Well time is almost up, but as ever I could do with another few weeks… I think if I had them I would make another major compositional change, and zoom further into the the fire and the ashes. But I will have to leave that idea, because I really don’t think I could turn both paintings around in a just over a week. This is where I have got to at this point in time, everything is still in a state of flux and I will be making more changes, but nothing too major. The focus has shifted from day and night to the fire and all the loaded imagery that comes with it.
I love fire, its consuming beauty is endlessly fascinating . It is such a potent symbol of mankind in so many different ways, and it stirs something primal in us all… But its not easy to capture in a still image; its all about movement, light, sound and the physical sense of heat. These are qualities that paint doesn’t have. So I think whatever I try to do, it will always be missing something, but that no reason for not trying. I want to try to get across the way it sucks in everything about it, consumes it, and then radiates it back out.
What we are left with a few hours later is just a sense of what has been… All that energy and all that remains is some light fluffy ash that can blow away in a gust of wind, and the detritus and fragments of what escaped the conflagration.
The fireplace has an almost henge like stillness. Though it is still the focus, the energy has transferred to the grass, and the periphery; which fights for the viewers attention, drawing the eye out of frame and asking – whats next? Well, those are just a few of the thoughts that have come me as I look it. Might sound like I’m reading a bit much into it, but when you spend a long time with a large painting though the creative process, the mind does wander…
The scale on the screen doesn’t really get their full impact across so come along to the show at the Black Swan and see them for real. It opens on the 30th October at 6pm and runs for most of November. There will also be a series of ‘pallet paintings’ that were a by-product of their creation, and I’m hoping – a series of limited edition prints, if I can get them printed in time.