#adailyselfreflection
exploring artistic process and creativity#dailyfail #67
Back in the studio. Back to the current work. Or one of them (I always have a number of works on the go; it’s a practice I developed on my degree course. I work so quickly, and am so impatient, it’s the easiest way to ensure not overdoing anything).
No danger of that here. I can’t move off the background. It’s essential I get exactly the right shades of blue and yellow. I have been painting in my head for days and have tantalizing glimpses in my imagination of what I’m looking for, but nothing is quite coming out as it should.
I’ve spray painted, and pastelled, and layered and unlayered and whited out and repainted and that yellow and that blue remain elusive. We’re talking fractional degrees here. My ultra-sensitive colour antennae will settle for nothing less. It’s the whole compositional and abstract form of the painting at stake. Once I’ve established this part, the rest will fly.
No one (save readers of this blog) will ever know about the background struggle for the blue and yellow. Because if it doesn’t look effortlessly “right” in the final result, the painting won’t work.
Anyway. I’ve realised its definitely a violet-blue I’m seeking, and a pale orange-yellow. I’m almost there.
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#dailyfail #66
Away from the mothership and with limited materials and time to hand, and with a lot of background work to do following my joint of the emerging artists’ programme at Debut Contemporary, I’m taking a break from making. Just whilst I’m away on holiday. I haven’t actually had a break from blogging in 15 months so it’s about time.
So for today, some pencil studies…
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#dailyfail #65
I’m really enjoying messing with the MagicShutter photo app, and using it to draw. It has some amazing possibilities: a degree of control is possible but the control is directed to making happy accidents. So it’s all rather strange.
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#dailyfail #64
Stuck in traffic circling London, art materials safely packed out of sight, darkness falling and the dawning realisation we will not be catching our reserved place on the cross Channel shuttle.
So I have to play at drawing with a slow shutter photo app which has infinite possibilities and naturally very little chance of failure because car lights on slow shutter speeds are always going to work. I probably could have done these blind.
But then I became fascinated by the possibility of tracing our journey through multiple frames.
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#dailyfail #63
Some days it’s impossible to resist the lure of digital play. Particularly when you are travelling up and down the country in a train with an empty biro, fading laundry marker but plenty of access to electrical sockets and power and thus in no danger of running out of charge.
I was seized by the idea of virtual graffitti and messing with virtual duck tape. Or duct tape. However you say it.
I’ve done a few pieces with deliberate real graffitti. It’s interesting to observe the effect this has on viewers. There’s almost a degree of embarrassment, a helpless turning towards the invigilator. What can this defacement mean? Why did no one stop it?
Scribbling over one’s own work feels odd in this sort of context. It’s an ambiguous action for both artist and viewer. This virtual defacing is pretty meaningless by comparison, but stuck in the train, it’s the most I can do.
#dailyfail #62
The under layers of a new work.
I like documenting work in progress. It’s all part of the digital revolution. A hundred photos taken every day of anything from a stain on concrete to an interesting fold in a bag. So why not photograph every mark in a painting?
I think I do it because I live the raw look of the intuitive free early stages where anything can be done because no real time has been invested and you can paint over anything.
Of course, you can do thus at any stage anyway, but somehow we (artists generally??) don’t. We get more precious as the work proceeds. Perhaps. I shouldn’t generalize, since I can’t even generalize about my own approach.
But my increasing experience and practice of seeking failure through constant active risk-taking hopefully means I can progress this work as I start it.
It’s a subject idea I’ve had festering for a year. So the idea has a preciousness, a feel to it, which generates some pressure.
We shall see.
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#dailyfail #61
Discovered a new painting tool today in the course of laying down a ground for a new painting.
A Crown Matchpot tube applicator on unprimed heavy fairly rough paper works a treat. The paper practically sucked the paint out of the tube and consequently left some great marks on the paper. Sadly it’s not the effect I was looking for in terms of this piece, but I will use these tubes again for drawing, I think.
#dailyfail #60
Slightly larger than thumbnail sketches, I’ve resurrected the deserted pubs theme. Playing around with the colored backgrounds I prepared weeks ago. Messing at this scale is very different to working at the scale I have in mind. There could be a fair bit of glorious failure in store…
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#dailyfail #59
More basic observational stuff.
I’m on a once-a-week commute to London at the moment. Lots of train time for surreptitious drawing of fellow passengers. It’s interesting how much moving someone does even when supposedly asleep.
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#dailyfail #58
Back to basics. Basic observational drawing. Himself has been having boxing lessons for a while now and I kept saying I would quite like to go and observe.
The boxing coach was really quite excited at the idea of me sitting and drawing. He thinks I would enjoy the authentic aesthetics of a traditional spit n’ sawdust boxing gym. He may be right. I will have to go and look sometime.
