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?
   
   

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!

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.

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.
                                                                             
                                         

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 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.