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.
