Our featured artist this week is Nadene Micklewright. Micklewright pushes the boundaries of paint as a material through adding other materials such as sawdust and gravel in a post-modern fashion. The paintings are inspired by the process of how the paint mix moves and how it can be manipulated, which is shown in the outcomes. Through the colour palettes, Micklewright aims to convey the playful process of the creation of the painting and the use of the paint.
Selected artwork:
Artworks in order:
"Blue, 2020, acrylic paint mixed with sawdust on artist paper, A2, £30
This piece of work has been part of my progression of using sawdust in my paint to create impasto. This is my main focus as a process artist as I enjoy the application of the paint; sometimes making it much more interesting as the initial outcome. The palette is complimentary to emphasise the build-up of paint, along with the exposed sawdust added on top to create texture within the piece.
Pink and Gold, 2021, acrylic paint on canvas and gold leaf, A3, £40
This is my most recent work in which i have focussed on the application of the foreground as this was the base layer which I continued to build up on throughout my painting process. I added darker colours on top of the light pink to evoke the idea of impasto and to convey the idea of layering colour. The addition of gold leaf is to simply highlight areas which I felt needed more attention to depict more gradual layers. I enjoy the limited palette with this one as the two colours convey my concept perfectly.
Pink, 2020, acrylic paint with sawdust and cardboard on artist paper, A2, £30
For this piece, I added cardboard to the bottom right corner for the piece to create a focal point for the viewer in order to lead their eye upwards to the top of the piece looking at the vertical marks that create the impasto of the piece. I also decided to use a warm and cold colour as I feel that they are quite complimentary to one another, expressing the different layers within the composition for the piece.
Untitled, 2020, acrylic paint mixed with sawdust and gravel on canvas, A1, £50
After much exploration into paint building and process art, this piece concludes my research. I feel that this piece is my most successful in terms of knowledge and techniques that I have learnt and used within my work. The palette I used is darker than my usual palette, however I feel that the shadows make the impasto stand out within the lighter tones of red which run through the centre of the painting. My aim was to achieve a piece of work created by homemade squeegees for application which created thicker application of paint than brushes, to achieve a successful process for making art.
Untitled, 2020, acrylic paint on artist paper, A1, £30
My exploration into process art began with this piece, this is before other materials came to my attention and i focussed on palette and layering paint. This piece is a lot more simplistic yet chaotic in terms of palette and lack of structure. The marks used create the impression of impasto which is where my ideas first came from. As I have developed a s an artist, I have found that my work has become a lot truer to myself and began to produce work that benefits my next move as an artist."