Sketchbook as Object part 2: Research 2.1 - Lucy Austin

 

 "Lucy Austin is a painter and printmaker, from the UK, who uses abstract imagery in reference to
the urban landscape. Austin frequently uses watercolour in her work".

I researched Lucy Austin and found her acrylic paintings first. I saw she uses collage a lot and I love the experimental techniques. She creates these abstract patterned pages often with a soft colour palette. The pinks with the blues in these ones above are so complimentary. She has a good eye for colours that work together. There are also black shapes and paint strokes throughout as a way to break up her pages. The collage element works well with the paint you can see some random felt pieces or different coloured paper or masking tape that gives the image different layers, you can see the initial painting on the very bottom through gaps in the tape or paper and how she had built up the pages.

 

These are 3 of her watercolour on paper, they are similar to the abstract collage and other prints shapes wise. However, these have a darker colour and instead of the main patterns being bold in black the background is darker therefore white is used to enhance the image. You can still see elements of layering in these except you can’t really build on watercolour as much as you can with acrylic. These are a lot more transparent and gentler in application in comparison to the solidness of acrylic paint and how you don’t have to be as careful with the layering. I really like the backgrounds for these ones, they seem to bleed and expand around the more solid lines/ shapes. The white and orange stand out the most within the series there’s a flip between the techniques, sometimes the background is full capacity and the objects on the page bleed, or the objects are solid structures and the background bleeds. There is a contrast between the atmosphere between these watercolours and acrylic, these 3 feel a lot more industrial and darker whereas the acrylic are a lot freer and bright.

 

I found another artist on Instagram who works with watercolour called Claudia Drexhage. Here are a few of her work….

 

 

 

 

Both artist have differences in their work but there are a few similarities to.

Differences:

·       Lucy uses solid lines and shapes thick and thin. Claudia creates really inky lines with no major structure or just lets the white of the page work as a line.

·       Lucy is a lot more abstract based whereas Claudia takes inspiration from landscapes and horizons sometimes involves shapes like trees.

·       While Claudia works in one or two layer using only watercolour, Lucy heavily layers a lot of her painting even her watercolour pictures have a lot more substance in the shapes and thick lines.

·       Although both let the watercolour bleed Claudia’s theme of work is mainly letting the paint bleed where as lucy uses it more as an experiment.

·       Lucy works a lot heavier and fills the whole page and Claudia’s are a lot softer and elegant and she also seems to just focus on the middle of the page.

Similarities:

·       They both use a bleeding technique where they add a lot more water to a certain part of the image and it takes the paint and creates its own little patterns.

·       They both have a certain dark or light colour to use as a focal point.