Current view of the studio
These last few months in the studio have
been an attempt to scratch around a bit more with the work and see what, if
anything, comes to the surface. I have always found it useful in the past to
work quickly, and more spontaneously, on a large series of studies and
paintings and then spend some time reflecting on what has happened and if there
any potential in any of it. Whereas with my portrait work for over ten years I
moved completely away from that and everything was very carefully planned with
very little room for any spontaneity. I’ve found myself with these recent paintings,
and increasingly with all my landscape work, loosening it all up again and returning
to a more spontaneous way of working in an attempt to make something happen. On
recent visits to the studio I have found myself just looking at these
paintings, moving them around, putting groupings together of some of them and
thinking about what next.
recent painting, oil on canvas, 2016
I feel that some of the paintings,
particularly the ones of empty transit and distribution depots, or seemingly
abandoned trucks, evoke a kind of post-Brexit mood and the endless and increasingly
futile discussions about the ‘left behind’ which are epitomised in the
post-industrial landscape of the Black Country they are derived from. That, and
the other recent catastrophe that is the Trump election, have certainly been at
the forefront of my thoughts in recent months. I feel a certain sort of
sickness and tired and deeply frustrated resignation, despair, but also real
fear with it all recently. I’m certain I
am not the only one.
recent painting, oil on canvas, 2016
Other
paintings seem increasingly more personal and in possession of a slightly different
sort of psychology with their scenes of isolated, enclosed and turned away
forms. They reflect something of my inner mood and in that sense could be
self-portraits of a kind, an idea that somehow runs through all of my paintings
of lorries and vehicles.
recent painting, oil on canvas, 2016
recent painting, oil on canvas, 2016
There
also exists a slight hint of horror and the supernatural in some of them
influenced by ‘Fear Itself’, an extraordinary essay-film about the horror movie
genre and the dread and fear in the banal and every day which I watched in the
summer. It is only available to watch for a limited period on the BBC I-Player
and can still be seen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0351g0z,
.
'Fear Itself', still image
Its ideas and the deep unease I felt
throughout watching it has lingered with me since. This unease was as much
provoked by the structure of the film as much as the content, where the focus
was consistently on the scenes ‘in between’ the big reveal or shock scenes of
the genre which tend to break the tension. Here the tension was never broken
and so watching was almost agonising over the one and a half hours of the films
duration. And now I find myself continually in a similar state of deep unease
since the political events of the summer and more recently in the US.
recent painting, oil on canvas, 2016
Anyway, it’s hard to say what is evoked in
my own work: these are just some of the thoughts bubbling under the surface. I
don’t want to speculate, analyse or write too much. My main thoughts are with making
the next painting. I do lately, however, often have an overriding sense of trying
to do something a bit more optimistic and life affirming in what has, and is, a
very dark time for the world, as much to do something to keep me sane, and to
avoid painting myself into my own dark corner, and to do something that is in
some way oppositional.
Jackson Pollock, 'Blue Poles'
I recently went to see the large (12
rooms!) ‘Abstract Expressionism’ exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and
realised how much of this stuff really resonates with my painting practice in
relation to how I approach depicting the landscape and where my interests consistently
lie re the formal. Things in the exhibition seem to suggest how I could develop
some of these recent smaller paintings. It was a wonderful exhibition, with
particular favourites including the De Koonings (easily the most technically sophisticated),
the Klines, and the very large Pollock paintings. Not to mention the Rothko’s, Gottlieb’s, Tworkov’s,
Reinhardt’s etc…! It was great. Well worth a visit.
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