SAT 17 AUG
In the spirit of the novel, the four sets of initials PA DQ WW MW are placed in the street grid of Manhattan, creating their own rhythm in the painting. Other refinements this morning included a new pink and a hovering dark-red brushstroke in the top row and a new small teal block - the Hotel Harmony - positioned between 99th and 100th St at the bottom of the painting. Love the reds - a reference to Quinn's red notebook.
Colour-blocks or city-blocks? Working with facts from fiction to create a painting...
The pairs of initials make visual the multi-layers of identity in 'City of Glass'. Author Paul Auster creates a character Daniel Quinn, a writer of detective-stories. Fictitious author Daniel Quinn writes under a pseudonym, William Wilson, who in turn 'creates' a fictional-detective Max Work. In the novel, of course, Daniel Quinn becomes a detective, inhabiting the skin of Max Work. There is also a character called 'Paul Auster', an author...
This is my tribute to Paul Auster, who sadly passed away earlier this year. His strange, fabulous, enigmatic tnovel 'The New York Trilogy' inspired this painting and the 63 others in the 'City of Glass' series.
Thank-you, Paul
(7)
FRI 17 AUG p.m.
Inching closer, bringing in light and space through colour, the painting less patchwork now (7). Enjoying the residues of the dark-blue shape and the conversation between the verticals (avenues) and horizontals (streets) - searching for the ideal - the snake of Broadway the maverick element. A decision to make: should the 4 sets of initials be stacked in an orderley column, be a horizontal sequence or be placed randomly around the canvas?
(6)
FRI 17 AUG a.m.
Love the horizontal-block on the bottom edge - Cobalt Blue and Lavender - and the slightly angled line of 100th St lifting the eye upwards but going backwards with the large dark Phthalo Blue shape which crowds the space...(6)
(5)
TUES 30 JULY
I think we're getting close. The painting more playful now with new blocks of contrasting colour setting off the reds, Hoffmanesque 'push/pull. Found a new curve on the left-side. Painting in my sleep last night, just following my thoughts and instincts, coloru-intensity, scale and placement critical (5). Yesterday's green triangle seemed to create a visual stop: repainting on orange and reducing the green to a line and softening the triangle is much more satisfying. Where to put DQ, WW and MW?
(4)
MON 29 JULY
Scaled up the grid to make the triangle more prominent (3). Establishing the curve of Broadway. The grey seems to do something interesting...(4)
(3)
SUN 28 JULY
After the reds comes the grid of Manhattan (2), centered on the curve of Broadway on the Upper West Side and to incude W107th St, where Daniel Quinn has his apartment and the block between 99th and 100th, the location of the Hotel Harmony. Excited by the small triangle of Straus Park, which I'd never noticed before, on which I can balance W107th St.
The painting has no light.
(2)
SAT 27 JULY
An idea came to me to re-visit this painting and add the initials PA and make it my tribute to Paul Auster, who sadly passed away earlier this year. I always felt this painting was too scrappy and I withheld it from exhibition, the idea of the sets of initials stronger than the execution, looking more like a garden than New York!.Seven years later, in honour of Paul Auster, I feel obliged to make this one of my strongest paintings. Let's mix some new reds...
(1)