Research in Liverpool

Ruth Moillet

Bluecoat, Display Centre

I love the luminosity of this attractive flower arrangement, how light shines through the glass and sheer petals casting silhouettes as they overlap. The subtle gradation of colour from subdued tones through to glowing soft pink hues creates a surreal feeling and suggests regeneration of life as there is directional movement outwards. A sense of depth is established from the multiple layering of a simple form, which also features in my own work as I have overlaid shapes and patterns to build complex designs.

Richard Simpkin,

"Richard & Famous", 1989 - 2011

Open Eye Gallery

This timeline of photographs creates a ‘tower-block’ of images comparable to city buildings. The ordered and methodical documentation is similar to my construction work as it involves repetition of block shapes, yet each one contains more complex detail: Simpkins is obsessively captured with famous figures from a teenager through to his current age in order to document the passage of time and ever-evolving celebrity culture.

Painted photograph of

Jayne Mansfield, 1959

I was attracted to these ‘Painted photographs’, revealing traces left by picture editors to hand-rectify the image before publication. These rough, interrupting marks are a form of embellishing the existing photograph, and create very surreal, obscure portraits which are more intriguing than the final outcome. I like the fact that the subjects head is often outlined in thick paint or framed by a square, which highlights their comical facial expression. They demonstrate that imperfect, unfinished stages of a piece may look the best, showing I need to consider when the appropriate time is to conclude my work.

Joan Mitchell, "Chord II"

1986, Oil on Canvas

Tate Liverpool

This abstract composition is a reminder of the Sampling Drawing Workshop since Mitchell has applied paint in energetic sweeps of colour; squeezed straight from the tube and smeared on with her fingers. This unrestrained, gestural style has formed interesting qualities of marks, for instance blurred or dribbling lines. Yet each one seems deliberately positioned to create an overall rhythm of brushstrokes which meander into each other, revealing and masking different sections. White space around provides a freshness to counteract some murky colour blends, and also enables you to focus on the image.

Sonia Delaunay, "Triptych"

1963, Oil on Canvas

Like my construction project, this piece consists of interlocking geometric shapes in a bold colour palette. However, Delaunay places pure colour directly next to each other, with similar tones creating indistinct shape boundaries. Whereas I used linear lines and striking white cut-out designs to form clear shapes and definite colours. The angular forms produced a precise, graphic appearance unlike Delaunay’s curving circular shapes that feel more painterly and expressive, with colour applied in a less accurate way. The positioning and proportion of strong shades is effective at accentuating features: for example, restricted use of red in the shapes centre creates an impact.