Works In Progress
Working on a large piece of plywood board at the moment, and had the idea of creating a large painting that had a very neutral colour for the majority of the board with some small patches of bright, dominant colour, blue in this case. I thought this would have a balancing effect between the expanse of the calm surround and the dominant blue. Not sure how it’s working at the moment, it currently only has four layers, so I will keep working on it and see what it turns out like. I think that the size of the neutral area may be a bit too big and exaggerated.
The second two paintings are smaller and contain the same form which simply consists of two lines of colour on a neutral background. I’ve realised that I mostly work with the colours red and blue, very occasionally green, so this might be something I should consider asking myself.
Two large squares of wooden board have been started and I’ve slightly changed my ideas for these. One of them I have had cut to fit a wooden frame I had spare, as I no longer work on canvas, this one is blue, and the other smaller square is red. I had the idea of reversing the use of the colour, so with these, instead of having a blue or red square on a neutral background, I will try having a neutral square on a blue/red border/background and see how this works. Currently they each have two very thin layers of colour on.
The next painting is slightly different, as I had it cut to leave a diagonal edge at the bottom. I’m also going to use both sides to paint on, as I had the idea of hanging it from one corner to display from the ceiling, enabling it to turn gently or be turned in order to view both sides. On each side will be a blue and a red painting in the same format as I have used before.
Works In Progress
Just making a few posts to show you what it is I’m working on at the moment.
I need to increase my output of work now that the writing part of the course is over, but I find that difficult to do when working in glazes and layers, even when I work on multiple paintings at once. Currently working on eight works, two of which are these;
The blue painting is being done on a shed door I had spare in the garden.
It’s only in the preliminary stages but I’m happy with the form and the way it’s going. Need to pick up some more ultramarine and white before I can do anymore. Will try and experiment with changing the form around a little to make some new paintings.
The red painting is also in the early stages with only three layers.
I’m quite liking the simpleness of it, which I didn’t think I would. I will add more layers and perhaps introduce a third colour, it may work.
An artist that has really influenced me since writing my dissertation has been Ellsworth Kelly. My dissertation examined whether his works should be considered as paintings or as objects, or both, and I seem to be considering this in my own studio work quite a bit now; a key aspect of my paintings is that I no longer work on canvas, or even like working on canvas anymore. I much prefer to work on old wooden boards. Although Kelly created his own irregularly shaped panels, and thus allowed his work to be considered as breaking the boundary between painting and object, the fact that I use an old shed door or a piece of wood off a shed roof, is questioning the same theme.
I had briefly considered using irregular shaped boards, but the forms I use are mainly rectangular or square, so I’m not sure if that’s the direction I need to take.
I’m now looking at cutting wooden boards down to fit a few canvas frames I have.
Surfaces to work on.
I’ve recently acquired some big boards of plywood which I plan on cutting down to size and painting on. I’ve also got an old shed door which I plan to paint in a similar way to one of my other blue paintings, or just covering in ultramarine blue, leaving some of the wood around the edges. It also has the hinges left on and a metal lock.
I may work on both sides, as both sides appeal to me to paint on and make interesting surfaces.
I’ve really moved away from working on canvas now, I think because I love the texture of these pieces of wood and the tactile quality that they produce.
With the shed, I may consider displaying this in an interactive way, either hanging the door from the ceiling or standing up in the centre of a space, so it can be walked around, or hung on a wall by one side so it can be swung by the viewer, as it would when it was a functioning door.
I had thought recently that my work, apart from being concerned with the materiality of paint, there was also a conflict between how I was working. I thought the conflict was between the process of painting; on the one hand, the idea of painting as an act and as a very emotionally charged, intuitive process, (Rosenberg’s act of painting) and the other emphasised the importance of the formal qualities of a painting, its aesthetic qualities.
I initially believed this was going to become an important theme running alongside that of materiality, as I had started to plan out a painting which was based on one of Barnett Newman’s, entitled “Eve”. (Pictured) I had read about this painting when researching for my dissertation, and was influenced to re-make this by altering the composition.
However, by doing some small studies recently, (using the same colours) but by applying the paint in a very thin, quick way, I’ve come to realise that, actually, I’m not interested in the original and remaking it in similar ways, what I’m interested in is new ways of painting and new ways of applying it. I may have used the colours that some famous artist had in the past, but that’s irrelevant if I create something that I want to work and to have no reference to, or context to past, or even current artists.
For example, these two paintings (Untitled I and II) are the two sketches I’m referring to. I had planned to build them up in thin layers, but once I had put one thin coat on and let this dry, the reaction between the paint and the canvas surface had produced this wonderful effect. I allow my paintings to run freely, so I always have some element of fluidity, but the running of the paint in these two have become almost digitised. The way the paint has run is very straight-edged and some of the lines seem to be almost at right-angles. This has never happened before in such an extreme way, and this is what I was referring to earlier. I may have started off thinking that I wanted to paint like Barnett Newman, but I don’t now. My work’s development, thanks to the pictured paintings (and thanks to “Eve.”) My work isn’t about copying influential artists, it’s about finding out what works for me, how I like to paint and what results from it.
