Hands-on matter – Evolving the image

Since the beginning of my painting career, I`ve been interested in the use of different materials as a way to expand the representational potential of painting. This is a short review of the most significant landmarks in this active research:

MDF - Slippery paper

2008 - 2010

Around the year 2009, I started to experiment with this material. I was cheap, so it was great for sketch making. One of the first things I learned about it was that it allowed the brush stroke to smoothly cover a bigger distance. This was one important discovery that made me aware of the convenience of smooth surfaces. The biggest downside was that you have to take really good care of it, after all, it is similar to paper.

MACHETE TIME - Shape the painting.

2011

Around 2011, I was again working with conventional canvas, and MDF was almost in the past. Although I used to do a lot of oil painting, Acrylic paint started to attract my attention. At first, I used it as the first layer for oil painting, but with time, my use of it grew to the point that it replaced oils.

On one point, I wanted to paint over objects, so I made two experiments with oil-based painting over milk cans. This gave me a new insight, so I started to paint over objects in order to build a relation between the physical shape of the object and the depicted image. I had chosen to paint over Machetes, and the final outcome opened a new path for my practice; now it was all about metal, acrylic paint and polyurethane varnish.

POP - Color fields and repetition

2012 - 2013

At this point, I was really excited about using iron plaques and metal objects, I was really into acrylic painting, and my motives were evolving more than ever before. I was starting to liberate from fixed photographic images, and visual composition became a stimulating adventure. I felt free to experiment, so I began by changing the context and the colours inside the piece. The use of patterns set the ground for the use of pixels, and for the first time, I took the risk of creating my first 3D painting sculptures. The downs side of Iron was that the pieces were to heavy and some of them actually ended up damaged by a combination of gravity and hard floor.

OILY LOVE - Landscape and flesh

2014 - 2015

I am not sure why, maybe it was the speed of things or the size of my expectations or the way I used to push things, but by the beginning of 2014, I was exhausted and with a bitter taste in my mouth. I needed to find the joy that was missing in my brush strokes, I needed to take a deep breath and recover my energy, it was time for oil painting.

Landscapes and Figures were my main source of inspiration. I stayed well away from traditional canvas by using several different materials, e.g. fibreglass with paper collage, synthetic paper and found objects. I started to embrace more elements of the digital aesthetics, e.g. pixels, glitches, colour aberration, overexposure, bad framing, blurriness.

3D painting - Layers of reality

2015-2016

Around April 2015, I started working on 3D paper models. I was trying to find an affordable and flexible way to create three-dimensional models. The use of Blender introduced me to 3D image composition, now I have the opportunity to compose and alter the 3D shape of the image.

Once I started my MA in London, I was able take things further thanks to the use of a 3D printing, this opened things for me because I was no longer limited by the complexity of the shape I wanted to create, or at least, that is what I though.

After a while, some issues were starting to be a real problem, firstly, 3D printing is a fairly complex process and a lot of things may go wrong (and actually did), secondly, affordable 3D printing has serious size restrictions, finally, 3D printers are delicate equipment and by February 2016 the College's 3D printer was damaged (and still is). Although I was upset at the beginning, this ended up being an opportunity to take things further both on digital and physical grounds.

Camberwell Roller Coaster - Going VR

March 2016

In March 2016, I made my first site-specific VR project. It was a piece that explored the use of 3D software to reflect on the perception of space while expanding the formal elements of Digital Photography. This project also introduced my self into 360 video production.

Landscape extrusion - Modeling and Sculpting

March - April 2016

A month ago, I was thinking about making bigger 3D physical objects without 3D printing or 3D paper modelling. My first option was to assemble several MDF laser-cut silhouettes. Although it was a pretty interesting process, I ended up on a dead end once I realised that it was going to be a pretty complex task to make it a strong and lightweight piece.

After awhile, I remembered a talk I had with the technician of the 3D workshop, we talked about several materials and one of them seemed to be suited for my present needs; polystyrene foam sheets. Last week I made a new model from a landscape and now I am modeling the physical piece while reflecting about the different aspects of this new kind of process and how it fits into my practice...

...and that is why I needed to write this post.