I feel like I am getting to a point where my ideas are coming together but practical work needs a greater commitment of sustained time – always problematic at this time of year as term finishes. I have scheduled in lots of making days for the summer hols – scary how quick it fills up. Once again I had a great tutorial with Stewart which highlighted a few challenges for the next few months.

Work is less developed than thinking
I have committed to the 50/50 option so have devoted more time than I have previously to reading, research and writing which has support my development of ideas hugely. Stewart felt that my paintings were not at the same level as my thinking and I am inclined to agree; although this in principle could be a crushing observation, I have yet again realised how resilient I am to feedback and in fact this drives me forward.

Oil versus acrylic
Stewart was surprised that I wasn’t using acrylic for my work – I really dislike acrylic and stated so, however, of course this is another making habit which now I have acknowledged it needs breaking. So I will use acrylic for at least the next two paintings so I can consciously dismiss or choose it as my medium.

Use of colour and line in paintings 
Be more surprising in use of colour – I am going to investigate how colour is read and create colour palettes (possibly from photos) to communicate a sense of mood or menace. This could possibly be from where one element invades another, sense of invasion or more visceral imagery – you can’t help looking even though your don’t want to. Stewart suggested that I collate a list of making words/adjectives which correlate with my ideas about line and journeys e.g. sinuous, meandering which I can use in my physical work. Also thinking about what constistutes drawing…
 
Time Plan
My major making and writing time is between now and end of September – this correlates with my original time plan in my show proposal, however there are some unforeseen challenges which are coming up. Providing material for Joanne Lee – I didn’t factor this in originally as we didn’t have it built into the calendar, I have put a note with my material that I will update as I ‘finish work’ (always a problem) as I anticipate generating a lot in the next month. I will have a tutorial with Angela in September for a draft review of my contextual study – so need to complete a fullish draft by then. There is so much more to do than just the painting or the writing – but at this stage I feel very motivated as I can see I have time for this.

Using twitter and website
I have been drip feeding my twitter feed with images and comments for some time now – I need to up this as we approach the show. Feedback from open studios was that visitors liked to see the making process, so I am documenting @alexacoxstudio with #makingday. I am also the holder of the +TheNineMA so need to make sure I keep this current as Jack suggested in our webinar. Finally, I have moved my domain name http://www.alexacox.com to wordpress so need to start building my portfolio website for when our promotional material goes out.