The temptation for me as a painter is to take the merest direction from the relevant subject matter.
I guess that I am a visual recorder of sorts, but not in a truly representational sense.
I choose to paint what I feel needs to be expressed, while at the same time seeking to produce an optimistic and satisfying statement …. Almost painting for paintings’ sake I suppose.
I’ll spend some time on my stool with my sketchbook, drawing and writing notes in front of some rock form or a meandering creek, enjoying the experience and taking only sufficient information for me to be able to put some basic construction on the canvass back in the studio.
From there on the work is to do with the joy of creating something new, building on the experience in the field.
I allow my mood to determine the usually high colour key palette and to fairly aggressively cast the first block buster splashes to the canvass.
Rarely will the result say more than a brief hello to the inspirational subject matter. In fact even the finished piece may seem far removed from the original observations.
In time the little personal detailing tweaks will complete the work and probably tie it back into a place where it recognisable as an example of the current folio of work.
And all along the way there will be this fun of playing with paint …… dragging, washing, scrubbing, punching, blending, layering, building, polishing ……. applying it like makeup on an actor
Hopefully the viewer will recognise that the artist has endured a challenging but uplifting journey in manufacturing the piece.
