MONDAY p.m.
So what do we have? Where are we? The first painting in the new series '20 Books = 20 Paintings', a visual response to the crime-novels from around the world that I read incessantly, bringing that part of my life into my artistic life. The source novels will be not be revealed providing, I hope, an additional layer of intrigue for the viewer. If they wish, they have the option to become a detective themselves and follow the visual clues in the painting which lead to the identity of the novel.
From my point of view - working within the criticality of every element working for the painting - the series provides the new challenge and discipline of what not to include in both the paintings and in my writing. A balance between making the identity of the place and novel too difficult or too easy to discover. In this piece, I held back an image because I didn't want to clutter the painting but also because it may have made recognition of the place too obvious. What I can tell you is that the palette is significant to the place as are the specifics of the grid(s). If you know my work, map-view and image jostle side by side and a colour-reversal is not uncommon....There are different scales in the three sections: the majesty of painting allows this to happen seamlessly. It is hierarchial: what is important in this painting? HINT: the novel is fiction built around a real event and the location of where the victim's body was found a focal-point. Two other important locations are integrated in the piece.
I talk too much about that side of things. This is a painting that works: beautiful colour, heat, ideas, intuition, precision and balance. I'm enjoying the realationship between the cut and painted lines of the 'candelabra' and the canvas-divide and the more subtle verticals on the right-side, almost a faded mirror-image, reflecting the symmetry I was looking for. I would happily put it alongside 'Lakeshore Ltd' (below). I think Denise has come around - she was very fond of the painting on Friday.
MONDAY 12 noon
And the mark was purple - to counteract the rigidity that was creeping in. Central line softened....better: the 'right' weight.
MONDAY a.m
A new yellow around the 'candelabra', a strengthening of the lines. Also a re-introduction of the horizontal - perhaps it should be more of a suspicion of a line...glaze over? It's a mark away from being resolved...keep looking.
SUNDAY
Not sure this works. cutting into the paint has made the surface lumpybumpy. I miss the purity and freedom of the central paint from yesterday. Also tried a painted line, picking up the green - no good. Don't know if the image?/candelabra?/tree? is too weak, too strong, or even in the right place. It has to be in the painting but just doesn't have the presence I'm after. Impatience: I'm tired, I went in the studio after working this morning. It might look better in daylight.
saturday 4pm
SATURDAY 4PM
Now we're painting! Positive destruction, simplification...a frenzy of colour-mixing and pouring/skimming...suggestions of cityscape...now the option to move the candelara off-centre into the flat yellow, precisely drawn in paint, a slightly smaller scale. Black or cut-back to the green or even to the yellow underneath? When the candelabra was centered below, the dividing line was hidden and the idea of a book was lost and the painting too graphic and flat.
Looking back on the previous versions, the main horizontal was always too high.The paint needs to settle down but I think we're getting close.
saturday 2pm
SATURDAY
There's the contrast...and the crisis. The only positive with these moves the blue rectangle on the right.
friday
FRIDAY
Only a short session possible today. We have orange and scarlet(t). The painting is opening up now - lots of possibilities. Denise and Faye have been speculating about location and what's in the painting - Faye saw a bottle, Denise a tree - maybe... Denise recognised the palette from 'Lakeshore Ltd (& Jon's Barn')', below, from the 'A m e r i c a s c a p e s' series. It's always been a favourite with its' startling colour and the confident drawing of of the Great Lakes, appearing vertical. Also the idea of having both the map-view and painting of Chesapeake Bay (propped against the barn) in the same piece. It's good to see this painting again- it shows what a long way to go there is with the new piece which lacks contrast and precision.
'Lakeshore Ltd (& Jon's Barn)'
thursday
THURSDAY
Disruptions to the flat picture-plane, the vertical-lines at the top almost a receding-space. A twist of space. Adjustments of colour, line & scale...liking the palette and colour proportion. The 'candelabra' will take centre-stage...red-herring?
In comparison to the flatness of the version below which looks like a fragment of something else, like wallpaper, the painting is already starting to feel self-contained, with the large green-shape - silhouette? - framed by yellow, and visual journeys within and around the piece.
wednesday
WEDNESDAY
The new series begins: '20 Books = 20 Paintings'. (See Blogpost: 'An Announcement'- the next series')
This novel was always on the list. Scrubbed Indian Yellow, dark yellow jigsaw-shape and lines. Already questions: is yellow significant? Image or location?...already jostling. Sun? Candelabra? Subversions of scale...symmetry/duality...all clues to the identity of the novel. Perhaps I have said too much. This writing already different: what not to say?
Like in a chess game, I can visualise the painting a few moves ahead but not beyond. After all, the idea of a painting, a pre-determined painting, is a fake painting; it doesn't factor in the joy of painting, of discovery & chance, sensations of colour against colour, subtleties, surface, shifts in ideas and design.
Lets see where this goes, with more paint to work with. Green-grey next:colour-hum.