Wide Sargasso Sea

Last week I started a new project, I wanted to squeeze one more in before the END (oh god) so I chose to set myself another literature based brief. I'm responding to a section of the book 'Wide Sargasso Sea' by Jean Rhys which is a sort of prequel to Jane Eyre which is set in Jamaica/Dominica and deals with issues such as slavery, insanity and Obeah. I've been looking at the first section of the book which is written from the point of view of Antoinette (the main character and Mr Rochesters mad wife in Jane Eyre) as a young girl. I picked out some of the most visual parts and began creating simple almost childlike paintings on white tissue paper using watercolour. I wanted to take imagery and split it into simple shapes and colours and I intend to use the paintings to create layers. I want to try and use acetate and possibly even projections (inspired by Katrina Currie's wonderful Beachhouse photography) and later incorporate text and maybe some silhouettes. I also had the idea to try and create a layered image in some form of box using acetates, possibly lit from behind.

Today I photographed the paintings and I've been playing around with the colours and layering in Photoshop, something I've recently been using a bit more since Chekhov. I'm quite pleased with some of the results, there are 3 main scenes; mountains/sea/'tree of life', the garden and the burning house. Here are my favourite images from today: