I have chosen to study Januz Miralles as I feel that Miralles incorporates the previous aspects that I have studied and also uses portraits in her works which is something that I am looking to add to my work. There is also the aspect of lack of control in her work and I feel as though this theme works well with my theme of nature and the human body as a lot of nature is uncontrollable. There is also the link between the chemical reactions and my previous photography with the way in which Miralles uses paint and how this creates a fascinating effect on her work .
Miralles manages to mix the portraits with the use of paint and different mediums harmoniously to create a very unique effect. She sometimes uses the help of digital editing to mix these two very different styles of art.
This first piece, I feel manages to mix an abstract style whilst keeping the distinctness of a portrait painting in areas. There is vast contrast between the ‘perfection’ of the portrait and the ‘imperfection’ of the other areas. The contrast helps also create depth without a large range of colours, a technique that is very difficult, the portrait feels as if it is almost getting lost or drowning in its surroundings. This is largely shown through the expression on the face of the portrait as if it’s gasping for breath. This contrast may be used as a way of representing the difference between the perfect vision that people have regarding appearance and how this is lost behind the more natural aspect of personality and appearance which should be considered with greater appreciation.
The use of texture and the way in which the paint mixes naturally around the portrait creates real areas of interest and helps create diversion from the portrait without distorting it too much so that it’s unrecognisable and lost. The natural mixture of the paint on the page is similar in appearance to my previous photographs and also the marbling technique that I used so I feel that this artist would help me refine and develop these skills whilst also allowing me to begin to include portraiture in my work.
Januz Miralles.
This piece by Miralles is slightly different to the first piece that I have studied. The portrait in this piece is a lot more defined and more noticeable. Once again the portrait is almost made to appear visually perfect with the smoothness of the skin and the lips. However this time the use of pint is focussed only on the head and not in the background or around the portrait like the first piece, this means that the focus of the viewer is instantly drawn to this area and focusses on that. Very subtly you are able to see that the face has been merged and the paint has been dripped down, however it does not run down onto the shoulders. The message of this piece may be focussed on the natural relationship on our thoughts and our appearance and how sometimes you are unable to read the thoughts and feelings as they are trapped in their head. The imperfection of the painted area may represent how someone may seem perfect on the outside but inside maybe they may appear different through their mental health. I think why these pieces appear so powerful is because of the fairly monotone use of colour and the very plain background, this allows the greys to really stand out along with the darkness of the lips. Overall I really appreciate the technique that Miralles uses and the effect that her pieces create.
My responses
In my experimentation I have chosen to use my own technique and move away from the techniques used by Miralles in the works that I have studied. Below I have used the original portrait photographs and have then layered acetate with oil, paint and water inbetween and built these layers up to create the overall technique. I think that this technique has been very succesful and the overall appearance is very strong. In particular I like the contrast between the subtelty of the portrait photos and then the boldness of the paints and the contrast that this creates. I also like the feeling of depth and how it feels as though the images are almost trapped behind these layers. I believe that these work very well with my theme and how effective the uncontrollable use of paint is representative of chemical reactions and how they can sometimes be unpredictable and link to the natural science involved in the body and the relationship with the human form.
