4: Hostile Landscapes

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.

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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

jp’jaer’ (part four)

Attempt, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 90 cm, 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

More in the next post…

(part three||||)

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, 2019

Magic Hand II, pencil on paper, 2019

More in the next post…

Jammed Exit (part two)

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…

Fissure, acrylic on canvas, 90 x 90cm, 2019

More in the next post…

Jammed Entrance (part one)

Landscape study (201019)

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…

More on the paintings in the next post.

Landscape in three parts

– Landscape In Three Parts (Sketch), 2018 –

This was one possible solution to how do I paint a “landscape” using square canvases (80 x 80 cm)…it’s still on the back burner while I work through some other stuff…

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David Cook and I recently completed an online conversation about Jasper Johns and you can find all three parts at https://londoneyeball.wordpress.com/

Landscape with longing, transformed

– Landscape with longing, transformed (sketch), 2016 –

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The titles used in this post were created with a Markov generator invented by my friend Matthew Olden…texts used in the process were titles of works listed in a history of abstract painting and news about Britain leaving the EU from Thursday’s Guardian. Anyway, full post about Markov coming soon…Thanks, Matthew!

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David Cook and I just discussed a Mark Wallinger exhibition. You can read the first post here.

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Ashley Lily Scarlett and I have a blog together. It’s a conversation in pictures and it’s called Between Scarlett and Guest.

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The Ghost In Our Children

– The Ghost In Our Children (sketch), 2016 –

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The titles used in this post were created with a Markov generator invented by my friend Matthew Olden…texts used were titles from a history of abstract painting and headline news from today’s Guardian about Boris Johnson not running for leader of the Conservative party – hopefully the end of his career. Anyway, full post about Markov coming soon…Thanks, Matthew!

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David Cook and I just discussed a Mark Wallinger exhibition. You can read the first post here.

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Ashley Lily Scarlett and I have a blog together. It’s a conversation in pictures and it’s called Between Scarlett and Guest.

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22nd June 2016

– 22nd June, 2016 Landscape (Sketch), 2016 –

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Ashley Lily Scarlett and I have a conversation in pictures going and it’s called Between Scarlett and Guest.

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