more small abstract paintings... it's a rust thing...
[click to view more small abstract works on paper]i have selected the above six paintings for the colour harmonies, autumnal hues.i dislike composing descriptions for my work, but i wrote this today... (the inspiration behind the small striped works on paper).These small paintings on paper are essences or distillations of rural landscapes, condensed colour experiments influenced by my visual experiences as an artist. I find colour inspiration in the environmental and elemental, from naturally eroded surfaces to discarded objects - often at the coast, inspired by beachcombing finds, the effects of sea erosion, water traces, strata, striations, from eroding cliffs to the shoreline - to the salt-encrusted patinas on boats or weathered facades at the harbour and quay side. Farm buildings, old barns and sheds, the slow appearance of decay in manmade and natural structures, the silent history contained in objects exposed to the elements, the intricate beauty in rust on metal, lichen on bark, moss on stone, water algae - and the more structured, geometric patterns of arable fields, farm tracks, fences or hedgerows on the horizon are also pictorial influences.my farmscape paintings are developing very slowly, as the cooler hues of autumn and winter to pervade my colouristic senses.. at present they look bereft of colour - dark olive, slate grey, ash grey, rust, taupe... in truth, i lack the space to work on all ten paintings at once, so it is a game of shuffle, hang up, put away, find again, which leads to a little reorganisation each time, and then i lose focus, lose any cohesion in the series.so, in the meantime, i have been playing again with texture and torn paper, more experiments on a small scale... i can't seem to shake off the rustic, weathered and textured aspect to my artwork, and i enjoy the medium of collage, and want to revisit the spatial, scuptural elements of using layers, partially hidden, casting faint shadows, abstracts in low relief..
[monoprint, frottage, acrylics and chalk on torn paper... with extra crumple]
[another one, this time backlit by sunlight, semi-transluscent]
[another one,with lime green textured underlay]..i like to work with materials and processes that directly control the visual outcome - i want encrustation, layers, natural colours, i want it to allude to something environmental or elemental in nature, but also existing completely within its own construction, with its own narrative that requires time to unfold. this is where my parallel interest in photography merges... as an artist, i develop a close relationship with the textural qualties of the materials... a painter has to takes risks, to push the process, it becomes an obsession, the overall concept or idea is just that, an idea that you can't plan objectively, or clarify in words, or theorise upon as a precise starting point, it needs to be explored and ultimately understood through the materials, the old adage, the medium is the message, not just texture for the sake of it... one could always use the real thing, i guess - found materials or objects, create assemblages or combines - but sometimes the 'hand of the artist' is denied in the artwork's elaborate construction (maybe this is the point?).. paint is obviously a more versatile medium, the personal imprint of one artist at work...