oil on canvas, 75 x 60cms
So following on from the drawings in
the last post I have spent some time working on this painting in the last week
or so. I sort of collapsed the drawing when I came to the painting, which is
what I often do, to move the painting into it’s own thing. It’s like kicking
away the scaffolding if you like. It’s a painting that presented me with a few
problems, in particular the stripes of the railings, which are things I’m not
very good (or patient) with. I had thought about a few ways of doing them, but
in the end I painted them in my usual direct manner inspired by the bands and stripes
in Terry Frost and Patrick Heron’s paintings, which I’ve been looking at.
I didn’t quite get there though, but
I’m not too worried. I’m more worried if things look too refined. I did work
further on them but not too much.
I’m aware it’s pretty different to the
more expressive paintings I’ve made lately which seem more obviously indebted
to the abstraction of Frost or Heron etc, but I’m letting the work lead me
rather than the other way round. I’ve had it commented that my motorway
paintings have echoes of Edward Hopper, but, although I can see why it is made I’m
not that keen on the comparison,. I’m much more interested in the language of
abstract painting than the figuration of someone like Hopper. Hopper leaves me
cold for all sorts of reasons really.
Chuck Close does not paint Station Wagon paintings
I also know if I had made the painting
much bigger (it’s about 75cms high) I could have painted those stripes much
more surely, feeling much more comfortable working larger and physically, from
the shoulder not the wrist. I’ve been making a lot of applications to
commercial galleries lately, however. I’m trying to make a more determined
effort to get a foothold in working with commercial galleries and make a move
away from the public and artist-run exhibition spaces I feel I’ve done a bit to
death in the last twenty years. These have been great of course, but can be
very limiting and exhausting too after a while. I want to seek fresher
opportunites and challenges. And scale seems to be an issue that keeps
occurring when it comes to the spaces many of these commercial galleries have.
They prefer smaller or mid-scale (say a metre and a half across) paintings, so
I’m trying to take this more seriously and develop more work of this size. I’m
aware of how Chuck Close, a favourite painter, derogatorily describes paintings
of this size as ‘station wagon paintings’, and hate to think this might be some
sort of compromise, but until I find that New York studio and New York gallery
with enormous walls, I need to think about the types of galleries I’m applying
for in provincial England.
Jo Brown, 'Walking The Coast', oil and acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100cms
Most of my gallery applications have
disappeared into the digital void, but one has borne fruit I’m pleased to say.
The Cupola Gallery in Sheffield has expressed an interest in my work and are
keen to exhibit some of it. I’ve got to contact the director, Karen Sherwood,
in a couple of weeks to discuss things further. It’s a well-regarded gallery
that shows some great work, including a painter I admire, Jo Brown, who I
briefly worked with years ago when I was based in Yorkshire. I’m really pleased at this prospect of showing
there and think I could learn a lot from the experience and Karen Sherwood
herself, who writes a really interesting blog on the gallery website (see links
below). Let’s hope it works out.
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