Nostalgia

nostalgia: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past

I think it's fair to say i'm guilty of this wistful affection for the past. I find inspiration in family photographs, mainly those taken before my lifetime. Of course a photograph represents just one moment in time, an idealised image of life- but I feel somehow closer to those family members portrayed, even if they are no longer around. Our own memories aren't picture perfect, there are always gaps and blurring between events- to me it is the combination of the photographs in our family album and the snippets of memories that create nostalgia..a longing for times past.

In 3rd year at Uni, I did a project where I manipulated some of these old photographs and layered them together. Sometimes I used several generations of my family in one piece, each image blurring and combining to create something new. I plan on working with these images further, maybe using collage and paint to represent the layers. 

Miniatures

Every so often I get the urge to draw again, but i'm finding it difficult to get any ideas. So, I decided to raid my sketchbooks and "inspiration" stash of images for some small things to work on. The first is drawn from one of many small photo postcards I acquired and have been wanting to do something with for years.

In contrast to the sombre black and white portrait, I found a lovely picture of my Auntie as a child. For some reason I chose a smaller scale for this as well (roughly A5). I think maybe working smaller is less daunting when you've had a creative block for awhile. 

The Beats

I decided after the Degree Show finished (a whole 4 months ago now) that I needed some new projects to work on. So I've been working on a portrait as a present for some family friends- The Beat family. It's A3, which is fairly small by my standards but the larger versions I attempted just didn't look right. This is the first time i've done a portrait with so many people in it, which was quite a challenge. Hopefully I managed to get everyone's likeness.