OUAN404 - Environmental Storytelling - Mrs Atha's

The final location I chose to use or the environmental storytelling brief, is a cafe located in Leeds called; Mrs Atha's. Again, I tried to use a range of different places and this kind of bustling public environment was something that I hadn't looked at yet and contrasted well with the lack of people and presence in Chevin forest and the inside of a home. Another reason I chose to go to Mrs Atha's was the atmosphere that it possesses, and I wanted to try my best to portray this within the visual work I produced. The inside is actually very dark and there is a lack of natural lighting there because the windows are small and usually steamed up due to the condensation, and steam from the inside. As well as this, it was winter so the windows were almost frosted up and covered in water, making the interior even darker than usual. Aside from this, there is some lamps and fairy lights located around the cafe with some dim, hanging lightbulbs laced across the centre of the upper floor which gives the place a really earthy and settling atmosphere.

In total for the purpose of the brief I visited twice and positioned myself in several locations around the cafe so that I was able to look at the location from different perspectives, this gave me a range of visuals and subjects despite them all being in one place. I'm quite glad I chose this location as a whole however because it gave me the opportunity to try and practice representing light through the use of paint, my efforts were most evident in some of the darker paintings that were centered around the lights, some of the hanging light bulbs, a lamp and finally the miniature christmas tree with the christmas lights. This was a good test for me because someone who isn't used to painting in this way, or doesn't do it enough, it was interesting to try and portray three different light sources and seeing how they behaved before seeing how to emulate that using paint on canvas. I tried to do a mixture of wide views of the whole cafe and just what I could see from where I was positioned to focusing on smaller details, such as the previously mentioned light sources for example. Whilst I was there I again tried to use a range of media in order to see for myself how different approaches to various conditions altered the way the drawings appeared. So, sketching a bustling cafe versus painting it loosely and seeing how the two compared at representing the scene. I had to be careful here my choice of colours as everything looked dark under the low lighting, and this was a difficult task I found.

I tried to choose different locations where I could look at different environments with different subjects, and in a way where I could learn different things from each. Whether that be emulating natural or unnatural light, the incorporation of multiple figures doing different things like in the cafe, or finding an appropriate amount of detail to include given the time I had. Finally, I think one of the most valuable things I learnt from this brief was the exploration and inclusion of various media within the work I produce. More specifically, finding appropriate media work with depending on the subject matter. I found this came more naturally towards the end of the brief and I really enjoyed the opportunity of working with different media, especially painting which I will be trying to refine further in the future and hopefully improve at over time.