Gillian, L-B, Untitled, December, 2016, [Acrylic on canvas}, 20″ x 26″
I have been commissioned to paint two abstract paintings (A2) related by colour. Usually my paintings are individual so I decided to set up an experiment.
Firstly, I prepared two canvases and added small irregular shaped blocks of oil paint: grey, unbleached titanium oxide, violet and amethyst.
To begin the process of developing relationships within and between the paintings, I worked on both canvases simultaneously.
Once I had plotted blocks of colour, I used thinning medium to cause the paint to run and thereby collide and interconnect with other blocks of colour.
The strands of thinning medium coloured by traces of pigment produced new pathways along which relationships could develop. The stages shown here are a few of many transformations.
Canvas 1
Canvas 2
One of my UCS tutors commented that these forms look like figures free-falling in space. Her comment reminded me of a project I was working on two years ago. I had been thinking about the body in space and looked at many amazing images of dancers. The powerful athletic movements which propel them into the air allow them momentarily to break free of the earth. Their triumph over gravity coupled with their grace and serenity appears to transform them into otherworldly beings.
The image above was generated by combining drawings, paintings, photography and printing. I drew and painted images of dancers in mid air which I then photographed and manipulated so their forms were warped as you might see if they were printed on fabric moving in the breeze.
I produced a background for the dancers by painting on acetate sheets, manipulating the sheets e.g. scrolling and holding up to the sky and then photographing them.
The images of the dancers where then arranged individually on the background. I had the entire composition printed on silk organza so that the images could once again flow freely in the air. This image represents the continuous transformation of the human spirit in ever changing forms according to circumstance and environment – as recorded too in abstract paintings – human survival.
Canvas 1 Stage 2
Canvas 1 Stage 2
In the early stages the canvases began to look similar. I subverted the tendency to produce a strong echo by moving away from the soft curves on one canvas towards building-up pathways using more angular building blocks. I received positive feedback on the shapes which emerged on the canvased but they were soon obscured as each block of colour became less isolated.
At this point it seemed that the canvases then became polarised into stereotypical masculine and feminine forms. I therefore played with developing the rectangular blocks of colour by blending them until they merged with other neighbouring areas.
I felt that this stage was very sedate and invited stronger colours to add something more dramatic and less controlled.
The image above shows highlighted bands of colour beginning to move from the centre of the canvas towards the outside edges. This diagonal cross reminded me of the thick branches of a mature, denuded oak tree in winter. This sense of reaching out coincided with the search for form.
The cascades of colour in middle to left of the next image adds a third dimension to the composition. The injection of a sense of movement under force, like a waterfall, is exciting. The large rectangle (middle to upper right) appears like a gateway into or away from the turbulence. The dark blue and violet tones contribute to rock-like 3D effect.
The centre of the canvas above suggests a horizon moving up towards a bellowing sky and the feathery almost vertical bands of colours in the middle ground (immediately below the horizon) can be read as a newly furrowed field. I ran with the illusion by swirling lines to create organic shapes which imitate grasses blow about in the foreground. It is easy to see from stage 1 that starting points influence the way in which paintings develop.
At one point I applied paint straight out their tubes directly on to the canvases and pressed them together to imprint on each other. I then drew into them with a spatula. The intensity of the colours was pleasing but the canvases were otherwise bland.
I returned to strong blues and introduced white. Some of the white paint was used to highlight lines others were used to blend softer blues. The last paint I applied was a strong red, unmediated acrylic paint.
The red, white and blue combination feels unsatisfactory (too stark). The layering of different tones of paint meant that new dimensions opened-up which are highlighted by the muted pale, web-like strands which trail from one point of contact to another.
The final images shows how far I moved away from the original colour combinations and images.
While researching Gerhard Richter’s vast oeuvre, I watched a fascinating film entitled: Gerhard Richter: Painter. Directed by Corinna Belz the documentary was released in 2011, http://www.gerhardrichterpainting.com. Watching footage of film demonstrating Richter painting large abstract works became mesmerising. I was reminded of the excitement I felt when exploring materials and processes throughout 2013.
I spent the year experimenting with inks for paper, glass and fabric and watercolours in liquid, block and powered forms. I used a wide variety of papers including handmade papers; and drafting film and acetate.
I became entranced by the way water could be used to spread colours from one area of the paper to another and thereby make subtle new connections and interceptions.
It was fascinating to see how the application of water onto paper either before or after the application of coloured ink and watercolour paint made a tremendous difference to the progress of the movement and spread of pigment.
Watching the constant process of diluting and leaching colours and lines across papers is like watching a performance – a performance which involves a tussle for dominance and the submission or resistance to subordination. Different lines and ribbons of colours of various thickness demanded to be made more or less visible at different times. Thus, background lines were drawn into the foreground while others dissolved out of sight like characters in a play leaving the stage.
Some papers were so heavily saturated with colours that eventually it was only the subtlety in tones and the outlines of former strong lines of colour that differentiated one area from another.
Paper which begun with its own distinctive textures and colours ended up, after a long process of palimpsest and being saturated and infused with various sweeps of colour, utterly transformed.
Watching the interplay of materials, colours and forms propelled me through a range of emotions including a sense of harmony and cooperation quickly buffeted by tensions and competition. These feelings challenged my curiosity about where and why things begin and why and whether they end.
The following images, 2014, represent later experiments where I have exercise control over the process by harnessing and incorporating the effects of light produced by using a camera to photograph various stages of change in the works.
Section of collage of acrylic ink on drafting film, 2014. The feathering of colour produces an organic feel to the delicate trances of translucent lines.
Section from scrolled layers of acrylic ink and embroidery threads on acetate, 2014 showing the effect of reflected light (top left).
My research into the works of Gerhard Richter has completely reenergised my desire to paint. In particular I have gone back to placing an emphasis on exploring materials, processes and learning how various effects can achieved using a variety of brushes and tools and by improvising e.g. using tools intended for other purposes such as grouting or solid objects such as twigs which make interesting marks.
I am inspired by Richter’s drive to have faith in paint as a medium for communication energised by the human performance of painting. In his large abstract works, 2009 he claims to eradicate anything which emerges that is remotely familiar thereby allowing paintings to evolve into something individual and fresh. Working on a large scale is like magnifying the relationships which develop on the canvas or board (between paint, forms, lines, harmonies and tensions and colours).
It is the relationships between all things that is played out on the ground (the stage) which includes every new layer of a paint. The final surface layer of paint represents a topical map of the artist’s response to the work as it evolved (this includes all its component pieces e.g. materials, equipment, processes and emotions).
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/02/20/arts/20RICHTER/20RICHTER-articleLarge.jpg
The evolution of a painting is a moment by moment unfolding of relationships. Ultimately, an abstract painting represents tracings of an artists’ relationships with all the multifaceted elements included in the performance of painting. The purpose of painting an abstract picture is therefore to generate a visual image of the traces of the performance of painting knowing that the final surface image is the final curtain when the show has finished.
Thus, it occurs to me that making films of the generation of abstract paintings appears to be necessary not as documentation but to record a performance which is otherwise lost. What parameters would an artist need to put around such a film? Judicious editing might leave out pauses significant to the development of the artist’s relationship with the picture as it evolves. Would making a film cast the artist in the roles of actor, director and film maker which include management and technological skills? Would the development of such roles result in better performances as an artist (publically and professionally), or performances as a painter (that is, as a generator of paintings)? Logic would nudge us to conclude that to be a more accomplished painter an artist would need to spend more time painting rather than film making. However, making a film would provide a degree of dissociation which can be helpful.
Richter acknowledged to film Director Corinna Belz that he struggled with the act of painting while the cameras were recording and with filmmakers being present. Dancers, musicians and actors rehearse specific performances whereas abstract painters do not. Performers other than painters are generally given a script or score or choreographed sequence to learn and are directed to perform in certain ways. A painter is however, everything other than the materials he/she selects to use during his/her performance of painting.
If the performance of painting is punctuated by observation of the stages as they evolve, what impact would this have on the dynamics of each painting session representing as it does a one off performance?
Richter’s work is always on the cusp e.g. between painting as act and accident; and between composition as a result of the chance encounters of materials and structure and composition as the tracing of residual intentionality.
Next steps:
Film the making of a section of an abstract painting.
Create a reflective journal and maintain during part of the evolution of one abstract painting. This would slow the evolution down but might revel something otherwise unnoticed.
Re-examine points of interest noted in research into Gerhard Richter and other artists – reflect on and develop the ideas which still strongly resonate.
Find an environment in which to paint of a large scale horizontally and vertically.
