The following pieces are a continuation of my exploration of using mixed media and photography whilst concentrating on transitory moments of urban existence. In my head, they are a kind of utterance of modern impression – capturing a moment of time and light with photography and then further expressing the essence of this moment with digital drawing, paint and other mixed media in combination with the photograph.
Katherine Mansfield; a renown New Zealand modernist short story writer famous for her Impressionistic ‘capturing the moment ‘pieces – when I consider my latest work, it is her writing that is in the back of my mind.
“And it seemed to her that kisses, voices, tinkling spoons, laughter, the smell of crushed grass were somehow inside her.” – ― Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party and Other Stories
Blurred edges, hazy experiences, a wink of a moment caught as best as one can with words or in my case; images.
‘Apple Dapple’ developed from a moment of sitting in the garden in the summer sun, sleepily looking at an overladen apple tree with the light glinting through the leaves into my eyes.
‘The tree and the building’ stemmed from looking at a tree and its distorted reflection in the windows of an unremarkable looking building. It gave me ideas of grids, stained glass windows and cubism.
‘Shadows through the window’ grew out of a photo of a shadow of a tree through a semi-translucent window in an art gallery. The suggestion of what else there could be, the effect of the light and gestural capacity of impressionism is evident.
‘After the rain’ focuses on a patch of wild space with its glistening leaves and layers of weeds and flowers after it has been raining.
The final pieces here sometimes change quite dramatically from the starting point – I do not let the original idea I am try to capture dominate the proceedings. If it feels right to carry on working on a piece with mixed media that might ‘overthrow’ the initial concept, then I will do so. Other times, the final piece is very close to what I originally captured in the photograph. Concept and process hold equal status for me and I tend to instinctively play with these.
