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