Paint, pigment, canvas, aluminum, resin. I’m presently consumed with having to think about the technicalities of how to actually make what I paint and paint on. I have just started to paint with oils following comments in my recent assessment and tutorials. I am layering thin glazes of colour and have been using acrylic and although I have been using good quality paints and mediums, the resulting surface of the paintings aren’t quite luscious enough.
This week Fine Art students and our tutors Danny Rolph and Stella Whalley visited London galleries. Zhang Enli at Hauser and Wirth, Franz Ackerman at White Cube, Bernard Frize at Simon Lee, Arshile Gorky at Gagosian, and Matthew Barney at Sadie Coles and Chris Ofili at Tate Brit. These trips are great, we move swiftly around the work and soak up impressions of the installations, the effect, the diversity of the art, and the the scent of business. I like to compare and evaluate not only the work in each show but also the connections and contrasts between artists and galleries. I shall be going back to spend time at Franz Ackermann to look in depth at the layering of drawing and painting and his use of different media and surfaces. I am pleased to have seen the Gorky drawings, before seeing the Tate exhibition, they were intriguing and intimate.
So, having invested in new paint, medium and brushes and even though I’m only experimenting on small canvases, I can see and feel the difference already. Squeezing out some Michael Harding yellow, with difficulty, it shot out of the wrong end of the tube, into my hair and over my shirt. My first concern was to salvage as much of the paint as possible (£) and then to quickly clean my hair with turps and Fairy liquid. My friend kindly bought me a sachet of of conditioner ‘for coloured and damaged hair’. Instantly applied, no harm done.
Afternoon activity, stretcher making and charcoal drawing
http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/ackermann
http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/2010-02-10_ars…
