James mentioned to us that in our third session we would need a board of MDF as we would be cutting out our own specific shape for a painting, explaining that not all paintings have to come in the form of a square or a rectangle. I was skeptical of the idea at first as my personal view of the purpose of a painting is to transport people to different worlds, or at least to a different place than the place they are currently in. It seems to me that people – at least people in western culture – think in straight lines and squares, (this is in fact a point I am studying in my current work). We watch films through squares (or rectangles) and we look out square windows, and perhaps this is because we see it as the ideal shape through which to view things, and perhaps this is why we have always painted on rectangles on straight lines, to transport us somewhere else in our minds. I thought (and am still debating) that by cutting an outline into a painting made it not a painting anymore, but a physical presence in a room, something that is there with you rather than taking you somewhere else. Despite these thoughts I thoroughly enjoyed creating something which was out of my comfort zone (particularly as I am not very familiar with wood cutting machinery) and I found the exercise interesting.
We were to decide on a shape we wanted, draw it out and then make our way into the workshop where we would cut it out using the band saw. I chose my shape from a fairly simple drawing of houses lined up neatly.
During the week before our next session we were to prime our cut outs and then give them the base coat using the same technique as our first painting, (by using green, yellow, blue and red). Here is how mine looked.
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