Power Transference 2015

Works Created at Wigan & Leigh College 2015 

(Transformation continued) 

'Power Transference', is a continuation & progression of my previous

'Transformation' theme. Investigating personal and social perception & depiction of the female form, my intent is to explore a series of mythological paintings by Peter Paul Rubens. Exploring subjects such as; power, dominance, vulnerability, movement & sensuality, my purpose is to study these topics through contextual research, academically written essay & explorative, creative practice.

'Transformation' is the theme surrounding and underpinning my creative practise. The subject underlying my work is my interpretation, individual depiction and transfiguration of the traditional, mythological paintings by Peter Paul Rubens. The themes, narratives, colours and forms present within Rubens work have enticed me to explore and investigate these particular matters further. My purpose throughout the course of the continuous ‘Transmogrification’ topic has been to explore the female form, movement, sensuality and distress, all conjoining back to the original source, Rubens.

Initially inspired by Rubens, CY Twombly and Jackson Pollock, my intent was to explore and experiment with colour and mark making techniques to discover and query my own perspective and emotions surrounding these areas. Using physical and gestural application of paint, I began to create a series of large scale, conceptual and responsive canvas and print outcomes. A familiar theme began to appear, dominance and a word taken from a Rubens painting, ‘rape’, these elements became catalysts for the gestural content and application of media. The works formed into dramatic, emotive abstractions, where colour and marks have been used to decipher theatrical and powerful scenarios.

Progressing on from my canvas work, I remained focused and observant on Rubens and the female form. Challenging myself with anunfamiliar figurative direction, my analytical research has been grounded around the works of Sandro Chia, Georg Baselitz and CY Twombly. Preliminary studies of my own figure, colleagues, life models, and performing art students provided me with initial compositional investigation. Using these starting points I recreated photographic sets depicting elements of Rubens paintings, with only the female forms to instigate a series of drawings and prints relating to Rubens artworks. Preliminary studies provided challenges with figurative and representational elements, alongside more abstracted elements of shape, pictorial space and colour. 

The outcomes created euphoric, sexualised and domineering scenes using the female form as the dominant motif. To revise my own narrative of female perception, my intention to photograph females in various pose’s inspired by Rubens masculine imagery, highlighted the need to return to figuration. My aim is to emphasis the curvaceous female physique with, line, light, marks and colour, to have the sensuality disrupted by the dominance of gesture and emotive application of marks.