Documentation

Collider Project - Walkman Cat

The idea for my collider project was to combine my interest in 80s music with my love of cats. This painting is based on my own cat, with my walkman as a key reference for the piece, as walkmans are strongly associated with 80s music. I titled it Walkman Cat to clearly and playfully communicate the subject matter. I experimented with composition by placing the Walkman over my cat's face, which helped develop the idea of the final piece.

I used acrylic paint on two cardboard canvases. The colour palette changed throughout the process: I first considered yellow and blue tones, then moved to pinks and blues, before settling on a predominantly purple-blue scheme. My work was influenced by Alison Friend, who creates humorous animal portraits in human situations (see research page).

If I were to improve this piece, I would use brighter, more vibrant colours and refine the painting style of the cat by focusing more on tonal shading rather than detailed fur texture. I also would have tried to keep the initial style of the Walkman instead of painting over it and changing the look of it.

The Process

Experimentation - after Doron Langberg

This work is based on Doron Langberg's artwork Russell, which I viewed during my trip to The National Portrait Gallery. I completed a rough copy of this painting, although different, as I did not include the colours or thicker brushstrokes he used in the original painting.

I completed a sketch-like painting inspired by Doron Langberg's work. I realised that without an example piece to copy from, I found it difficult to replicate the expressive and loose brushstrokes. In my piece, the lines appear a lot more solid and defined compared to Langberg's painting style.

Experimentation for Personal Project

Following my Collider project topic, I wanted to create something subtly inspired by music. Some rough sketches originally came from abstract ideas of guitars and sound waves. I wanted to focus on a shape that I can experiment with, and water ripples were my strongest idea. As I was developing ideas, I drew inspiration from an album cover, which gave me the idea of painting an abstract version of water reacting to a speaker playing music, as well as reflecting how I feel when I listen to specific music.

Experimentation based on my exhibition piece

I created this clay piece based on my exhibition painting to experiment with how I can create an art piece in different forms. In some ways, I prefer this clay piece as I feel it reflects the depth and texture that I wanted to portray in my painting. The shape was unplanned and loosely formed, reflecting the unpredictable movement of water. I tried to focus the brushstrokes on Lee Ufan's work (see research page).