2.75m x 4m Canvas. Black Paint, Ink mixed with industrial waste (bitumen, old industrial printer ink) on Canvas
The works follow a motif around environmental damage, decay and industry within Wakefield. My research for the project took me round current industries in the areas situated by the disused Barnsley canal; here I gathered waste produce, inks and grease to use as my medium. I then walked the canal route from the Heath to Barnsley in search for any remnants of what was once a bustling community of barge workers and industries. I became fond of two sites that I found upon the way. One an old logging site in Secker Woods which had been left abandoned and uncleared still showing the scars of what once was in this area. The second is an old railway bridge off Blacker Lane where barges and trains used to exchange loads for distribution; this area had been left for the environment to take back what was once its own. Overgrown and derelict with the only sign of recent human interaction being graffiti left on the arches of the bridge. The Last piece is Castle Farm and site now disused due to multiple counts of arson on the land and loss of crops due to this and the local council decided to stop the site growing crops due to the smell and noise created by working the land that was so close to a tourist/ listed site. So, the land is now just barren and without use. By depicting these landscapes with the waste of the current industries running on the canal banks I aim to create a desolate and apocalyptic visage to the remains of the past and to draw attention to what the future holds within the current industries.
The Work Depicts and Old logging site in Walton, Wakefield.
This piece of work follows my motif on environmental damage and decay, with the landscape set in Wakefield at a disused logging site. This site was selected by me from multiple areas in Wakefield that I explored this year in search for inspiration. I felt I held a really strong sense of what my work is about, and it also held a beautiful aesthetic quality that I could manipulate with my own style too create a powerful image of environmental damage. My focus in painting was in depth and mark making too create the image not just painting the woods. I wanted too to keep hold of my printmaking style which I have grown so fond of a use this too enhance my painting which has been in the wake in my years at university. My goal was too creating a painting which held impressionistic qualities as well as being an abstraction of the environment I had taken the image of. So, by using my brush too create marks and not strokes and through my use of capturing the light and shadow as a two-tone piece I have got close to what I aimed to achieve.
This piece is a depiction of the old railway tracks which cross over the canal near blacker lane. I use only black paint with no tonal values to create the abstraction of the image but also keep depth and a sense of the literal in the foreground where the image becomes more in focus. The bridge is used as a metaphor which is linked back to my research into the call of the void. Leading into the void as the image disappears into the distance; this shows the fading of our environment and the lack of detail we know about what our future holds. Once again, I tried to used my experience in printmaking to present an aesthetic which almost looked like a screen print. This shows how my work has progressed through my understanding of other mediums and techniques. I believe this image is the most successful out of the series as it holds the strongest motif to my research and has also achieved the strongest aesthetic appeal in my opinion.
Just off the canal route is Castle Farm now unused for work these lands remain barren. The land has been home to multiple battles in the past mainly in the war of the roses. The lands fell foul to multiple arson attacks in the early 2000s when it was being worked as a farm. Although this isn’t the kind of industry you’d expect me to target; land used for farming and cattle use causes a devastating effect on our environment as so many trees are cleared for these practices. Then the land to become disused this feels like a tragedy for our environment as I’m sure there’s many places like this all over the world. If I was to use this piece in future shows I think I would burn the canvas in certain areas to represent the history of the land and create a more shocking image. I purposely used this image to see how a more calming and less chaotic image would work within my motif. I don’t see it as successful as the previous two but it defiantly has qualities I admire.