'Shared Spaces' is a piece I made at the end of last year, but I have only recently framed and documented it. To be honest, it was a bit of an experiment using different materials, and a slight departure from my normally detailed paintings. It's inspired by silhouettes on the skyline and the juxtaposing of natural vs. manmade structures. The reflective materials are normally used in the manufacture of protective clothing. I've employed them here to echo the barriers, warnings, incidents, protections, and safety measures of modern life.
Acrylic paint sketches were made initially of the trees, insects and cranes, working from reference photos.
I began making the squares and rectangles by covering pieces of wood with the different reflective materials, effectively stretching mini pieces of canvas over each block.
Once I had all the three dimensional elements, I began finessing how I wanted them to be arranged together.
I tried to get the composition so that the different surfaces were as diverse as possible, and not have the same colours too close to each other.
The images of the insects, cranes and trees were transferred on to each surface using pencil. I then carefully painted over these using gloss acrylic paint. This is an image of a churchyard beetle.
The trees were all drawn from photos I had taken locally. The insects are all native species to the UK. Shown here is an earwig and an ant.
As each drawing was completed, the elements began to accumulate.
I had to secure everything together on the back, using screws and hardboard. The final piece is fairly heavy, as each square and rectangle is solid, not a canvas on a frame. The construction over all is a little haphazard and not as slick as I’d hoped, but hey - it was always and experiment. I’d like to explore working with more reflective surfaces in the future, though.
I’ve included here a link to a video showing how the artwork looks under varying light sources. This shows how the different materials respond, something not conveyed really by a still image.