Tension

My latest interest is with a painter called Carol Rhodes. For me Rhodes' paintings have that fantastic tension between surface and illusion, where a painting can be seen for its composition, brushmarks, colour and at the same time for its illusionary description. Her paintings are incredibly economical with colour and marks, so much so that one feels as tho the paintings actually exist in a no mans land between knowing and remembering.

Taken hostage

Contrary to the apparent nature of this image, my model -Mandy was in fact free to move at any time (well every 45mins or so). It represents a conscious effort to try and free up my compulsive control while applying the paint.

The studies that i do such as these are an attempt to be aware of the marks I make which in turn feeds into images such as in the previous blog. Learning what kind of marks are out there, that are my own.

In search of the divine

My last 'chit chat' was about Katy Moran and her wonderfully ambiguous paintings. Well searching for the invisible that tantalises the senses, engaging paint and colour-that is what I am aiming for. I was first profoundly moved by painting when i visited the De Kooning retrospective in the early 1990s, I was seriously affected by his work (mostly 1970s work) and realised then that it was possible to affect the viewer in a sensory way that seemed to bypass the intellect. Since then with my training at the Slade and the want to keep my images visually connected to my subject, I have been side tracked from my core wish. The attached paintings are from yesterday and hopefully exhibit some sort of subject but yet allowing the work to be about the colour and marks used.

Gestures and Sensation

Leafing through my new art book-'New Elements in Abstract Painting' I found an artist that has shown a light on a path that interests me greatly. The images attached are wonderful, like forgetting and knowing/experiencing something in the same instant. I find Katy Moran succeeds in fulfilling her intentions on painting: reading of her inspirations, originating from Francis Bacon, Moran clearly states what I have been trying to formulate myself.

‘They’re finished when I can see a figurative element in them ... through the paint I’m searching for the thing it reminded me of, or suggested to me, and trying to get close to that thing.’ The exuberant spontaneity of the gesture is genuine rather than contrived, Moran comments, ‘When I’m making a painting, I get quite excited by how close to awful I can push it, while getting something quite lovely from it as well’.

As a reference for her conviction that ‘somehow unintentional paintmarks convey a more convincing reality,’ she cites painter Francis Bacon’s comment during an interview with art historian David Sylvester, ‘An illustrational form tells you through the intelligence immediately what the form is about, whereas non-illustrational form works first on sensation and then slowly leads back into the fact.’-"Starting with sensation..." - great stuff!

Creating/recreating

In an attempt to know, learn more about colours I have been working on the painting above. I am using a drawing of Natalie I feel has a strong structure as a basis, then building up the colour relationships with colours I found/witnessed (whilst painting 'Extended darkness'). I split the painting into two halves with the figure being affected by three different sources: the pink band on the right, the dark on the left and the light source that hits the breast plate of the figure. I am trying to be responsible for every coloured area of the painting as each part affects the other. The painting is not finished so I shall keep my progress posted-the face is my next hurdle!

The Dogs and Gauguin

An inspirational man I was fortunate to work with called David Ramsden, opened up a restaurant called 'The Dogs'. My gift to him, a moving in present was this painting. The composition is from a painting by Paul Gauguin that hangs in the National Gallery at the Mound in Edinburgh. His painting has two angels wrestling, surrounded by peasant onlookers. My painting changes the forest clearing by Gauguin for a table and the figures into dogs, creating havoc and being involved in some congregation of sorts. The actual dogs featured are from photos David sent me, of his beloved companions present and past. They are slightly abstracted as the paint and energy is allowed to be seen.

Icarus

Ok, so one of my paintings I'd like to show you is called 'Icarus'1995. To look at, one is led to believe a figure stands, hunched over, weighted down. Upon closer inspection, the viewer sees that the figure is actually a wing and a drawing (of a head) laid on top of each other. The two objects having been scaled up to a size comparable to a person and the space implied by a triangle of dark red at the right. If you are ever in Edinburgh, an eatery with the name of 'Amore Dogs' has this painting.