Formulating my intentions in words is somewhat of a revelation. To be instinctual and rational I find contradictory to the process of painting yet, I strive for a path, a logic a meaning. Working from the life model / perceptual painting makes one aware that this practice is more about subjectivity than the subject. If one is creating a set of rules to assimilate what one perceives then this idea can be pushed to the extreme. My aim is to create a sensory experience using colour as a visual element. The figure presented emanates through the interaction of the colours, through the push and pull of the elements. A connection is sought after that is not only seen but felt.

This is a painting by Kristin Baker, thought I'd share it with the world. I love her colour palette for this and her unusual marks. Almost like a landscape in another dimension. I like the thought of this image striking a chord with ones sensory memory, unlocking a layer. 

colour dynamics

Silence for some time. Im not much of a talker so this business is still some what foreign to me.
          So, the paintings have been flowing and I will be flooding the blogg with my findings.
         This painting is an attempt to control the visual dynamics caused by the colours. One obstacle is that I want the figure to be constructed through colour relationships though simultaneously be seen as a whole entity/presence. My solution was to keep the space around the figure in one colour then forcing the figure to hold together.
         This is something I saw in a painting by Matisse called the 'red room'. In this painting Matisse held his drawings-the objects described, in a space glued together by the red ground. Unity was obtained.

     

stolen photos!

This is a painting by Keith Vaughan I found in the Tate Gallery last week. The rhythms of repeating shapes are great - how the blue drape continues the downward motion started from the raised leg of the seated figure. The drape then echoes the curves of the figure lying and the figure in the background creating a pyramid composition. He also seems to have created a visual device in the foreground that mirrors the negative space made by the raised leg of the lying figure.

Push and Pull

Following on from a drawing I did last week I ve decided to use it as a basis for some experimental work. I am trying to use colour as the force that defines the form through its interaction with its neighbour, creating a push and pull of energies. So far the painting is existing as such...

New Skies

Apologies for my infrequency at updating this however I am in the middle of a solo show at the Rendezvous Gallery in Aberdeen, which is proving to be successful spurring me onwards to paint. Some times when the paintings start to stack up before a show doubt creeps in.

So, I have just finished two more sky scapes, the aim being to capture the excitement of light breaking through the atmosphere. The sky scapes form a body of paintings that are simply made for enjoyment-mine in the making and hopefully in the viewers eye. These two paintings are quite heavily painted as I try and experiment with marks, glazes and scraping back revealing areas.

Looking into the sky

Contrary to the obvious, although I have not been writing any blogs I have been quite busy painting. The first area of interest is the sky, well the ever changing light conditions and all those bizarre happenings that streak across our field of vision when looking toward the heaven for answers. In itself this is interesting - looking up...questions...when really these paintings are about providing answers to those visual occurrences.