In the last month or two time for painting has been slim due to competing factors. Rather than not paint at all I took all pressure away from the valuable time I did find for paint ... suspending need for outcomes instead I was led purely by feeling my way through some nebulous interior space.
Ever sensitive to the pull of the inner it was such a delicious breathing out after last year's haste and deadlines. This way of painting I am much more at home with... even though it's not a good match for the contemporary notion of "getting on with it". Too many exterior demands and motivations kill painting for me ... I really do prefer to give the ideas time to surface... and I need to work repetatively with impulses to make them part of my vocabulary or language... a way has to be found into the rhythm that works ... quite simply.
What I present here then is some of the contents from this most uncontructed time ... essential reveries in certain colour realms.
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| close-up section |
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| painting on a humble canvas board 25 x 25 cm |
the next are a series on 20 x 20 cm canvas boards...
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These are also on canvas boards below - 20 x 20 cm. They were started however about a year ago when I sat and painted stripes on these boards as a kind of meditation... they were simply colour exercises on the one hand...in another way they were wordless colour poems. I often work with colour in this way... putting down colour stories that I need to inhabit ... like being in a certain kind of room for a while!
These striped boards I pulled out the other night very late and proceeded to add the layers of oval forms ...like capsules with the spaces in which to glimpse what exists beyond.
Here I've returned to another preoccupation ... painting with a syringe which of course, if you've tried it, is absolutely frantic... the paint tends to come out so quickly and haphazardly that it's an effort indeed to control the flow of paint... Its taking me rather a long time to even work out what I think of this technique... what I might do with it.
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| close-up of work with 2 layers of line work. Try clicking to see more closely the effect. |
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| I became rather engaged in the colours of this work ... a different direction to what I generally work with. |
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| untitled 60 x 60 cm acrylic and ink on linen |
Below are two works in a similar vein ... meditating on seeds ...
breaking the surface up with this horizontil line ... an impulse
that is purely intinctive.
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| Untitled 40x 40 cm acrylic and ink on paper on canvas |
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| Untitled, 60 x 60 cm - pigmented ink and acrylic on linen |
The last one a canvas 120 cm x 40 cm ... pure whimsy... unfinished ... unresolved ...awkward ... the colours speaking to my uncomprehending mind asking for attention. Really... it was enough just to put down what I had and walk away... leave it for later when maybe it will speak to me. Its definitely still in its gawky adolescent stage!
The camera works ... the downloading mechanism is quite mystifying though... Ive not figured it out properly at all. Not to worry ... Im just glad that I got this far ... loaded up some work. Yeah! Its late... gotta go! Before I do... talking about colour. I have workshops coming up soon which I have written about at the other blogs and put on the sidebar to link you to the details if you'd like to know more.
Visit the homage blog here to read about it!
Ciao,
Enjoy the weekend you all! Its a long weekend here. Driving up the mountain Sunday... with my camera!
16 comments:
Many of these are faves for sure!!! I like the idea of just wandering around with color. Or trying to settle into a color story. I use a squirt bottle in my line work. I imagine that it might be similar to drawing with a syringe. Is so... you described the process very well! The descriptions for your workshops are amazing! xo
Late night ramblings Mary. Wanting to settle into something that hits a note is very much it... and thats not arrived at externally.
Yes the squirt bottle is no doubt very similar with painting just pouring out. Interesting that you take it into a completely open ended gestural direction... and I have to do rhythm... like I'm playing the piano again!
Glad you left these comments friend! Merci!
S
As I scroll down your images I think this is my favourites until I see the next one. The blues with the oranges really caught my eye, then I came to the one with the seed shapes and wow. I've decided I love them all.
These pieces feel like meditations to me... I'm captivated by the two near the bottom with what look like little wheel shapes. It's interesting that you work on these in stages; is that how you work all the time? I'm fascinated by the differences in the processes artists use.
Your comment is so sweet Ro! You talked about motifs that wont leave you alone... Circles and ovals for me of late. It was so refreshing to go somewhere else with the colours. Have not worked with blue much in a long time.
Thanks indeed,
S
I'm glad you see or rather feel the meditative quality in these Sharmon. I often work like this in stages... not always of course. Some works are completed in short timeframes ... usually if there is momentum or purpose but as I like to layer works, an work with the unexpected, I often create a lot of canvasses or pages that I can come back to,
Why not feeling pressured is so good for me is that the works grow organically and I can't tell sometimes without the hindsight of time what is complete and/or resolved.
I dont work with strong outcomes. formulas leading me... so time is part of the process.
Appreciate your thoughts,
S
what an interesting post! thank you for sharing your process. I love your two meditations on seeds!
Thanks Nat...
Its good to have the feedback .. really does help the thinking process!
ciao,
S
Thank you for sharing these with us. I love to hear that it is part meditation ... that's when art is at it's best. The process! xo
Great movement, energy ...
thank you for this janis... its so good to have other viewers and their thoughts ... your words resonate with me ... Merci friend!
S xo
LOVE the blues Miss Munns! you do look like you've just had fun and let the sky and the wind and the sea in.
lovely! thanks for letting us have a little peek!
Your so right Mlle P... exactly that... and having the time to notice those spaces instead of having one's head down or looking straight ahead all the time!
thanks for taking a peek and sharing what you see...
... looking forward to some peeking at paint on canvas soon from you my friend...
S
"I really do prefer to give the ideas time to surface... and I need to work repetatively with impulses to make them part of my vocabulary or language... a way has to be found into the rhythm that works ... quite simply." ...... Well said!
Into my quote book it goes :-)
Sophie every time I see that beautiful piece (Untitled 40 x 40)on Tumblr it lifts my spirits. Really LOVE it! There are many wonderful pieces here.
Robyn...its very late and I'm falling sleep but reading your generous thoughts shook me awake.
Glad those words you've jotted down connected. I'm sure you agree its terribly important to know one's process for what it is and isn't ... to avoid too much outside influence and borrowing in a way that is simply added on rather than coming though one.
What beautiful words you've left for me ... warmest thanks Robyn!
S
Thank you for sharing your process Sophie- so fascinating- the colour works are really exciting in how they are simultaneously expanding and pulling back. Does that make sense? I love that pull in both directions-x
Love seeing what art you are making, Sophie...all those lovely eggs! Or maybe they are seeds..they dance!
Hello Annamaria....
i do find that such a fascinating comment... and yes... different ones have mentioned this coming forward/receding quality... or as you say so well... expanding and pulling back...
thank you...
S x
Maggie... yes... the dance... there is that element in some... a sense of the animated life form... I like that... thank you!
S x
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