model: final submission.

drawings: final submission.

conceptualisation.

The term 'limelight' refers to both being the focus of public attention, and the type of stage lighting used in theatres and music halls. In The Art of Painting, Vermeer focuses most of natural sunlight on the woman - the subject of the painter's artwork who is about to be preserved in a painting.

There are two internal vanity spaces for the subject of the painting, and the subject of my narrative - a retired actress who is unable to let go of her youth. She craves to be youthfully beautiful and the center of attention once more - the limelight, the belle of the ball, the star of the show! But alas, the passing of time has taken its toll on her. She has become an ageing beauty who refuses to let her physical appearance change au naturale.

The plan and sections of the vanity rooms are the same - putting forth the idea that no matter how much one tries to mask age through the decoration of physical appearace, one's biological body clock will always tell the truth. The smaller room has shutter-windows facing a southerly direction, never allowing any direct sunlight inside. It contains floor to ceiling mirrors on two walls and is elevated on a platform, allowing the subject of the narrative to pace around the room gazing at her reflection, posing and overanalysing her appearance, but never being exposed to too much light in case they expose the signs of ageing.

The larger space is a very large open area with barely any walls - very exposed to the weather and elements.  Natural weathering of the vanity space occurs as the actress ages. In the center of the room is the actress's makeup table, elevated on a platform and surrounded by a costume rack that runs along the back wall and halfway along the side. The vertical blinds on the north-eastern front cast shadows which move across the room as each day passes by, reminding the actress that ageing is unavoidable. A giant mirror is suspended from the ceiling - a metaphor for the pressure the actress puts on herself.

narrative.

A vanity room for a retired actress obsessed with preserving her youth.

What is a painting but a means to immortalise something in a particular sector of time? The subject of any painting is forever preserved in a moment in time, never ageing, forever frozen and preserved in a single state, while real life viewers come and go, unable to escape the grasps of age and mortality.

painting analysis.

A burst of bright sunlight emanates from a large unseen window, basking the subject of the painting in a soft, warm glow. She sits in a billowy blue dress, poised, cradling a book in one arm and holding a thin trumpet in her other. A laurel wreath decorated with blue flowers is set around her head, from which her golden curls fall to just above her shoulder. Her gaze does not meet with the painter's, for she is looking at the mask on the table, hidden beneath an assortment of random objects. The painter sits on his stool, brush in hand, feet set firmly on the floor tiles, painting his muse. His focus, his attention, his eyes are only on her - his purpose is to immortalise her beauty with his skill, his paintbrush and his canvas. A large, thick curtain veils part of the scene (the window area), as though shielding viewers from something just... out... of.. sight...

17th century Dutch painting & site location.

The Art of Painting by Johannes Vermeer

(also know as The Allegory of Painting, or Painter in his Studio)

1666, oil on canvas, 130 cm × 110 cm

This was one of Vermeer's own favourite paintings. The painter depicted in the painting is said to be a self-portrait of Vermeer himself, and the subject of the painting is a representation of Clio, the Muse of History.

Site: New Zealand, somewhere with lots of natural flora coverage and a cliff face.

project two.