20/02

Today I have created a sketchbook page on artist Francis bacon. Francis bacon suffered with mental health problems throughout his career and I think his paintings show that. His expressive brush strokes and dark senses of colour show how he clearly struggled and had troubles.
I created an artist study on his piece 'george d on a bicycle' I did this because I thought it was one of his more detailed pieces and I really liked the use of the brush strokes and colours init. I like how his pieces almost look like they have smudged or as if they are moving.
Tommorow I hope to complete this page with annotation and start some pieces on canvas inspired by my moods.

16/02

Today I started by printing my final proposal and handing it into kat for the final read over.
I also started to create a mark making page. On this page I drew squares and used different mark making techniques that came to my mind. I didn't have any plans I just went with the idea which I think is a good thing as the whole idea of my project is to paint with what's inside me.
I'm fairly happy with the page I just think it needs some more annotation. I wrote on the page how the certain marks made me feel.
I also started a page on my visit to York art gallery last year. I know it was a while ago but I saw some beautiful artwork that include a range of marks and emotions as well as some mixed medium pieces.
Tomorrow I will be working but when I get home I am going to try and think of some mood board ideas as that was what I was struggling with today.

15/02

Today I pretty much finished my proposal. This meant me Harvard referencing books for my bibliography and writing the end part of my proposal as well as editing bits that needed changing. Because I was feeling quite stressed I decided to do the first of my small paintings. I will be producing two small paintings a week and hopefully at the end of the project these paintings will come together to show the change in my emotions throughout the project.
I was feeling angry and stressed so I feel the small painting I did could show this.
I'm happy with the painting I think it works well and shows how I was feeling at the time.
Tomorrow I hope to start a page on mark making and also gather some more books for research.

14/02

Today I finished my page on Georgia okeeffe in my sketchbook. I added Images of her artwork which I found inspiring. I got these images from a book. I also had to do a presentation for my mother and child project so the first part of the day I couldn't do much. Towards the end of the day I carried on with my project proposal. I'm finding my project proposal difficult and stressful as I know I want it to be at a distinction standard. This means I keep tweeting it and editing it until it's at that level.
Tomorrow I will hopefully finish my project proposal.

12/02

Today I started researching artist Georgia O'Keeffe. I decided to look into her art work as she is an artist who suffered major mental health problems throughout her career and she used her art as a way out.
I find her work really interesting too, I feel that her work defiantly shows emotion.
I started to create an artist research page in my sketchbook as I wanted to write more about her and her circumstances.
I created artist studies on two of her pieces 'Light Iris' and 'Lily turned away'.
I chose these pieces as I love the subtlety of them also her piece light iris has more of an abstract feel.
I created these pieces using water colours both in tubes and pans. I really enjoyed painting these pieces and I am very happy with this sketchbook pages so far.
Her work  is very beautiful and moving so it was very easy to connect with her paintings.
Next I will be annotating this page and possibly adding more studies or some photographs of o'keeffe's original pieces.

FMP

Today we got given our FMP Brief.

This was really exiting for me as I had so many ideas floating around in my head and today I could finally start deciding.

Kat gave us a massive power point and talked us through all the constraints and possibilities to this years FMP. The only constraints where as followed:  

No Disney, No tattoo design, Nothing that primary research couldn't be done for and also nothing we didn't feel fully passionate or committed about.

As an abstract artist I knew straight away that the theme I wanted to chose would be done in an abstract way. Abstract expressionism has been a massive inspiration for me since I can remember and this is why I'm wanting to go down the expression route.

Mental health is also a massive issue in my family and I suffer with it myself so I wanted to incorporate mental illness into my project. I decided on possibly going down the route of emotion and expression as the link between creative people and mental illness is very strong. 

I think this will be really interesting to look at and I feel I can produce some really good primary research and experiment a lot with my ideas. I also feel like my idea isn't too restricting and I still have freedom to explore within my theme. I am hoping to look at a range of different artists including artists who have suffered with mental health issues themselves such as Van Gogh and Jackson pollock. I also want to look at exhibitions on near me and see what inspiration and research I can gather from them. 

Overall I'm really exited to start this project and tonight I have started drafting my project proposal explaining my plans for the project and where I want to end up. I'm also in the middle of creating a mind map in my sketchbook of all the possible avenues I could go down for this project.

My next job will be to finish my mind map and get my first project proposal draft up to a distinction standard. 

Albert Irvin

Today Albert Irvin is another artist I've looked at. His work is very child like but so bright and funky he uses thick lines bold colours and wacky shapes to creAte his pieces. They are so appealing to look At and I think this is due to the use of colours throughout his pieces. I was thinking that this type of work would probably appeal a lot to children as well and it's extremely exiting and fun looking.