My original plan was to take this idea, and expand on it as my final piece, although after some contemplation, I decided that my other pieces of work were stronger, both with my skills and with the entire thought process, so I decided to start working on my final piece, and left the painting unfinished. I think that is okay though, as rarely do artists stick to their initial idea when it comes to producing a piece of work, and in my case, I think it was for the best, as we were quite pushed for time, and I would rather be happy with a piece of work that I hand in for my final piece.
For this painting, I decided to continue looking at aspects from our country, Northern Ireland. I decided to go down the rather taboo route of Catholics and Protestants, as I think they are relevant to my theme.
My idea was to have two rams head-butting each other, in an aggressive fashion, one in a Celtic top, and the other in a Rangers top. I picked rams as my chosen animal due to the fact that we have a lot of farmland, and almost on every country road you take, you see at least one field filled with sheep. I also decided on rams due to the old saying, that sheep follow one another and always flock together, in this case I am referencing how in most cases, if one member of your family is of a particular side of the religion, then the likelihood is that you followed in the same footsteps. I personally believe that there is no need whatsoever for fighting between beliefs, especially not in today’s time. You will also find the majority of those who are bickering to stereotypically be bitter old men, hence why I chose rams instead of ewes. |