WATER (#7 Weekly Art Project; inspired by the Alhambra.)

 

One of the most stunning features of Yannat al Arif (Generalife gardens) is the use of water.  In a dry part of the world it is a treasure, so the garden design that included many water channels & fountains was not only destined to impress with it's beauty, but  signify great wealth.  The sound of flowing & dripping water is both soothing & camouflaging.  This camouflage feature was particularly useful back in the day, as the gardens were where secrets were shared & plots planned without fear of anyone overhearing.

I was particularly pleased with the photograph above.  It not only captured the essence of the place, but it highlighted the beauty of the water.

For this week's art project, I chose to focus on water and use the photo above as my guideline.

I started with drawing, which in turn, led to getting the viewfinder out & doing even more drawing.

During that process I wondered how I would represent the water & could I make it look like droplets.  Remembering that I had some gilding flakes, I did a small sample, using vliesfix & then glue as adhesives.  During this time I also discovered a silver shiva oil stick that has been hiding away for a million years.  That too was a possibility & was added to my sample.

Finally I had a direction.  Here's how it went.

This was the finished result.

Whilst the gilding flakes really do look like water & if you look at it long enough you'd almost swear it moved....I REALLY didn't like this outcome. It didn't work for me, even though it wasn't dissimilar to what I'd planned. I didn't like the shiva oil sticks, they were thick & clumsy to use. I didn't like the upper green corner & I didn't like the gilded flakes even if they looked realistic.  I think the problem here was the design not knowing what it was supposed to be; abstract or realistic.

Unusually for me, I had finished the weekly art project earlier than usual, so theoretically had another hour & a half  before needing to return to domestic duties.  Could I try again & do another project in that time?

I returned to my favourite drawing.  As you can surmise it was drawn rapidly with felt pens. The most interesting part of this drawing are the grey lines representing the water.  Could I try a more stylized representation of water?

Well....I could certainly try! With Christopher Plummer having just died, the appropriate song came to mind... "let's start at the very beginning...a very good place to start...."!!

Yes!  I like this one, even if a couple of my lines are a bit wonky. The background is less of a feature but still represents the place & the moving arcs & parabolas are more interesting here. I'm so glad that I decided to try again.  This whole experience highlights the value of samples.  They may not guarantee that things wont go amiss when working on an art making project, but they certainly help in the whole decision making process. It has been a lot of work, but definitely worth it.