WRITING ABOUT ART
After reading a lot of other students blogs from both UCS and various other places I’m struck by the amount of ‘artspeak’. Much of it I don’t really understand. It was interesting to compare the style of writing in the books and articles I read for my dissertation too. Some writers words are succinct, clear and true, while others are so pretentious and contorted that it is almost impossible to decipher what they are trying to say.
I find it hard to write clearly about painting or to express in words precisely what I am trying to achieve. Painting (for me)has become a very intuitive business. A painting is a way of conveying an emotion and in some cases a sense of place. It is a visual image of a thought. I don’t want to talk about it but instead to leave the viewer to think their own thoughts; feel their own emotions. These do not have to coincide with mine necessarily. The paintings are simply arrangements of pigments and shapes. My work will mean different things to different people and that’s just fine with me.
SATURDAY!! Art is taking over my life – help!!
Went in to try to resolve the Antibes painting AGAIN. Still struggling but felt inspired after watching a lovely TV programme last night – Monty Don looking at artists gardens in France … Cezanne and Monet.
Am going to try to post a video. It probably won’t work …. technology again. Here goes.
……well that didn’t work. Will have to ask Josh how it’s done. In the meantime here’s a still.
Organising the Fundraising Auction is taking up a lot of my time but I still have ideas buzzing around in my head about the Degree Show work.
The Antibes painting is driving me nuts!! Can’t seem to get it right; it just escapes me all the time. Maybe I should leave it ; come back to it later.
I adjusted the water on my other big canvas and am happy with that now. Think that one’s finished.
I realised that by 3 pm I hadn’t picked up a paintbrush – had spent the whole day doing stuff towards the Auction so I had a cup of tea then painted till 6pm. Exhausted now after a long day.
On my visit on Wednesday to collect a painting from Richard Scott, I stopped off at Aldeburgh and took a few photos. Just love the reeds along the water’s edge. Another painting perhaps. There are possibilities everywhere.
ANTIBES PAINTING
Recording the progress of my Antibes painting. It’s not doing what I want. My latest thought is to redraw the composition as portrait rather than landscape; to get the feeling that the studio is high up and the boy in red is looking up at it. I want to create a sense of slight eeriness and fear but at the same time retain the beauty of the Mediterranean sea. Not easy.
I bought secondhand on Amazon on de Stael. This helped to evoke the spirit of place in the painting.
Keep looking and making sketches of the Waterfront at Ipswich. It’s tantalising; there’s a painting there but up till now I couldn’t decide how to tackle it. Talking to Simon Carter, plus the de Stael book has given me an idea which I must have a go at it soon.
Simon said any object or view is only a subject on which to hang a painting. I like that thought – it helps.
