more small abstract paintings... it's a rust thing...
[click to view more small abstract works on paper]i have selected the above six paintings for the colour harmonies, autumnal hues.i dislike composing descriptions for my work, but i wrote this today... (the inspiration behind the small striped works on paper).These small paintings on paper are essences or distillations of rural landscapes, condensed colour experiments influenced by my visual experiences as an artist. I find colour inspiration in the environmental and elemental, from naturally eroded surfaces to discarded objects - often at the coast, inspired by beachcombing finds, the effects of sea erosion, water traces, strata, striations, from eroding cliffs to the shoreline - to the salt-encrusted patinas on boats or weathered facades at the harbour and quay side. Farm buildings, old barns and sheds, the slow appearance of decay in manmade and natural structures, the silent history contained in objects exposed to the elements, the intricate beauty in rust on metal, lichen on bark, moss on stone, water algae - and the more structured, geometric patterns of arable fields, farm tracks, fences or hedgerows on the horizon are also pictorial influences.my farmscape paintings are developing very slowly, as the cooler hues of autumn and winter to pervade my colouristic senses.. at present they look bereft of colour - dark olive, slate grey, ash grey, rust, taupe... in truth, i lack the space to work on all ten paintings at once, so it is a game of shuffle, hang up, put away, find again, which leads to a little reorganisation each time, and then i lose focus, lose any cohesion in the series.so, in the meantime, i have been playing again with texture and torn paper, more experiments on a small scale... i can't seem to shake off the rustic, weathered and textured aspect to my artwork, and i enjoy the medium of collage, and want to revisit the spatial, scuptural elements of using layers, partially hidden, casting faint shadows, abstracts in low relief..
[monoprint, frottage, acrylics and chalk on torn paper... with extra crumple]
[another one, this time backlit by sunlight, semi-transluscent]
[another one,with lime green textured underlay]..i like to work with materials and processes that directly control the visual outcome - i want encrustation, layers, natural colours, i want it to allude to something environmental or elemental in nature, but also existing completely within its own construction, with its own narrative that requires time to unfold. this is where my parallel interest in photography merges... as an artist, i develop a close relationship with the textural qualties of the materials... a painter has to takes risks, to push the process, it becomes an obsession, the overall concept or idea is just that, an idea that you can't plan objectively, or clarify in words, or theorise upon as a precise starting point, it needs to be explored and ultimately understood through the materials, the old adage, the medium is the message, not just texture for the sake of it... one could always use the real thing, i guess - found materials or objects, create assemblages or combines - but sometimes the 'hand of the artist' is denied in the artwork's elaborate construction (maybe this is the point?).. paint is obviously a more versatile medium, the personal imprint of one artist at work...
playing with fire
whilst digging about in my photos folder i came across these photographs of my painting fyre, as a work in progress... so perhaps this is a good opportunity to talk painting methods and processes...
[primed, stretched canvas, with addition of a home-made acrylic gesso..]usually i use a mixture of chalk and diluted PVA (or rabbit skin glue with the smaller panels to make a traditional gesso), although i might add some 'sweepings' to marble dust or a chalk to add irregularity to the texture. sometimes you can use these accidental flaws, incorporating them into the work (or how far i can go with a textured mix on a flexible canvas substrate)..this canvas was first worked on horizontally then put on the easel where gravity did its bit.. i reworked some of the medium as it was about to dry, and used a water spray to loosen up some areas,... it's a very intuitive, organic process.. then later i scumble glazed some cadmium and lemon yellow for the upper section..]
[a few more semi-transparent glazes were put down to dull it slightly and add subtle texture which i left to dry, then more washes of yellow and some scrubbed-in and stippled mix of burnt umber across the middle section... i also use scrapers, wire mesh, a water spray, old sponges, to cloth rags, newspaper, tissue paper.. at this early stage i was looking very closely at the surface, observing the developing texture and surface patina.. it's the printmaker in me.]
[above, you can make out some of the scrapings which i probably blotted a bit to soften the edges... the colour was applied with a brush, and was a mix of burnt umber and alizarin with a smidgen of violet. i think the camera flash has made the yellow paler than it actually was - i didn't mind the drips. some photographs i had taken - the found paintings - of corroded metal also influenced the painting process.]
[more yellow applied. this time i added a bit of cadmium red which is a quite warm red, and the lower section is mainly umber with some violet, and a bit of alizarin.. alas after this (May 2008) i didn't take any more pictures until the painting was completed (July 2008), but i progressively added more layers of orange to the upper half, using red & yellow, dry brushing, scumbling, blotting... the lower section was progessively built up in vertical brushstrokes and scraping back, and then finished with a transparent glaze that was most likely alizarin-tinted so that in some lights the surface shifts from a dark earthy brown to violet.. it is not solid black..]i work with only a few acrylic base colours; again because of my printmaking background. in intaglio printmaking especially, a lot of the colour mixing and blending happens in the wiping of the plate. i used to make my own inks, a ground paste of powdered pigment and linseed oil. the acrylic colours i currently have are: cadmium red, alizarin crimson, lemon yellow, cadmium yellow, cerulean blue, cobalt blue, ultramarine, burnt umber, violet, and mars black, which is a sooty warmish brown-black.i know other artists will use more colours such as yellow ochre, payne's grey, hooker's or sap green, burnt sienna, but i've stuck dogmatically to my own very simple colour system, which includes just two of each of the primary colours, one cool one warm, plus a turquoise and violet, which makes colour-mixing more interesting.i've got into using only acrylics in the last couple of years because of their quick-drying nature in situations when you want to build up many layers of colour. many people are surprised that i have used acrylic paint as i mix it with an acrylic medium or varnish, or i might add powdered chalk to get a matt surface, rarely using them in their neat consistency, avoiding the plastic sheen. i don't want the surface of my paintings to be uniformly finished with a sheen of varnish, as i prefer subtle textural contrasts.
[edgescape: fyre]i was also influenced by tv and media images of forest fires, which, with high resolution digital cameras, make quite stunning imagery. i was intrigued by this unsettling duality in the reading of these images, of disaster as both awe-inspiring and deeply tragic.this painting vacillates between the macro, as an encrusted, textured elemental surface, into a wider vista, an imaginary landscape, a burning horizon perhaps, depending on your perception. it's part of a theme that i want to continue to develop further... charred earth, burning fields and forests, smoke clouds, volcanic dust, toxic mists, polluted rivers, the aftermath of catastrophe.. to coin a well worn phrase, there's no smoke without fire...view this painting with other paintings in the edgescapes series.
act local, think global
when writing the title for this post (a flip on the motto think global, act local) i was reminded of the classic scene from the league of gentlemen.. are you local? [...] this is a local shop for local people, there's nothing for you here.. [view the clip on youtube]...and then thinking, after ten years here i am not strictly a local, but here i am, and (as in the local shop scene) i am just looking (as local people do)... just looking, watching, observing... and the wryest of observations become the making of tv comedy, film, theatre and art...i will shortly be participating in another local art event, shopart, part of the harleston and waveney arts festival, local art in local shop windows for local people... definitely something to talk about (there are prizes too).. it will hopefully arouse some curiosity, possibly some mumblings about modern art.. it's all good as it gets people walking, looking and hopefully buying in the shops..however, this week i've been trying to think more globally, finding my way around the art marketplace of etsy.. there are some good features and articles for buyers, forums and teams for sellers, and there is also a member curated treasury which is near impossible to get into it seems... it is neccessary research if i am to make etsy work as a viable venue for my art... i often feel like a displaced artist here, in the wrong location for my work... it's too small, too narrow, in all senses...in the meantime, i have been reworking one of my orphaned edgescape paintings.. i wasn't happy with the centre section.. these size paintings nearly always take a year to right themselves..
[taken with flash- the umber has turned to copper]and another farmscape [working title].. there is no reason to hurry.. like the mould and decay they portray, it takes time.. and i am a slow painter..
[aka yellow stripe, not finished]next up, there are a couple of local art shows in september, which are always good to keep in circulation with the local art scene.. i've yet to hear if i have been successful with my submission to the chichester open.. then there's the discerning eye exhibition- i am still deliberating on that one.. i've had quite a successful summer art wise, but with art, it always seems like one long work in progress, only later do you see the results..