over the last week a few hours have been spent out in the garden, on some required 'tidying-up tasks', pruning back overgrown hedges and shrubs, fixing up fences (there is always more work to do, it seems).back in the summer i took these two photographs of a blackbird's nest that i had discovered in one hedge, images which i later accidentally erased (hence the previous post on rescuing deleted photographs from a camera) but i have found them again, safe and well...
[a blackbird's nest, 18 july 2010]from the two blackbirds i had observed nesting in the tangle of clematis prunings earlier in the spring, i found a new nest in a different location - a small incident of nature quietly at work...
[baby blackbirds, 25 july 2010]in the autumn clear-up i have subsequently discovered many more birds nests of varying sizes and designs, suggesting that the areas of the garden which were left most undisturbed had become a sanctuary to nature... and i did wonder if any of the garden birds would be returning to use these nests again in the spring; i found the answer to whether birds do or don't reuse their nests on the RSPB website...
yesterday, i spied this intricate drawing on a leaf...
does this humble garden 'scene' exude a little of the wabi sabi aesthetic, mentioned in the previous post, about art and wabi sabi? it is part of the boundary fencing that my neighbour had put up a few years ago (sans chamber pot, of course) - i like it, even though it is far from perfect......
on art, painting stripes, and wabi sabi
two small abstract(ed) paintings on paper from the 100 paintings on paper experiment (now known informally as the 'chromatids') there are one hundred of these small paintings but i do not think these two paintings have made an appearance here before.
LXIII and XLVII, painting on paper, 15cm x 15cmthese two small paintings can be viewed larger on my art for sale from the studio pagesimple stripes or striations, as it turned out, were the most direct, uncomplicated means of exploring elemental, rustic colours and textures on a very small scale - they also began to be about exploring a quiet narrative within the process, of texture & surface and how simple stripes or colours interacted within the ragged, irregular edge or boundary of the paper - this simple pattern of stripes and striations echoed what i had seen and observed in the rural environment where i live - from barns and sheds, the rustic juxtapositions of colour and texture in weathered, worn surfaces or agricultural structures - all the things which appealed to me visually and aesthetically.these close-up, 'abstract' photographs were taken in early 2008, shortly after i was given a new camera to play with...
down on the farm...recalling again how this experimental series of one hundred paintings first came about (a dull, drizzly grey day in early november 2008) has caused me once more to muse upon the japanese aesthetic of wabi sabi, an appreciation of the understated, the transient, ephemeral or imperfect.for myself, understanding the aesthetic or philosophy of wabi sabi, it seems to first arise within, in a quiet sensing, a feeling, an intuition or an awareness, that momentarily surrenders up the ego in reverence for the humble beauty of the object or scene, that acknowledges the relevance of time, use or location upon it, and that it can be experienced any time or anywhere if one is mindful enough to see it...there is definitely something in wabi sabi that speaks very much about my own artistic inspiration, something that i can trace right back to my mixed media collages, but i am not sure one can faithfully make an artform out of it, for wabi sabi is what it is...in early 2005 i sketched out a rough mindmap about my perception of the local landscape and the rural environment, in which transience, imperfection and the effects of time surfaced as factors or keywords. later, in september 2007, i contemplated where i was headed within the environmental nature of my art, and i was reminded again of things that are overlooked, discarded or rejected, that situations change, that nothing is permanent, or perfect. i had also briefly referred to solitude a couple of months earlier and the relevance of time in the making of my art.i didn't write anything in this journal (blog) for many months, except for the posting of some photographs of a painting i had finished, a painting appropriately entitled shrede (an archaic spelling of 'shred'), implying a slow scraping back or paring down of layers, and what remains, tattered, torn and fragmented.the outward signs of time passing, transience and imperfection, and an inner sense of solitude, eventually led on to a slow meandering, philosophical path eastwards, towards all things quiet, gentle, calm and a little bit zen, one that made me realise that an awareness of situations or things could mean something more than the sum of their parts. it did not need a name, but it offered up some new interpretations......
on art and photography, regained
photographic images rescued from a camera; hidden layers of digital data, memory extracted and reclaimed - digitally collaged fragments of erased photographs that were previously recorded (or found) then deleted (lost), now recovered again...i obviously did not plan to create these actual compositions but i am their originator...
in this first digital composition there are three photographic images, of some naturally occurring lichens and two works in progress...
this composition also combines the surface elements of one of my paintings with yet another found abstract or painting, some rusty traces on a metal tank...
have you read about the minor discovery of the ivy drawings? nature's means of making a mark on a surface - here montaged with a small glimpse of electricity lines (more drawing, or lines in space) and a snippet of surface rust - the black void of a small rectangle aptly completes the composition...
i am not sure why some of the rescued images were divided vertically, some lichens on stonework and more ivy found drawings...
the middle section is a close up of some paintings, the lower section is as before and the thin upper section is a detail of some wood texture...these images are exactly as found or retrieved, i had no direct input (other than expressed above) - the compositions seem arbitrary according to the original data and the colours are at times quite skewed.now, there's an idea; i can't wait to see what will happen next... (please do not copy, reproduce, modify, distribute or otherwise use or reuse without the owner's permission)...these are images not just retrieved from layers of digital memory but are also intriguing montages of my observations, or reflections on the process of painting, my own visual experiences and memories collated & recollected in a new composite format if you will...to quote marcel proust: ' in fashioning a work of art we are by no means free, [...] we do not choose how we shall make it, it pre-exists us and therefore we are obliged, since it is both necessary and hidden, to do what we [must] do as if it were a law of nature, that is to say, to discover it.'if art - or the task of being an artist - has no other purpose then it is first and foremost to bring into being a new discovery. these digital images, discovered by chance and yet actioned, reminded me that what makes the art is what makes us. these remind me that art, life & its experiences are ever-evolving, accumulating in many layers over time, and that art is still very much an essential, sensory need, even in a virtually giving world....news: i will have a couple of small canvas works in the cromer & sheringham arts festival (a good excuse to revisit the wonderful north norfolk coastline). the cromer & sheringham arts festival takes place between 23rd and 31st october 2010 at various art venues and will include music, theatre, dance, poetry, performance & the visual arts - i will plug this event again nearer the time.i have also been asked to put in some small works into a local exhibition, which will very much be filled to the rafters with contemporary art & craft - royal academy salon style - a month long view & buy event with extra work kept in backstock. also, i received in the mail an invitation from a gallery that i have worked with in the past to submit work for their anniversary show in 2011.i have also been working on an exhibition proposal, or rather the ideas for some new work for it; we'll see, nothing ventured, nothing gained...other ideas are slowly percolating as usual, but i have become mindful of late that this blog is very much a reflective journal and not just a show & tell. sometimes i know i have said too much and perhaps should keep some of my thinking to myself. other times i see it as one side of a conversation; the artist talking.what do you think? are you interested in the insight into some of my own creative process, or are you looking for some inspiring instructional how-tos?in a previous post i mentioned that my creative block, or rather the obstacles which i create for myself, are often the extra finances required to push forward new ideas. perhaps these limitations will be good,but i fancifully thought that a little foray into ceramics or glass would be a natural development of my interest in surfaces & materials.it seems that all of these little happenings will keep art matters ticking along for the foreseeable future, in the present circumstances...[today's date, one thousand and ten - looks like a random clip of computer binary code...]