Louis Parsons
I wish to carry out a documentary project which looks into the community of painting in Cheltenham, specifically focused on one painter named Louis Parsons. I met Louis one day after walking past and seeing his studio filled with colour and something caught my attention and I had to knock a few days later to just have a chat. We got on straight away and after speaking plenty of times about different artistic movements and techniques I learnt about the community Louis has created, a few hundred people of all ages, in which he shares his knowledge on painting and the world. Running workshops and online tutorial lectures, Louis is a very good example of a freelance artist. One piece of his work has been sold for £120,000 in a charity auction for a 10 year old girl named Tilly. He has leased and been commissioned by major companies for paintings and prints. Louis has come about an original idea that is called Soulscaping, it is an imaginal and creative process he has refined over two decades to not only create art work but to define and master his own life experience, he has managed to work with leadership teams and groups to help them define theirs too. What this allows people to do is to see the world through the eyes of an artist; to create your life experience as an artist would approach a blank canvas. A daily, weekly practice to help define those life experiences that you really want to unfold in your life. What really appealed to me is that Louis is so focused on the individual and the experience of the moment, and understanding thought processes, after reading similar theory such as Jordan Peterson and Kandinsky. I have explored the sustainability of the lone artist and how Louis is helping people sustain their lives too using the language of art that many people can connect to. I wish to capture Louis creating his art work and place him within the natural environment of his locality and areas of reference. I wish to incorporate the primitive patterns and details found in nature that represent the sustainability and ordered structures of life and reality to try and get across the power of this individual.
Contact sheets and the edit:
I have used standard Ilford RC paper before and I know it is quite easy to print on, especially at a small size. For this project Fibre would fit the brief more coherently, for archival purposes, I wanted to use a heavier weighted paper, better quality and longer lasting/ more durable paper. Also I have never printed of warm tone paper and not much fibre what so ever. I know that this paper will need longer exposure times and this means I have more time to play around with tones, dodging and burning etc.
The first two images below show the boxes I bought and the size. For contact sheets I used the nine and a half by 12 inch paper, I heard this is the standard size for contacts from the darkroom shop in Cheltenham.
My negatives are all square format taken on a 6x6 medium format Bronica SQ. I used a variety of 40mm, 80mm and 110 mm lenses for close portraits, context shots and details. I also went on a few walks to create photographs that matched my theme of incorporating the natural world with images of portraits and Louis working in his environment.
The contacts are in Chronological order from date shot, going from the first shoot, where the images are motion blurred and Louis doesn't seem very confident in front of the camera, but this was a good shoot. Louis had all of his paints out and was messy, Things were happening and he was in the zone, I only managed to get a few shots of him painting full out, He gets up to a lot of things and is very busy, He isn't always painting with paints all over the floor, and he would have 5 or 6 paintings going at once, all at different stages of completion.
The first two images below show the boxes I bought and the size. For contact sheets I used the nine and a half by 12 inch paper, I heard this is the standard size for contacts from the darkroom shop in Cheltenham.
My negatives are all square format taken on a 6x6 medium format Bronica SQ. I used a variety of 40mm, 80mm and 110 mm lenses for close portraits, context shots and details. I also went on a few walks to create photographs that matched my theme of incorporating the natural world with images of portraits and Louis working in his environment.
The contacts are in Chronological order from date shot, going from the first shoot, where the images are motion blurred and Louis doesn't seem very confident in front of the camera, but this was a good shoot. Louis had all of his paints out and was messy, Things were happening and he was in the zone, I only managed to get a few shots of him painting full out, He gets up to a lot of things and is very busy, He isn't always painting with paints all over the floor, and he would have 5 or 6 paintings going at once, all at different stages of completion.
As I progress taking photographs of Louis, he appears a lot more relaxed and can look into the camera without a metaphysical confrontation. Which we discussed a few times, how a camera makes you feel and how it can be distracting from the moment. But after a few shoots and chats we both became very fluid in our relationship and became very good friends, Louis loves me photographing him and says my art is also influencing his art work too. I have given him an an outsiders point of view from an internal understanding of painting and his work. I also took my 35mm with me every now and then, I used this for fast shooting to capture details in-between my main camera. I knew I wouldn't get much time to photograph as we were always discussing ideas and life in general, we are both fascinated with the natural world and abstraction, throwing ideas at each other for projects and paintings.
Prints:
4 Warmtone Resin Coated black and white prints. nine and a half inches by nine and a half. Half an inch border.
6 Warmtone Fibre base black and white prints, nine and a half inches by nine and a half. Full bleed.
I created 6 images that are full bleed just to see how they worked as images next to the images with a border. Now I have finished the prints I feel I should have kept them all consistant with each other completely, but I do like the size of the prints and am very happy with them, I must have spent a good two weeks of consistant work on the prints. After my research into photographers and printers, I realised the print is the most important thing, and to me it is also, this is another art in itself. To paint with light once again onto another medium using different materials etc. Fibre was the most satisfying images to print on, with time to mess around with for exposures and dodging and burning.
The project negatives are titled, dated and stored in a plastic wallet for archive with the prints and contact sheets, along side all of my test prints I created to evaluate the prints.
4 Warmtone Resin Coated black and white prints. nine and a half inches by nine and a half. Half an inch border.
6 Warmtone Fibre base black and white prints, nine and a half inches by nine and a half. Full bleed.
I created 6 images that are full bleed just to see how they worked as images next to the images with a border. Now I have finished the prints I feel I should have kept them all consistant with each other completely, but I do like the size of the prints and am very happy with them, I must have spent a good two weeks of consistant work on the prints. After my research into photographers and printers, I realised the print is the most important thing, and to me it is also, this is another art in itself. To paint with light once again onto another medium using different materials etc. Fibre was the most satisfying images to print on, with time to mess around with for exposures and dodging and burning.
The project negatives are titled, dated and stored in a plastic wallet for archive with the prints and contact sheets, along side all of my test prints I created to evaluate the prints.
Image 1- Blank Canvas. To create your life experience as an artist would approach a blank canvas. burned in the darkroom to create tones (painting with light).
image 2- Louis Parsons, my first encounter; depicted creating a souls cape for a client; painting with tools and acrylic. Within his messy studio colour is everywhere, translated as grey tones.
image 3- Delicately Putting the first details on a painting of a lotus flower inspired by Jordan. B. Peterson. An original piece of his in the background overlooking.
Image 4- Detail image of waves, highlights and shadows; enhanced through darkroom printing techniques.
Image 5- Louis meditating at his favourite place, Crickerly Hill to get ideas for his art. minimalist landscape to show he is part of something bigger.
Image 6- Extreme close up of Louis in full sun. A very relaxed mood looking straight into the lens.
Image 7- My shadow cast on top of Crickerly Hill in front of Louis during a walk.
Image 8- During a walk Louis stops and enjoys the sun rays, taking in the beauty of the scene in front on him.
Image 9- From Louis perspective, taking in the beauty of his surroundings and thinking deeply. Focused in his hands with his marriage ring visible.
Image 10- Louis in deep thought, whilst picking paint off his tools. Lit with a lamp; using his original paintings on his walls for composition.
At the time and whilst speaking to Louis I was also painting abstraction and exploring other mediums of art, using it as a form of expression and to figure out where my ideas we heading. I adapted and developed my ideas in abstraction and painting and eventually combined them both from my own ideas by using the imaginal and creative process that Louis is so known for. I came up with the idea for unsustainability during the beginning on this journey. Louis has really helped me expand and develop my visual thinking and though process when it comes to creativity. I have learnt about what abstraction is, visually, hypothetically and how I can use it to discuss/ expand and to explain certain ideas of modern times and my plan is to combine this journey with documentary photography.
Here are the paintings I created during this whole project, over a few months...
Here are the paintings I created during this whole project, over a few months...
Further Development and where this project is leading me.
At the time and whilst speaking to Louis I was also painting abstraction and exploring other mediums of art, using it as a form of expression and to figure out where my ideas we heading. I adapted and developed my ideas in abstraction and painting and eventually combined them both from my own ideas by using the imaginal and creative process that Louis is so known for. I came up with the idea for unsustainability during the beginning on this journey. Louis has really helped me expand and develop my visual thinking and though process when it comes to creativity. I have learnt about what abstraction is, visually, hypothetically and how I can use it to discuss/ expand and to explain certain ideas of modern times and my plan is to combine this journey with documentary photography.
Here are the paintings I created during this whole project, over a few months...
Here are the paintings I created during this whole project, over a few months...
