Supporting Information

Kolb’s (1984) learning cycle is as follows: 

Kolb's experiential learning style theory is typically represented by a four-stage learning cycle in which the learner 'touches all the bases':

1. Concrete Experience -(a new experience or situation is encountered, or a reinterpretation of existing experience).
2. Reflective Observation of the new experience. (of particular importance are any inconsistencies between experience and understanding).
3. Abstract Conceptualization (reflection gives rise to a new idea, or a modification of an existing abstract concept).
4. Active Experimentation (the learner applies them to the world around them to see what results).

I have used my tutorials and group crits in the above cycle: i.e. I have made and exposed my art to people with many years of experience for comments (concrete experience). I have then reflected on their comments (reflection and observation) and have abstracted principles from this reflection and then experimented with these principles in new pieces of work. I have found the learning cycle works very well in the development of my research. For e.g. where I thought I had come up with a final piece for Unit 1, the group crit in April sent me back to the drawing board with my Resilience 1 painting.  It got me thinking about orientation, layering and embedding as suggested by Geraint, about losing the sun (Denise) and doing it all again (Lorraine). I therefore produced Uprooted 1-4 (See Critical Reflections) and Resilience 2 as below.

In the above piece of work you can see the influence of Elda Abrahamson whose work with Brusho paints has greatly influenced my work with Indian drawing inks. Below is an example of Elda's work.

Supporting work for Tenderly Together 1:

My references Tenderly Together 1 came from the following photo:

Supporting work for Mother and Her Daughters:

As I searched for a style in which to portray human figures, my experience with the artist Chris Gollon came to mind. I had spent an afternoon with the aartist as he worked in his studio. See photo below. Gollon’s work has seen a meteoric rise in reputation since he established his 14 stations of the cross in the Church of St John in Bethnal Green. Sadly, Gollon died in 2017 at the age of 64.

The above is a photo of me and my two daughters which formed the bases of Mother and Her Daughters.

Supporting work for Betrayed By Brexit:

Betrayed by Brexit was informed by my doctoral work on Ethnic Minority Identity published in a book of the same name and by  John Jaspers American flag series.

The Ballad of David and Nimmi

Informed again by Gollon’s work, I did a number of sketches for the  painting:

My Experiments with Gold Leaf

In creating the bitumen, clay and gold leaf paintings, I was informed not only by Gabriel Chaim but also by the work of Pascal Magis. Magis is a French aabstract painter whose works have an emotive quality that I respond to. For example:

Trying to get beyond black, grey and gold, I experimented with colour as follows:

Experimenting with colour and  translating bitumen, gold leaf anad clay into a landscape I produced Memories of Kerala which was informed by one of Peter Doig’s landscapes:

Tree Paintings

Still using bitumen and gold leaf I was interested to explore resilience in nature. I had previously photographed a few tress which seemed to carry a message to me about how it is possible to spring back to life after adversity has done significant damage.

Oehlen’s tree paintings as above expressed a sense of exuberance that I hoped to capture in some of my Uprooted paintings and paintings on Resilience.