John Hedley

 December 2015














November 2015











I am now applying layers of colour to to 2 of the panels and I am going to etch, rust pieces, polish, plate and possibly apply some parys mountain pigment to the third panel.










October 2015

I have made three reliefs, approximately 670 x 670 mm each. These have been made out of plywood where I have extracted the rectangles that I found in Ben Nicholson’s image and built them up in layers of plywood. I was originally going to do only one image, but felt that I could explore the concept of two forms further by having them has a triptych. This is accompanied by a series of colour studies. By making the images three dimensional, I am introducing new spatial problems. I am looking for ways of enhancing the space through use of colour. This draws upon an idea from my recent Arts Council of Wales funded project, where I have been looking at the differences and similarities between aspects of natural forms and colours in Crete and Ynys Mon.


Two of these relief panels are going to be painted and the other is a mixture of wooden panels overlaid by mild steel plate. I am planning to create different surfaces on the different pieces of steel. Some of which will be polished, some rusted, some etched, in order to create depth within the image. I am also thinking of applying pigment found in Parys Mountain into the etched areas of steel and allowing it to rust naturally. I am presently doing a number of experiments.

Having seen the reliefs purely in wood, I now feel that I will make a fourth panel that will be made entirely out of the wood. i have also working on the idea of making some A 2 prints.

Nicholson’s work interests me given his concern for Mondrian and his initial interest in nature. He made a very pure utopian type of abstraction that has, in a sense become ‘iconic’. If you think of abstraction, his work, and to a similar extent, that of Henry Moore, spring to mind. I am interested in this iconic quality. When looking at the Jackson Pollock exhibition at Tate Liverpool I also spent time looking at works by Ben Nicholson and I have become interested in the ways that he had built up forms with colour.




Ben Nicholson: Two Forms 1940 - 43
Ben Nicholson at National Museum of Wales


I have browsed on the Museums website and have short-listed 3 artists. The first artist is Ben Nicholson. There are two paintings on the website but only one I can view is so I am planning to visit Cardiff in the next 2 or 3 weeks. The painting is Two Forms, where I find his use of abstract form and space very interesting. Mondrian influenced Ben Nicholson; I have always been interested in how Mondrian’s work evolved from his early tree paintings to his pure abstract images. I am going to be experimenting with different processes such as collage, etching, collograph and rusting steel with found pigment. I am going to be cutting up collograph blocks, solar or photec plates and aluminium plates using similar proportions or dimensions to his rectangles in his composition. On the aluminium plates I am going to experiment by making random patterns with coffee lift and open bite. With the photec plates I am going to use rock textures or sections of tree canopies.

I will also cut up piece of steel which I will partly etch and then apply found pigment and then allow to rust. These will then possibly be welded together

I am exploring the possibility of working from Trees by Maurice de Vlaminck (1876 - 1958). I have started doing some tree studies at Coed Cadnant of similar compositions as well as having made a few photo polymer etchings of trees.

I have also looked at the possibility of working from two of Graham Sunderland’s paintings.






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