oil on paper. 30x30 cm.
ink, charcoal, emulsion. 170x136 cm.
ink, charcoal, emulsion. 170x136 cm.
oil on canvas. 30x30 cm.
oil on canvas. 30x30 cm.
oil on paper. 30x30 cm.
It is interesting how one thing leads to another and how the process of drawing and painting together cross-fertilises marks and gestures. I have made a number of these over the recent weeks, looking out of the window. When I first moved here and worked in the cellar, it was my daily practice to paint from the view out of the window there and now, after a couple of years in my new space I find that I'm doing it again. The purpose behind drawing and painting together is to see if they can influence one another, not consciously but through the spirit in which they are approached. I am not a planner, I rarely set out a composition and even if that happens it is quickly altered as the work gets into its stride. However the idea (noted by Ivon Hitchens) of a painting carefully planned and built up stage by stage, carried about in the mind, "felt" for some while and then on the spot various elements being extracted and woven together is clearly a way of working that creates a structure to explore problems of form ,
tone, line.
I am hoping that this interchange will lead to tougher images: I came in this morning and looked around to find that it all seemed too slight. Would the small paintings work if they were bigger? Do they work as they are? What if the drawings were paintings? Trying to reconcile something like truth to nature with the demands of the picture, the subject and object dilemma, is truly like being on a knife edge.
And then that voice in ones head chiding, asking," have you any idea what you are doing?"
