An Artist's idea of 'good' and 'bad.

'Going Home,' acrylic on MDF, 62 x 80 cm 

This last week I felt happier for getting my painting rhythm back after some weeks of interruptions. When I don't paint I feel that my ideas get blocked and then I become really frustrated! Today I am going to post some of my thoughts from this past week.

My doorway in to re-establishing that rhythm is always to start several paintings. In between painting I think a lot about what 'good' and 'bad' mean for me as an artist. Sometimes in this search and sifting through of elements- most of which appear intuitively and are not forced - I re-evaluate what elements mean the most to me and what is just 'filling in,' or not relevant to the piece I am working on. This may be different for each piece and I allow that difference to happen because without it the work may not step forward. Each piece is a separate entity yet part of the journey. 

'Flying into Amsterdam Airport,' acrylic and ink on canvas, 30 x 22 cm

If I say to myself before I begin painting, 'It has to be more simple in approach,' then that thought will get in the way and force decisions. So I like to work by putting down some paint and seeing where those strands of ideas can be expanded upon or developed in the next painting. I may start with a few colours and in the search for a coherence there may be the need to add more colours or work over colours that are not working well. I think that for each painter this 'well' will be something different and the main thing is to decide what it means for you. 

'The Seagull's Flight,' acrylic and ink on canvas, 30 x 22 cm

This past week I worked on two older paintings - still in progress - 6 smaller canvases, and 2 medium canvases. I also painted on a piece of MDF I had prepared with ideas of working into the textured gesso. (I am posting a few of the new ones.) My thoughts circled around calligraphic marks, colour, space, and my ongoing interest in suggesting landscape or a place without illustrating it. Sometimes paintings may remind me of a place or experience and I allow this to shape the painting. I also want the work to be about paint and to extend some ideas gained through my trips to China. Other than that, it is always and will always be a mystery! Some paintings succeed, some don't, and all the time my intuition about what works keeps evolving.

'Highlands,' acrylic and ink on canvas, 30 x 22 cm

I see the canvas as an arena of discovery and enjoy watching an image emerge. I really enjoy struggling with a canvas. That is when something new may appear. My work seems to alternate between quite complex and simpler paintings. It used to bother me but now I find that the one approach feeds the other approach. 

I believe that intuition becomes honed the more you paint and look at paintings. A few years ago a friend gave me a copy of an interview David Sylvester did with Francis Bacon and I keep in mind the phrase Bacon used about 'trapping' an image. It seems most appropriate for my way of working.