As mentioned before, Ellsworth Kelly has been a major influence for my studio works and has a strong and continuing input. But I’ve recently started looking at Gerhard Richter, specifically his Mirror Painting series.
I first came across this series when writing the dissertation and include some of his works here.
I love the simplicity of these pieces and especially the playfulness of “Corner Mirror, Brown-Blue” and “Corner Mirror, Green-Red” which are, as mentioned, so simple, yet their visual aesthetic is highly detailed, there is so much to apprehend; the highly reflective surfaces reflect everything, from the aspects of the room it’s held in, to reflecting each other, thanks to their close proximity and composition as well as the audiences that view them. Next to regard is their colour and scale, just over 2 metres in height and a metre in width, they are placed in the corner of the room almost right next to each other. Without this highly reflective surface and decision to hang in this way, they wouldn’t have the same effect and they especially wouldn’t react with each other in the way that they do. There is a clear relationship between the two which is communicated by their surfaces and scale/composition; simple, but effective.
I think I’ve figured it out. I’m happy with moving on and I think the best way to do this is to focus on the object versus painting aspect. With a bit of texture/materiality thrown in. I can’t give that up so easily.
I had some interesting thoughts about ways of displaying works and new works to do in the middle of the night whilst trying to sleep, and had to jot these down quickly before I forgot. These ideas are all based on really getting to grips with the idea of ‘painting or object’ and are simple in construction and literal in their reading. (Artist research to follow)
Initially, with two boards completed recently, I had liked the idea of hanging them from the ceiling with some invisible line, creating an angle of 90 degrees between them. This is pictured with the plaster room as a background.
But then, why shouldn’t I display them in a way that raises more questions about their object-ness instead?
So, my next job is to find out how to create a base for these two that will hold them safely and ushers them more into the realm of object/sculpture. This will move them away from the wall and would, I believe, demand more attention and project their size better. I came up with a sketch of what I’d like the support to look like, pictured. Considering the material of the board, I feel it would be best, but perhaps more diffuclt, if the base were made of wood, and the conjoining support were perhaps metal. I don’t think that a completely metal frame would be suitable, as this would ultimately overwhelm the wooden, painted board.
I’m stuck.
And I think my work looks stuck.
It may be because I’m in a kind of artists limbo. My work is changing, but I don’t know what it’s changing into and whether it’s any good. I’m forcing things at the moment because I often think that carrying on despite not quite knowing what you’re doing is the best way to develop and change. I can’t tell whether that’s really true or not at the moment. But it all feels a bit hopeless at the current stage I’m in. Nothing seems to be working. I need some new inspiration. Perhaps I need to break away from what I was doing, which started 8 months ago, and throw myself into what seems to be occurring more and more.
But then I have to realise what that ‘thing’ is and I don’t know that I can pinpoint it.
Is it the object versus painting aspect? So then how do I use that?
Or is it the monochrome colour aspect? Same question, how do I proceed with that?
Or is it the importance of surface and re-using materials? What happens when I run out?
Am I supposed to combine all three?
But they don’t combine, that’s the point I’m at now.
But I don’t know that I can make them work as seperate aspects.
Whilst mixing paint to use recently, I noticed the noises and motion that came about through the action of actually mixing the paint. Perhaps it’s because of the topic I wrote about for the dissertation which was the consideration of the process of a work and the materials which are employed that made me more aware.
Nonetheless, I decided to record some of these motions.
Had a chat with Sam Robinson about my work recently, which is always insightful. I often find that there are some niggling thoughts that I can never quite grasp, and then Sam sometimes realises this and voices those ideas, which is helpful!
We talked about the use of “crap” materials, re-using items and the issue this raises in terms of value. If it’s an obviously used piece of material, then does that lower the value of it as a painting? And does this alter the way people view it, are people less satisfied with it if it’s been re-used? Or is it all down to the final image, whether this wood panelling is ultimately covered up completely and whether there is any trace left of what the support is, or was?
Also, does using a crap piece of wood make or alter the way I paint? Perhaps this is why I no longer use canvas, because painting on wood allows me to be somewhat free-er in my application. With canvas there’s always the feeling of a certain perciousness, the canvas costs money, time to stretch it, then having to re-stretch if it doesn’t work etc.
With the blue square in the frame, the nails and felt marks really add to the character of the piece and I expressed that I would lose the essence of the wood if I were to carry on painting on it (which is what I had planned to do) despite somewhat wanting to leave it as it is. Sam thought I should leave it, as it looks “resolved”, so I think I will leave it for a while and see what I think in a few weeks.
We also talked about ways of displaying the work and Sam suggested that I could almost prop-up some of the pieces, instead of hanging them on the wall to emphasise their objectness and stand-alone-ness.
Especially with the diagonally cut board and how the shape of it really contradicts the form that is painted on it. It doesn’t seem to make sense. And specifically as it was sitting on the floor at the time, the shape of the board seems to grow out of the floor, it has this special kind of relationship between the floor as support and the diagonality or sloped edges of the board. Originally I had thought of hanging from the ceiling from corner, but now the floor is quite appealing. I will have to consider both.
