Procrastinations of a working man.

As is usual these days my time has been incredibly stretched by pretty much every element of my life.  My day job has been ridiculous and home life (happily) more demanding than ever – throw into the mix feverish activity with every spare second in the studio preparing for a modest local exhibition.

Said exhibituon is now basically upon us (details below) and I’ve been beavering away with arrangements and framing and the other bits and pieces required. I’ve love it.  Please feel free to pop in if you are local (or not) and take in some drawings and maybe a canapé or two.

The evening starts at 17:00 (until 23:00) at:

The Snug bar and cafe

96 Leigh Road

Leigh on Sea

Essex

SS9 1BU

Apologies for the brevity of this post, an in depth update coming soon.

I must first make the now usual apologies for the length of time since my last post, I have been very busy and spending as much time as possible taking the fight to my work and really entrenching myself in each moment that I am working, not thinking about how much work lays ahead and the time that will elapse between now and the finished article.

The mindset I have described above is the best way forward for me as an individual involved in the type of work I produce, I also believe that trying to be in each moment as far as possible is helping nurture a more pure type of drawing and deepening what is developing in front of me in each microcosmic thought displayed on the paper.

Since a child I have always had a predisposition to be fascinated by dense works of art almost regardless of what they depict, whether figurative or abstract, works that are heavily worked and minutely detailed. The figuration aspect of this has since slipped away and I am purely interested within the abstract (although ironically many of my favourite artists are that of a figurative nature). After many years of exploration I have recognised this fact and set about delving into its seemingly endless possibilities, things have subsequently become more and more intense and the tensions in the creation of these drawings is becoming something of a badge of honour now – I enjoy the process equally as much as the pride I feel in the finished article – you decide if that pride is misplaced or undeserved!

Now I have cemented what I am and what I do I am hell bent on plunging to its deepest depths, as you can probably ascertain I am writing with an impassioned vigour as I can barely contain my enthusiasm for what is – and what could lay ahead.

Perhaps a fairly cryptic post today?

Thank you for reading as always

www.stuartbelton.com

Three weeks since my last post – where has the time gone?!

I have been working as hard as I possibly can and I have felt my work taking on the desire for a genuine change in direction, a fairly subtle change, not a radical change in aesthetic but definitely a solid development.

A small sketch (above) exploring forms, colour’s unimportant in this one, still though I find this quite striking.

My skeletal drawing process hasn’t changed really but the colours and the way I apply them has – and is changing. This for me is an incredibly exciting time in my practice because as some of you might know I am colour blind (not totally) and had always pretty much ruled myself out of the use of colour in my work.

A probably around a year ago I begun to use colour thinking I will use very bright colour’s that I understand and almost blast my way through the problem of not seeing subtle colour’s as most others do. This worked up to a point, then slowly I began to feel the restrictions coupled with the natural urge to progress. I tried ignoring this for a while but before long I knew change had to be instigated.

Fast forward to now and that change is in its
supernova – it is almost complete in the fact that my colour methods have changed so much.

During my degree I made sure I knew my basic colour theory as a well drilled soldier does his rifle. This knowledge over time has eroded so
I set about relearning what I had forgotten. Just reading about this stuff again helped immeasurably and I realised quite happily that I only needed the smallest of prompts to remember what I was recapping. (Incidentally I learnt my colour so well whilst studying to try to offset my disadvantages).

What I am trying to do now is use colours in a more sophisticated manner and not just bludgeon them into a drawing. Also due to different pens/ inks I am able to overlay colours now which has opened a very exciting set of possibilities. Dare I say maybe one day some paintings might come from this. I can’t believe just how much the colour aspect now.

Thank you as always for reading.

instagram: @stu01621

twitter: @stu01621

www.stuartbelton.com

Firstly I will apologise for the disjointed nature of what you are about to read, I managed to stay in my studio until 11pm tonight so must be quick.

I stole a really cheeky look around the National Gallery after dinner the other day in the big smoke, I had to be quick so I decided dive into see the post impressionists and then into the incredible Australian impressionists exhibition (I was bought membership here for Christmas so this allowed me to duck in – guilt free at the minimal time I had…walking briskly past the canelettos – I had no time for caneletto’s today, I had to get to the Australians before anything else.

That morning I had read an article on a Facebook page regarding the optimal viewing times that “experts” consider to be the best in which to understand the painting you are looking at. I thought I’d put this to the test as I was I was in the perfect place to test such theories. The time was something like four minutes and seven seconds by the way.

As I headed straight for the post impressionists (as always) but became waylaid by the superb Australian impressionists exhibition, the painting I looked at was Arthur Streeton’s “fires up”. A magnificent painting by anyone’s standards, I stood gazing, probably for the best part of ten minutes, I looked intently and as I did the painting begun to offer more information about itself, other characters and the story unfolded. An experience I will never forget.

Of course I had to see my artistic idol Cézanne – rude not to, so whilst testing the above theory (which works incredibly well) I noticed – whilst loosing myself in a landscape by the great man it was painted with masses of energy…a painting that I thought I knew intimately changed before my very eyes. Fascinating and I recommend you all do the same.

I was standing the middle of one of the huge galleries and I had stopped as I was feeling full from the meal we’d just had and slightly tipsy – I pulled my phone out to look at – i then realised – what the hell are you doing – a phone usually one of the most prized items in the hands of anyone, at least so it seems judging on every train I got onto today and the throngs of people constantly passing – heads down,
slipping quick glances forward to ensure they aren’t going to collide with anything or anyone. I digress, the phone, to me, then became the poor mans choice in terms of visual and cerebral stimulation with such a multitude of sumptuous richness to look at – need I say I see the error of my ways and promptly slipped the phone back into my pocket almost not being able to believe what an ass I had just been.
Okay more from tonight’s studio session:

I had an incredibly satisfying session tonight in which I learnt a lot and saw future doors open before in anticipation of the time I need to walk through them, a fabulous feeling.

Tonight’s quote – so apt and I can really respond to this:
“More of me comes out when I improvise” – Edward Hopper

Whilst considering what I had drawn tonight it occurred to me that I need to begin looking at the negative space in my work now…the stark white space could be developed and cultivated for better use in future endeavours. The drawing at the top of the page is what I finished tonight, it is little more than a sketch but I loved every second of its creation for the value it has given me. I learnt a lot about new processes and the behaviour of a new pen and the qualities of the inks.

Thank you for humouring my horrendously rushed entry tonight.

As a colour blind artist (please get the sniggering out of the way now please) I have always predictably struggled with the application of colour to my drawings and it’s underlying theory (theory meaning philosophically as opposed the science of light in this context).

Since making the seismic shift into applying colour to my work (from exclusively black and white) I had thought the best approach would be to use haphazard combinations of very bright colours (something I can discern mostly) which I think has served me pretty well in the confidence and development stakes – however, I have little or no idea how people – with what I would term normal colour vision see my drawings…are they garish? Jarring? Who knows? The thing is I cannot really analyse this with any accuracy is really where my problem with colour presents itself.

I have started to have some thoughts on beginning to refine this steamroller of colour I have been travelling upon. What I really want to do is understand what I am doing more completely and form a better idea of how someone viewing the drawing is likely to see it…I know that I have stumbled into a hugely subjective area but the careful manipulation of colour will help me to add further depth to what I am doing and allow me to explore an idea more fully. I.e. Red – anger, blue sad etc…

I think I need to:

Use basic colours (at the very least at first) and understand there basic meanings in the wider world and what they mean to me, something I have will fully neglected up until this point.

Explore how colours work together, the potential message they convey and do they fit with what I’m trying to achieve.

I want to refine what I see as bright, jarring colour which I have been using. I will say though that one of the reasons I used this type of colour is because I wanted to convey energy and life, a microcosm of life and energy if you like.

So with all this in mind I will tell you about the next tentative step…the rotring isograph. I bought one of these pens a long time ago and was probably a little intimidated by it because of all the variables it carries, mix your own colour, refill, reusable etc so never used it, got to know it and on top of that it had to be cleaned and maintained- I took the easy route. After the pencil I became accustomed to disposable fine line pens which have served with distinction, especially the Sakura Pigma Microns, great tips, archival quality inks and appear to be pretty lightfast – but the main problem is the massive limitations in respect of choice of colours, I tried all sorts of others but I never really trusted them. This left me in no mans land so I was forced to take the leap into the unknown – mixing my own colours in a pen I need to clean.

So after a few times of trying and giving up, reverting back to the trusty microns I ended with a couple of pens not used and filthy. This had to stop so I have now cleaned them and am determined to make them my primary instrument. Why? I have since discovered that the line quality is incredible, obviously the whole colour thing and the precision is not matched by anything else I have ever tried. Watch this space as I am sure making this change will send my drawings in another direction.

The drawing at the top of the page (I think) is beautiful because of the stark black and white, but how about if it were subtlety coloured?  Exciting times.

Watch this space.

Thank you as always for taking the time to read my ramblings.

www.stuartbelton.com
Insta: @stu01621
Twitter: @stu01621
[email protected]