Dial M For Murgatroyd is an early example of a digital construct. The constituent parts are a photograph of the Dorset countryside taken from a speeding train and bits of sketchbook drawings and paintings of various sizes and on various surfaces made in 2020. A new landscape.
Dial M For Murgatroyd is available to buy as a giclée Print (Lucia Ex Pigment on Hahnemühle Agave 290gsm paper).
Each print is accompanied by a digitally signed and numbered certificate of authenticity, in an edition of 200
Winter II, digital construct, dimensions variable, 2020
So, here are the final two digital constructs using other people’s marks to date. Frustrations seem to drive the work at the moment – I got to the point where other people’s marks could only go so far in a colour composition without the need for gross distortion (which would render the marks and objects somehow meaningless), so I stopped using them.
In the present phase I’ve been raiding my own pictures for marks. You can see the process creeping in in Winter II – there’s a section of my painting Psst! (Orange) in the top right quadrant.
Ropemaker A, digital construct, dimensions variable, 2020
If I could set a soundtrack to these images it would probably be something by John Dwyer. I’ve written about Thee Oh Sees on this blog before, but his other “band” Damaged Bug is just as good, but with a more experimental, electronic edge. Here’s the rather lovely Jet In Jungle.
And here’s where I went next…
Half Broke Horses, digital construct, dimensions variable, 2020
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If you are interested in seeing more digital constructs, there are a lot of them on this blog or you can visit my Instagram here or my website here.
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In early October 2019 David Cook and I visited Peter Doig: Paintings at Michael Werner, and Cy Twombly: Sculpture at Gagosian, both in London. Afterwards, we discussed the shows by email. You can read the resulting conversation starting here.
Here are some elements of new works in progress. The paintings are details from a series based on earthworks and have all been tipped on their sides. The photographs are all of parts of Dorset as seen from a train window. As of fairly recently I have started using elements of my own paintings in my digital constructs.
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And here is a finished digital construct…available as a C-Type photographic print on archival paper from my Big Cartel shop. For a more comprehensive description and for shipping details click here.
The Man Who Looked Like The Other Man, 2020
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If you are interested in seeing more digital constructs, there are a lot of them on this blog or you can visit my Instagram here or my website here.
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In early October 2019 David Cook and I visited Peter Doig: Paintings at Michael Werner, and Cy Twombly: Sculpture at Gagosian, both in London. Afterwards, we discussed the shows by email. You can read the resulting conversation starting here.
Landscape study (171119), digital composite, dimensions variable, 2019
At the moment I’m working with tensions – painting, drawing and digital constructs are feeding into one another with no clear path as to which is the dominant or most important form.
T-2, acrylic paint on paper, 42 x 29.7 cm, 2020
T-2 shot here on our beaten up old dining table. With source drawing below.
Sketchbook page, pencil on paper, 2019
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If you are interested in seeing more digital constructs and paintings as well as street photography (including portraits), visit my Instagram here or my website here.
Winter I, digital construct, dimensions variable, 2019
Winter I (above) is another of the new digital constructs I’ve been working on. I’m having fun with their evolution – more posts soon – and at the same time have started working on paintings that have the shape of landscape as their starting point (T-1 pictured below on our knackered dining table).
T-1, acrylic paint on paper, 42 x 29.7 cm, 2020
Again, more to come…
The Paul mentioned in the title below is Paul Letchworth, a painter I was on Foundation with way back in the mists of time – his work’s lovely and you can see it on his website here. Hello Paul!
Landscape study (281119) for Paul, digital composite, dimensions variable, 2019
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If you are interested in seeing more digital constructs and paintings as well as street photography (including portraits), visit my Instagram here or my website here.
Landscape study (051119), digital composite, dimensions variable, 2019
A couple more examples…in a break from using images of Dorset, the background of the second image is Croydon Road Recreation Ground in Beckenham (where David Bowie performed at the Beckenham Arts Lab Growth Summer Festival in 1969).
Abandoned Bandstand, digital construct, dimensions variable, 2019
For the next paintings I tried to move as far away from imagery as possible – where a shape suggested an object I painted it out, and waited for other shapes to suggest themselves. The idea was to make paintings which did not reference anything except the urge to make a mark and balance a colour composition.
The drawings followed a similar pattern.
And became a more regular output. For all sorts of reasons I needed to make smaller works and started thinking again about digital constructs…
Landscape study (241119), digital composite, dimensions variable, 2019
Painting for Nikki, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 90 cm, 2019
So (following on from the last post), I abandoned the underlying image in my paintings and improvised. It was a very different approach – more about colour composition and instinct. Painting For Nikki was the first to be finished.
At the same time I pretty much abandoned the digital composites and started drawing…
Magic Hand, pencil on paper, 2019Magic Hand II, pencil on paper, 2019
That’s How We Do Things #1, acrylic paint and watercolour pencil on canvas, 80 x 80cm, 2019
Having got excited about improvising on Cowl (see last post), I went back to the above painting, which I’d shelved and applied the same method. You can see the original digital construct the painting was based on here. Less of the initial image survived.
In the digital construct for the next painting Fissure, I deliberately left areas of the image blank so I had somewhere to improvise, while retaining a the skeleton of a composition.
Sketch for Fissure, digital construct, dimensions variable, 2019
But once I started improvising the composition became less and less sustainable – it collapsed under the weight of the paint marks; the imagery was being buried…
In recent months my work has kind of gone full circle, so that I’m producing a lot of digital constructs again (as a way of thinking about possible paintings).
Visiting my parents in Dorset by train gave me the opportunity to snap the landscape and work in that format. It’s quite interesting to stretch out after working in squares.
Landscape (Stain), 2019
The painting being worked on in my last blog post about making stuff ended up looking like this…and underwent a name change…
Cowl, acrylic paint and watercolour pencil on canvas, 90 x 90 cm
…and the improvisational aspect of the process started to take precedence. The monochrome image suggested areas of colour, which led to the introduction of the vase shape and the snooker ball…
The Future Is Papier Mâché 