She says : "As you will see from below I have been having quite a few adventures in my class this term with a tutor called Alison Hand.
So here are three. I am still using a roller, basically, in a lot of compositions. I still want to keep it simple, and these are nothing like what I have shown you before but I have been advised 1. to improve my materials. 2. go larger.
But first, we had an exercise to work from some form of digital information. Hence a piece from last week, called Empire. it comes from a map of 1897 — I had to do a lecture over the weekend before on the Empire and my head was too full of it to do anything else.
The colours, sadly, are not at all true: at least the pink is, but the ground is really a sort of salmony pink. The lines are done in black pen - shipping routes. This is quite a large canvas: at least a metre wide. I am not sure what I think of it; one side of me says it is not finished. My tutor said not to touch it anymore so I am going to let it be for a bit.
The second comes from an exercise when we were asked simply to blow or scratch ink and paint around. It’s quite big: 600 high by 1.5 metres wide and done on lining paper for walls.
The third was done yesterday. A real adventure — designed to make me deal with making huge marks. It’s a bit like a wall hanging: it’s on unmounted raw canvas 2 metres wide by 48 inches (forgive inconsistency) high. It’s not finished yet, and I notice it’s been cropped a bit hard at the top. I’m not sure where it’s going, and photo repro not the best, but I thought I’d send it along for you to see.
With all good wishes to you, and everyone at City Painters."
Oh, my word Stephanie, what a departure! She is certainly pushing you into new territories. What I'd really like to know is - what do YOU feel about it? Are you enjoying it (I get the feeling you are)? Is this work exciting you? I'd love to know.
It certainly excites me. Really interesting. So, the big question is how to assess work like this. How do we know whether it's working, whether it's 'good'? Well, that's the 64m dollar question. I still say it's to do with how the elements communicate - with each other - more than anything else.
When I first looked at no. 1, I was very excited by it. I love the rhythm of the pen lines, and the placing and energy of the pink splodges. There is a simplicity to the language which makes the whole thing more energised and exciting. There's not too much going on, so the looping of the lines is what counts, against the pink accents.
Now, here's an interesting thing - I looked at it and enjoyed it before reading your text. Knowing what it's based on, and what the looping lines refer to, actually takes something away - for me anyway. What do other people think. Maybe just to know it's to do with Empire is enough - that's great. The reality of what the lines are somehow sucks away some of their originality and energy. Very strange. I felt surprised by it.
No. 2 is great - have you seen the Abstract Expressionists? If you look at Jackson Pollock and how he works, it's very illuminating. Every swoosh of the brush is to do with rhythm and movement across the canvas. Too much or too little, and the piece wouldn't work. You have a lovely rhythm and movement between the black splodges, and their 'dangly bits' are really important, because they create a linking energy. The space left around them, and between them and the edges of the paper are really important too.
No.3 I am less moved by. Why - difficult. You have many more elements. 4 different colours, many different shapes and movements, and different tonal balances. I think it struggles to say one powerful thing. Which is the primary statement. Is it the yellow swoosh, or the heavy green marks/blocks? Whatever the scale and degree of abstraction, in the end it all comes down to the same thing..... what's your no. 1 statement? Clear in nos. 1 and 2, not so much in no. 3. Is that fair?
None of this is to take away from the enormity of what you are doing - absolutely great. Keep it going.
We will meet again in June (such a long time), but do feel free to send me more entries to be handled like this.
Have a great Christmas, and a creative New Year, in EVERY way!!
Oh, my word Stephanie, what a departure! She is certainly pushing you into new territories. What I'd really like to know is - what do YOU feel about it? Are you enjoying it (I get the feeling you are)? Is this work exciting you? I'd love to know.
It certainly excites me. Really interesting. So, the big question is how to assess work like this. How do we know whether it's working, whether it's 'good'? Well, that's the 64m dollar question. I still say it's to do with how the elements communicate - with each other - more than anything else.
When I first looked at no. 1, I was very excited by it. I love the rhythm of the pen lines, and the placing and energy of the pink splodges. There is a simplicity to the language which makes the whole thing more energised and exciting. There's not too much going on, so the looping of the lines is what counts, against the pink accents.
Now, here's an interesting thing - I looked at it and enjoyed it before reading your text. Knowing what it's based on, and what the looping lines refer to, actually takes something away - for me anyway. What do other people think. Maybe just to know it's to do with Empire is enough - that's great. The reality of what the lines are somehow sucks away some of their originality and energy. Very strange. I felt surprised by it.
No. 2 is great - have you seen the Abstract Expressionists? If you look at Jackson Pollock and how he works, it's very illuminating. Every swoosh of the brush is to do with rhythm and movement across the canvas. Too much or too little, and the piece wouldn't work. You have a lovely rhythm and movement between the black splodges, and their 'dangly bits' are really important, because they create a linking energy. The space left around them, and between them and the edges of the paper are really important too.
No.3 I am less moved by. Why - difficult. You have many more elements. 4 different colours, many different shapes and movements, and different tonal balances. I think it struggles to say one powerful thing. Which is the primary statement. Is it the yellow swoosh, or the heavy green marks/blocks? Whatever the scale and degree of abstraction, in the end it all comes down to the same thing..... what's your no. 1 statement? Clear in nos. 1 and 2, not so much in no. 3. Is that fair?
None of this is to take away from the enormity of what you are doing - absolutely great. Keep it going.
We will meet again in June (such a long time), but do feel free to send me more entries to be handled like this.
Have a great Christmas, and a creative New Year, in EVERY way!!
