Whitworth - John Piper and Richard Long

John Piper - The Mountains of Wales

whitworth.co.uk

The drawn quality of these paintings is extraordinary - the delicate lines over washes of colour stand out well. The ones that I liked most had obvious tonal contrast, and rich rather than earthy colours. They were framed in different colours of frames, made of different materials. This actually worked well when the frames were correctly chosen as they brought out the best features of each painting. There was a particularly nice frame that I preferred to the painting; perhaps this was a bad choice. However, these works are part of private collections so would not have been chosen by the artist, and they still felt like a collection. The space they were in was quite dark and atmospheric; although adding to the drama of the work, it was difficult to see detail, and I had to get very close to the paintings to see everything clearly. This shows that lighting is extremely important when putting on an exhibition.

Richard Long - Land Art

whitworth.co.uk

These collections of stones were presented in a wide open, neutral coloured space, which helped me to imagine the inspiration behind them; the Cairngorms mountain range. Because there were no barriers around the work, I could look closely at each individual stone to see its unique colour and shape. They were contained in their own room so there were no visual distractions, which was good. The path - like piece was placed in the centre of the room so that it led your eye towards the other one. This made the layout more interesting and made sure that my attention was focussed on both pieces from the start.

Feedback for Print

I really enjoyed the print unit, and felt I learned a lot. The feedback session was extremely useful, and will help shift my focus for future projects.

Generally I am quite risk averse, and although I made a successful, varied collection, I could have pushed things further. When researching other designers, I need to focus on a few that really say something to me, and document my analysis to say exactly why I like their work, and relate it back to my own.

I took the instruction ' be selective ' too far; I left out pieces that helped add variety to my collection that would have enhanced the presentation for the sake of ticking a box. This is probably the most important lesson; it also applies to my technical notes as well, as I focussed on making sure that everything possible was there, as I thought that would be more important for marking than making it useful to me. Next time I will focus on working in a way that is useful and interesting, not trying to make my work fit into what I think the university is looking for.

I did start to feel like I was starting to own my work until it was time for presentation - I then went back and added notes and extra pieces to tick boxes. Next time I'll think 'useful' from the beginning so there might be fewer examples or notes but they will be useful to me and succinct.

It was pointed out that the students who get hand-picked for jobs aren't usually the ones who get a first; they are the ones who do placements, have experience, pay attention to trends and and make designs that are suitable for a commercial market. I need to focus on my career rather than my degree; a good job is more important than a good degree, and if I see my time at university as a way to develop skills to take into a job I think I will become more successful than if I slow myself down trying to tick boxes.

The layout of my blog is not entirely consistent; this is because of a glitch with blogger; when trying to put photos side by side and in a particular order or with subtitles, there are sometimes problems. In future I will just lay photos out vertically so this doesn't happen. It 's a shame that such a useful feature doesn't work consistently.

I would like to revisit print in future projects, but would also like to incorporate embroidery in some way. I tend to enjoy doing a mixture of things, and also enjoyed paper cutting and digital work alongside hand drawn images. Unit X should help me to try out different combinations of materials and techniques.