Final Piece 'Life' - Rationale for selection, method of selection and conceptual background

The Private View

Four weeks of intense experimentation with colour, light and various surfaces resulted in my final piece on perspex. 'Life' is about how I feel at the moment, inspired by my visit to New Zealand I wanted to capture the bright colours of summer, the freedom I felt out on the beaches and the way light plays such an important part in how one visualises imagery. The complexity of the mark making and application of the paint was spontaneous, although I did experiment beforehand with layering of colours and which colour combinations created a vibrancy when sitting next to each other. It was important for me to create a painting which provided something different to observe each time the viewer looked at it,triggering their imagination to tell stories about each element they looked at. There could be much debate on which side is the front and back of the painting - in my view I have created 2 different paintings using just one surface although the relationship between the two in my view is anchored by the blue curved line stretching from one edge to the opposite side of the image. 

   

Unpainted side

Painted side

Initially I was going to mount the perspex directly to the wall using 5cm spacers at each corner.  My plan was to flood light from behind using the white wall to reflect and illuminate the piece. I soon realised that achieving sufficient illumination across the whole picture was an impossible task unless the light was housed within a lightbox because of its sheer size. Instinct told me it didn't feel right for the piece to be boxed in, it needed to hang free so it could be viewed from both sides. I spotted that the gallery had a scaffolding pole running centrally along the length of the gallery at ceiling height. A perfect position to suspend 'Life' from as it didn't block the flow of people walking through the gallery, acting almost like a partition down the centre of the room allowing people to view almost separately the two sides of the perspex. Suspension of the work needed to be simple and unobtrusive - it needed to appear effortless and not detract in anyway from the painting. Steel wire, strong, contemporary and fixed with simple, uncomplicated small clips avoiding distraction from the painting itself. An added bonus were the spot lights positioned at ceiling height on either side of the painting enabling me to position them to illuminate the fluorescent colours, allow light to penetrate through the paint free(transparent) areas of perspex and pick out the contrasting colours and mark making. I have to admit I exceeded my initial expectations with presenting this painting I think the steel wire and positioning worked really well in the space. As the painting itself was loud and dramatic I didn't want it to clash / fight with perhaps softer more delicate works such as Jo's photographs so positioning was key. By hanging it lengthways down the gallery one didn't notice it until you were at right angle to the painting and as such didn't dominate the visual space.

Whats next?

Continue to develop and experiment with perspex. Research further into working with colour combinations and mark making.  Investigate light as a source, how I could use coloured lighting to interact with perspex in different interesting ways and whether there is an opportunity to sculpt with light.