"Distorted Trust"
1 x 2 ft Acrylic paint and canvas December 2021 |
Exhibition Text This project was created using self-stretched canvases and acrylic paint. My intentions for these paintings were to connect to feminism and the struggles that women go through. I decided to focus the paintings on the fear women deal with when walking alone at night and not being able to trust their instincts. For my artist inspiration, I decided to go with the Irish painter, Francis Bacon. His paintings hold a disturbing appearance because of a signature technique where he distorts people's faces.
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Critical Investigation
"Portrait of Michel Leris" "Head III" "Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud"
Francis Bacon Francis Bacon Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon Francis Bacon Francis Bacon
Inspiration
Francis Bacon was an Irish-born British painter who was known for his raw and unsettling paintings. Bacon began painting at around the age of 20 in 1930 and continued his career till about 1980. Bacon specializes in surrealism and cubism and also participate in the expressionism movement. Bacon's imagery in his paintings was particularly disturbing as it included images of crucifixions, distorted pictures of the pope, and smeared portraits of himself and close friends. His unique style was inspired by famous cubist artist, Pablo Picasso, and his paintings were often in the diptych and triptych formatting. It was stated that Bacon had a difficult time finding an art style that he was comfortable with so by 1944, he finally had a breakthrough and created a painting called "Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion". During 1971, Bacon's lover, George Dyer committed suicide which lead Bacon to create more somber pieces of art. I chose Bacon as my artist inspiration because I really enjoyed the dark and unsettling look of his paintings. I wanted to create a painting that could demonstrate the feeling of being uncomfortable and I think that Francis Bacon is the perfect artist to achieve that affect. The way that Bacon distorts reality in his paintings by smudging the faces of his friends makes the world seem like nothing is as what it seems. The mix of organic and geometric shapes really ties in the overall appeal of his paintings and I think that his art is extremely unique. I was mostly inspired by the paintings listed above, "Portrait of Michel Leris" , "Head III" , and "Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud", which are all heavily distorted images. They reminded me of deception which was the exact look that I was going for. The use of unnatural colors and organic lines makes the paintings surreal and ominous to observe.
Planning
To begin, when planning out these paintings, I started off by coming up with a topic. I know that I will have to connect all my art in the end so I decided to continue with my feminism series that I started with my block print. I also really enjoy making horror artwork I knew that I would be able to connect the struggles women deal with with the feeling of horror and discomfort. I started off by listing concepts, horror, feminism, horrors of being a woman, being uncomfortable, walking alone, and so on. I then began to build a story, I pictured a woman walking alone at night and she sees a man standing behind her she is uncomfortable and worried and her mind is telling her that something is wrong. She looks behind her and the man smiles, he looks non threatening. The woman then begins to walk forward because she feels like she is safe. The man then changes his expression into a malevolent distortion. I wanted to portray the theme that you should always trust your instincts. I because making an extremely rough sketch of how I imagined the scenario and the placement of the man and the woman in the paintings. I then sketched out an image of a worried woman that had a worried look on her face. I didn't want to use this exact image I just wanted to get a feel of how to draw distress on someones face. Finally, I did another rough sketch of a Francis Bacon image that I was going to incorporate into the second painting
Process
To begin, I started off my process by stretching out my canvases. I used 1 foot by 2 foot wooden panels and connected them to get the frame of my canvas. I then cut a piece of canvas fabric so that it was big enough to wrap around the entire frame. I stapled the canvas onto the fabric and folded down the corners so that it was even and looked clean. After I finished making each of the canvases, I applied a thick layer of gesso onto the canvas so the canvas could tighten and leave a nice and flat surface for the paint to be applied to. I repeated these steps again for my second canvas.
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Continuing on, I began by sketching out grid lines so I could make the proportions accurate. I also sketched out the woman in the front and where I wanted the man to stand in back. I painted the woman with an orange wash so that the white canvas didn't show through the canvas. I then painted her hair and added in details so that it looked like a light was shining down on her hair. I then started painting her face and adding shading and contouring to her skin and neck. Finally, I added in some small details to her eyes and hair so that she looked more realistic.
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Continuing on, I then put an orange wash on the whole canvas again so the the white canvas wouldn't leak through. I started on the right and began by painting the background with black and added in some leaf like details with yellow, orange, and red. I mimicked lighting by using small white dots and then I began by working on the left side. I painted a car using orange and blacks to again represent orange street lighting and then I painted the ground and her shoulder with the same oranges. Next, I painted the top left with black paint and added in some leaf texture again with the orange, yellow, and red.
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Next, I added some black on the right side and repeated this leaf pattern for the third time. I painted the middle of the path with a dark orange and then added some texture and highlights. I also added the man in the background with his hands up in the air. I added some shadows to him and added a creepy looking smile. I also painted the side of the canvas black for a nice and clean edge. I repeated this same process with the other canvas, this time painting the man and the woman from different angles and perspectives.
Experimentation
For this project, I think that I have a reasonable understanding of paint on canvas because it was the first medium I used when learning how to create art. I was definitely most comfortable with this project than I have been with the other projects. However, in order to create these paintings, I had to stretch my own canvas. This process was very new to me because I have never stretched a canvas before. I wasn't sure how tight I should pull the canvas cloth around the wood panels, I didn't know how many staples to put to secure the canvas, and I have never applied gesso to a canvas before. The end result of this process however was way better than I expected. The canvases are perfectly stretched and I folded the edges to the point where they are smooth and don't poke out from the side. When talking about the actual painting however, there was definitely some trial and error. To begin, I wanted to experiment with orange and yellow lighting so I had to practice making a skin tone that was covered in orange and yellow lighting. This was pretty difficult for me because it is already difficult for me to create skin tones and now this made it even harder. However in the end, I think that the skin tones turned out well and I liked that I got to try something new.
Critique
This project was inspired by the paintings created by Francis Bacon so there are many similarities and differences. To begin, a similarity is that I wanted to mimic his smudged and distorted facial painting style. So for my painting, I made the malevolent looking man have a smudged face to indicate that he is evil or wants to hurt the woman. This makes the paintings feel very ominous and foreshadows events that may occur next. A difference is that Bacon used himself and his close family and friends for reference in his paintings but I did not. I wasn't trying to focus the painting on the specific woman I wanted the paining to be inclusive towards all women so I used a reference photo. I didn't want to draw away that attention from the actual meaning of the paining. In the end, I that the paintings really reflect the interesting and scary art style that Francis Bacon used in his paintings.
Reflection
My inspiration for this project was Francis Bacon and his creepy, ominous art style. I was also really inspired by feminism and bringing light to issues that women have to deal with daily. I appreciated the way that each painting that Bacon produced was organic and truthful. There was no hiding the pain that he painted. I wanted to be able to create paintings that have a deeper meaning but I wanted many people to be able to relate to them. I also wanted this piece to be a reflection of society and how it is difficult to trust people. I loved the story book style of this piece overall because it can be interpreted easily and lays out a plot on what could possibly happen in the future. I think that I did a great job on these paintings and I am excited to work on paining projects in the future. If I were to re do this assignment, I would probably make sure that I made the facial proportions more accurate and added more background details, but overall I am happy with my end product. My biggest challenge with these paintings were having to work with limited supplies, and shading using only acrylic paint. I only have acrylic paint and acrylic is notoriously bad for making a perfect blend but I think I made it work. I also struggled a bit with making sure that I could duplicate the paintings because they are suppose to be almost identical. I am happy with this piece overall.
ACT
1) I identified that Francis Bacon's unique and gory art style lead to some of his most famous paintings. This lead me to creating a painting that was unsettling to look at and was distorted beyond recognition.
2) Bacon was inspired by friends and family and used their photos for reference. His strange organic art style is very interesting to look at.
3) I have made some conclusions about his raw and distorted art style. His art is very deep in meaning and they seem like they could possibly be found in an art museum filled with disturbing art.
4) My central idea and theme was feminism and the struggles that women face.
5) I concluded that Francis Bacon's art is very organic, unsettling, and deep and he uses his family members and friends to distort their faces.
2) Bacon was inspired by friends and family and used their photos for reference. His strange organic art style is very interesting to look at.
3) I have made some conclusions about his raw and distorted art style. His art is very deep in meaning and they seem like they could possibly be found in an art museum filled with disturbing art.
4) My central idea and theme was feminism and the struggles that women face.
5) I concluded that Francis Bacon's art is very organic, unsettling, and deep and he uses his family members and friends to distort their faces.
Bibliography
"Francis Bacon - Wikipedia". En.Wikipedia.Org, 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon.
"Homepage | Francis Bacon". Francis-Bacon.Com, 2021, https://www.francis-bacon.com/.
"Before You Continue To Youtube". Youtube.Com, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/c/TheManojChauhan/videos.
"Homepage | Francis Bacon". Francis-Bacon.Com, 2021, https://www.francis-bacon.com/.
"Before You Continue To Youtube". Youtube.Com, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/c/TheManojChauhan/videos.