Painting is giving me some kind of relief. A bit of peace of mind. As well as enjoying it I am also getting the urge to experiment a little bit more although I am absolutely not trying to be some great apprentice out to inherit the throne of the masters! I just like to try different things. So, with painting number three I thought I would go a little abstract perhaps…
No Theory
At this point, it is important to be honest. I know next to nothing of the theories of abstract painting! I could not indulge in a discussion of theory at all. No, this was just based on a simple principle of simply liking some pieces of abstract art. No reason or theory. Just plain, old fashioned like. But there was no real consistency within my taste. I always admired Guernica by Picasso for example although, to be honest, a lot of that admiration was derived from the historical importance of the painting than for it’s use of cubist method. For the same reason I like The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David which is not abstract or cubist or… I don’t know!
My knowledge of art is chaotic. Still, I tried to go into painting number three with a plan. A very makeshift one but a plan, nonetheless.
The Plan: From Drawing to Canvas
I have recently started drawing as well as painting. Another more creative hobby that I am very much an amateur in but learning. This time, I thought, as opposed to basing my painting on a photograph as I had done previously, why not base it on a drawing? I set to work, keenly trying to mimic the style of a painter whom I admired although I am not going to say who or what painting because I suspect most responses will be… ‘really?’ Perhaps more fun for you to guess what the painting was that inspired me? Good luck on that!
I know my limits though, and the initial drawings were simple in form and made use of colour. Nothing systematic although I tried to be a little restraining. The background was consistent black fading into white, again inspired by the painting I was (trying to) mimic. Well, with blue. And orange. Obviously not that consistent.
Building the Foundation
The black fading in to white was consistent enough for me so I got to work on creating this background, remembering my tutor’s suggestion to ‘fill the canvas’. Not leave any spaces. I was also far more patient than previously. The background took a couple of afternoons to build. I was actually quite happy with it. Felt pleased that it had taken a good while. Now to add the foreground!
That’s where it all changed.
A Different Direction
The root of the change came from a session with my tutor where they shared the three primary colours from which so many other colours can be derived. Red, yellow and blue. Rather than dive in to the theory, I thought, ‘why not base my painting just on mixes of these three colours!’ In a moment, all of those sketches were for nought. I started a similar, slow layering process, mixing those three colours and patiently eradicating the black and white background I had so painstakingly painted. There was a method in my madness.
Among the many paintings I admire in a quite unscientific way is Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway by Turner. Perhaps not Abstract in the textbook sense but I always liked the way that, aside from that small image of a train in the background, there is no focus. Everything seems to merge. There is no clear edge to the horizon or the clouds. With this in mind I set to work, trying to create the same unfocused image where the eye is not quite sure to look. Still, I had to get the feeling of painting something. So now it got very weird!
An Unexpected Inspiration
The paintings were certainly unfocused and lacking a subject although this was the result of a good couple of afternoons painting. They did not really represent anything, though. My mind was triggered when reading about an upcoming film that would be based on Rogue Trooper, a comic book character I remembered from the early 1980’s, the lone survivor of genetically engineered soldiers fighting an apocalyptic war on a world that has become a chemical hell. Specifically, what came to mind was the “Scum Sea” that was so heavily polluted as to be deadly to contact.
What would that look like?
A strange enough inspiration but one that bore results. I carried on slowly merging the colours, this time with a more focused if unusual subject in mind. That sea that had seemed so fascinating in black and white comics came to a vivid form of life on the canvas. At least for me. I only rebelled slightly against my tutor’s instruction to always mix colour and added streaks of unmixed white paint to the picture. An attempt to represent waves on that deathly sea perhaps? I could say something of the purity of the white against the darkly toxic colours of the sea but… no… that would be a bit pretentious. It may sound like I know what I am doing!
A Final, Abstract (?) Result
The finished painting completely lost that black and white background. It also went through a whole range of influences to move away completely from the original cubist/abstract idea to become something of an apocalyptic landscape. The title of the work? Expression Number One. Both my tutor and I thought that sounded really pretentious, like I knew what I was doing. Which I don’t!
The end result and the – ahem – process behind it summed up for me the reasons why I am enjoying this new hobby. From one idea to something completely different. A lot of background work that was actually real fun to do. And the end result itself? Well, it may represent a darkly apocalyptic vision from a comic of my youth that few reading this will know but I enjoyed getting it here, perhaps a little more than that first landscape that looks a little stiff now.
As well as relief there is real satisfaction here. It may not mean much to most but to me, it does. Sorry if I sound a little deluded but I am pretty proud of this painting and its weird journey to completion. I am looking forward to the next part of the journey and quietly hope it is just as odd as this part of the journey has been.