Drawing and Painting Diploma Student Evelyn, chats about two pieces of her work below. We hope that you enjoy reading and viewing Evelyn’s artwork!
The Tile
One of my course assignments was to make a small painting in acrylic, gouache or oil in which I’d experiment with style. The syllabus had traveled through various art styles from pointillist to expressionist, impressionist, decorative, and abstract, so I thought about it and decided I wanted to try painting something decorative. A few years back I’d seen some beautiful Islamic tiles which I’d loved, and my idea was to paint a tile in that general style. I looked at Islamic and other tiles online and found so much inspiration there. I then made my own design and color scheme and painted it in gouache. As it was my first time using the medium, that added to the challenge!
My subject was winter fading into spring, hence the dark-into-light backround, the butterfly, flowers, buds and leaves. It was such a new experience for me and I felt I learned a lot.
The Abstract
This was my first try at painting something semi-abstract. I wanted to paint the feel of autumn leaves blowing in the wind at sunrise. Trying to express a ‘feeling’ without having a photo or specific scene from nature to paint from was completely new for me, and meant a lot of thinking, imagining and experimenting. I first made a few sketches in pencil, then a color sketch in gouache, and at last the final painting in acrylic on canvas board. It was more difficult than I’d expected and I gained a new admiration for abstract artists after seeing how much went into even my simple painting. But I enjoyed it and hope others will as well.
Evelyn (Painting and Drawing Diploma Course D1)
