Blog
- Details
- Ashley Hanson
SUN 8 MARCH
Twisty lines and weighty blues transform the painting, full of movement now (6). The wind blows, inspiring the new title, taken from the sublime David Bowie track on 'Station to Station'. Enjoying how the painting reflects the three distinct sections of the harbour with the still centre...resisting. There is a different movement in the centre: colour resonance, Hofmannesque push/pull: the reduced top blue pier is pushed back, the yellow pier hovers forwards. Finding the balance between freedom and control.
This painting is extravagant!
detail
SAT 7 MARCH p.m.
The painting seems decorative, too sweet, spots and stripes and more spots (5). The blue pier is too strong a horizontal. There is no energy...or surprise. Time to be brave...
SAT 7 MARCH a.m.
The painting broken open, a new orange in the centre with a touch of Venetian Red (3). A few changes this morning (4), mainly going backwards. I still haven't found my 'shape of harbour' with the line and the bottom edge and the butterbean shape dull and predictable. Too many curves - looking back at (3) I'm missing that large squared off shape in the bottom half.
FRI 6 MARCH
The random marks in (1) become my harbour wall (2). Very raw but enjoying the openness and the orange centre...
- Details
- Ashley Hanson
SUN 1 MARCH
I've been thinking of going back to this painting for a long time, not convinced about the flatness and the distortions of the clocktower in the earlier version (below, right). I'm happier now, with the transformation: the image of the clocktower has strength and presence through colour in a red painters space. The Icon of Porthleven.
Detail
The painting was sparked by the reds in Mark Rothko's Seagram Murals in the last room at Tate St.Ives. In the new version, the curved road makes its' first appearance in the series, wrapping round and grounding the clocktower. Enjoying the now off-centre pulsating pink clock and how the softening of the central reds sets free the blue triangle...
New & old...
- Details
- Ashley Hanson
“I have all my subjects to hand, I go and look at them. I take notes. Then I go home. And before I start painting I reflect, I dream.” PIERRE BONNARD
Without any doubt, Pierre Bonnard has been a major influence on my work. Not just his dazzling colour, but a whole process of working, from drawings and memory, In advance of the recent 'Bonnard' workshop at the Queens Park Art Centre in Aylesbury, the artists were asked to make studies of a favourite window (and cat!) as preparation for their paintings. After an introductory talk, we had a group drawing exercise echoing Bonnard's fluid compositions.
Colour Study
Then onto a colour-exercise, following Bonnard's signature of working with complimentary colours. The artists were asked to use different types of brushes in finding 2 colours: a warm/cool combination - with variations and interactions between them - finding an ideal balance & proportion. This then became the palette for their paintings, alongside a third colour, the pink ground prepared on their canvases. My demonstration study went shockingly wrong on the first attempt, but thankfully rescued on the second (above).
The Studio at Queens Park Art Centre
Then we began our paintings, working from the studies and memory. In the spirit of Bonnard, the artists were encouraged to explore the idea of bringing the colours from outside, inside, finding a 'bridge of colour', and to be open to making changes from their original ideas as the paintings developed. I thoroughly enjoyed the individual tuition/conversations with the artists over the 2 days and as always we finished the workshop with an invaluable Group Critique.
Marion Owen - the final move!
Above and below are before and after paintings by Marion Owen and Antonia Glynne-Jones. I love the invention of Marion's final move, on the right, of the dark shadow under the door, that mirrors the angled structure above. What a difference the blue cats make in Antonia's painting, bringing a playful rhythm of blues across the painting, fabulous with the contrasting orange!
Blue cats - Antonia Glynne-Jones
What we didn't have on the workshop was time - Bonnard's paintings were developed over weeks, months, even years - but over the 2 days, the artists came up with some very exciting paintings in glowing colour, with many, of course, to be developed further with ideas and methods learned from Bonnard and the workshop. Hats off to the artists!
'Self Portrait' Pierre Bonnard 1889
'Thank you for a wonderful two days, brilliant workshop and exercises that fired me up!' MARION OWEN
- Details
- Ashley Hanson
TUES 24 FEB
Something certainly happened today. After a 9-hour session, the painting emerges, with a complexity of colours, excitement, difference. There is a wildness in this piece that I love...
(detail)
Straight on the wall...
(3)
MON 23 FEB
A stronger painting but it all seems familiar (3). There is no light, the harbour is too central, the green pier droops sadly. Back to the studio...
SUN 8 FEB
An advance today (2) from the chaotic beginning (1) but the strength and excitement in the colour and marks in the details below - both with a simpler right-side - tells me that I haven't yet come to terms with the scale of this large painting. It's not a good pink but I like the presence of the pink curve hanging from the central yellow. The title 'Something has happened..' has been in my head for a while, a reference to both what happens in the process and the possibility of narrative...
- Details
- Ashley Hanson
SUN 1 FEB
'Wow! I love it!' Denise's comment this morning. Everything worked in the studio today, a succession of green lights. A strengthened left-side and soft greens on the right. A transparent magenta glaze across the bottom red and a thick vertical mark of dark rust-red, complimenting the green block in the corner. An extra 'step' of teal with a teal slash over the dark line in the pink. 'Dance': I see two figures, 2 harbours in synchronicity. A dance of yellows, a dance between pink and green.
detail
I like this: pier or chimney?
SAT 31 JAN
Pink over green pink, pink jammed up to green, the harbour-shape starting to appear...
MON 26 JAN
Haven't used pink for a while...