Can a leopard change her spots?
As an avid watcher of wildlife documentaries, I often find myself drawn to the colours and patterns of animals and how they compliment or contrast with the landscape around them. Following on from my experiments with paint and collage, I've been working on these small compositions of savannah grassland with animals as their focus. The sad loss of wildlife habitats makes this subject matter quite poignant... my approach is to celebrate their beauty and personality.
You'll know if you've been following my art for a while that this is completely new to me and a far cry from the English landscapes that are the subject matter for my landscape monotypes. I'm really stretching myself to find new ways forward which is both challenging and exciting. I'm aware that fans of my landscape work might be a bit thrown by this change! Hang in there! More landscapes and seascapes are coming! I'm pursuing both creative streams at the same time.
I've really enjoyed making collage papers using acrylic paints, inks and wax-resist. It's quite liberating not to have to think about the composition whilst covering a thin sheet of paper with colours and patterns. I have the subject in mind - animal fur or grasses - but I work across the whole sheet. I then draw an outline on the back and cut the paper with a craft knife, only seeing how it will look when I turn over the cut piece. It can be a pleasant surprise to see how interesting the pattern looks when it's confined to a particular shape. There's a lot in common with printmaking here.
Glueing the animal shape to a background landscape is not as straightforward as it sounds - it can be tricky to make just the right environment. Too busy or contrasting and the animal won't stand out. Too pale or matching and it looks insipid. I feel I have a long way to go to find colour combinations that work as well as those I've developed in my printmaking. There is, of course, a lot of common ground which is a good starting point.
I've created these pieces sitting at a desk in my bedroom, not in the studio. I like the informality of just doing an hour in the evening. It feels more personal and gives me time to reflect on what I need to do next. The scale is fairly small with most pieces being around 30cm square but I hope to work on a larger scale in the studio when I understand my process and I've created a language of marks, colours and techniques.
This seascape is a bit of an odd one out - no animals this time but I do love the contrast of the blues and turquoise of the waves against the warm ochres and terracottas of the rocks. I'll certainly come back to this. It's not a particular place but an imagined coast based on my memories of walks beside the sea and exploring rock-pools.
These last two return to the garden theme I was working on for a large part of last year. I kept a sketchbook of our garden and allotment through the summer which I got rather frustrated with as I swung between observational drawing and wild abstracts! I'm finding some sort of middle ground now. The introduction of a cat or a bird brings focus and animation to the scene. I love drifts of flowers but they always feel like a setting for a protagonist of some sort!
Finally the image below was made on a day-course using water-soluble Inktense sticks and crayons. We had an autumn theme and demonstrations of how to use the media both wet and dry. I do like some parts of this and would definitely like to use this red-orange green colour palette again.
I'd love to read your thoughts on these pieces - do comment below. They are for sale now - please get in touch by phoning 07717 256169 or email me info@rebecca-vincent.co.uk if you would like to purchase one. Prices shown are for unmounted originals but I can mount and frame them to order and arrange delivery by courier - just ask for a quote.
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