the photos in the stream more interesting than the ones with an obvious beach background. I've got 2 separate things going on:

1. Goldsworthy object in natural setting, like his sea cairns. Static, but with Nature washing over it.
2. The beauty, light and balance of abstract photographs of my pieces.

Which is more closely linked to an "emotional response" to setting?

 Like the composition, does have a "mood", but don't find as interesting as really abstract, close-up photos.

Is this as successful as the same form photographed, no background?

Still want to capture the frantic energy of the paper form in strong wind - like a creature trying to wrestle free. Maybe I'm doing two different things with video and photographs?

5pm

Beach. Dogs in car. Empty sands. Just after hail-storm. Late afternoon sun silver on wet sand. Light rain through sun. Beautiful.

1. Used camcorder to film wire-form in dunes, grass and sea back-drop. Scrappiness right for setting. Tissue caught wind. OK.
2. Filmed organza piece in wet sand by tide. Slowly, gently sweeping in. Reflection. Footprint in sand. Form looked beautiful and lost. Reminded me of Monet's waterlilies. Sense of utter piece. Lovely. Felt completely "right" at the time. Abstract effect. Tried zooming in. Over-exposed but rather too much light than too less.Need to alter next time and use tripod but needs to be low.
3. Filmed perspex form in fast-moving stream. Tide and stream full of ripples and movement, glittering in the silver sun. Perfect. Strange how you get a sense of stillness and movement all at once. Perspex attracted the light. (And waterproof so practical.)

No sound when played back! Don't know why! Rang technician but he didn't know either.

Too much light - need to do that white card thing first. Turn down exposure.

Too much hand-shake. Must work out how to use tripod in caravan.

Movement in light and water just as good as movement in air. What about clouds? Filming beneath object to capture clouds drifting by...

Have no idea how to get film from little tape thing into lap-top via you-tube onto this blog! Defeats me. Need to book yet more inductions - editing suite. Will add film later.

Sunday 20th March

Diary of Filming on Penbryn Beach


Saturday 12th March
Beach. White skies. Overcast. Many dogs.
Stuck stick sculpture into sand with sea & sky backdrop. Lay down to give bigger perspective. Hardly any breeze. Liked how frail threads caught tiny amount of breeze. Videoed tide coming in and around sculpture. Reminded me of Goldsworthy. Sound of roar of the sea.
Disliked sturdiness. Not enough movement. Flat - too much rigidity. Is sea too loud and insistent in a film?

Took photos of organza shell form. Looked wrong on wet sand. Needs to fly. Will wait for windy day. Like it against lit sky - wait for sunny day. Airy space- belongs in the air.

The organza form definitely looks more "at home" against the sky, but does it in fact not need any background? The photographs done in my dining room are possibly more successful. Maybe the link with the "emotional response" to Penbryn can be at the making stage and not the photo stage. The stick sculpture is too figurative; doesn't fill the frame.
Finally I tried putting the shell form under water in the stream that dissects the beach. As there was no air movement, the movement of water rippling over it as it got trapped in the pebbles produced some very interesting effects. Very abstract; ripples caught the light - much better than Photoshop filter! I videoed the rapid movement and a tiny stick trapped in the fabric zig-zagged and danced. The organza became weird and organic; jelly-fish like. (See previous post for photos.)
Need to explore sunlight & wind; organza on a string; use Canon camcorder and tripod - these were done with digital camera.
Problem of dog-walkers on the beach. Was found lying in the sand with bum in the air trying to record the tide lapping over object by several dogs and their owners!

Saturday 12th March, 11 am

Series of photographs of organza shell sample, taken through stream water, ripples playing over the top. No breeze today, so the only movement was the water. This stream dissects the beach and joins the sea. The dance of light on the surface, and the distortions of the water make it beautifully abstract.

23:01

Apart from the clumsy zooming in, I really like the second video. It's sort of hypnotic! The last 10 seconds are beautiful, capturing the delicacy of form, the wispiness. Reminds me of clouds drifting past in a summer sky. The slowing down of time forces you to take time to observe details that would be otherwise passed by. It's like the Davies poem "We have no time to stop and stare". Peaceful, but could be looked by.
I like how Goldsworthy puts captions with his photographs which describe the material and process, but he sets them out like little poems - hence the caption/comment with mine. Quite like that!
Oh, and I need a tripod. Hand wobbles aren't good! And some music??? Or sounds of the sea? Or silence? Violin playing friend is going to suggest some pieces.
Caravan tomorrow!

19:11

Ok, that didn't work as it's rotating sideways! Have gone back into Photoshop and played around with the lighting; also rotated the image. Technician showed me how to change the time-frame so that it cuts out the sofa and crops it. Here is second attempt:

Thursday 10th March

Back at college. Have spent the morning in the library reading through Aperture and Lenswork back copies. Don't know anything about photographers but the following seemed interesting:
Richard Misrach, Untitled - abstract, digital landscapes. Shoots pattern and form in sand dunes from an aircraft.
Susan Derges, The Eden Windows - captures patterns in water/waterfalls. Memorandum describes progress of work and the struggle to capture that "moment", so a bit like Andy Goldsworthy. Also abstract, magical, into "transformations".
Mitch Dobrowner, Storms - dramatic skies, storm-chasing - physical/emotional involvement. Also Lenswork shows his stuff together -"an experience in viewing a set of related images". Hmmm...a bit like sets of mini frames I've done of textile close-ups.
Have decided not to include in bibliography until I've been on the beach, until I've explored what sort of photography I like doing.

Am now going into ICT to get video onto this Blog!

Some time later:
That took some doing! First it had to be tweaked in Photoshop, then uploaded onto YouTube, then here. Needed to "render" its format?! Anyway, it didn't upload in college because of the administrator so here it is..

.

18:29

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Org92PjWBKc&feature=related
My brother came up with the goods and suggested "The Red Balloon" as a film to watch - looks good.

Monday 7th March

Close-up of organza 3D form abstracted from sea shell sketches. I wanted to create a feeling of light and movement, and something of the atmosphere of being on the beach. I like the delicate, almost ethereal quality captured here. Photographing it has solved the problem of the unpleasant, scratchy feel of the fabric, and made the unfinished nature of the sample - frayed edges, loose threads - a feature rather than a flaw. The samples are only a prop, not the end result.

Photograph of handmade felt sample, abstracted from shell sketch. Contrast enhanced in Photoshop. Light and delicate. Beautiful muted colour palette. I am pleased with how the black thread mimics the pencil lines in the drawing. The wispiness around the edges almost melts into the blue-grey background. How would it change if it is photographed against the skies and sand of Penbryn Beach?

Tyvek sample, melted and stitched. Photoshopped, softening monochrome effect with green/blue tint; blurred using wind filter. I like the shadows and melted edges. A beautiful organic form but does it lack the thready delicacy of the other photos? The paper makes a rustling frantic sound on the windy beach, which possibly the organza samples won't. Could try dyeing Tyvek to lose harsh white or can I just keep doing this digitally? Or make it wet so it picks up sand and detritus from the beach?

Another organza form, pinned together from discarded waste samples. Although this was photographed in my dining room, it looks like it was taken outside! The sun flooded through the window and I managed to capture the moment it transformed the piece. I like this one because of the threads and space. This was made spontaneously with no preconceived idea or sketches. How important is a design? Is it more honest if it is made instinctively?

This is my first sample made from hand-made paper. I used only tissue and loo roll(!), after talking to Dawn, so that it was as fragile and translucent as possible, aiming for the sheerness of an honesty plant. Nearly there. After trial and error, worked out the best way to make 3D paper was to squirt washing up liquid over silicone moulds, nabbed from ceramics! The wet pulp was laid onto J cloth then pushed and teased over the moulds. Although soaking wet, it did come away. Then it was blasted in the drier for ages. It just popped off the moulds. The forms were cast over bowl shaped moulds of different sizes so looked exactly like a rose when fitted inside each other. Not my intention, but they look so perfect that I'm reluctant to tear them into spirals. Wondering what else I could mould paper onto. The edges are thready with embedded silk and cotton. Possibly the most successful material when photographed. Do I like this more because it's natural, not made from man-made fibres? Will want to film in all weathers on the beach, so in the end it may just come down to which material is more practical and doesn't fall apart!

Have tried to put in video of felt sample I did with my digital camera, but couldn't get it to upload - need to ask Jason on Thurs. Have watched American Beauty and the carrier bag sequence has exactly the beauty and lyrical quality I'm after. Also viewed opening of Cinema Paradisio on Youtube. Here are links: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvD8EiibPVo; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yfpPpu7bik&feature=related

Sunday 6th March

The sunlight flooded into the dining room so I took this picture quickly. Like the way the shell has been abstracted from the original sketch. Delicacy of form has been retained. Need to photograph this in situ on beach.

Friday 4th March 2011

Spent all day yesterday writing my project profile. Was delighted today when my assessment feedback suggested using film and photography as a way to capture the elements of form, movement, light, space, sound and atmosphere. This was exactly what I put for my project so it was a relief to be "second guessed". Also it takes away the pressure of making a perfect, intrinsically beautiful "craft" object. I was so frustrated with the results of my textile sculptures which looked more like frilly garters than anything evoking my emotional response to being on Penbryn Beach!

Targets for today are: 

•  to book an induction on using a camcorder so that I can take it to the beach next week- this is the first time I'll have entered the photography lab since Sept induction!
• to set up a Blog as a diary so that I can track my progress, feelings and musings and "maintain detailed evaluation records" - ta da!
• to buy a new big sketchbook for both my ideas and contextualising
• to write up feedback from tutorial and assessment
• to take home previous paper and textile samples to rework them.

Assessment feedback from Claire and Lottie
Basically I've got to maintain the "delicacy" in my pieces; and keep more detailed evaluation sheets - hate them so this feels much more natural and useful. Contextual book is good so maintain.
I like the feedback on my photos: "seem to break the boundaries - by removing the "edges"; exploring scale, and removing the importance/preconception of real materials". It completely takes the pressure of producing a "finished" perfect 3D piece and I'm really excited about exploring them through film and photography. It's about "transformation", which when I look back over old sketchbooks, has been a motif all along. Interesting!

Tutorial feedback from Dawn
Suggested possible films which show "real objects in a place" and evoke an emotional response, namely, American Beauty - carrier bag at the end, and Cinema Paradisio - lace curtain at beginning. Have rented the first out of the library.

Plenty to do!