Friday 17 May 2013

DEVELOPING TECHNIQUE / WHAT NEXT?

Working on another fairly large canvas (1800x1200mm) with varying intensity of cadmium yellow. Testing various additional colour options in the blue/grey range.

Discuss trial options with Virginia - small scale trials watercolour silkscreen/attaching coloured card etc


                                  
                                Coloured card testers

Opt for working at smaller scale and staying with acrylics on canvas as colour values on watercolour/screen inks are markedly different.






                                                                        
                                  
                          Slight altering of colour saturation influencing spatial perception





WHAT NEXT ?: Further development of 'a personal language'

My Blog is an active part of developing my practice as an artist, part research/ exploration  part record, part reflection - a test station for ideas. Steve Joy's description of his studio as a 'laboratory of the  mind' seems apposite.

A number of particularly strong interests have emerged during the course of ART 271:
  • the power of understatement - the less there is the more you have to look - usually monochromatic  (Agnes Martin / Max Cole / Rebecca Salter)
  •  the power of colour (Patrick Heron / Anselme Reyle / David Hockney)
  • the tension between geometry/structure and accident
  • spatial perception/manipulation within the picture plane
  • reluctance to employ more overt landscape references (Hockney) but do not want to sever all links/association with landscape character/space
  • the need for some rigorous thinking to underpin the work, avoid 'pattern making' and work through a set of ideas rather than constantly moving on without attempting to resolve issues

There is obviously some difficulty in reconciling the first two items. However the slow increase in technical competence is gradually opening up further possibilities e.g. the value of underpainting and the layering of washes.

Paintings to date have, deliberately, been relatively simple - exploring tone or colour, space, geometry and free washes....

Next series of paintings will aim to:

  • Up the 'content' without returning to 'brush marks without purpose' - reintroduction of grids/structures, possibly based on plan layouts of gardens/buildings
  • Retain limited palette exploring fine gradations of hue/saturation.







Thursday 25 April 2013

SHAUN SPACE + Eleanor Moreton

Viewing in a Gallery

Reviewing the blog with James he suggested putting some of my work in the Shaun Space, away from the clutter of the studio. Definitely a worthwhile exercise as the work looks markedly different in a 'gallery space.' (See below)



Interesting to see the two images juxtaposed - both exploring spatial issues but in very different ways. I have now, on several occasions, explored a mononchrone and a 'colour' painting in tandem.This has proved beneficial in that one is thinking around differing issues so when a temporary 'block' appears concentrating on another work is definitely beneficial.
I questioned the artist, Eleanor Moreton, after her lecture, on this point and she said she often had 20 -30 different works on the go at any one time and there was definitely productive cross fertilisation was possible, even likely!

Ideally in a gallery setting these two works could do with more space between them.





Two loose monochrome/colour grid compositions

Observations 
  • the applications of the Payne's Grey field colour by roller has give a lightness and subtle variation of density which helps 'activate' the field and add to the spatial tension
  • right hand picture is, perhaps, overworked and works best without the two 'pink' semi translucent lines (which were the last to go on). Also works better in a portrait format (See blog 'Contrasts and Bands 11/03)




Space/colour exerise
  • Textured ground and 'smooth' stripes  work well together
  • Controlled colour more successful than earlier, less disciplined attempts   

Eleanor Moreton- Reflections

Her talk was very interesting to one struggling to develop their practice, I particularly liked the disciplined thinking which underpinned her work:

  • Frequent use of earlier work of established historical painters (e.g C17 Dutch).
  • Not necessary to 'like' the work but to engage with it in some way
  • Developing a language which makes a contemporary statement about an earlier, recorded, situation
  • Usually working across many paintings at anyone time (see also note above) -she noted how developing one painting might allow sudden insights into problems with another work
  • Work also often making comment on current social situations - e.g. the vacuous existence of many bored rich women (Orange County)! Also nice send up of 'Collectors' - basically the people she/her gallery  are trying to sell to!
  • some of her work employs several 'styles' within a composition e.g in figure work quite literal portraits are seen juxtaposed with much more stylised renditions
  • Usually some sort of narrative behind the work, not necessarily fully explicit
  • Much spatial ambiguity in the relationships of figures or even parts of figures on the canvas/card
  • Believes in providing 'just enough information' so the viewer must engage and, therefore, contribute to the work.
If only there was access to more intelligent, articulate artists!!

    Friday 19 April 2013

    A DELICATE LINE

    Trial,error and trial

    Move on to large square format canvas (182 x 182cm) primed with diluted PVA

    Objective- to explore pictorial space without the use of colour; key influences -Agnes Martin, Max Cole and Rebecca Salter (Ref early 271 research and later Artist's i
    Influence)























    •  Top two thirds (approx) white applied with roller and diluted with PVA from top down - selected proportions provide 'landscape' reference
    • Bottom third banded in decreasing widths towards the centre, top edge taped, lower edge loose with roller






    Addition of a single line
    Seeking to explore the spatial potential, place a single string vertically on the canvas
    This immediately activates the space in a way which a painted line could not, redolent of the effect obtained through the 'mark making/ polyfilla' exercise (See Blog- 19/04 Mark Making - another angle)

    Resolve to explore this potential.









    Using string - black/white/fragmented black to introduce grid, working across the painted spatial indicators, increasing spatial ambiguity.

    Observation

    Major problem in resolving overall composition -strings removed and relaced on right side of canvas to achieve more baalanced composition -not entirely successful, yet to be resolved!

    Subsequent discussion with visiting artist Kate Liston. She was interested in the marks made where the string had been removed - a sort of ghost of a past action. Maybe there is something in this sort of 'hidden narrative of actions'? 

    PLANT SOURCE

    Beguiling Iris

    Again exploring source material in relation to degrees of abstraction. Iris reticulata has a particular resonance of blue and yellow which provides a start point. A branching form is also trialled.  Patrick Heron produced a series of 'abstracted flower paintings hwichn are visually exciting - See Research Section
     


    Background olive green incorporating dull purple/red



    Observations - (own reflections plus discussion with PW)

    Not really successful on several fronts:
    • main difficulty opaque quality of background which is heavy and lacks the liveliness of much recent work
    • lack of interaction between ground and form
    • simplistic composition 

    Possibilty of reworking ground and loosening composition

    MARK MAKING - another angle

     Polyfilla and nails

    Following on from the Monochrome Discipline and the work on 'Autumn'  painting (Blog 24/03), resolve to explore mark making form a different angle making marks directly into polyfilla. This also fits with my interest in 'seriality and repetition'.
    ( Further ref Blog Research/Gallery visit/Barbican/Raushenberg)




           Process

    • mould  made which can be reassembled for a new 'pouring'- 500x300mm ply with sides to provide for 15mm depth of polyfilla
    • rhythm of nails placed on 50x25mm board with guide nails to ensure clean pull through
    • base treated with PVA and then filled with wet polyfilla mix and allowed to go off for 30mins
    • 'nail bar' pulled through with one pass after this time
    • action repeated with other moulds 






     

           Observations

    • Seriality and Repetition - each piece was made in the same way but the results are markedly different, presumably due to unintentional changes in the creation process- minor difference in fill level of mould and amount of water incorporated into the original mix (it would be interesting to recreate using precise measured quantities and times to see if more accurate replicas could be produced). There is a philosophical debate to be had about the impossibility of producing totaly accurate facsimiles!
    • The discipline of the line spacing is crucial to provide coherence to the piece
    • The three dimensional element to the work produced a modelling through light falling on the piece which could not be achieved in paint
    • How might lessons from this be transferred to paint/canvas?
       
       

    Sunday 24 March 2013

    THE IDEA AS DRIVER


    Following experiments with banding, lines, grids and colour (See Blog :Contrasts and Bands- 11th March/ Monochrome Discipline) I have become concerned with the' idea as driver ' using an idea or memory as the basis for a work. Attempt to put together recent work using  grids, lines, colour and space on a larger scale to express an overarching idea.

    Long been interested in 'the seasons', their character and visible expression. The challenge is to develop a language which utilises the the power of 'lines' or bands and colour to express my feelings on Autumn (sounds corny but if Twombly can base a work on the Four Seasons why can't I have a go at one!)

    Developing the expression 

    • Seen as essentially horizontal banding- a time of dying down, layering, leaves falling upon leaves, gradual build-up of layers
    • Early memories of light coming through leaves,with brilliant glimpses of sky
    • Quality of light, coldness yet warmth of colour.


    The execution

    • Again working on 'natural' canvas sealed with PVA

    • underpainting of lemon yellow 
    • follow with layers of cadmium yellow, cadmium yellow deep hue, cadmium orange, cadmium deep red, purple, deep purple



    Acrylic on canvas (2000 x 1400mm)

    Attempt to introduce light cerulean blue to top third of canvas which will break colour harmony and introduce a degree of tension, but hopefully help to balance the weight of warm colours as they are layered into the lower part of the canvas.

    Blue zones taped and underpainted with white, prior to overpaintng, to maximise impact.




    Observations:
    • OK with the introduction of blue which has done largely what I had hoped
    • Interestingly the overall colour does not seem as warm as I expected/hoped (suppose Lemon yellow underpainitng is inherently cool)
    • Like scale of canvas - imapct quite good, much larger and it is difficult to control the washes/banding
    • On discussion with Virginia she was reminded of carpets/rugs which often incorporated landscape based motifs
    • Interested to hear comments from others


    MONOCHROME DISCIPLINE

    Viewing Rebecca Salter's work (See Research) it is evident that working in monochrome can lead to subtlety and intimacy' Her six years in Japan must have passed on something of their feeling for texture.
    After my work on Contrasts and Bands (Blog: March 11th) which sought to utilise colour exploiting a dark background, resolve to limit palette and experiment with grids and spatial properties of differing intensities of paint.





    Acrylic on canvas (1430x 940mm)

    Ground sealed with PVA and then coat of Payne's grey applied with roller giving interesting 'active' backround without brushmarks.

    Grid applied in two intensities one with considerable dillution, the other with thick white 'straight from the tube' .

    Placing of 'grid lines' also adds to spatial ambiguity.

    Verdict
    Reasonably happy with result in that it acheives a certain spatial interest and responds to the scale of the canvas. It perhaps illustrates the importance of 'knowing when to stop' as I believe that further work would not ncessarily have brought further improvement. It will be important to re-evlauate in a few weeks time to see if this judgement holds!


    Monday 11 March 2013

    CONTRASTS AND BANDS

    Work by Marta Marce and Anselme Reyle (See Research) have shown a possible way of handling bands of colour/stripes using contrast to highlight colour frequencies / relationships:




    First stage painting above. 
    Sequence  of applying paint important - base wash of Payne's Grey applied by rolller. Banded areas then masked and painted out in white prior to adding colour- slight white edge at transition important in achieving crisp banding.

    Seek to develop with further panels and two semi-translucent 'overlay' stripes.
    Following discussion with Lothar try a light pink wash  (see below)





    Verdict : probably a step too far - prefer previous version. Howver technical aspects of banding improved with less bleeding.

    Thursday 7 March 2013

    IS LESS MORE?

    Discussion with Peter Wolland re current work - see below (approx 2m square, acrylic on raw canvas primed with PVA) Still exploring 'grids ans washes'





    Expressed interest in colour as well as 'pictorial space' but finding difficulties and almost felt need to remove all colour and start again- felt that original 'taped up 'canvas, prior to painting which is very mute almost monochrome was more succssful than the finished work (see below)                                                  





    Banding achieved using differing thicknessses of masking tape and 75mm black plastic flooring tape                                                                                    

    Wide ranging discussion with PW covering issues from Abstract Expressionism and the various approaches to expressing 'pictorial space'





     
    Agreed to concentrate on three issues:
    • What can be got rid of (simplification)
    • Colour
    • Mark making - again simplification and removal of overt brushwork


    Limitation of form and colour (1)

                   Elongated format ( 1500x600mm)

                   Raw canvas primed with PVA
                                            
                   Yellow ochre based colour, darker at base,
                    lightening towards the top

                   Concept from Upland walls



                         








     


    Success?  

    Discussion with Lothar- severe vertical format probably too much against the landscape  feel of the work.The painting might work better at a larger scale with a more subtle gradation of tone/colour. Still feels like a significant stride in the right direction.               


    Limitation of form and colour (2)

    Second painting works with limited form- stripes/bands and a tight colour palette
    (see below). Paint applied by roller with fine brush for stripes.


                                                                                    

    Conceived originally in landscape format with major, ochre area at the top. However,it works better in vertical format, Major areas of ochre and lovat green have subtle changes of tone within them (not readily appreciable on the blog) - uniform stripes work quite well as a foil/contrast. Reasonably satisfied with the restricted palette and sense of pictorial space acheived.
                                                                                 
                                             




    Thursday 28 February 2013

    WASH UPON WASH

    Difficulty in predicting outcome of washes- balance between too much control and 'serendipity' sought

    Also problem in locating contemporay artists working with loose washses against solid areas of tone/ colour.


    Trials to start understanding relationships/potential

                                                               
                                                             

















                                           
      
     Floating one wash over another provides subtle shifts in both colour and tone


     
       Thin washes on PVA primed canvas

     

    Observation

    Short experiments / technical exercises valuable in developing practice and avoiding too many major errors on larger canvasses which are quite time consuminng to produce


    Saturday 23 February 2013

    SATURDAY WORKSHOP





    See below works by Johnny Fokker, member of Bearpark Artist's Co-operative - he quite often uses grids as a starting point for his paintings. (Paintings 350mmsquare)








    Decided  to work on small scale (505x405mm)

    ·         Base coat grey/purple scored through when wet to provide underlying grid

    ·         Exploration of colour within this matrix




                                                                                                

            Technically quite difficult to score grid throuh before acrylic dries                                






    Fine brush control required working up grid withiout any masking off


    Result - need to exploit properties of small brushmarks as is virtually impossible to produce uniform colour uptake.


    Thursday 7 February 2013

    GRIDS AND WASHES


    Abstraction and Meaning

    (See Research - Grid Possibilities)

    Some would deem this an oxymoron, however the quest remains to produce a competent abstract painting using the 'language of Grids and Washes.

    Viewing some of Sarah Morris's work she seems to make a valid comment on the urban environmnet through her particular language of abstraction



    Untitled image of Sarah Morris's work

                                                        


     1.8m square stretched canvvas- PVA primed to retain 'raw canvas' and 'mid tone' value. Masking of canvas primed with PVA- 4 widths of tape used




     

    Philosophical basis for work

    Following the experimentation using grids and washes as already documented within this blog I view the grid as a metaphor for man's impact upon the landscape, a Cartesian statement of man's primacy. The washes (pigment held in an aquaeous suspension) therefore represent the processes of the natural landscape. It is the inherent tension between these two fundamentally differing aspects of applying paint that forms the  basis of my current work.

    Technical Issues
    • difficulty of producing precise lines through bleeding- attempt to seal edges of tape with further application of PVA (JH tip). Not entirely successful due to use of very wet washes. However am reasonably happy with result as it neatly represents the somewhat confused overlap between man driven processes and the natural landscape. If I had been aiming for a hard edged 'urban' character as Morris successfully acheives (see above) this would be quite unacceptable.
    • difficulty of anticipating result as initial washes applied over the tapes- not able to properly appreciate the resultant grid until tape removed. Further modifications would involve retaping various sections.
    • anticipating visual effect of overlaying different coloured wahes and mixing wet into wet which can produce very interesting and subtle results- some trials necessary




    Monday 14 January 2013

    GRID OPTION 2

     

    GRID OPTION 2

    Second Option worked up by developing ground then imposing grid.

    Retain similar colour range                                                                                           
    intensify somme areas with
    increased use of deep hue cadmium
    yellow 





                                                            
                                             
     

    Quick test for scale of grid using 2"x1"latts

    Consider options for imposition of grid :

    • full grid as in previous option
    • partial grid -implied rather than fully stated 

    • Decide to run with second option Grid intersections only marked out in white - taped out and overpainted in white                                                              


         

    Testing colour options-
          Payne's grey / violet







                                                                                     


    Left -all white option

    Right- violet intersections, modulated in intensity related to saturation of background colour.See detail below.









                                                                                         

    Observations:

    Varying intensity of crosses in relation to background adds interest and helps to engage the viewer with the piece, which is essentially a simple composition of regularly spaced crosses on a ground.