The book I chose to study was ‘Man with a Blue Scarf’ by Martin Gayford (2014). It is single narrative and autobiographical, following Gayford through his experience ‘Sitting for a Portrait by Lucien Frued’. The author, Gayford, is an art critic and novelist; currently working for Spectator magazine but has worked for many more publications. This book’s purpose is to give a personal insight into the working practises of Lucien Freud.

What I found most interesting about this book is the intimate detail of Freud’s process while painting, his movements of everyday life and the closeness of relationship between the sitter and painter. For example when moving around his studio he is described to be simple ‘standing’ but ‘constantly dancing around’. (2014, p.49). This is amazing to me as one, over the years I have come to love Freud’s work and hearing more about his process of working gives me a further understanding of his paintings and two, it’s inspiring that for his age he was able to move so freely and create such work. From that information you can really tell where the energy from his work comes from.

Another aspect I enjoy is insight into other artist’s opinions. In an conversation with Damien Hirst he compares a great painting as something you could ‘eat’, like an ‘ice-cream’. This is because of the physicality of paint, the ‘layers’ (2014, p.96) This comparison to me demonstrates the appealing nature of a good painting, food is appealing to the eyes just like a piece of work can be.

Bibliography

Gayford, M., 2014. Man with a blue scarf. London: Thames and Hudson.

Anon, 2017. Martin Gayford Art Critic. [online] Martingayford.co.uk. Available at: <http://martingayford.co.uk/> [Accessed 11 Oct. 2017].

When given the task of creating my own version of a passport I considered a few ideas. One being to use acetate to create a transparent document, representing my willingness to be open and transparent about myself to a new group of people. However I decided to concentrate on one element of my passport, my passport photo. By creating a series of artworks based on my own appearance, something I believe to be vulnerable and open in itself, I was able to demonstrate my working process by experimenting and finding creative ways of attempting to capture my own likeness. I also liked this idea as I saw this project as a way of warming up and getting acquainted with our new shared studio.

My first, and probably favourite piece, was a self portrait made of masking tape. I really enjoyed this material as I was able to layer it up, creating depth and texture. This then led me onto my next idea, creating a 3D model of my hand out of the paper available to us. To make it I wrapped paper around my fingers and hand to create a mould and hastily fixed the pieces together with masking tape. The outcome of this was rough and arguably a piece of naive art, however I think that further represents me as my work is often unpolished and more focused on process than finesse. I also completed a series of continuous line drawings, probably the least successful of my experiments.