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August 2010
Now that I've finished the Fine Art
Degree with a First Class BA (hons)
(I
still haven't stopped
smiling) all normal activity can be resumed.
Or
can it? I am just beginning to realise what I
have taken on by choosing the life of an artist.
Quite simply, art takes over life.
My studio is at the bottom of my
garden.
It is a quiet place and when I'm painting I've established a morning routine.
I take my first cup of
tea, closely followed by my cat, who thinks she's Mary's
little lamb, and sit and contemplate the previous days work.
This sitting in quiet contemplation has become central to
the work. The thinking is done before and after the
painting. Generally, in the cold light of day, I'm
disappointed with the previous days work. This constant
disappointment was beginning to get to me until Nick Gray,
my insightful tutor, explained how the critical faculty can
switch off while in painting mode. This makes so much sense
as the creative process uses the right-hand side of the
brain which is non-judgmental.
So every morning
I sit and become very critical for a little while before
picking up my paintbrush to begin the process of editing,
refining and becoming absorbed once more.
'FOSSIL' mixed media
2008-2010
This 'transitional' painting is finally
finished - HOORAY!
I wanted to show it a Appledore
'Fire and Fury' however Stuart Rosamond wisely advised that
it wasn't finished. Reluctantly I accepted that I needed to
spend even more time on it.
Over the summer it sat in my studio,
an almost malevolent presence, defying being cracked. When
it came to the resolution it was more a matter of taking
away rather than adding but I needed time to see that.
It has now had several layers of bees wax which has heighten
the colour and given it the look of old Spanish
leather. It has been a long two years in the
making and I don't think I can part with it now.
The
Ellipses
I feel
I want to explain how the Ellipses came about as they are
quite different to my usual work.
The
inspiration for the ellipses was two fold.
I
knew that I wanted to bring 'The Stations of the Cross' into
my work because they represent a particularly important part
of my childhood. It wasn't until I saw
Ian Mckeever's exhibition at The Kings Place, Kings Cross
and Bill Viola's work in Rome at New Year, that I knew how I could do it. Like Viola, it's a
matter of telling an old story in a new way. I wanted to
allude to the Stations in an indirect manner.
Taking Mckeever's way of dealing with light, I started with the
ellipses.
It was crucial for the cross, which in reality would be very
heavy, to also be represented as light.
These paintings are two of the 'Three Falls' in the
Stations of the Cross. I may yet paint the third.
'Fall
1' and Fall 2'
mixed
media
May 2009
As I come to the end of the second year of the Fine Art
Degree, all energy is going into the exhibition at The
Old Glove Factory, Appledore, North Devon.
My work is slowly refining as I strive to capture the
metaphysical it simplifies and reduces. Lately, I have
become fascinated by the space between two forms;
the gap.
When it works, it holds a tension and fullness of
expectation that is really sensuous. In my latest piece, 'Almost', I
feel I have captured this
sense of subtle energy and in the small divide between the
forms the painting sings.
'Almost'
oil on canvas 2009
Last term, I was very much influenced by
the artists, Sean Scully, Basil Beatty and John Hoyland. I wanted the work, this term, to
reflect the research on these particular artists, but
more importantly, I wanted it to become uniquely mine.
For this
to happen, I had to make the inevitable journey inwards.
This, along with visits to the sea, has driven my
work.
The sea pulls at my soul.
It has to
be the 'real' sea.
The Channel doesn't really do it for me while the Atlantic,
wilder, breaking
against the Cornish coast
on a gusty day, is perfect.
.
I realised early on that
representational painting
cannot capture the essence that I'm after; a feeling, emotion or sense of the moment. I'm getting closer to what it is I want to
communicate.
The collection I have produced
for Appledore can be roughly split into two groups. The
first, is a celebration of colour and iconic form. The second,
is altogether quieter and introspectively moody. I'm excited
about seeing my work in the Old Glove Factory.
Appledore Festive
Fire and the Fury
28th-31st May2009
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