BRACKENHURST YAY !!! i love brackenhurst campus so much, i used to go to all the open days when i was younger because me and my mum and sister enjoyed wandering around the bee hives and the big gardens. i also really like the area where brackenhurst is (Southwell) and i used to go on walks around there or wed park my caravan nearby. good memories and a really pretty posh part of nottingham. id never previously considered doing murals until the past few months looking at the area where im from and identity, but i think its something id love to do because i like the idea of leaving a lasting impact on peoples memories and its nice to think of my work improving a space. i love staring at murals and seeing the brush strokes and imagining the artist plopping the paint on. this whole project is my idea of a fun time :)
one of the first artists i thought of as soon as i knew that the theme was flora and fauna was Florence Waters. shes an artist ive been following during her masters and shes done some really beautiful murals. i love how you can see the blending of colours in her murals, im a bit of a hater of flat colours because why WOULDN'T you blend them but maybe thats because im a very colour-oriented person. i love how she uses so many textures in her work, especially on the grass. i want my mural to me FULL of movement and suck people in to a lovely world of horses and fields, which is a big bonus of the wall being curved because it means its like a curved tv :0 i want it to be a nice happy break from all the dissertation work people will be doing in the library.
i also really like when murals work around the space, like they frame a door or a window, i think it makes the mural feel like its part of the room rather than a big sticker, and it makes me happy to think the artist used the space to the maximum. it feels PERSONAL !!!! by the looks of it im going to have to fit my design around a double door and two power pillars, but thats FUN and i like a challenge o yea. we're going to brackenhurst next thursday so ill be able to have a proper look around and take some videos of the space!!
I care a lot about the colors that go on them. I know I need to use a restricted color palette to keep it looking cohesive, and I normally work better with a strict color palette; otherwise, I get too excited and do too much. I want the colors to look like a cold, crisp, frosty day—so light blue and a peachy orange, like the sun on snow, and bright greens. But I don't know if that works with people using the library all year round, so I don't want to show multiple seasons. Or, should I just go with something more like a spring color palette, which would show off the flowers better and keep is as more vague so it doesn't look weird during the year
I went onto coolors to have a look at making up some color palettes. Normally, I just try to make up my own color palettes or create one from photos, which I still might do when we go to Brackenhurst on Thursday. I could take some photos of the surrounding area so the mirror looks like it fits in at Brackenhurst. But I want cool colors and have made a few palettes of the kinds of colors I want to use, like the crisp blues, greens, and oranges. I think the rainbow one is a bit too full-on, but I'm not going to write it off yet because I could do a more muted rainbow. I really don't want to use a lot of beige. I want to brighten up the library rather than make it seem darker, and I want it to make people feel refreshed, bright, and like a cucumber.
i want to include the Nottingham national flower, which is the catchfly. Even if it doesn't go in the Brackenhurst area, I like putting in things that are fun. This is the county flower, and this animal, which is probably a fox, is the county animal of Nottingham. I want to include them all because it’s nice, and it makes me think of time with Sylvanian Families when I was little. They had all the little details, like bread in the toaster, and it makes it exciting.
