For my third concentration piece, I chose to do something a little more abstract in order to provide variety to my portfolio. Working with the last two pieces, I have started to realize that I want my concentration to read more than just pretty views from foreign places but to truly speak to what I felt, heard, and even smelled while in these places. Something that really stroke me about Arles, a small town in the Provence region of France (Fun Fact: also the town that inspired Van Gogh to paint "Starry Night") was all the music that was playing in the streets and the free spirited-ness of the locals there. There was such a lightness and calmness to the area that made even a full on tourist like me feel slightly like I had lived there my whole life. I took a picture of a woman playing her guitar as well as a group of people just freely dancing in the street. I decided to combine the photos to create a piece that would really speak to the quaint town.
This piece went much faster than the first two which definitely gave me confidence that I was finding my groove in this mixed media thing. I did choose a smaller canvas board which helped with the speed of the piece but I also worked super efficiently in order to meet the deadline. The piece does still have a lot of layers in it which I think definitely works towards it's advantage. I began with some simple prismacolor drawings that I would go on to cut out and adhere to the board.
I took the drawings and used other papers and acrylic paints to blend them into the picture so they didn't just look stuck on. I chose a similar color scheme as a lot of my pieces but I muted them slightly to play along with the calm effect of Arles. I used some music sheets in the background to emphasize the music theme as well. Also, I incorporated lots of textiles and textured papers to create a homely quality to the piece.
My goal was definitely to make the viewers feel what I did in the town and I truly do think I was able to accomplish that through these techniques as well as others. I am super happy with this piece and I think that it definitely adds something unique to my portfolio.