Acrylic painting of a winner of the |Heraea

Painting project - winners of the Heraea were allowed to put a painting of themselves in the Temple of Hera (though there are no existing examples). Resonant of Greek painted sculptures I have  used appropriate colours to make an imagined self-portrait of an ancient Greek winner. They wore their hair loose and flowing, she is  around 13 years old. See notes of research about the race. This could be a model for a bust as well. Winners could put a statue of themselves in the Temple. 

Below: imagined armour for a 'guardian' of Platos Republic. Sited from his chapter Women and Family. Guardians could be women but had to live with other guardians and not in a family. I imagine she could run with armour as part of her war training and could run in an Olympic Race in Platos system.

Oil bar painting on canvas - primed with gesso (in part - I left the area around the armour plain - just as an experiment. This would have to be done in finished painting. Layers need to be built up to get modelling correct. The final layers would be oil paint to highlight small areas where a sheen might be still there. It could also be done as a brand new armour piece in oils or oil bar. More experimentation needed.

Armour could be sculpted in fine mild steel mesh. Chicken wire could be sculpted to be finished in plaster bandage and then painted in emulsion to seal and oil paint or acrylic over that.

(Original in large collected sketchbook)  This painting could also be used for a print series also

Photographic piece - Michaelangelo crossing the finish line

finish line

David Hockney's televised programme of Photography inspired me to take photographs not looking all at once at the subject. Here is an example of taking images from direct samples of the image at a relevant height  so that each is in the middle of the photographic plane. I want develop this with  models expressing the movement of the finish of an imagined Olympic Race.

 

Sculpture sketch for installation 'Scale and no Practical Effort''

Old School Vaulting Horse - Bring It On Home    

Sketch idea for a sculpture installation

This idea is based on my memories at school. Wearing a terrible blue gym slip with poppers on the front and the moment I realised I would not grow any more - smallest of my family -

There was a horse in the school gym which was unreachable for me (as I thought then) I then subsequently found out years later that gymnasts were small and used a vaulting spring to get over the vault!

Scale and my relationship to the physical world seems relevent to Olympic achievement - unobtained by so many.

An interactive element for this piece will include a place for viewers to write down their experiences in school or in further sport activities and their disappointments/successes. As a sculpture I want the piece to come apart to be of different scales

Materials
Polystyrene initially to allow a large scale piece. This could be then fashioned in veneered wood or resins. The figures could be projected around the piece seeming ethereal.

Print idea/ watercolor painting of 'Flame'

Olympic flame inspired print idea

This painting encapsules the spirit of igniting a flame either of ambition, striving for physical excellence or individal fleeting activity of human experience.

Photoshoped image to tidy and add then do a print with digital photo on etched image.

Painted image  with real gold leaf applied to acrylic paint on paper. Research best way to used gold leaf ie with oil, acrylic before or after application of the later. This could be a printed piece either etched and acquatint with gold painted over, or digital print.

local photos torch procession/newburgh (see sketchbook)