Friday, July 29, 2011

But is it Art?



Well, here it is. Barring the odd tweak and shave this is pretty much it. So? Is it art?

If the definition of art is the end result of the urge that drives humans to scratch images on rocks or cave walls, then it is. But then the same is true of graffiti, some of which is viewed as art and some, well, not. Will it end up in the Guggenheim or Tate? Not likely.

The fact is though that something seemed fairly determined to express itself through me and I did what I'm able to give it expression within my current mastery of oils, and via the shape of my current visual preferences.

If I look at it from a longer perspective it seems both waif-like and wraith-like. It seems to be a portrait of a female consciousness dreaming deeply with a wildness and intensity bordering on madness. Perhaps it's an attempt by the battered and bewildered love in my own male consciousness to come to terms with the seemingly impenetrable mystery of the female principle, through the only aspect of life that's ever worked reliably for me - art. Whatever that might be. Visual media.

It struck me last night that there's a dominant arrow shape running through the head. I can't say how it got there, it just sort of happened and I took it for granted and worked with it. Looked at more closely it reminds me of a dark galaxy, and perhaps that's entirely appropriate as company for the moon.

Whatever the merits or lack of merit this piece might have something in me feels satisfied when I look at it. At least that's the state of things today. It's been known to change.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Dance with doubt

When I'm done painting for the day I hang whatever's in progress on the wall in the lounge so I can see it at odd moments, which often provides clues to what has to happen next.

So after watching a movie last night I got staring at this piece and it started looking horribly pretentious. Part of this was the 'chick art' thing still hanging about, but what was this romantic thing of running horses for flux sake? And this ridiculous imitation of cave art? How pretentious is that? About the only thing I liked was the moon. Simple, honest, unmodified authentic strokes.

Some years ago I read a rather excellent book called "The Bohemians" by Dan Franck, about Picasso and that gang and the birth of modern art. Somewhere in it he describes the production of a piece of art as a "dance with doubt". It could be equally called a dance with certainty, as it's some sort of inner knowing that gets the thing moving in the first place. But I know the space he's talking about and last night I was deep in that dance.

It was quite late by then but the thing couldn't wait. I jumped up and threw some pretty certain paint at the back of the head. This morning I looked at it and saw a goddess having a seriously bad hair day. Out with the scrubber again.

The problem with this piece is that it looks completely different under different lighting conditions. In good light the colours emerge and the magic of tone and texture is undeniable. In low light it goes into hiding and the chick art thing comes out to taunt me.

Well, there's probably a solution in there somewhere, so after the scrub I pushed some paint around to see what might arise, still working on the area behind the head. Here's the result of the morning's work. It still looks like a bad hair day but I like the texture that's emerged. The paint is rather sloppy at this point and changes at the slightest touch, so I'll leave it as it is for now and play with it further once it's dry.

And anyway, a nature goddess probably needs a dose of wild hair to make her day.

In the meantime I added some colour to the body and gave the animals a bit of a push. I'm fascinated by the Lascaux horse on the left. He or she seems to be having a grand day out, with a decided spring in his/her (hirs?) step. Also interesting is how the modeling of the hindquarters has found its way into the horse on the right.

As for the pretentious imitation of cave art, well, I like the feeling of it. Hell, even Picasso made his big breakthrough because of a fascination with African masks. I'm gonna hang with it and see what happens.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Get into trouble then dig myself out

Things don't always work out smoothly.

It's happened often enough that I'm not sure what's supposed to happen next in a painting, so I deliberately do something with calculated recklessness and then have to repair the mess. Most times when I do this something of value emerges at the end of it that I would not have found otherwise. It's part of the creative process, I've found out. Take risks.

But in this case it wasn't like that. I thought I knew what I was doing when I added a whole lot of burnt sienna to the bottom. At first it felt good. So I went out on errands and came back with fresh eyes. And it didn't look good no more.

One of the advantages of working in the digital age is the ability to easily keep a photographic record of work. Comparing what I had on canvas to the way it was before I preferred before. Seems I'd bollocksed it up a bit.

Fortunately oils are slow drying so there's always a chance to remove unwanted paint. It's very seldom a true undo as the layers beneath are often scraped away in the process, but this adds an element that takes things elsewhere. Sometimes I've scrubbed off paint that wasn't working only to find the core of what was eluding me in the residue left on the canvas.

So I got out the undo kit and began the rebuild. Along the way the animals got resketched over the background noise, and now some interesting stuff was starting to happen. The fresh brushtrokes I'd had to sacrifice at the start could now stay there. And once again the unexpected was happening. The left of the two lower figures repeats the unintentional Egyptian overtones with it's vaguely wolf-like head, while it's reddish companion is no longer horse-like but now generic beast. The ones behind are getting a look I like, a sense of movement in the marks with no attempt at realism.

The texture that emerged after the scrub was a bit harsh so I brushed a thin layer of white across it. It's likely to be mostly dry tomorrow and I can work some colour back into it. Who can say what surprises may await me there?

Overall though I'm happy with the look. There was an absence of depth before the burnt sienna was added, and with what remains of it now and the freshly sketched animals it's beginning to feel better balanced.

But now the blank space behind the head is beginning to niggle...

Monday, July 25, 2011

Portrait of a Goddess

This piece is starting to take on overtones of worship as opposed to a simple exercise in painting. Perhaps that's entirely appropriate given the strong element of cave art that's running in it. Sometime late last week a title suggested itself - Earthen Moon.

Given the way it seems to be largely painting itself this thinking mind sorts through the threads and comes to the thought that it's a current deep in the primal bedrock of this human male, and he's giving expression to a relentless love for the female principle running through the planet, or perhaps for the ideal woman he's not yet met in human form. 

Perhaps I should doodle in somewhere the image of a lone wolf howling at the moon. Just kidding.

It's not very obvious in this digital image but one of the things that came along suggesting itself is the bit of blue towards the top front of the head. It was a flash of reflection off some still wet paint that said 'blue' to me, so I applied some with my index finger. I rather like the way it takes a step away from the earthen colours and introduces a piece of the modern world with its access to the whole spectrum. Just following orders again there, and happy to do so. 

But manager mind is getting it's way too. The finish was beginning to look a bit too slick, so I scrubbed some white over the lower sections of the canvas to add some texture and am pleased with the result. The original issue that concerned me about this piece, that it was suspiciously like "chick art" is beginning to recede.
So on we go.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Who's in charge of this art gig anyway?

I'm in the habit of saying I just follow orders when it comes to what to paint and how it works out. It's happened enough times that the idea I start out with is quite unlike the image that emerges at the end, implying that the thing I'm accustomed to calling "me" is not necessarily in charge of the process. Manager Mind sets up the practicalities, Genius Mind slips in and does the actual creation. Sometimes manager mind gets taken on quite a runaround.

So it happens that the issue stalking me with a Chesire-cat smile in relation to the current painting is that it's sailing dangerously close to 'chick' art. I'm accustomed to subjects that have some sort of depth somewhere in them, not just pretty pictures, and this one's flirting outrageously with prettiness. Manager mind is concerned.


By comparison, perhaps the most satisfying of the pieces I've done recently in this genre is the one pictured here which I called 'Firedance'. The guy who bought it described it as "complexities of life" which is as good a title as any. It began as a graphic image based on a pretty girl and slowly worked its way to a representation of sexual relationship, perhaps not the highest of philosophical themes but certainly one most of us humans grapple with for much of our lives.

By contrast this new piece risks becoming more like a love-song representing the idealised state that exists before the complexities begin. The fact that I find this lightweight is interesting enough in itself - why should that simple hopefulness be unsatisfying without the drama that follows? - but I'll leave that question alone for now and return to the fact that the 'lite' issue was bugging me but the painting would not lie down. So a solution had to be found.

The place where it all gets decided is in the profile, something so delicate in its execution that I had only a vague notion of how it might be done - here's the original reference that started it all. My first shot at getting this onto canvas had gone all wrong so I scrubbed it off and retreated to ponder the next move.

That came Saturday night. With nothing social happening out here in the African sticks the profile problem started forming itself into that peculiar internal energetic that is the precursor to creative activity. So I donned my painting clothes, retraced the outline, mixed up some paint and stared at the canvas.

What happened next is one of those rare moments that say so much about life as a human. I knew I needed to add depth of shadow to the face, so I sort of lurched forward and waved paint in approximately the right direction, with the intention of shaping it later. This is what landed on the canvas.

I'd like to say that I carefully placed each stroke to shape the nose, lips and chin as it would imply a high level of mastery, but the fact is it was nothing like that. The features as seen here landed that way with only the vaguest involvement of my thinking mind. I stepped backed somewhat gobsmacked, realising that the elusive profile I'd been a little scared of had appeared with a delicate precision that I would simply not have been able to achieve had I been trying to do so. There was even a suggestion of a Tutankhamen-like goatee to go with the Thoth-like horse from my last post.

So who, or what, is doing this painting?

Well, back to manager mind. Astonishing as the event of its appearance is, the profile can't stay like that. It's too much like a logo for a range of hair products, but it is the core of what is to follow. The 'lite' issue is not yet resolved but the direction seems to have appeared. Here's the full canvas as of this writing.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Art as Life as art

So there's this painting I've just started. That's not a new thing, it's what I do for a living, but this one's interesting in that it brings together a number of threads both in my life and in the themes I've been exploring in the last while.

It gets a bit complicated so I won't go into all that now, but I've always found the process by which a painting comes into the world a fascinating one. Often the end result is quite unlike what I first thought of, and I've noticed that while my 'manager' mind is busy grappling with layout and light and shadow and so on something else is busy with its own project in the background, and very often this reflects what's going on in my inner life.

The end product of this dance might be something I'm unable to explain, just a feeling that comes off the canvas, and one of the fulfilling things about this artist gig is that it's this inexplicable feeling that people respond to, even when it seems to be quite dark.

So anyway, here's the digital layout of this new painting. It's based on a shot I took some time ago of a lovely young woman and as such runs the risk of becoming like a silly love song. This kept on bugging me but the subject would not go away so I started it yesterday.

One of the themes I've been toying with in the last while is rock art or cave painting. I've done one piece in that style but found it so unlike my other work  that it took some time to realise that I could add nothing more because it was in fact finished. So the line of animals here is that thread looking for a way to come to the main party.

Here's the first sketch of it on canvas, and already the journey has begun, with the animals beginning to morph away from horse and towards generic beast with mythical undertones.

The horse at the far left is my homage to the ancient genius of Lascaux, but the rest are drawn from little sketches I did deliberately without using reference, as would have been the case then. I'm interested in the animal above the first horse as its head suggests Thoth, the ibis-headed god of ancient Egypt.

I love the freshness of the paint as it lands on the canvas at this stage and was tempted to leave it like that but it's going to be one of those things that get sacrificed to the painting as a whole. Perhaps it will find it's way to the end product.