Hi lovely readers!
As some of you might know, I was sick this weekend… (basically all weekend.) It was also a really busy weekend for me in addition to that, so I didn’t have any time to hang out with friends or go anywhere fun.
One of my classes this year is AP Studio Art!! I love my art class at school because my art teacher is so rad, and our class is like a big happy family. I also love that for one period a day I get to just relax and laugh and release some of the stress from all that math x___x
So anyway, my portfolio review is this Wednesday!! I’m missing pieces, so I had to do some last minute cramming this weekend in addition to trying to get better. I spent all my time sitting on the sofa in the living room, eating Klondike ice cream bars, and painting!
So these are the four pieces I was working on over the weekend! The one on the furthest left and furthest right are ones I started blank canvas this weekend. The vertical one and the pink one were started earlier but I brushed up on them these couple of days. So now I’m going to go more in depth for each of these pictures and give a conceptual explanation for each! Keep on reading if you’re interested in the thought process behind these paintings!
My dad says he senses a sort of surreal feeling from this painting, which I was originally going for. (Along the way of visualizing and actually painting it, I kind of forgot about the original surreal intent I had for it, but I guess it came through anyway in the end!) For me, there’s a concept and a story behind this. If I had to explain the concept of this painting, I would say it’s being enraptured in a culture different from my own. In this painting, the cultures are Japanese (the screen doors, tatami style room, koi pond) and Chinese (my child self, the blanket.) However, in a less obvious sense, these cultures also represent my current cultures, American and Chinese. I had a lot of fun playing around with the strict, straight lines of the room, and then the flowing forms of the blanket and pond.
The story behind this is related to memories of my childhood, and stories about creatures my aunt would tell me before naptime! I wrote a memory piece on this memory at CSSSA 2013 Summer camp as well (for creative writing) so if anyone’s interested, I’ll post that.
When I have more time, I’m definitely going to go in and fix parts of the dog, and add more detail into the pond and garden. (I’m sick of looking at this picture for now though, this was the one I was mainly working on today!) I spent a lot more time on this painting than on the one below, and I think that easily shows through the more solid colors and details. The medium used is acrylic on canvas.
I think the concept for this one is very clear, however, the execution of this painting was super rough and I did it in a couple of hours. (You can basically tell that from the painting…) The concept incorporates both my love for Shanghai and it’s history and evolution in this past century. The women in the front are from Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s. The skyline in the middle of the view of the Pudong district in Shanghai. Then I just put some random blue dragon pattern on the sides. #china
As you can see, the painting at this stage is more of a base than a completed picture. I’ll definitely be adding more to this if I have the time. The medium used is acrylic on canvas, but I used the acrylic more like watercolor….I think you can also see that in the texture of the paint.
I actually started this piece in the middle years ago, which I find really really funny. I remember posting a rough outline of it on my blog actually! So I went back through my archives and dug up the post for your entertainment. http://www.allygong.com/?p=196
So as you can see, this painting has gone a short way in a long time haha. The concept of this one is much darker than most of my other paintings. I think I started this one while I was heartbroken over something, and I think it’s quite an accurate portrayal of teenage angst and a feeling of being encaged (by roses??). Tell me what you all think 🙂
(Oil on canvas)
This painting was just me playing around with colors and flowers! I really wanted to try a sort of techno, weird vibes kind of painting with fun colors and designs. This one is obviously in progress and I’m still playing around a bit with the composition. Also not sure at this point where the background is going. This is more of an observation piece, so there isn’t really concept behind it. However, I will try to flesh out the details more, so it becomes more obvious that the girl is entirely constructed of natural parts (twig eyebrows, flower body, grass hair, tulip face.) Still a lot of work to go! I almost regret using oil paints for this one, I feel like it would have been better in acrylic? Not too sure. The japanese reads “Hana no ko” which means Flower child. The blobs in the background are a creation I like to call “snowflake flower bops.” Still not sure where those are going. The purple dotted thing running through them is actually stars idk. Comments or suggestions on where this one could go would be appreciated!!
Here is another art related post I’ve done. This post is basically the pieces I submitted to CSSSA 2013’s Visual Art Program. (I was accepted, but I decided to go for the creative writing program after a lot of changing of mind!!) Best summer camp ever. http://www.allygong.com/?p=98
Thanks for reading this long ass post!! If you guys like my paintings/art, I’ll try to post more in the future! However, I am not much of an artist and don’t draw a lot outside of when I have to. I find painting especially time consuming, but over weekends and breaks I’m pushing myself to get out there and put more ideas out in color!
Lots of love! Comments, feedback, questions are loved as always!
-A
