Flailing Around:
So its been a while since I last posted, I’m gonna have to get a bit more disciplined about this, but as i said – this goes against the grain with me. Its funny that I’ve never had a problem with putting images out there, but when it comes to thoughts – it seems a lot more personnel, like taking you clothes of in front of a crowd of strangers. Its also a bit like telling someone about the dream you had last night. Its all vivid and interesting to you, but are they really that interested?
I havent managed much painting the last few weeks because I have had a couple of other jobs going on, but I have continued to think about this project. I have to say I have my moments of doubt where i wonder whether its all a bit contrived… but I think the original idea is worth pursuing. I just have to watch out that I dont start doing a series of random paintings ontop of one another instead of letting the image grow out of the last stage. The problem is that all the time I’m painting, ( and not painting,) I’m thinking about what might come next, and having a load of ideas about all the different directions it could go in. I get a bit excited about some of them, but can see that I can’t realise them straight away, and that the painting might go though a few stages yet before I get there. So they become like distant staging posts that I want to get to, but am unsure of the path to them. I’m not sure if this is a good thing for this project, providing a rough route map, or a hinderance to the original premiss of following my nose and discovering things along the way.
Anyway, I think I need to spend more time painting and this issue might become clearer. Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to for the next three weeks because of other commitments, but at least I will be building up a head of steam, with which to hit the ground running when I finally do get a good block of time down the studio.
Here are the two latest stages of the paintings. I would like to be able to display them side by side but for the moment I haven’t worked how to do that. ( plus it probably wouldn’t work on smaller screens.) The Night painting hasn’t changed that much, a darker area which could be trees or some other dark matter has crept into the bottom half. I have been thinking of the Hubble ultra deep field image while working on it, an image that I find endlessly fascinating.
The ‘Day’ painting has taken a more noticeable step forward with the addition of some angular shapes and bright colour. I thought these represent the bright light and warmth of day more than the hazy start. I am feeling my way towards creating a space through colour and shape. But I’m still not sure where I’m going with this. One of the problems is that the subject matter is so vague and big that I could go in many different directions with it. So the parameters might need to be narrowed down in some way. One of the key points that I must not lose sight of, is the dialogue between the two, which at the moment, I don’t think works that well… But then there are bound to be stages when they get out of kilter with each other. As everything does in life…