In image 5, I have Added some more grey emulsion paint to the papiermarched areas and flicked some paint in the central section.
In Image 6, I used oil stick in blue, light blue and white to draw lines curling around the painting. The oil stick accentuates the texture of the underlying paint layers.
In the last image I filcked magenta onto the painting. I think this adds a finishing touch.
When I first looked at the painting I could see a waterfall, now I see a ghost rising up with his hands stretched out looking at the chaos and thinking, “I guess thats just life”.
This is the other piece of work I have been working on using old canvases. In the first image i have put a layer of grey emulsion over the previous paintings and I have then wiped some of the paint off with my finger.
In the second image I have flicked poured and painted onto the canvases with some blue and white emulsion paint.
In image number 3, I decided to use a wash of an orange/red oil paint watered down with turpentine. I also added some papiermarche to the square canvas in order to create some continuity with the other canvas which already had some papiermarche on it. I sprinkled some sand on to some areas and then I added some more grey paint over the top.
In Image number 4, I have added a magenta and blue oil paint wash and some blue emulsion lines. I have used turpentine to rub of some of the previous washes and uncover some of the previous paint.
process continued in next post……
looking back over my blog I can reflect on my creative process. My art essentialy comes from somewhere inside of me and is an attempt at expressing raw emotion. I have written about some of the prominant artists who have attempted to create paintings which express their feelings in a way that links us into the primitive part of our brains.
This is maybe a reaction against the alienation we experience in life when we are detatched from nature. It is an attempt to access something real. It is a state of mind that I attempt to achieve whilst working whereby anything which is hidden can be brought to light in the artwork. the pencil marks can highlight different mind states some meandering and thoughtful others sharp and agressive. The paint has a different effect whether it is applied with paintbrush or fingers or agressively thrown onto the canvas.
My work is more about the process that the finished effect although that is also important and I have to make judgement on where a painting is or isnt working. I have done alot of research into the psychology of art and aesthetics and this has been interesting in terms of why we feel the need to paint and what happens when we are the observer of a piece of artwork.
Many people view their art as a kind of retreat or sanctuary. I’m not sure about mine. I think that my artwork is a nessessary struggle. It sometimes feels like a sanctuary but other times it is a real mental challenge. It is just something I have to do.
My paintings have got larger and the painting style has become more free, I have started to spend less time on my paintings, leaving them in their primitive state. However the piece which was made out of old canvases is different. This is because the structure of the canvases and the texture of the paint from the previous paintings meant that I had to approach it in a different way, and it has become more busy like my previous work. I have another of these to finish.
Writing my Dissertation and my blog has helped with my art work, The theory I have learned has shaped my art practice and the blog has forced me to reflect on my work, this is an ongoing process which is by no means finished.
When I think about emotions in art particuarly sadness I think of Rothko. Although there is not much visually in common between Rothkos art and my own, He was a leading artist in expressing his mental state visually. Rothko developed a carefully considered language of feeling using colour. Rothko wrote that he was interested only in expressing basic human emotions. He stated that there is “wild terror and suffering and blind drives and asspirations” raging within his glowing fields of pigment. He stated that “this is the way in which I could achieve the greated intensity of the tragic irreconcilability of the basic violence which lies at the bottom of human experience and the daily life that must deal with it”
Found in drafts for essay on Nietsche. James E.B Breslin archive on Mark Rothko, 1940-1993, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, acc.no.2003.M.23 (Box 17).
David Maclagan suggests that painting that “draws attention to its ‘fracture’ or material handling, dramatises its aesthetic effects” He states that “exchanges between spectators and the painting they are feeling their way into often take place at a largely unconcious level”.
He suggests that “‘feeling’ has blurred edges at both the perceptual and emotional level. There are sometimes feelings that it is impossible to situate one side or another of this categorical divide: they are also most likely to be feelings that are difficult or impossible to put into words. It may well be that painting has a particular involvement with precisely these non verbal or pre-verbal feelings.”
Davey, N (1999) ‘The Hermeneatics of seeing’ In I. Heywood and B. Sandwell (eds), ‘Interpreting Visual Culture, London: Routledge.
I think that in my own art practice I am trying to express things which are difficult to express verbally, or perhaps whilst manipulating and working with paint and other media these feelings come out involuntarily in my art work. Certain emotions create more powerful paintings.
I find that some of my best work has been produced when I have been melancholic. When I am happy I am not so inclined to make art. It is a brutal world we live in and many things are sent to try us. Empathic, sensitive and creative individuals are less able to forget the abuse of our planet, its ecosystems and people on it. It is hard not to get sad and angry about those who take whatever they want without giving anything back however without being able to do much to change the state of affairs, frustration ensues. I think the artwork which comes from this state of mind is more poignant.
It was once thought that the people of pre-history would only made artwork in times of abundance and peace. However The late Pleistocene Age (about 40,000 years ago) when much of the cave art was produced was a time of grave hardship for the Stone Age cavemen. Most of the earth was covered with glaciers and the sea level was much lower, creating many caves. The caveman’s main job was to gather food for the clan. Back then, it was hunt or be hunted. They chose to paint in caves that were often hard to reach and dark and dangerous. Their art was therefore not just for pleasure but due to some need for expression when times were hard.
This is an image from my sketch book. It depicts my mood at the time.
