Lyndsay Martin Through The Eyes of a Tourist Artist Statement May 2019
I find joy in taking pictures no matter where I am but it even more exciting when it's somewhere I've never been before. A few months ago I took a trip to England. While touring mainly York and Derby I took my camera with me everywhere I went. I fell in love with the architecture amazed by the difference between the buildings in my hometown and the ones there. My independent project consists of nine photography pieces and three watercolour paintings. The photos range from buildings and its architecture to simple things in nature that I found around England. The names of the photos are The Lord, Just Passing, York Minster, Old York, Hidden Secrets, Perspective is Key, The Mist Beyond, In Deep and, Local Ladybird. I used The Mist beyond, Just Passing and In Deep as inspiration for my three watercolour paintings. I chose these three because they all feature an aspect of nature with a living creature. A huge inspiration of mine is nature, the world is beautiful and I want to be able to capture its beauty in many ways. After I got home from England I went through my few thousand pictures and eventually was able to narrow it down to my favourites based on quality and content. I ended up with nine of my very favourites which I plan to display in a three by three grid. I hope to display the paintings simply next to each other. Once I had my favourite photos picked I took them into Adobe Photoshop, which is where I cropped a few and used the level adjustments to enhance some details. Then I had the photography aspect of my project finished, this took about 3 days. Which gave me the majority of my time to work on my paintings. Which was a good thing considering I was learning a whole new medium. I chose three of my photos to turn into watercolour paintings. Once I had them chosen I took them into an app called Prisma which lets me play with the colours and look of textures on the photos. I used slightly textured watercolour paper, and cut it 18 by 13 inches. I then taped off the edges and got to work. I watched videos about different styles and processes artists tend to use while watercolour painting, because this was my first time using them, for something other than for fun, I didn't have a great idea of what exactly to do to get the best results. The first painting I did was probably the hardest for me to do. It has many colours and details, I think if I had saved it for last I would have had a much better outcome overall. I learned while working that I should not be afraid to use the pigments directly out of the pan sometimes to create harsher lines and brighter colours. I thought in order to create an authentic watercolour painting I needed to use a lot of water, and I was wrong. Thankfully some fellow VAM classmates encouraged me to be brave and try new techniques. And they were right! The pigment can sometimes become washed out and dull. It’s okay to not follow the rules, after all, they aren't really any rules to follow. I am really happy about how all of my photos and paintings turned out. I wanted to use my photography skills to help me learn a new medium and I think I achieved my goal. My pictures allowed me to experiment to my fullest, and for that, I am very happy.
Lyndsay Martin Artist Statement May 2018
Lyndsay Martin is a grade 10 student enrolled in the Visual Arts and Media Academy at her high school in Airdrie, Alberta. Throughout her life she has always taken an interest in the arts, doing crafts and taking pictures from a young age she has always been full of creativity. This year Lyndsay has decided to take a step into painting, yet still not straying far from her original plan of this school year. Originally wanting to stay focused on bettering herself as a photographer, she uses some of her photography pieces as inspiration. Over the past six weeks Lyndsay has been working on an independent project which she has named “A Temporary World.” In order to create these four acrylic paintings that will be shown in her upcoming art show, she has used previously taken photos and put a twist on them. Using inspiration from the Fauvist art style she turned her pictures of the winter landscape in Alberta into a bright colourful unknown “Temporary World."
Lyndsay Martin "A Temporary World" Art Series Proposal March 2018
I will be creating a series of four art pieces; they will be based on landscape photos that I have taken throughout the past 6 months. From this collection, you can expect to see realistic ideas of the original landscapes mixed with the new, abstract take through the unique and unusual colours used. The name of this series will be “A Temporary World.” The reason for basing this series off of the Fauvist style is that recently I have finished a research project, focused presentation on the Fauvist movement and how it began. After doing that project I became greatly inspired by the unique colours and shapes used, I am very excited to begin this series, trying a new style out. This collection of artwork will be made up of five acrylics on canvas paintings, each being 11 inches by 14 inches. These paintings will be strongly influenced by the Fauvist style, using bright unnatural colours and multiple brush stroke types. Each of these paintings will be based on a different landscape photo that has been taken by me. The first step I will take to begin creating these paintings will be to choose 6 to 8 landscape photos that I have taken in the last six months, then I will go through and choose the four best based on my own and other artists opinions. Once I have all five photos I will use the colour wheel to choose the colours that will be featured. I will use the colour adjacent to the original colour in the photo. After I have chosen the colours for each photo. Then I will sketch the main outline of the pictures on to the canvas, and begin painting each picture, one at a time. I hope to have these five art pieces displayed next to each other on a wall or trifold. Each canvas will need to either be hung with string over a trifold or with some string and a few nails. I hope that through this series I am able to try and succeed with new art styles and forms to experiment with. Hopefully helping to inspire my classmates and those around me.
Lyndsay Martin Artist Statement December 2017
My main inspiration for the different pictures I take and the pieces of art I create include emotion that is able to be felt and colour contrast that is seen. I use the skills I have to better my work and try to add a deeper meaning. Within the art I create I try my best to find a strong inspiration for each piece. Within the last three months, I have been part of an Art Academy, through this program I have learned many new skills including, how to properly take photos and use a camera, and the different techniques used when doing different types of art. This show contains my best photography and art pieces so far this school year. Including Four photos taken in our classroom studios and at Big Hill Springs National Park. My inspiration for the photo taken in natural lighting of the dancers' feet were the shoes alone, this picture captured the beauty and innocents portrayed through most ballets.The photo of a classmate looking directly into the lens of my camera was luck, but man does it show emotion. You can see in her eyes exactly what she is feeling in that moment. The berry and bug photo taken at Big Hill Springs was purely inspired by the colour contrast between the red of the berries and the greenish yellow of the bug. And lastly the photo of another classmate, taken at Big Hill Springs, looking off into the distance radiating with confidence and power. I feel as though the blurred background creates a look of purity within the subject. As for my two art pieces featured, I have an oil pastel inspired by a photo I took at Big Hill Springs and a mixed media piece called ‘All About Me’ using watercolor, acrylic paint, and different collage skills.