SUN 7 SEPT - FINALLY!
Take that man's paints away! With 'YinYang' I felt I'd acheived a breakthrough in my work, with the the tall blue mark on the left and the wriggling fat orange line redrawing the harbour transforming the painting. This week, I've been looking again at 'Echo', I wasn't sure about the shape of the harbour and the sameness of the edges and paint-handling and I felt I needed to be as brave and break the painting apart...
I'm happy now.
'Echo' is less polite now: it's moving, pulsating with colour and energy, with edges broken with new blues and purples, punched on with brush and knife. The orange harbour is now a more elegant, distinctive shape with a squeezed' 'waist' and framed by jewels of colour and piers that punctuate the dominant verticality. I'm proud of both paintings equally. Over to the clients!
Detail - 'Echo'
SAT 30 SEPT
Apologies for the low profile recently - I've been working on a commission for a new Porthleven painting, with a specified size and palette. Turquoise and orange - no problems there! I took the the decision to work on two paintings at the same time, which gives the client a choice and also ensures that I have a new painting for my portfolio. For the past few weeks the paintings have been rivals, each provoking the other to greater heights and I'm thrilled to present the finished works, complimentary but each with a distinct strength and surprise. Both have two harbours: orange and blue in YinYang - high tide/low tide? - and in 83, a linear echo of the harbour-shape.
THE STORY
STAGE 5 - Would you stop here? Love the blue square and rhythms of blocks and triangles in 82 but has it become too static? In 83, the wristy brushmark through the paint is a triumph but my gut says it can go further, with more flow and precision and a tuning up of colour.
STAGE 4 - The hot green shape in 82 transforms the painting, provoking the oranges, breaking the symmetry and balance of colour. 83 is transformed by line/drawing bringing in movement, depth and difference and giving me several options for the bottom of the painting.
STAGE 3 - Finding my harbour-shapes and balance of colour...
STAGE 2 - The race begins! 83 noses ahead: I've found a connection between the diagonal drips and the angled wall of the Fisherman's pier.
STAGE 1 - Early days. Markmaking, filling the canvas, finding equivalents in paint and colour for the opposing qualities of stasis and movement, solidity and transparency prevalent in Porthleven. But for me, of course, markmaking is never enough.
