Drawing on a larger scale, - Review of Steven CAMPBELL & reflections of the week

I have enjoyed working at the much larger scale of 6' x 4' during the past couple of weeks and I feel that I am engaging in a much freer and demonstrative way with the medium.

The suggestion made by Prof Swindell to look at the work of Stephen Campbell and also that of Malcolm Morley has been very productive.  I recall seeing the work of Stephen Campbell when I visited the Scottish national Gallery in Edinburgh last year, and I was fortunate to be there when an exhibition of his work was taking place with a full gallery room dedicated to Stephen Campbell's work.

Stephen Campbell was an interesting character who sadly died quite young.  He was it appears a patriotic Scotsman, although I felt that in many of his paintings there was a disturbance, and his mind must have carried a number of demons that he needed to express through his work.  Prof Swindell recommended these paintings, I believe, because they hold an element of naivete in the way that the paintings presents itself, but far from it, the techniques are very advanced indeed.  Overall the images are extremely painterly and seem to capture what my tutors are trying to inculcate into my own style, in that I need to make my arts more descriptive, but not illustrative.

I desire to engage with the materiality in my paintings, which I do not believe is coming through yet, and I must take on board,  after the tutelage and comments from Prof Swindell and Dr Holmes, that I must be more ambitious, make the subject's more demonstrative. It's a hard task but a learning focus, that is this need to make the paintings more descriptive, demonstrative but not illustrative, that I need to pursue.

I am struggling in some ways to find something new to make, which is of value as either a medium, a strategy, scale or a new experience.  I appreciate the need now to build a new set or series of things, in which I can use the journey to explore, modify, and research through practice.

Whilst I continue to improve my drawing techniques at a smaller scale, perhaps at A4 or A3 size, at some stage I want to look at more contemporary practices of mark making through the use of new technologies.  I will keep this in mind over the coming weeks too.

Furthermore to extend the use of "appropriation" it is possible for me to use something from another process.  For example the photographic work by John Stezika, the redefinition by Paul Amar of seashells, or indeed the graphical work of Rebecca Szetso in her use of the Emir and Velasquez paintings.  These are a few artists but I also need to research in to.  The practice of up cycling, where discarded trash or rubbish items are reused in a totally different context or purpose is a very current contemporary art trend.  Further reading can be found at HTTP://scarfolk.blogspot.co.UK/ and also at www.E9fun.com