Concrete Reflections...

i-Pad study

I found myself down underneath Spaghetti Junction again today. I was on a field trip with the students to gather research material for an urban landscape project. I made this interesting I-Pad painting, fascinated by the reflections under the really wide bridge that passes over the canal underneath. It was a cold but sunny day, and I really like the upside-down trees and the dark concrete column reflected in the water. 

I also like the reflection made by the underneath of the bridge in the water too, as seen in this photograph in the middle. It looks eerily like a ship is sunken and lurking deep beneath the depths. It is  very disorientating when viewed from the canalside. After a while you get lost and unsure what you are looking at; what is near and what is far; what is real and what is reflected. It really draws you in. This other image with the ‘window’ reflected from above has a similar strange and unsettling depth to it. I’d like to explore these reflections further. There is a similar spot near Smethwick I frequently pass in the car, craning my neck for a better view and nearly bouncing off the kerbside as I do. I need to park up and have a closer look. 

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I also enjoyed looking at the graffiti that is in abundance under the bridge too. There are layers and layers of it in places. These would really appeal to artist Hugh Marwood, who I exhibited with at The Works Gallery (It's nice to think that when I see things like this I'm now thinking of Hugh's paintings). 

Many people I spoke to at the exhibition seemed to be presume that my recent motorway paintings were based here, but they weren’t. They were developed from a location just outside West Bromwich under the M5. I am thinking that it would be great to explore the more complex dynamic structures of Spaghetti Junction though, but returning at night and seeing what it is like with the sodium light from the motorway against the concrete and the night sky. English teacher's I've spoken to recently, tell me I need to read Ballard's 'Concrete Island' too....

...the wood for the trees

i-pad painting

I’ve been developing on my I-Pad some of the drawings I made in my sketchbook during my time in Norway this last week. I’m getting more fluid on the Brushes app it and it’s a great tool for painting on and to experiment with different effects to adjust the light, colours, and tonal values, as well as various textural mark-making. Many of these experiments are unlikely to be seen in the finished images (in fact I hope they aren’t), and despite their digital origins I think the studies still appear very painterly.

I particularly like this canoe image (top) but one can’t help feel canoes on lakes are out of bounds thanks to Peter Doig’s famous paintings of canoes on lakes. The empty canoe just brought a different dimension to the image that I like. I’m still working on the image of the forest, and this week I also completed a larger oil painting of a similar scene after a small study I had made. 

i-pad painting

A few people have visited the studio lately or commented on the online images of the work I made in Scandinavia. Many people have enjoyed the natural beauty in the images, others have made clear connections with my motorway paintings, while others have bemoaned the lack of ‘meatiness’ in them, but I struggle with words like that and what that actually means. I think it may mean they lack a more social dimension, but that’s not ever really my intention. I just strive for an authentic relationship with my material, and hope that translates into something worthwhile. I certainly don’t strive for ‘meaning’. Rather I hope the meaning will reveal itself to me.

As I’ve made these pieces lately I have found myself right back in that Norwegian forest which has felt quite gripping and powerful because of my experience there. It feels like I’m beginning to approach landscape in a more personal way, and understand more deeply what it is to try and depict a particular place.

     Per Petterson

'Out Stealing Horses'

I’ve also been really enjoying reading Norwegian author Per Petterson’s ‘Out Stealing Horses’, an excellent novel set in this area of Norway.  It describes so vividly the natural landscape, with the character’s relationship to the forest and lakes forming a backdrop to a very moving story of grief and loss. Through working on location there my own relationship with this place seems that much more embedded in my mind, and I find myself much more able to put myself in the story. In starting to make my own paintings from my trip I also feel I’m beginning to tell my own story of those few days…