Diary of a painting (September 2016 to January 2017)

The Future that was! 2017 acrylic and mixed media on un-primed linen mounted on panel 70 x 50 cm

I keep a journal in a note book, which builds over time and contains photos, studio shots and images of work in progress, writings as well as finished work. The present notebook records some events from Sept 2015 to current work.
Early September I started the recent series of paintings including the original choice for the diary – entitled ‘Just as was Told – Degenerative/Regeneration’, I had posted the relative incarnations on Twitter sadly the painting still hasn’t been resolved and may well be consigned to history. However another set of paintings that has evolved out of the process. Whilst the diary isn’t about one painting in particular, in effect the diary relates to the process of thought, exploration and decision making that is prevalent though my practise. As such the painting –The Future that was! 2017 will form the basis for the diary. In early Sept 2016 I came read an essay entitled Painting Photography Painting Timelines and Medium Specificities by Carol Armstrong from Painting Beyond Itself (The Medium in the Post-Medium Condition), which has provided a stimulus for recent work, indeed the phrase ‘Mediums are go-betweens’ struck a chord with me; I was particularly interested by the term ‘The Medium’, which I understood not to mean the literal materiality of a painting e.g. the paint or the support etc. Instead I understood the medium to be a kind of became an intervening substance through which impressions are conveyed to the senses; furthermore I became interested in the ways the elements (within the painted surface) themselves can change/act/inhabit within any given environment; the – ‘the go-between’ refer to the point at which something changes – the transformation. The essay further stated that the ‘medium acts through which a form acts on objects at a distance or any substance considered with regard to its properties as a vehicle of light and sound. – another connection alluded to the medium could be a pervading or enveloping substance –a substance for example where an organism lives, grows and adapts, especially one in which microorganisms, cells etc. are cultured, – or ones environment, condition of life, even a kind of visual social setting.
My Interests lie somewhere in between; My recent work focuses upon this nature of the ‘go between’, and apart from the obvious references colour, texture and surface, structure and so on –there are other external factors that are key to the of the work, although not necessarily obvious references for example the repetitive bleeps and blurts of electronic music including Brian Eno and others which offer a kind of infinite special sound scape that is in itself suggests a ‘go between’ state. Furthermore I am looking to explore a spatial environment where different kinds of forms can coexist. These forms are defined by their differences, digital, fluid, gestural, geometric and dissonant relations which create tensions within the grounds in which they inhabit. Adjectives such as seductive, repulsion absorb and rejection concealment – revelation can be used to explain or place a label on the individual elements, yet is the tension within the space that exists as a relationship between the components that interests me. In a sense the paintings explore a hybrid environment where the balance between the fluid, the plastic and the digital is explored through a ground that is both absorbent and present.
I can’t remember where these quotes come from, but I have found them relevant.
‘We move through the space –it doesn’t move through us’ – what is seen – how to navigate through the painted surface?
‘Perception of the whole is different from the sum of its parts – perceiving a united space – whole rather than individual + independent fragments of the form/image’

I often make small drawings and paintings at home, often while watching TV which enables me to explore possibilities where I’m disconnected and enables decision making that I hope removes any preciousness in the work.

 

Notebook pages
Photos – images that might have a connections to the work in some way, a surfaces, structures, Incongruous elements that frequently appear on the surface of the roads in and around the studio, the studio is in an industrial estate in Tottenham and the pathways and roads constantly changing, mainly through the different kinds of debris that inhabit the space.

Books read with References and Notes (from Journal)
Smout Allen architects – Geofluidic Landscape – concealment + revelation – seductive/repulsive
Drawing: The Motive Force of Architecture (Architectural Design Primer) by Sir Peter Cook
Painting Beyond Itself – The Medium in the Post-medium Condition – Isabelle Graw and Ewa Lajer-Burcharth
Oranges and Sardines: Conversations on Abstract Painting by Gary Garrels – A painting to have a presence – thinking about space and painting –reading Charline von Heyl essay in ‘Oranges and Sardines’ catalogue – having read this a number of times, I keep returning to the question of an abstract space/silence of the mind spiritual is abstract? No content? A void or voids? Saying everything and nothing – opening a space within the mind – filled with a presence without meaning? Abstraction forcing the mind into a state of wonder.
The Collected Writings of Jon Thompson, Ridinghouse (17 Jan. 2011) Essay ‘the Sublime Moment: The Rise of the Critical Watchman’
The Language of Forms – Meyer Shapiro – ‘The Carpet page’ – mode of expression in a field that displays an inventiveness of sustained play and paradoxes, with reversals and a perpetual shifting from one group to another including the scarification and changes in the quality of surface. Charline von Heyl mentions this essay in Oranges and Sardines
Julie Mehrutu’s notes on painting – the mark/s are insistent! Shift with each motion that devour, decimate their place until they morph/shift/fuse into the surface.

The Aesthete in the City: Philosophy and Practice of American Abstract Painting in the 1980s -David Carrier ‘Painting into Depth Essay on Jonathan Lasker – one reason Carrier thinks that Lasker’s paintings are slow works is that we need time to make our way through these layers, synthesizing forms that seem physically distant and appear divisive. Carrier references Raphael’s ‘Expulsion of Helioodorous’ great void in the centre of the painting, decisive actions taking place at the extreme edge of the painting?

Components – (I have tried to consider and restrict myself to a discreet number of elements within a painting – it doesn’t always work and I find it difficult not to tinker. These are in no particular order.
1. A ground-fluid or otherwise
2. Architectural /organic biological structure
3. A gesture
4. Collaged section/ photographic computer image/something from outside

Materials
Lascaux Paint
Lascaux Effect Colours
Lascaux Crystal Acrylics
Lascaux Neon Acrylics
Lascaux Artist Metallics
Lascaux Gel medium, Matt/Gloss
Kremer Shellac Inks
No white – use pink instead
Silicon scrappers
Un-primed 16oz Heavy Flax – absorption – absorbed space- organic- external – deep space-cosmos- sublime-unknown- ambiguous- internal
Fabriano paper
Elements
Pour/stencil
Balance between the fluid/plastic/digital
Seductive/dissonant
Fluid = temporality
Absorption/rejection
Something real? (physical)
Scope – close view or examination
Scape – expansive scene

Studio Notes 20/06/2016

The recent paintings including Ascension and Breathe are both paintings that illustrate the direction and main focus of some of the current work. One of the questions that sometimes trouble me recently is the use of collage in a painting, both paintings include the use of collage in both cases the section has been part of a previous painting. I could mask and paint an area, but this would be a commitment and in effect would make the composition less flexible and open to change. Furthermore the spontaneity of an action could be significantly reduced. By bringing in something from outside, I am able to control and make changes to the selection by further trimming and refining the shape – the accidental process of coming across a selection rather than preselecting the component prior to the work is a process that I am more comfortable with and the opportunity for incongruous relationships become more evident. The collaged elements in question originally came from a larger painting which I had decided to consign to the collage materials box. In the materials box are many offcuts, discarded fragments of paintings that may be used in future works. Each painting is made up of a number of components which do change from time to time e.g. the visual relationship between the fluid nature of the ground with the hard edged geometry/digital elements – what interest me is the different spaces that these elements can inhabit – I visualise a kind of flexibility within the space which suggests a connection with changes in the temporality. One of the difficulties that arise is the consideration in the selection process and how different elements co-exist in different spaces. The hard-edged shape in Ascension or Incision for example is an act of intrusion into a given space; this intrusion provokes a visual reaction to the ground. This intrusion provides a point where something in the work changes – a kind of go-between, a point of change, a medium – a conversation between different spaces – ‘Mediums are go-betweens’ – A medium for example could be a intervening substance through which a form acts on objects at a distance or through which impressions are conveyed to the senses; any substance considered with regard to its properties as a vehicle of light and sound. Or a pervading or enveloping substance – the substances, in which an organism lives, especially one in which microorganisms, cells etc. are cultured. In extended use – ones environment, condition of life, a visual social setting. My interest lies somewhere in between, ‘The Medium’ is not the literal materiality e.g. the paint, the support etc. Instead it is the ways the elements themselves change/act/inhabit within any given environment – ‘the go-between’ refer to the point at which something changes – the transformation.

Breath – acrylic, spray paint and linen on panel 60 x 50cm 2016

Ascension acrylic, spray paint, linen on Linen  70 x 50cm 2016

‘What influences the new work? Recently at my Open Studios, I realised/recognised something within the work that I hadn’t noticed before –a possible reasoning behind the use of interference, iridescent and Fluorescent paint. In the new work for example Incision the glowing iridescence changes as one moves past the surface of the painting, which in turn changes from solid/opacity to translucent to transparent, furthermore it is possible to register the changes in the physical space both the ground/support and the elements themselves jostle – opening the possibility for a more fluid and transitional space. The intense pink colour provoked a past memory of the colour of flesh under the lights during a medical operation, many years ago I worked and witnessed many medical procedures, I can distinctly remember the intensity and colour of the layer beneath the epidermis of the patient’s skin. The colour was the most iridescent and intense pink I had ever seen.’

Studio Wall June 2016

Studio Wall June 2016

Components/ Limits/Rules
1. A ground-fluid or otherwise
2. Architectural or organic structure
3. A gesture
4. Collaged section/ photographic computer image/something from outside

List of Elements
Inference/irridencecse
Balance between the fluid/plastic/digital
Geofluidic landscape/space – concealment or revelation
Seductive/dissonant
Fluid = temporality
Absorbtion/rejection
Something real? (physical)
Scope – close view or examination
Scape – expansive scene
‘we move through the space – it doesn’t move through us’ – what is seen – how to navigate through the painted surface?
‘perception of the whole is different from the sum of its parts – percieveing a united space – whole rather than individual + independent fragments of the form/image’
What about supports?
Unprimed linen – absorption – absorbed space- organic- external – deep space-cosmos- sublime-unknown- ambiqious- internal
Primed Plywood – projection- projected space-architectural-interior/external- uniform/utilitarian

Recent Drawing (Watercolour, Ink, Acrylic, Coloured Pencil and Collage on Paper/Canvas Board)

Albert Oehlen

It is useful to acknowledge while reflecting upon Albert Oehlen’s recent work, that while initially the application of material (paint) on the surface appears difficult to read, it is however upon further scrutiny obvious that my initial impressions regarding the reading of the surface was wrong. The surface has been quite carefully layered, although the order of the layers is more indecipherable. The clues for this evidence lie when one looks at the edges of the work. The press release states ‘the imposing of rules or structural limitations’ – which from the content of each painting is clear. The question of the imposition of rules or structural limitations is one that has been at the forefront of my recent work – how to be more economical. Oehlen’s paintings were examples of a kind of economy, the ‘slow process’ of looking enabled the contents to reveal themselves. The paintings resembled trees or at least archetypal tree shapes that have been placed within what appears to be a utilitarian background, stark white with red or blue quadrants. Initial impressions are of stark silhouetted shapes that have been placed against geometric background. Upon closer inspection one is able to deconstruct the surface, which isn’t what it appeared to be, at least not at first sight. The hand is almost impossible to recognise, the cropping and masking is far removed from the contact with the brush and the application and arrangement of elements appears to evolve in reverse order. The components are stencilled/brushed lightly/ smeared/sprayed/smudged – the stark almost blue white, which is very intense, is applied late as a way to paint out/erase content, (a kind of digital eraser). One detects an element of digital application, the layers could be interchangeable – rather as if the layers, like screens could be moved, re-set, which would transform the order of the work. I am reminded of the application of Photoshop as a means to adjust/transform to order and reading of a two-dimensional image, although does that make the work more mechanical/limited?
These were some of the thoughts occupied me at the time; obviously time (3 months) has passed since viewing the work – where do I stand? The success of intriguing quality of the work lies for me in the way the viewer can establish a discreet relationship between the components/elements; by looking all around the painting, from side to side, top to bottom, edge to edge. The digital collages of specific elements, the layering, the spatial flexibility e.g. how the layers in a digital space can be dragged between one space and another – is this a way of reading the space, as an opening to pull and push the space in different zones? I think in Oehlen’s painting one initially reads the white as the ground – but it clearly isn’t – one of the clues to the reading is how one looks at the edges of each painting. In effect it becomes multi-spatial and be read as foreground, middle ground or background or oscillating somewhere in-betwee

 

 

New Statement

11th May 2016

As of today, I decided that I would begin to share my thoughts, ideas and experiences as a painter. For some time now I have kept a kind of diary or journal of new work and documented the developments as they unfold. The journal has enabled me to record observations, decisions – make connections and record honest reflections about my practice, occasionally I write about others artists some of which are significant in the development of my practice – other pay a smaller role. Some images my be surprising – others more obvious. I’m not going to keep all entries chronological – I intended to dip into and out my writings as well as update current work.

The statement below was written over the past year – the current form is the most recent (with tweaks). Hopefully it establishes  a flavour of what I am interested in and will change as the blog unfolds. The statement also reflect my most current work as shown by the featured image, which is a recent small painting called Incision. The painting measures 30 x 30 cm and is quite small. It is painted on unprimed linen with acrylic, spray paint and college. It is an interesting painting for me because of its economic nature – two simple elements responding to each other. I called the painting Incision because of the way the large pink shape appears to cut into the space. The large shape also suggests a kind of bottle opener and therefore appears to be opening the space in some way, although its proximity to the golden veil seems to emphasise the difference between the two elements – a kind of discordant disruption, I suppose as an incision into a space would appear as an almost a violent juxtaposition.

The intimacy of two such contrasting elements reminds me in a strange way of Petrus Christus’s Portrait of a Young Girl, circa 1470. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Of course there is no visual connection at all, although there is something in the intensity of the painting that holds my attention and may be what I’m focusing upon in Incision. The painting ‘Portrait of a Young Girl’ is one of the most beautiful paintings that I have ever seen – a jewel in a museum of jewels. The stillness of the gaze is so captivating, haunting, a reflection of humanity, it’s purity and vitality – inscrutability. I felt that there was something so obviously human and pure about the painting, innocent, yet her gaze appears both resigned, weary, board even? What must have it been like to live in the 15th century. There is something deeply reflective/self absorbed on
the gaze, accepting?

The Definition of the line in my work is one that is nonrepresentational yet forms a boundary or contour beyond which something can be defined, one can make connections with the visualization of the forms and marks which occupy a fractured space, and while some forms suggest might organic or architectural structures, their purpose is to open further invention and to invite imaginative contradictions. In my recent work I am looking to explore a spatial environment where different kinds of forms can coexist. These forms are defined by their differences, digital, fluid, gestural, geometric and dissonant relations which create tensions within the grounds in which they inhabit. Adjectives such as seductive, repulsion absorb and rejection concealment – revelation can be used to explain or place a label on the individual elements, yet is the tension within the space that exists as a relationship between the components that interests me. In a sense the paintings explore a hybrid environment where the balance between the fluid, the plastic and the digital is explored through a ground that is both absorbent and present. My work tries to form a bridge between spaces past, present and digital. In a sense that digital spaces fluctuate between an augmented space that can both contract and expand These experiences are presented as a personal code, where memories and visual experiences are defined by discordant spatial relationships and marks that resonate like personal signs. These recollections are layered, and jostle and float through different spaces forming surreal juxtapositions. Lines can suggest routes, boundaries between one space and this disconnectedness reassesses our relationship with our experience of a micro and macroscopic world and as a way to question our experience of the world in which we inhabit.