How Using Collage Can Suggest Creative Possibilities For A Painter.

'B Went Missing in the Land,' ink, gesso, acrylic, papers on cardboard, 48 x 36 cm

Recently I've begun using collage as a way to extend my working approach. Grappling with different materials allows you to question why you use certain elements in your work and to see ways you can simplify, substitute or drop aspects of your practice which perhaps are no longer relevant.

While my main focus is landscape, and some of my works are more landscape referenced than others, I feel the call of colour and shape pushing me to drop certain landscape references. Questions hang in the air every time I work on canvas or collage and I like that side of creating because I see painting as opening one's eyes to potential. 

'They Passed Many Trees on Their Way to the Mountains,' collaged canvas, ink on canvas, 35 x 45 cm

The examples I'm posting today show different ways of working with varied materials. While they are only a step in the process, they have been really helpful to me with thoughts about reassessing edges, shapes and ways of making marks. They have helped generate a bolder approach.

'Land Rhythms,' canvas, newspaper, ink, gesso and acrylic on cardboard, 24 x 13 cm

Things I want to think about in these works are: how to simplify; how colour and marks can suggest a place without constantly illustrating 'trees' or 'houses,' etc (not that this is wrong, just that for me right now something else is calling). I want a sense of 'air' in the work yet to explore how colour can be an entity in its own right. Perhaps this might even lead to more sculptural work.

'Rain Dance on My Patio,' rice paper, ink, acrylic on cardboard, 50 x 50 cm

Some of these use a lot of layered paper, as the example above shows, and some combine canvas on cardboard with inks and acrylics. Each approach tripped me up, made me re-evaluate the way I think about the picture arena and what I want or don't want.

'Lemba Evening,' (series) painted canvas, rice paper, acrylic, gesso on cardboard

With some of the works it was not possible, due to the nature of the materials, to make too many changes. However, I feel that this is a good strand to follow while also painting on canvas because the combinations of materials really force you to focus and some of the 'accidents' suggest fresher directions.

'Untitled,' paper, ink, canvas on canvas, 30 x 30 cm

More to follow.

Painting About Light in Cyprus and the UK: An Artist's Thoughts.

'Fiona's Final Visit to Burrswood,' acrylic on canvas, 92 x 72 cm

I'm posting a few new pieces of work.

The above painting was inspired by my final visit to Burrswood on December 2nd. As I have mentioned in previous posts, this was one of my favourite places when I used to paint in situ, and I painted at this place over a 9 year period in all weathers. Now I tend to abstract from the experiences of seeing the light change, walking along many paths around lakes with distant vistas visible through the trees. Always at the end of my painting session I'd walk back out through the forest as the light faded.

During my last visit I left at dusk. There was a warm, colourful light behind the trees to the west and the plaintive sound of the birds followed me out through the forest. This painting is still being considered but my idea was to present myself in nature - naked, authentic to the spiritual experience - as the light faded. There's a suggestion of a chessboard on the distant hills because the random event of the closure of a place that had been open to the public for 70 years was very unexpected and seemed to echo the sometimes random events in people's lives.  I wanted to convey light and to evoke a place but there are parts of the painting I'd like to work on further.

'Cyprus Dusk,' acrylic on canvas, 22 x 30 cm

This is another from my Cyprus Evening series. They are really about an exploration of colour as a parallel for light. I've witnessed the fading evening light in Cyprus over 36 years. It's usually fleeting but there's a moment when objects - houses, Carob trees, paths - melt in to an all pervading colourful light, which saturates the land, with orange, yellow and pink, and this sense of time and light was my main focus.

'Spring Energies,' acrylic on panel, 25 x 18 cm

Finally, this was what I call a 'spin-off' painting which was made during working between other paintings. Spin-off paintings often emerge from an accumulation of ideas that seem to flow off the brush on to the support, usually when my mind is buzzing with expressive possibilities from previous works. I'd just stopped working on 2 other larger canvases and I looked out of my window to see the sun shining - a rare occurence this winter - and began to think of Spring. There's a time during early Spring when the light brightens and you can feel the energies in the breezes. My aim was to catch a sense of movement and light.