Abstract art print 9, Friday 01 June 2007
Far from being some crazy over emotional creature, I believe the artist, with his/her scrutiny of process, has more in common with the scientist. The only difference being, that the experiment is not taking place in a sterile laboratory environment but in some part of his/her being that is shared by us all.
Abstract art print 10, Saturday 02 June 2007
With these last three abstract prints, I have had some success. I do not refer to the result but to the process. I was able to empty my mind of any reference to earlier works and preconceptions and allow the work to take me on a journey, before and during my creating them.
Abstract art print 11, Sunday 03 June 2007
I managed to produce a bunch of failures today! This was the best of the bunch, but not sure I even like it or not. Hope tomorrow is going to be better. Its usually at this point that artists question everything, go into a sort of confidence freefall, with a black hole opening its ugly jaw at the bottom. Thankfully I have learnt to be a little more optimistic than that.
Abstract art print 12, Monday 04 June 2007
This abstract I began in Freehand, inspired by architectural plans, the idea that successive cross sections of a building could be used as the basis of something more poetic intrigued me.
Abstract art print 13, Tuesday 05 June 2007
With this abstract print I set about creating a more layered method. Creating in Freehand several skeleton line drawings that I superimposed one on top of the other in Photoshop. I was surprised how it came together at the last moment, as it seemed to me while I was putting it all together, that the composition was a little on the predictable side.
Abstract art print 14, Wednesday 06 June 2007
Imagine a speech given by an eminent writer with all the grammar removed from his phrasing. It would be rich in vocabulary but poor in meaning, basically gobbledygook! Well composition to the artist and the way he expresses himself is the closest thing to language grammar. If painting is an expression of an emotional state or idea, it is the artists job to convey and express this with clarity and beauty, anything less would leave the viewer a witness to chaos. Not good for the health, me thinks!!
Abstract art print 15, Thursday 07 June 2007
Like trying to stuff one's whole life into two boxes full of memories and dreams, this abstract suggests to me how energies often collect together, to form a mass, like a dangerous swirling swarm of bees mass that can then so easily turn into something more benign like a tree shedding its leaves in an Autumn storm.
Abstract art print 16, Friday 08 June 2007
A blob on the rampage.
Abstract art print 17, Saturday 09 June 2007
Staring at a blank white canvas is a lonely business at times. Re-creating in oneself that feeling when everything seems so easy, when the lines of communication with a world bigger and more mysterious that the world that surrounds us are open, is the trick artists have to work on. I think with this abstract I managed to turn myself inside out!
Abstract art print 18, Sunday 10 June 2007
I sat down today and thought if I were someone else, what would I paint? How would I draw my lines? What colours would I choose? Well this is what I came up with. I feel rather strange looking at it, it is as though I have grown a bit, seen outside myself, it sort of reminds me of Italy, of some grand elegance of the past. I quite like this feeling!
Abstract art print 19, Monday 11 June 2007
I have a theory called the "Out of the corner of my eye theory". I was working away on the computer when out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of an upturned doodle on a scrappy sheet of paper on my desk. It was in that momentary glimpse that I saw the foundation for this abstract and also this new theory!
Abstract art print 20, Tuesday 12 June 2007
Another abstract from my "Out of the corner of my eye theory". This one I caught as I was tidying up my desk - I almost dropped it!
Abstract art print 21, Wednesday 13 June 2007
Imagine returning home to find no recognisable objects. You might sit down on a strange patterned oblong shaped thing, wonder what that spotted textured surface that absorbed light was, suspended horizontally in space, etc, etc!
Abstract art print 22, Thursday 14 June 2007
Forget the pond, forget water, what does greenness look like when dripping......?
Abstract art print 23, Friday 15 June 2007
Done greenness dripping. What do large manor gates, a row of riot police and pattern have in common? Well maybe impregnability! So what does that really feel like?
Abstract art print 24, 25, 26, Saturday 16 June 2007
Today has been one of those days. If sometimes inspiration is like trying to fish your last 50 pence piece from a drain into which it has just fallen, today I managed to rip the drain cover off and found some gold nuggets!
All three abstracts are the result of my calming down a bit, and allowing the work to lead me, rather than pushing my agenda too impetuously. Artist develop a relationship with their work, very much similar to that of a marriage with plenty of give and take and healthy doses of argument.
Abstract art print 27, 28, 29, Sunday 17 June 2007
Last night I was watching a program about a gambler who lost his lucky streak and a substantial quantity of money too.
Well to the artist less is often more and visa versa. With both yesterday's and today's abstracts, I have put this to the test. First working up a complex painting and subsequently setting about un-working it, looking for negative space that I could make into positive shapes and removing shapes altogether. A sort of shape spring clean!!
Abstract art print 30, Monday 18 June 2007
Does one paint the same subject 300 times in different ways, or paint 300 different subjects in the same way? Well, building on the last abstract I did yesterday I decided to use the underlying structural drawing I used on yesterday's abstract, tinker with it ever so slightly and see if through process I could alter its outcome and destiny. I might carry on with this approach!
Abstract art print 31, Tuesday 19 June 2007
Tinkered with that drawing again. Is this a style emerging? A style might be nothing more than the convenience and reassurance of the familiar. We can put ourselves in a box or let others do it for us. Nothing more disconcerting than that which you cannot categorise, no!!! I think at this point I have to abandon this emerging style and look elsewhere. Reaction over continuity again!!
Abstract art print 32, Wednesday 20 June 2007
Think I spoke too soon. Just made it at 11.30. I was ambitious with this one, but although it came out ok, I had hoped that it would go somewhere new. Oh well, thats what comes of using the same underlayed drawing yet again!
Abstract art print 33, 34, Thursday 21 June 2007
My take on what artistic and friendly viruses might look like. These viruses cause the victim to create art uncontrollably with the prognosis of incurable!
Abstract art print 35, Friday 22 June 2007
Abstract art print 36, Saturday 23 June 2007
This work was perhaps the happiest sequence of accidents which I was able to pull together.
Abstract art print 37, Sunday 24 June 2007
Prints number 34, 36, 37 I would call "object abstracts" as they are less concerned with the picture space and are more suggestive of a sort of middle world between our's and a purely abstract one. I am going to pursue this line of investigation further.
Abstract art print 38, Monday 25 June 2007
A piece of crumpled paper rolled into a ball sitting on my desk is the culprit behind this abstract. A bit like dreams, crumpled sometimes! There might be some beauty in a crumpled dream though.
Abstract art print 39, Tuesday 26 June 2007
Just like watercolour, oils and pastels have unique technical precision, I am still searching for the fundementals of digital technique.
Abstract art print 40, Wednesday 27 June 2007
This one is like a quilt gone mad! Not sure it works at all.
Abstract art print 41, Thursday 28 June 2007
Back home again, at the accident exploiting dept. No better place to be, to watch some marvellous sequence of events unfolding that couldn't be predicted - and no-one gets hurt!!! To create the circumstance in which happy accidents of color and form take place is what artists are on the lookout for most of the time. The theory works along the lines that if the artist is surprised, its a dead cert that others will too!
Abstract art print 42, Friday 29 June 2007
Abstract art print 43, Saturday 30 June 2007
With this abstract I was led by the need to return to composition, to re-assert that which I am primarily interested in. Just as life is a bitter struggle to stay on the straight and narrow, artists have to continually tinker and re-adjust their course in order to stay true to their core artistic values.
