Describing Architecture

Cowshed Collective_ current stage of completion_628Cowshed Collective_ close up_785Cowshed Collective_ initial sketch composition_628DA12_ON-7

Cowshed Collective / James Hayes

2012

Oil on canvas
 
Cowshed Collective – Commonage Summer School 2012, Callan, Co. Kilkenny
 
This piece is an attempt to use the medium of oil on canvas as an intermediate form of representation to juxtapose the scale of investigation through modelmaking during the design process with that of a final built reality. The aspect and scale of the composition are such to afford the viewer a window into the design process, from the conceptual stage to the final reflective stage. The process of making this painting is an iterative evolution that mirrors the process of the physical making of the cowshed. The painting involved an initial gridded sketch, followed by the blocking-in of areas of colour, before a phase of building up detail. Both processes are accompanied by a continual series of internal or intuitive recalibrations – continually reassessing the whole and contextualizing each action relative to all those that preceded it, be it a brush stroke in the instance of painting or a brick laid in the act of building.

 

Images:

1    Painting

2    Painting close-up

3    Sketch

4    Exhibit in context