By: Marilyn
artworks, ,

Art in the time of lockdown #1

There have been so many wonderful images coming out of this time of lockdown. I thought it would be fun to put my own spin on some well-known, and perhaps not so well-known artworks from the past.

“me loving me”

me loving me : with colour, movement, and fun is a new way of portraying myself

Process:

  • used Affinity Photo and Adobe Photoshop Elements to manipulate self-portrait
  • first stage, used Adobe Elements to replace the original colours with a blue monotone, and then to distort the image using ‘Filter – Distort – Twirl’
  • second stage, created six copies in Elements each with a different area erased (my reason for using Elements was simply because I feel more competent and I wanted this to be a quick process)
  • third stage, opened a new blank square canvas in Affinity and added the images from Elements using the ‘Place’ tool in the File Menu
  • fourth stage, where the fun begins working on each layer at a time to colour, manipulate, and blend the original images
  • fifth stage, creating the ‘frame’ by opening a ‘New Layer’ – using ‘Effects’ to shape and ‘Styles’ to colour
  • finally working on one of the layers to bring the colours outside the ‘frame’ using the ‘Paint Mixer Brush’ tool

Reason for my title? My inspiration came from a work titled “Lovers” and I had taken the original self-portrait at a time of serious illness, distorting that image to replicate the inner twisting and turmoil of my mind. I definitely did not love myself. Working with the image fifteen years on it’s time to embrace my differences, and state categorically “me loving me“.

Inspiration:

Howard Hodgkin’s “Lovers” created 1984-9, oil on canvas

British artist who spent much time in USA and India.
Bold colour blocks, a raw simplicity, and a use of the frame as part of the canvas were all hall-marks of his style.
From being viewed as peripheral within the art world, Hodgkin is considered one of the cornerstones of contemporary painting as well as being a prolific print-maker.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my artwork and perhaps you have been doing something similar at this time of ‘enforced’ partial isolation.
Please like, comment, and share (and your own work if you’d like to) if you have enjoyed reading my post.
Thank you for reading.

Stay well. Stay safe. Stay apart. X