Personal Investigation Introduction

For my personal investigation, I am hoping to study the painting or production of pictures of performing guitarists. Ever since I became aware of music's existence I have been obsessed with the instruments that produce these sounds. The one which caught my attention the most being the guitar.

After consistently begging my parents and telling them that I would not give up my learning for an arduous few years, I finally managed to convince them to take me to a guitar shop.
After the purchase of my first guitar, I've been learning and practicing how to play constantly and buying new guitars for the past 8 years now and it is definitely the biggest interest and passion of mine.

The theme for my personal investigation will be based around the motion of the guitarist and the energy that they give off when performing at a live venue. This energy is what I see when I am watching a guitarist perform on stage; the talent and passion the player has for the instrument radiates from them into the audience along with the actual sounds bellowing from the amplifiers.

My first artist will be Yuriy Shevchuk, a Ukrainian artist who paints performing guitarists using water colour paints in a very intriguing manner; he adds surplus paint to the parts of the guitarist or guitar that he wants appear in motion, then using a straw, blows the paint gently away from the guitarist/guitar. I will use this technique in my own work.

My second artist that I will look at is Cornelia Parker. She has done a piece that has involved destroying a shed with explosives and then hanging up the pieces in a room in such a fashion that makes it look almost rebuilt. She then added a bright light in the middle of the piece. This effect makes it look as if it is in the process of an explosion. This piece also gives a good sense of motion which I am including in my work by destroying an old guitar and photographing the remains after vaguely re-assembling it.

My third artist will be Georges Braque for his guitar paintings. He creates his work using cubism and I think this will give my work a good contrasting aspect to the detail of my previous artists' work.