Naomi Rowland
Fine Art
My practice focuses on acts of care, specifically centring around my grandma, her memories and memory loss, touching on the subject of dementia as that was the diagnosis my grandma received last year.
Final year project
My Grandma
Hands: Grandma and I
My grandma's hands resting on my own, drawn using Pan Pastels. This shows the relationship between my grandma and me, and that even though she may not remember that I am her granddaughter due to her dementia, there is still that love routed within her from when she could remember. The poem to the right of the drawing was written by me to create a narrative around my work, making it more personal to me. It also acts as an emotional release, allowing me to get my emotions out on paper.
Lenticular: Then and Now
This is a lenticular image, which is an image that moves as the audience moves around it. From left to right the piece changes from a drawing of my younger grandma to a painting of my grandma now. This piece is to show that despite my grandma's dementia diagnosis, she is still the same person as when she was younger, and still the same person who experienced many incredible memories.
Grandma Portrait
Grandma Portrait is an A1 portrait of my grandma drawn using black pastels. This was the largest I worked on throughout my project, and I wanted to make the drawing really big and bold, but also simple, to really draw the audience into the main focus.
Then and Now: Looking through time
This piece is a mixture of a collage with two portrait drawings, one of my grandma's when she was younger and one of her now and her younger and older self is meant to be observing all their memories. The collage is made up of her old photographs to represent her memories and newspaper columns from the time when she was younger. It was created using photoshop as that gave me more of creative freedom than putting it all together in person, as I could change the opacity of the images and colours etc.
Then and Now: Portraits
Two A3 portrait drawings of my grandma when she was younger and now.
Then and Now: Eyes
A3 drawings of my grandma's eyes, then and now. These are to show a deep realism look into the same pair of eyes that experienced all the same memories.
Dear Grandma
Three pieces of writing that I did, one stating some of my memories with my grandma, one is a poem and the other is a letter to grandma about how much I love her. These pieces are the most personal to me, and they add raw emotions and a narrative to my project. Behind the writing are photographs that I feel best to represent what I wrote about in each piece.
Grandma in her chair
This is an A1 drawing of my grandma sitting in the chair she is always sat in when I visit her, created using black pastels. I wanted to change the perspective of the portrait drawings that I have been doing and show my grandma as a whole rather than just her face.
Naomi Rowland
Final year project
My Grandma
Work Experience
Owner/Artist for Naomi Ann Art
Throughout my time at University I have worked as an art commissioner to help fund my studies, creating intricate portraits of customers' beloved pets. This has given me excellent time management skills, having to balance my university work and my customers' pieces.