Visual Arts and Media 30 Independent Project
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This semester, I had the privilege of enrolling in my third year of W.H. Croxford’s Visual Arts and Media Academy. At the grade twelve level, doing the academy meant undertaking a single project over the course of a semester, which we have chosen and planned ourselves to do independently. This year was unlike any other year even more-so because approximately halfway through the semester our work had to come home with us. This meant painting and blogging from home without the usual environment of the academy, making our projects truly independent. This made my project even more of a challenge and, therefore, even more of a learning experience.
My project is a mural in the form of a trip-tic, featuring a mountain scene, for the Alberta Health Services’ mental health and addiction centre in Airdrie. Made up of three 3x3’ canvases, the mural is just over nine feet long when hung with gaps between each canvas. The mountain scene, which I based on a reference and tweaked to suit the scene I wanted, wraps around the edges of each canvas, giving the trip-tic a flow between the gaps. The calming scenery was chosen so that the painting, which will hang in the centre’s waiting room, will encourage pleasant and serene feelings in the room. Each of the five main layers of the mural were done with acrylic paint, beginning with a thin base then added upon with thick strokes and frequent dry-brushing techniques. I began with a digitally-rendered plan and a thinly-painted sketch on the canvas then moved through to painting the sky, clouds, mountain, trees and field, in that order. The most complex layer was the mountain, which involved rotating through layers of black, grey and white until each rocky form was made and reflected the intended lighting of the scene. There was a lot of dry-brushing involved in creating these effects, and the eventual result made the mountain an eye-catching feature in the mural. This project challenged me throughout in finding new techniques to properly capture the image I wanted to create. As recorded throughout my blog posts for the project, there were many times I had to improvise or altar my ideas from the original concept. As the project and the circumstance under which I was doing it challenged me more and more, the cause I was doing it for also become nearer and dearer to my heart. This semester posed many hardships and I’ve seen these times pose hardships for others. Knowing that the mental health and addiction centre will impact so many lives during this time pushed me even further to create a great mural for their centre in the hope that it will provide a pleasant feeling, even for a moment, for someone who sees it. I was unsure at first if I would find the motivation I needed despite creating the mural for someone else, but I learned in the end that creating it for someone else could be my motivation. Overall, this project was a challenge that will impact my knowledge of art forever. I learned not only about painting techniques and the challenges of making a trip-tic, but also about independence, perseverance and compassion. As an artist your work, especially when creating it for a specific purpose, can impact you in so many unexpected ways. I hope that, just as this mural has impacted me, it will have a positive impact at the mental health and addiction centre and wherever else it may end up. |