Blue Bayou
I have decided to redo my painting Blue Bayou. Initially I produced this as a pure painting (and by this I mean just paint), but I was not entirely satisfied with the result. So instead, I am reverting to what I normally do – combining a digitally manipulated image with paint. The reason behind this is because as I browse through files, I keep being distracted by the original digital image that the actual painting was based upon. It captures me, as did the time I first photographed the image.
I remember the occasion, seeing the plastic bag entwinned on a tree, flapping in the wind, completely caught, trapped by the tree and yet also trapping the tree – fragile and strong at the same time. I suspect unless someone climbed up high to retrieve the bag, it would have been there for quite some time, losing its colour, becoming more and more shredded daily as it was battered and bashed by the wind and branches. I happened to have my camera, and clicked away on what was a very grey, ordinary and windswept day.
Whilst I do not know yet where my final piece of work is going to go….when I think of it now, I think of the delicacy and lines of a Japanese water colour and also of films such as ‘The Scent of Green Papaya’ and ‘ In the Mood’ for Love. The first film – within the composition; grids, screens and simple Vietnamese style and form, patterns of sound and movement, courtyards and interiors, and delicate light. The second film – subtle colours and retro type cinematography of pattern within pattern, muted colours as if always at night, form within form within a backdrop of soulful music.
Shift, nuance, layers, fragmentation, suggestions and possibilities that appear and disappear before they can be fully realised. How can I portray these things within my painting? (and for that matter a painting that has already been).
