The Initial Research

My initial ideas mainly revolved around the idea of family and memories shared with them. This was my starting point for the project.

I chose to look into Claudine Hellmuth as my first artist, as the subjects and themes of her work reminded me of my family gatherings, such as birthday parties and BBQ's on the beach. Her work is a mix of graphic and fine art, so I chose to recreate her work in acrylic paint and pencil sketch, to get the contrast between the graphic backgrounds and the detailed faces.

 
I then used old pictures of my family holidays to recreate in Hellmuth's style.

Another idea I had during my mind mapping stage was to look at holidays I have spent with my family. We have gone to Cornwall or other English seaside towns every year for our summer holiday, spending time on the beach and learning to surf. I remember one year looking in awe at the colourful beach huts and imagining how I would decorate mine in the future. I thought about how I could develop this idea of beach huts and seaside towns into an artistic manner, coming up with small stitch appliqué ideas, such as a row of beach huts along the hem of a tutu, incorporating the dance theme too. 

Gillian Bates' work reflected the seaside towns and beach hut rows that I remember from my childhood. I chose to look into her work for inspiration. I liked the contrast of the block colours and black lines, so I recreated a piece of hers in acrylic with an acetate pen drawing on top.

 
Bates' medium of work is stitch, so I chose to create my own beach huts using stitch. I created the base with fabric and paper collage, and used black and coloured stitch to add the details. I feel I achieved the unique look of beach huts, as I made every one slightly different.

 

 I enjoyed working in this medium and on the small scale, as it shows off the little details within each piece.