Without noticing I have followed in Cy Twombly’s footsteps with my obsession with drips. I recently felt the need to revisit the artists that I was originally looking into, the artists whom I felt had similar interests in the primitive and raw mark making which links us to our ancestors. I was originally looking at Cy Twombly’s early work which has a lot of space and pencil markings. I had not consciously noticed his later works. I was surprised to find that I had in fact not moved away from the vein of contemporary art that held my interest. My art had strangely progressed in the same way. These paintings are not dissimilar to my own, and although Cy Twombly is an accomplished master beyond his time, its strange that I have followed a similar path unaware.
I have finally finished this painting, I put two of the square canvases I made together, one was a canvas that I was having no success with. These canvases have oil paint, acrylic, gloss and emulsion as well as coloured sand and aluminium shavings. The top picture is a close up of this texture. They now remind me of an underwater world, or under the sea specifically. My paintings seem to be best in their fresh and early stages. If I over work them then I have to keep going until they come back to some kind of resolution. This is a very stressful process which is reflected in the layers of paint. I think I put too much pressure on myself to come up with some amazing artworks for my end of degree show and in the process I feel I have lost the space and the marks which made my early paintings successful. I intend to make another large canvas and want to resist the urge to over paint it. I really enjoy the first stages of painting and I want to stop before it becomes such an emotionally intense practice.
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I have been working on these paintings today. The two thin canvases, 16 in x 32 in, are paintings formed by the drips from my other works. I laid them on the floor underneath the other canvases I was working on as I felt I was wasting a lot of paint but was still consumed by the urge to pour paint on my paintings. I don’t really think they are successful pieces of art but it was an experiment. I think they were better in their raw state before I tried to finish them. The other painting is one which I made earlier and was not happy with the intensity of the colours, however, unfortunately I don’t think I have improved it. I am trying to learn the lesson of when to stop and when to know something is finished. I have had quite a stressful time recently with over working my paintings and think I might finally have learnt my lesson.
I made a wooden frame for this painting, It was really awkward to keep the painted board in position in the groves of the frame. One side would pop out as I eased the other side in. I made a second square board and frame which you can see in the background, I has yet to be painted. I made it in a fraction of the time which shows how quickly you can learn from your mistakes. I’m relieved the frames are both done and ready for a coat of paint. I think I will use the same white as the drips on the surface of the painting.
My studio space. I’m realising I have used far too much blue and purple paint. Its strange the way I have phases with colours, I think colour is a direct reflection of mood. I need to make the square purple paintings a lot less purple, they are currently offending my senses! I have obviously slipped out of the blue and purple phase.
