You can apply paint with just about anything to hand, literally anything that will hold paint, but within reason of course. On Sky Arts Portrait Artist of The Year, they paint using their iPhones and I pad's, maybe even the occasional Android device, but I have yet to see a contestant scoop up some paint with an iPhone 11 and boldly scrape it across the canvas; maybe they should, who knows what might happen. They generally make use of the screen to bypass the information directly in front of them, information gathered with their eyes; the digital likeness is seen by many as more dependable and takes precedence over human vision. But that is a post for another day.
I am extremely interested in the materials artists use and the tools they apply those materials with. I rarely use brushes in my current work, not because I have an allergy or aversion to hairs and bristles, I have worked with paint brushes extensively and they allow great control and precision, they can also be used with considerable spontaneity and invention.
However, with paintbrushes, I find myself returning to a repertoire of marks and painterly qualities that become entirely predictable. The introduction of unconventional materials in my work has been both liberating and challenging.
Embedded within this painting called 'Shallow Lands' is cold wax medium, oil paint, bitumen, pumice stone, enamel, earth and tissue paper. At one point it included dried seed heads but they have been removed because they undermined the fragile illusion of space and perspective. I describe my working method as a process of accretion, the slow build-up of successive layers and I'm sure that many painters will identify with this approach.
I establish the first layers with rollers or brayers, enabling broad areas of the canvas to be swiftly blocked in. After that, any form of strict sequence or logical progression tends to break down with different materials applied in different orders, just to see what happens. I am on the lookout for unexpected combinations and interactions between surfaces, hence the constant revision, scraping, sanding, and burning to arrive at a new destination. I haven't yet started painting with my phone, which that maybe just a matter of time, but I do use an assortment of palette knives, orbital sanders, heat guns, scrapers, sticks, crumpled paper, cellophane and corrugated cards. It's a messy business and I am thinking of including disposable gloves in my next piece, made from 100% recyclable plastic of course.
This composition is the notion of a landscape reduced to its basic elements, earth, sky and horizon with minimal embellishment. With a central vanishing point there is a clear reference to aerial and linear perspective and the title confirms both the topography of the Fenland location and the 'shallow' relief modelling. This is a land existing, for the moment at least, below sea level.
Thank you for reading my contemporary art blog. Please take the opportunity to look at my collection of paintings in the online gallery. All of my paintings are original artworks on high-quality canvas frames. If you are interested in purchasing a specific painting, please get in touch to check current availability or to discuss a commission. Please contact me.
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