Shaun Project Space Crit: Sophie-Anne Mitcheson, Caitlin Daley and Jessica Watson

This crit I attended was of Sophie-Anne's Sculptures, Caitlin Daley's paintings and Jessica Watson's drawings so there was a wide range of works to see and discuss. Sophie's sculptures were all based off eggs and themed around nature. She usually works on a very small scale and initially worked with actual egg shells and then some felted eggs too but she has recently worked on a larger, exaggerated scale and experimented with materials to create egg shapes like the one below. I personally prefer the larger eggs and this one in particular was my favourite in the crit. The pure white colour had a striking effect when presented on the grey floor, pointing out every mark and imperfection around the piece. Displaying them on the floor was an effective choice as they brought the room in to them as a focus and you became aware of the fragility of the pieces now they were more vulnerable to potential clumsy footing. The use of a synthetic wool and natural materials also created an interesting contrast and where some people viewed the egg as holding the flowers almost decoratively I thought it gave an impression of growth and a take on a nurturing environment. A good direction for Sophie's work which came up in the crit would be to create sculptural environments that could actually grow and preserve nature.

Caitlin displayed two paintings of the same composition but on two very different scales. One was a tiny neat square canvas and the other a large piece on un-stretched canvas. In general most people seemed to prefer the large piece. I also prefer it although I like the blended style of the small piece as it seems to merge really well with the background. I really like Caitlin's painting style as she applies thick marks of paint and builds up tone and structure with sometimes the odd colour you wouldn't expect yet it works, like a slick of green or red on the arm. Caitlin's works come across like they represent a lot of emotion and I think working on a bigger scale is beneficial for carrying out this idea as I think her large piece draws the viewer in more.

Jessica Watson's work was a series of drawn heads in a variety of materials. They all had a similar style and appeared non-gendered with little emotion to them. This style of figurative work isn't something I prefer or am really drawn to although I did like the method it looked as if she had done in which they appeared to be continuous line drawings. This aspect was intriguing as a restrictive and challenging method to constructing the works that had created varying outcomes. In the crit the heads reminded people of large totem-like heads. I think trying out a larger scale would be a good way of experimenting further with these drawings.