Painting Through Testing Times. My Supplementary Text for ‘Revelations and Reformations’ series.

Recently I added a fair few new paintings to my page and wanted to post a supplementary text to give some context to the new ideas and changes that have bloomed. I have gone down many unexpected avenues in search of inspiration, and have found much to inform a new way of painting, hence the name ‘Revelations and Reformations Series’.

At the end of 2021 and into 2022 I experienced a new level of intensity back in the University setting which I did not last year couped up in my flat painting in my living room. Being surrounded by other talented artists and hearing the advice of my tutors has pushed me to refine my practice and methodology to new heights of expression. Being guided in this way has been great for my determination and has allowed for me to be constantly learning and innovating.

In terms of materials, I have taken everything I have learnt thus far and tried to utilise it as much as possible. In the past I have mainly used acrylic paint and oil stick, however recently I have also experimented with clay, collaging, and charcoal which has brought new qualities of depth and sustenance previously unrealised. My process still remains relatively unchanged; beginning with a drawing and then using this to inform the images I use; however, my pace has slowed and attention to detail and surface texture has now taken the fore.

Recently, I have been looking at Rene Magritte, Rene Daniels, Frank Bowling, Henry Dreyfuss, and others for inspiration to enhance my practice. I have also been using a book on political war posters called ‘Revolutionary Tides’ which has taught me much about composition and the way in which art can be used for both positive and negative means. The Japanese anime show Cowboy Bepop has also been a source of imagery, using its still frames to appropriate a culture I am strongly influenced by into my work. Magritte’s surrealist imagery has developed my sense of composition and my understanding of illusion, adding complexity. Dreyfuss’s book ‘The Symbol Sourcebook’ has been transformative to my practice, due to its simplified representations.

I go between both simple and more detailed imagery regularly as a means of never becoming stagnant. Concentration to detail can make for more self-assurance in the piece’s expression, however reallocating time to layer development and simple imagery can often allow for more colours and a painting that seems joyful and dumb yet provocative and enticing. What I have noticed is that the more successful paintings always have an element of both.

Another tool I use to create a piece is distorting my ideas and thus muddying any apparent meaning. Using ambiguity, I try to evoke an individual voyage within the space created by the painting. I intend the recipe of colours and imagery to play with the mind in an unexpected manner eliciting moments of curiosity and engagement. I found that in the past I attached too much weight on the contextual significance of the imagery in a work, ignoring the objective qualities of its design. Attention is the most valuable form of currency, and by recreating my ideas through painting, but not making them apparent, I can utilise them as a means to an end of capturing the ideas of others, rather than the end in-itself. I find this can give the painting a new life, beyond my original concepts.

If I were to suggest how to look at my work, I would suggest looking at the objects and images displayed as mere symbols or representations, nameless, meaningless, void of reason, and mere conduits for the expression of things invisible to they eye.