An Overview of My Practice over the Last Two Years and Where it's Going

My practice throughout my 2 years at university has been focused on the same theme however as my theme is so big, I have been able to crossover into different topics and areas. In my first year, I was looking at painting the female nude and how I can demonstrate body confidence in my imagery. Researching what types of things can make a person feel confident such as lingerie and lace. I researched into women's magazines, fashion magazines, catalogues and catwalk shows. I looked at artists such as Shona McAndrews, Sarah Lucas and Judy Chicago.

In my second year of university, I was researching the theme of the female nude throughout history and the reclining figure was what I was focussing on. Finding the statues of the Reclining Venus one day while working in the studio, as observed by the Renaissance artist Titian. The woman who was once there is removed from the historic picture because of a hasty decision to remove the figure, which was originally created for male gazes. In essence, I was captivated by how removing the female form from these historical paintings freed the woman from the constant gaze of male eyes loving her body for their own gratification now peacefully in that age. My attention is sparked by old paintings of the naked body being caressed. But after focusing on this concept for the entirety of my second year, I felt that, at the start of my third year, I needed to identify my specific area of interest within the vast field of feminine beauty and feminism. So, I started to consider the media I want to experiment with this year, and one that kept coming to mind was mixed media. I like the idea of adding a thick texture to my paintings and having the medium tell some of the stories of what I'm trying to express in my work, so that gave me the idea of texture and skin in my work. However, even after doing that for a few weeks, I felt that my practice wasn't progressing in the way I wanted it to and that I wasn't concentrating on the part that is truly essential to me.

I wanted to focus my third year on really pushing my practice into new territory while simultaneously enjoying what I’m creating and thinking more about the mediums and how the concepts connect to them.