University Campus Suffolk

Gerhard Richter – Seascapes and Squeegees.

Richter is someone I have only recently started to look at. I am looking at his work for two reasons, his abstract technique of applying paint using a squeegee and for his seascape paintings.

Using a squeegee to apply paint is something I have been thinking about for a few days. I have been experimenting with using a squeegee and acrylic paint to see how it would look and to try different ways of using it to apply paint (applying different pressures, different angles and different amounts of paint and colours). I wanted to experiment first before applying it straight onto the canvas (I will show the results of these experiments in a separate post).

By using a squeegee I want to try and create some depth and texture within my paintings. A technique Richter uses is to smear the wet paint and keep adding layers of new paint, and then he will work into the layers to reveal the hidden layers underneath. This is something I am definitely going to try with my own work.

In relation to his abstract paintings Richter once said,

“When I paint an abstract, I do not know what it is going to look like beforehand, nor do I know where I want to go when I’m painting.”

This is similar to how I think when I start to create a painting; I have no set outcome in my mind.

I first looked at Richter for the squeegee technique and then discovered his seascape series of paintings. After researching Richter’s seascapes I found he has made a series of photographs entitled Atlas. These are a collection of photographs, newspapers cut outs and sketches. In this collection are some seascape collages, where Richter has used the sea part of two photographs and put them together to create the sky and sea in one collaged Image. He would also use the sky and sea from separate images and put them together in one image, these collages were sometimes used as a starting point for his paintings.

I found this interesting as although I don’t create collages like Richter using different images, if I see something in a photo and think it would work in my paintings I will use it and take inspiration from different images for one painting.

On the right I have put some examples of Richter’s seascape paintings, his seascape collages and two abstract paintings that demonstrate how he used a squeegee to apply and layer the paint.

http://www.gerhardrichterpainting.com/#/the-artist…

http://www.gerhard-richter.com/art/search/detail.p…

Today I continued with painting my large canvas. As you can see in the picture I have got a lot more of the sky and some more of the sea done. I like how the sky has turned out, however now I have got pretty much all of the canvas covered I want to add texture with the paint so it doesn’t look so flat, this will probably end up changing how it looks slighty. I have also been thinking about how I am going to do this and will try applying the paint differently, either with a palette knife to apply the paint thickly or I might try using a squeegee.

I think by adding more texture and layers it will make the painting more interesting, I just dont want to add so much to it that I will end up wishing I had left it alone.

Spent the morning in the studio and finally started painting my 6 x 4 ft. canvas. As usual I’m not working from one particular image, I like to work mainly from memory or taking inspiration from secondary images. I’m using Acrylic paint for this painting like I have used with a lot of my previous paintings. By working on a much bigger scale I want to try and create an atmosphere within the painting like I mentioned about in one of my earlier posts, so hopefully by working on a bigger scale it will be much easier to create this atmosphere. So far I feel like it is going well and tomorrow I will be going back into the studio to try finish it, so I’ll post some more photos tomorrow of how it is going.

So for the last few days I have been trying to sort out and decide what work I would be putting in our fine art auction. While experimenting with different things in my sketch book I decided that I would put some smaller paintings in and get frames for them.

The first image is the two paintings that I have put in for our auction on monday, I had the choice of a few small paintings from my sketch book but decided on these two as they both looked better than the others when framed.

After helping with the auction hanging thursday I spent the day in the studio Friday and carried on creating some small paintings in my sketch book. I really like how these are turning out and want to get some more frames and see how they look then. Even though this is a bit different to what I wanted to do with my previous paintings its still continuing with the theme of seascapes and abstract pieces.

Last week I started painting on a canvas I had in my studio space. I started painting and after a while I decided I wasn’t happy with how it was looking. So I left it for a few hours and then came back to it and started painting over what I had already done.

The first image on the right is what it looked like before I decided to paint over it and pretty much start again. At this stage I wasn’t happy with how it was looking, although I liked how the sky looked I wasn’t happy with it all as a whole so after leaving it for a while I decided I should paint over it and start again.

The next image shows the first stage of painting over it, I started off by painting the sky and working my way down the canvas.

The third image shows how it looked when I had finished painting it all and when I felt happy with how it looked, I didn’t want to keep painting over it becuase I would end up really not liking it. The last image is a photo I took of my pallet while I was painting.

I keep looking back at the final image and thinking about what more I could add to it. I keep asking myself the questions . . .

• Should I have left it alone in the first place and not changed it so much?

• If I go back to it now what more could I add to it?

• If I could add more, should I? Or should I leave it as it is?

So this painting may develop further, we’ll see.