Nancy Mckie

 

Nancy Mckie is an artist I discovered on Instagram. She paints and draws natural imagery and I was particularly interested in her depictions of marine animals. Her paintings have a child-like quality and the brushstrokes are assertive showing confident mark-making that results in bold iconographic images. I like her use of flat colour and selective palettes that seem simple but considered, and her use of lines and pattern creates playful hints at texture and detail.

 

In my project I have thought about translating geometric and organic patterns onto ceramics, but I have also considered doing something more directly linked to my original idea and illustrating sea creatures a bit like Mckie's and have them as kind of graphic symbols on my porcelain cartons, replacing the product's original marketing with images of the life-forms that are affected by plastic pollution, and I could use the microscope images I took of shrimp larvae as a starting point.

I did this little octopus sketch for fun inspired by Nancy Mckie. I like the strong red against the soft pink background and the minimal black pen marks and I think it's really cute.


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