A visit to the Abstract Expressionism Exhibition at the RA has enabled me to begin to put into words the germ of an idea to explain what I am trying to achieve within my current art practice. I struggle with ‘Artspeak’, generally preferring to just get on with the practicalities of painting rather than endlessly pontificating about it. But slowly I am appreciating that I am thinking intellectually about what I am doing even if I don’t talk out loud about it.
In the past I have lamely mentioned ‘sense of place, memory, non-figurative representations of landscape’but would like to add a slightly different but more exact explanation which is, I hope, rather better.
This very large (unfinished) painting is the first in a series in which I am trying to trick the viewer’s brain into believing that they are actually in a different space by somehow involving all the senses of sight,smell,sound and touch,for a split second, as they catch a glimpse of the image. Hopefully they will then stop and look deeper into the image. It should be a stronger reaction than just a ‘sense of place’.
I want to create a physical feeling of being able to actually smell the sea, feel the wind, hear and see the waves; to give a shock of believing they are standing on a beach. Obviously it will not be a sustained feeling but I want to elicit however briefly that all the senses have been involved within my making of my work and that their senses are involved in looking at the image.
