Sabrina Holmes - Exploration of Ocean Trinkets

Exploration of Ocean Trinkets

Nancy Newton "Flying Over" 23" x 32" 

       In the recent exhibition From the Sea/From the Past by artist Nancy Newton, Newton explores with her art and artistic process through the use of seashells and music. Newton approaches her work using metaphorical strategies to represent her completed shell studies. Newton works primarily through complex 

drawings and sculpture, pushing the use of negative space.

In my interpretive process, I will explore working with seashells, as an artist, similarly to how Newton did. However I will use a more literal approach using a collection of shells I retrieved this past summer on Prince Edward Island, Canada. My approach will use paints --  acrylic, oil, and possibly watercolour. 

My overall goal, with this work, is to encourage you, the reader, to explore art exhibitions in a 

way that welcomes you to try and incorporate new ideas found in shows into your 

artistic process. That is not to say that you should simply take the ideas of others and copy them, but rather be open to exploring studies inspired by the work you see around you. 

Beginning Stages

In the first few brush to shell interactions, I want to focus on the big outlines, and dents in the shells. The idea here is to start with outlines and begin to stress the shapes of these shells. 

When observing Newtons work one can see the importance of having serval passes at these outlines to proved a space in which the negative can exist. 

This can both be observed in Newtons work "Flying Over", which is above, or can be viewed in Newtons artwork, "Frolic Within".

Here we the viewers can see large and open brush movements with a plethora or bold lines to guide the outlines of our main shape in the middle. We see details of small spaces centred in their own sub circles, which really aid the feeling of the open space. This work is a prime example of how Newton ensured the space felt open with this negative space. 

Big questions I would like to keep in mind at this stage are as follows:

1. Do my first passes at these shells, provide the outline I desire?

2. Does my colour palette feel like it belongs on this particular shell?

3. Am I doing the shell justice?

4. Do I feel like I am creating a base to support negative space? 

 

5. Am I happy with my mark making?

                                                                                Nancy Newton "Frolic Within" 19.75" x 21"

 

 

    Continuing on, I add more of my main focus lines beginning to take form in my work. I have added my main shapes in the last step so now I am blocking in my light line work. This is to lighten up the shells and allow the design to not feel so heavy on the delicate natural lines and curves of the shells themselves. 

Once we feel content in our line work, we want to jump into final details. In this final step, I want to add in any odd shapes or gradients I feel necessary. On my larger shell I added on some red dots to follow my bigger shapes along the bottom of the shell. Although these mini paintings are influenced by Newtons work, it is also important to see where I can add this or take things away from my creation, even if it doesn't follow similarities to her work. This is especially if I feel like I need to. Do not hesitate and allow your creative genius to take you work where you fell it needs to go. 

At the end of this step you have completed your shells! A good way I chose to  close off this exercise is to ask myself the following:

1. Do I feel like my work different than normal?

2. Do I better understand Newton's work?

3. Do I want to incorporate this style into my new work?

4. Did this push my boundaries( if yes how so)?

5. Will I try this again?

6. How do I feel about my creations?

    As I worked on my shell paintings, I wanted to focus on where these shells came from and how I came to have them in my collection. The shells came from various beaches on PEI during a week this past summer in mid June. I was there to run across the small province as a member of the Navy, to raise money for the Make a Wish foundation. 

    Alongside my co-workers, I ran long hot days through various towns and across the countryside. As the temperature these days was often above 25 degrees, we would often stop occasionally during the day and after our run, to jump into the ocean to cool off.  In these short breaks, I would often look for cool shells to collect and, as the days went on, I was able to also get my co-workers to look for ones I liked. 

    It was in this experience that I found a connection to each shell that I had collected and now work with. These shells now have a memory attached to each one individually. 

   I want to stress that in your own work, you need to play with materials that are not only significant to you as an artist, but also think about how they have come into your life:  could this be through loved ones, experiences, or by accident. 

    In closing I hope that this exercise pushed you to take a closer look at different ways you can experience Newton's work. I hope it challenged you to explore your own skills and be more aware of different ways to truly challenge yourself.  

My personal goal was to explore the negative space Newton was able to so seemingly effortlessly add to her work and to gain a better knowledge through my art on how she was inspired to create marks the way she did. 

Works cited:

- “Nancy Newton.” NancyNewton.Com, www.nancynewton.com/gallery/. Accessed 19 Oct. 2023.