Freedom of the city - watercolour
Well what an interesting, for me, week of painting this has been, so far.... I've experienced all kinds of highs and lows and it's Thursday already. Of course this is not an exact week of painting - I've been painting before this week and started to rediscover my brushes and try out new papers last week. My first attempts at paintings were nearly all face-obsessed. Give me a pencil to doodle and that is what you get, so unsurprisingly many recent paintings have been about eyes and the shadows and sculptured look of a head.... not always entirely human, some often doll-inspired.
Inspiration for my recent work has come about in random ways, ongoing ideas and obsessions mixed with new. Over the years I have 'comsumed' so many different artists' work, images, eras, isms, cultures, media.... the trick is not so much to look for inspiration as to filter it in a way that makes sense to your own heart. I try not to look about on the net, too much, to see what other people are doing right now. Though I know I like to see other's work. I'm not anxious about whims and fads. I'd rather just play about with my own obsessions....
Birds are an obsession. I like active birds and feisty little birds, birds with darkness and fire. So I watch the real ones and see how artists such as Elizabeth Frink have made birds, or how simply they can be represented such as in Tracey Emin's line drawing....
Inspiration for me is not just about looking at other artist's work. It's about reading and developing ideas. That is why I sometimes feel I stumble with my painting and I get disenchanted. Because I am an ideas person. And sometimes the idea cannot always translate into paint, not in the way I want.... And of course this is one of those things and either the challenge is an exciting one or....not....
I try as often as I can to get to see paintings in exhibitions and not rely upon book and net reference. I've never stopped studying painting, and how a painting might have been constructed. Looking at painting 'in the flesh' allows me to understand the process far better and to make a better response to the painting. I'm often excited into trying out something I've seen, a similar technique, a way of pouring paint for example. But that doesn't necessarily translate into anything that becomes anything. It's more about inspiration that leads to an understanding, rather than making art myself.
Serious big topics and small ones that inspire me include: surrealism, women's lives, abstraction, poetry, history, ghosts, gardens, interiors, dolls, fashion, childhood, birds, texture, silences, photography, faith, self....... and so many other words....
As I've painted this week I've realised how much I value words and how I really really want to write all over my paintings! Oh.
I've been painting 'pure paintings' - that is no pencil, just painting watercolour. No guide lines, no cues or cures with pencil. It's not easy for me to work this way, but I prefer the feel of watercolours that are 'pure'. I'm inspired by William Blake's use of watercolour and tone, his layers and composition. In the past I've attempted to make similar styled work but I've not wanted to emulate anyone particularly this week, this has been about exploring ideas that have been in sketchbooks or poems, that might work in paint. And seeing if they do work in paint.
Poems inspire me, the written word, so that is why I have wanted to write over my paintings. I know many artists combine words and images but I've not attempted that, for some reason, I've established this rule of not-this, only this.... And an anxiety about making work that works as a series. What is it with me and series. Hmmm....
I'd love to break out of these parameters and work in a completely different way for the next few days. I don't know that I shall, or can. But we shall see.
I love primitive, surrealist, gorgeous lively work by artists such as Appel. Standing in the Tate and actually feeling that energy, and explicit fun and no rules... but a certain attempt to recapture inner child spirit and a lust for colour..... You wouldn't see this as inspiration for my recent work but it's in my heart and one day I would really like to paint big wild canvasses. Well, attempt to make them happen....
So painting recently has made me think again about painting, and my love of words, and how ideas can be constraining and enlivening. I'm realising more what I really want to do in the future - which is good to know, of course, also a little scary, but we shall see......
Apologies for a rather rambling post today, but I'm typing this up at speed with a queue for the computer behind me. Such is life in a busy home! Thanks always for your comments. Please do take a look at the paintings I have on offer in my shop
here. I'll be adding a few more later.
Tomorrow: technique......
I've been creating this bear over the past several weeks.... a gift to myself (with my 40th coming up in just over a week....oh....).... I designed him as an old-fashioned bear with a hump and longish limbs and semi-sparse mohair fur. Made using my own pattern, of course. I used to make bears, many moons ago, as a hobby. Now I don't have so much time to make them, and haven't felt the inclination, but I saw this 'red fur' and it had to happen that a new bear came about..... It was difficult to photograph him today as it is so rather dull, oh dear...
