FMP: evaluation of paintings and overview of progress

Brief, briefly: a series of paintings reflecting on our relationship with the British natural landscape

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This project has been a strange one all in all. I struggled with timing, with other projects (Carmelite and Shortbox). I've had a lot of ideas in regards to the research undertaken, and have always seen this as something that will go beyond the degree. But, I knew I would need something that would appear finalised for the module, and wasn't sure which route to take. I ended up creating an overview of many reflections, and inevitably struggled to really hone down any of the ideas. It may have been more beneficial to just really look into one.

The relationships I chose to illustrate for this:

The Children (Born)- our most feral selves

The Children (In Wonder)- wonder of the environment, but also as a tool for learning and imagination

The Children (In Conflict)- conflict with the environment

The Witch- folklore and spiritual feelings (negative)

The Wizard - folklore and spiritual feelings (positive)

The Instinct  - what keeps drawing us back

As a start, I think this is a good beginning overview. However, many of the images resulting from this appear to be quite violent, which is not the feeling I necessarily wanted to get across. Nor did I want these to be endlessly happy, but rather... tender? Visceral? Soil under the feet. 

Visually, the paintings are heading in the direction that I'd like to be, though are not quite there. I'm pleased to be using shape in a more complicated and playful manner than say, the paintings of Kick, Don't Twist, but, looking back on the sketchbook  work, I think I have lost so much feeling in these paintings. They are at once too formalised, but also not skilfully tight enough to have ownership of the flatness. I struggled working on paintings that were so small, and I think that lended itself to a lack of movement and power. I'm unsure about the use of symbolism, and with the somewhat improvised nature of the way of working on these I struggled to keep the pieces balanced. 

But! I'm moving forward, and these criticisms are... mostly minor.

I'll admit that there isn't much "application" to this body of work. But it wasn't intended to either, this is illustration as a tool for investigation and display, not selling something, or even promoting anything. This should be exhibited, and could be displayed in a book and online but... having done much applied illustration for the module, it felt it was time to do something different, further.

As I continue the project, I look forward to going slower, and more thoughtfully. Work may be re-painted for the show, or more paintings added, but I don't think I'll have time to re-imagine the concept at this point.