Sustained Investigation #1

Inquiry Question: How do trees have an impact on communities, including their own and others?

• Guided by the history of birch polypore & its healing properties for trees and humans, also the story of Ötzi the Iceman. 

• Acrylic paint & real bandaids for 3D effect and detail

• Research on polypore history & Ötzi the Iceman, thumbnails, stretched canvas

• Inspired by Christian Rohlfs, work on trees and landscape using bold brush strokes

Reflection on Work:

I used acrylic paint with this project because I thought it would be able to show the detail in the dark “eyes” of the birch tree and the hanging birch polypore in the background. I’m not one to usually use acrylic paint as I’m not as comfortable with it as opposed to charcoal, but I enjoyed getting to test this medium out with my first piece. One thing I still struggle with for acrylic still is mixing the colors to get the right shade but I’m still working on it. I was able to stretch my own canvas but forgot to sand it between coats of varnish so this gave the canvas a grainy texture which you can still faintly see through the layers of paint and was quite annoying to work over. I’m very proud of the way I decided to use real bandaids in my piece because I think it gives it another dimension that it was lacking before. It also draws the viewer's eyes in more because no one would be expecting a painting to have real band-aids on it. But the bandaid idea worked well into the effect of birch polypore on both humans and trees so it showed clarity in my painting. 

My piece shows practice and experimentation mostly by its medium because I’m not used to acrylic and I had to practice blending paints together like in the shadow of the trees and the footprints. Also, looking in my art journal, you can see that I switched my composition in the middle of the painting to add more birch trees in the background to make the piece more engaging and switched to using actual bandaids on the tree to give it more dimension.

This piece was a great stepping stone for the rest of my work because it gave me the experience of researching something I’m passionate about that relates to trees and making it its own piece. I’ve always loved drawing and painting trees so having this opportunity to do a whole collection about them and their different qualities and impacts is such a fun way to also explore new mediums. Starting with acrylic, something i’m not used to was a good way to show me that I can finish my work on time and can enjoy the process and final product even if I’m experimenting along the way. 

Visual Art Journal: 

Christian Rohlfs

My inspiration for this piece, he was a German painter who used bold strokes and bright colors.

• I enjoy the abstractness of the details in the tree and it reminds me of a Van Gogh or a Munch

• My only dislike is there not enough detail in the hill scene for what I'm going for