25th June, 2016
IN CONCLUSION
__________________________
Apart from a
few dots and dashes my paintings are now finished, I’ve been excited by the transcription
process. It’s presented many problems
and I’ve leaned from solving these problems.
Keeping a journal has meant I can follow the development of the
paintings from first instinctive scribbles through many revisions to the
finished work. This gives me a useful understanding of how my painting-mind
works and also confirms what constitutes my “handwriting”. The marks I make.
What particularly did I get from the
Michael Andrews painting ? I believe now
that I chose him because I recognised him as a member of the same “clan” as me.
That I felt an urge to say “hello” when I looked at his painting. Certainly I’m grateful that he provided me
with a signpost for my direction of travel. Through “Lovers” I have developed a
better understanding of painting figures in their space. His subject also
provoked me to explore and research into how love has been such a dominating
subject in all of the arts.
I’ve enjoyed
writing the blog, together with the text in the journal, and I’ve written far
more than I initially expected to. It is often easier to write than to paint.
Writing has
sometimes been a way of avoiding the challenges of painting,
like stopping to have a cup of coffee!
This is why I have always believed that art-students should be allowed
to write less in their courses. They should be encouraged to be practitioners
of their art, not to write about art….unless they want to. (I am unlikely ever to write again about my
painting).
I think I saw in Michael Andrews’
painting characteristics which I have always seen in a Lucas Cranach painting
in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, “The Nymph of the Fountain”, painted in
1534. I ask myself why it is embedded in
my psyche. It is not noticeably distinguished from many other fine paintings in
the gallery. Its obvious eroticism must have been attractive to a seventeen
year old lad, but there are many more erotic paintings in the Walker, none of
which I can now remember. So, for other
reasons I found this painting more appealing than the “famous” or popular
paintings on view at the time. “When did
you last see your Father?” and “The Boyhood
of Raleigh” for example, Victorian genre paintings, historically romantic,
skillfully drawn, of doubtful political sentiments and depicting a mundane,
realistic world.
The “Nymph”
however, introduced me to a world of mythology, an imagined world, removed by
several levels from the world we normally inhabit. The world of the poet, of
parable, of universal and timeless truth.
Another
element which I liked; I discovered that this Cranach painting was the
thirteenth that he, or his studio, had produced of this design. Although he had
his head in spiritual clouds, his feet were firmly on the ground. He was an artisan, a producer who lived from
his trade and was not averse to repetition. He was also a politician. I liked
this, I liked him. He was not an Ivorytower painter, he would not have
recognised the concept.
And the painting is a beautiful object. ( The green-striped
pillow in all my retake paintings is a nod to The Nymph….who rests her feline
smile on one).
In the end my
paintings will have been justified only if somebody is even slightly effected
by something in them, as I am effected by seeing a painting by Cranach, or
Matisse or Rothko, or by reading a poem by Auden, or by hearing music by
Britten, or by seeing a play by Shakespeare.
A good name to
finish on.
***********
From a
journal : JUNE 2016
_______________________________
To return to
the subject of titles, First, I can see that it’s a bit odd that I am
content to write about this subject more than I am to write about the
paintings. I have throughout this blog skirted around describing or analysing
any of my images or in any way engaging with their meanings. In the absence of
photographic images it would be difficult for the reader to know what the
paintings look like, apart from general subject matter (lovers), the image they
are based on (Michael Andrews) and that they are strongly coloured. Yet I seem prepared to write at length about
subsiduary topics…like titles!
I have pretty
well decided on the titles. But not yet which name should go to which painting. Because we have been asked explain our
working processes and our thought processes I will also explain where the names
originated. Normally I would not do this.
Transfigured
Night
bed- swerver
morning dew
Out on the lawn
sleeping head…
faithless arm
small rain
in Arcadia.
loves for granted
like virtue
the peace of death
the thrushes
too deep unending
After I decided these names and wrote them down I noticed
that they mostly contain unintentional irony in relation to their sources.
There are contradictions, paradoxes.
( In his
excellent book “The Genius of Shakespeare”, [ Picador 1977] Jonathan Bate
examines modern literary theory. William
Empson was trained as a mathamatician and in the 1930’s was an early writer on
Quantum Mechanics. He later became a respected Shakespeare authority. One of
the key theories of Quantum physics is that an object
is able to exist in two different places in the same time
instant. It has dual and equal existance. Empson saw a parallel in literature and argued
that a word could have a contradictory truth within itself. Bate writes “To see
that something is there in a play
even when a speaker says that it is not and to judge a
character in different ways simultaneously are to view Shakespeare under the
aspect of a quantum world”. )
* Transfigured Night…..is the name of an instrumental
tone-poem by Arnold Schoenberg. Written in 1902 it is based on a poem by
Richard Dehmel. The poem is about human frailty, love and forgiveness, but is
not quoted by Schoenberg.
* morning dew…….is from the final verse of a
folk-song,”O Waly, Waly”, from
Somerset …… O, love is handsome
and love is fine,
And love’s a jewel while it is new,
But when it is old, it groweth cold,
And fades away like morning dew.
* sleeping head.. faithless arm…..from the
opening lines of W.H. Auden’s “Lullaby” Lay your sleeping head, my love
Human on my faithless arm; …...(….)
*..in Arcadia…….Arcadia is a region in
central Greece, believed by the ancients to be a world of simple, easy living.
Perfect climate, plentiful food. An idyllic, bucolic life.
In 1640 Nicolas Poussin
painted a landscpe of this perfect world, with healthy, happy shepherds and
shepherdesses curiously examining a black, stone tomb. Inscribed on the tomb is
the line, “Et in Arcadia ego “. This is
widely interpreted as Death warning, “ I am even here in Arcadia”. An alternative reading is that the occupant
of the tomb is saying “Heaven is as wonderful as Arcadia”
* like virtue….
From a line in “The Rape of Lucretia”,
libretto by Ronald Duncan, opera composed by Benjamin Britten.
……The pity is that sin has so much grace, it moves like virtue,
* The
thrushes too…..from a poem by Charlotte Mew,
I so
liked Spring last year
Because you were here; -
The thrushes too-
Because
it was these you so liked to hear-
I
so liked you.
( etc)
* bed-
swerver…..In Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale”, Leontes calls his wife Hermione
a bed-swerver (an adulterer). I
was much taken and amused by the recent gallant attempt to have the new Antarctic
research ship named as “ Boaty McBoatface” and in the spirit of anarchic
absurdity and solidarity I thought to give one of my paintings an equally meaningless name. (We
should all laugh at ourselves occasionally). However the authorities decided to
relent and to give the name Boaty…..to another boat, so my solidarity melted
away. Meanwhile I had come across
bed-swerver, which seemed comic and absurd, but not meaningless. Also sad, because she wasn’t.
* “Out on the lawn”….a poem by W.H Auden. Set to music in Britten’s ”Spring Symphony”.
Not strictly a love poem but about friendship and guilt and leisure, until the
final crushing lines (of the song).
* small rain…..from a 15th century anonymous
poem.
Western wind when will thou blow,
The small rain down can
rain-
Christe if my love were in my arms
And I in my bed again!
(
A short story in four lines!)
* loves
for granted….from a Louis MacNeice poem
(…..) And the
orange moon sits idle
Above the
orchard slanted,
Upon such easy evenings
We take our loves for granted
(…..)
* the peace of death…..From “The Rape of Lucretia”.
Ronald Duncan/Britten.
Beauty is all in life! It has the peace
of death
* deep
unending.…In 2011 a student group gave me a gift. A poetry anthology,
“The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart”,
(pub. Harper-Collins). It was a kind and
timely gift. It is always close by me and I browse it frequently.
(…….)
Around us fear,
descending
Darkness of
fear above
And in my heart
how deep unending
Ache of
love
(…….) (On the beach at Fontana; James Joyce.)
********************
Journal.
Late June, 2016
____________________________________
This is my
Bibliography, not just of books but of a
few (?) of the references I’ve used during the project Retakereinvent. Things remembered, things re-discovered,
things new found.
[Family love] Gainsborough’s paintings of his daughters,
particularly with the butterfly .
[First love]. Vladimir Nabokov’s “Speak Memory”,
autobiography. Chapter12, (Tamara)
[Old man’s love] Janacek, string quartet “Intimate Letters”.
When in his seventies
Janacek formed a passion for a much younger
married woman, who hardly
acknowledged his existence. But he wrote
this wonderful music for her.
[Absurd obedient love] “Abraham and Isaac”, poem by Wilfred
Owen, used by Benjamin
Britten
in his War Requiem. Mind numbing final lines
[Transcendent love] “Four last Songs”, by Richard Strauss
[Obsessive casual love] “Don Giovanni” Mozart.
[Thwarted immoral love] “The Marrige of Figaro”, Mozart.
[Infatuation] “1909”, poem by Apollinaire (translated Oliver
Bernard) pub.Penguin.
The lady had a dress
Of
violet- coloured silk
(………….)
That woman was so beautiful
She frightened me
[Cynical love] “Norwegian Wood”, The Beatles
[Mothers love] Stabat Mater Dolorosa. (See the Mother,
standing weeping)…of the
Crucifiction text, and the many
Stabat Mater settings to music, for the
comfort of the grieving
[Father’s love] “When David heard that Absalom was
slain”.Choral setting of the
Biblical text, by Thomas Weelkes and also by Thomas Tomkins. Absalom
was the son of King David of ancient Israel, he was killed fighting against
his father’s army. “ When David
heard that Absalom was slain, he went to
his room above the gatehouse, and wept.
And thus he said, O, Absalom,
Absalom, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee.”
[Happy married love] “Pale Fire”, lines 245-292. The
wonderful and bizarre novel by
Vladimir Nabokov. ( And we can smile at his wicked parody of a not
quite brilliant poet).
[Bitter vengeful love] Willie Nelson singing “Funny how time
slips away”. Horrible and
brilliant. Always makes me laugh.
[Tragic love] “Ode to Billy Joe”, Bobbie Gentry. Schubert would have loved it!
[Desperate dreams of Romantic love] Most of Schubert’s songs.
Particularly “Die Schone
Mullerin” song cycle, (“The miller’s young daughter”). Once upon a time,
at
a student party in Liverpool…candle- lit, noisy, alcoholic…I was in a
(probably very befuddled) conversation with a barrister, who was
frequently at such gatherings. He was a sot, always brought his own
gin,
loud, black suited, ash-smeared waistcoat. I mentioned (as one does)
that
I
had just discovered Schubert’s songs and had been listening to the
Mullerin set. My drunken barrister was an enthusiast. He leaned
forward
and sang into my ear, musically, with
gin-perfumed breath, one of the
songs, in German. I was impressed. I don’t think I ever knew his name,
nor had any other conversation with him. But I have always
remembered
him, and I have always loved Schubert.
Years later I’ve seen sketches
and engravings and eye-witness accounts of musical evenings held in
Schubert’s lodgings. They became the place for artists and musicians to
meet,
play music and sing….candle-lit, noisy, alcoholic, youthful and with
reveries of sexual encounters. It seems they
were closer in spirit to my
student party than to modern concert-hall
performances. They had
Schubert, we had Bob Dylan.
[Forlorn love] “Kilvert’s Diary” Poor Francis Kilvert. 8th Sept….23rd Sept
1871.
[Madcap impulsive love]”Kilvert’s Diary”. Poor Francis
Kilvert. 19th June 1872.
Journeying to Liverpool.
[Love under stress] Raymond Carver short stories, “What we
talk about when we talk
about love”
[Sweet, doomed, transient love] “Der Rosenkavalier”, opera , Richard Strauss.
[Perfect love] Love songs by Richard Strauss….but best of
all, “Morgen”.
[Journey through love] “Summer with Monica”, collection of
poems by Roger McGough.
[Popular song and Folk song] The dark songs of Edith
Piaf; Leonard Cohen “Suzanne”;
Bob Dylan, “Lay lady lay”, “I’ll
be your baby tonight”; Beatles,
“Michelle”; Joan Baez, “Plaisir
D’amour”; Glen Campbell, “By the time I
get to Phoenix”; Billy Jo Spears,
“I love you because”. Folk songs,
“Salley
Gardens”; “Tom Bowling”; “Shallow Brown”.
And
many, many others.
*********
From a Journal. April 2016
__________________________________
As the six
large paintings near completion I begin to feel the urge to paint some other
smaller ones. This is partly for pragmatic reasons but also because there are
some ideas which I’ve neglected. The pragmatic reasons; There are two galleries
where the project will be shown, one of them large, suited to showing large
works, the other smaller and more intimate. I’m aware that I have produced a
lot of work and wall space is limited, so some selection may be needed, thus
smaller paintings are more appropriate.
The other
reason for producing smaller works; I’ve become interested in painting
with more limited colour sets. Perhaps two colours plus
black and white.The two colours will be pre- mixed, eg. very pale pink (magenta
mixed with yellow- ochre and white) and
dark, rich green ( sap green mixed with burnt umber). Only black and white and these
two (mixed) colours will be on the palette.Each painting will have its own
particular colours. So far so good.
It’s tempting to sneak in a bit of a new colour but its interesting to
see how some unlikely colours can mix happily.
Subject is still “lovers” and I’m using existing studies and sketches.
New paintings approx. 16ins x 12ins.
Extracts from a
journal, January 2016
_______________________________________________
During the winter
until mid-January, I’ve been inactive. I
convince myself every year that such inactivity is genetic….that our early
ancestors went into a semi-hibernation when the weather was cold, when food was
scarce, when daylight was brief. The sensible and safe thing to do was to wrap
up in furs, stay near a fire and sleep long through the unlit, unrelieved
darkness. Well, now we have
central-heating, electricity and plentiful food but I feel that genetically we
have not moved on so much.
Now that the
daylight is longer and there are signs of growth in the garden my health and
energy are restored. I feel like one of those athletes….high-jumpers and long
jumpers …who sway backwards and forwards, from foot to foot at the beginning of
their run. They imagine the next ten seconds, the perfect moment to take off,
the flight through the air, the landing.
Well, I’ve been swaying and
imagining for several days and have finally taken the leap. I’m painting again! And feel much better for it. I don’t know how
far I will leap or where I will land….but all’s well again.
Returning to the
paintings after the break. Although I have looked at them and puzzled about
them often, I havn’t painted on them. I now see things in them that I was happy
with but now am not, and things that I
was uneasy about which now seem OK. So they are in some ways old paintings
ready to come to new life. The changes I need to make are minor, but are
important and cannot be left unchanged.
First I must revitalise the palettes. Each painting has its own palette
which now needs scraping down and I need to reaquaint myself with the various
colour-sets. I feel excited that there is some good work done and that I can
now see the solutions to what were formerly problems.
_________________________
March 2016
I had reason
recently to refer to my painting influences, my mentors. I usualy name them as
Samuel Palmer, Lucas Cranach, Thomas Gainsborough and others. But these are all
painters who died more than 150 years ago!
Why would I want to be influenced by them? And why no 20th century
artists? Well of course I’m not thinking
of painting styles. I’ve no intention of trying to paint like Palmer etc. It is more to do with mindset and
ideas. I want the poetry of Palmer, the
unworldly mytholygy of Cranach, the humanity of Gainsborough….and their
understanding of the strangeness of the world.
I might equally name, for similar reasons,
Matisse, Picasso, Bacon, Rothko, Benjamin Britten, Richard Strauss, Harrison
Birtwhistle, Messiaen, (even these are old-hat to some critics!). It is interesting to note that when musicians
are asked the same question, ( I have heard Britten, Stravinsky, Tippet, Messiaen,
Shostakovich respond to it), they name Mozart, Beethoven, Purcell, Bach. There
is no interest in adopting the style of these previous composers, style is only
the clothes they wear. Only beneath the clothes is the substance.
NOVEMBER, extracts from a journal (September) 2015.
_______________________________________________
Although I still
think of and refer to these (my) paintings, by their colours…the green one….the
yellow one….etc. I am not a colourist.
Not in the sense that Gauguin, Matisse, Howard Hodgkin are
colourists. A true colourist uses colour
as the main expressive element. So the
emotions, thought processes, of the viewer are suggested and manipulated by the
colour. Whether this gift (and I envy it as a gift) is inate or learned I don’t
know….but there does seem to be a common factor with many such artists….that
they experienced colour as an important element in their early life.
Gauguin,
although born in France, lived in Lima, Peru, with his Peruvian mother and her
family through his childhood years, and later as a merchant seaman he visited
Central and South America for long periods. Eventually he was attracted back to
the primitivism and exotic landscape and people of Tahiti and the Marquesas
Islands. The dark richness of his work and the unrealistic and poetic colours
were a huge influence on French painting at the very end of the nineteenth
century.
Matisse was born
in cold northern France, but in a town renowned for the production of richly
coloured, printed and woven, fabrics. Many of his family were employed in this
industry, it was a familiar part of Matisse’s childhood environment. Later he was drawn to the south of France and
then to north Africa, where he was again enveloped in the rich colour and
patterns of rugs, fabrics and ceramics. All of which found their way into his
paintings and designs.
George Braque
started his career in his father’s painting and decorating business, with the
soft, sophisticated colours of fin- de- siecle
Parisian interior design. Despite a
flirtation with Fauvism, during his involvement with Cubism and in his later,
wonderfully creative years, he was again using the soft, low-key palette of the
“decorator”.
Hodgkin has many times visited India to
experience the light and colour and he is a collector of and respected
authority on Indian miniatures.
***
On the other
hand, I was born and raised in the still war-damaged city of Liverpool. Even in
the 1960’s there were many spaces….bomb-sites…visible in central Liverpool and
the dust and grit of war and reconstruction, and industry, were part of
life. Consequently, for most people
“colour” meant which football team they supported. So art-students were trained to be tonal
painters. We still had to visit London or access expensive books to let the
20th century art-world into our lives (Liverpool is now an exciting and
attractive 21st century city.).
Much later, when
we lived in London, my wife, a tapestry and needlepoint designer, worked in the
studio of Kaffe Fassett. He was….is….an
inspirational knitter and fabric/textile designer and maker. Born in
California, fearless, inventive, charming and a workaholic, he employed a small
team of skilled “stitchers” to help him realise his designs, under his
supervision. A traditional and very productive workshop environment…..daily, at
his north London house, (tasty lunches provided). On a few occasions I was
asked to help. Dogsbody work, I am not a
stitcher. On one occasion he wanted me to do the “colourways” for a wallpaper
design. He had finalised the design and needed examples of artwork produced in
various combinations of colours. We sat down and he mixed gouache paints into small
pots. “Paint this part with this colour,
that part with this blue”, etc. Full instructions. Secretly I thought they
would look awful….such odd combinations…but it was not my place to say so. I
did as instructed.
….and was amazed at the harmonious results. Then he gave me
new instructions for the next sample, with equally striking effect….and so on.
It was then
that I realised what a mysterious thing colour choice was. And that Kaffe
understood it….and I didn’t. His designs and colour use are
now identifiable as ”Kaffe Fassett”.
At about the
same time as I was growing up in impoverished and broken Liverpool, Kaffe was
living his boyhood on brightly lit, colouful and warm Big Sur. When he came to England he made an early
visit to Scotland, where a friend taught him to knit. He always says that his “british colours”
came from the wools, but also from the moss, peat, heather and rock colours of
the Scottish landscape.
It is often
stated, and is largely true, that Art feeds on Art. But not entirely true. The”not entirely” is a very important
bit. As I’ve written earlier in this
blog….the quote from Messiaen….works of art are technically alike and related
to one another, in that they rely on past practice for their production and
structure. However it is an elusive,
mysterious impulse which is at the core of the work. This “mysterious wisdom” is from the non-art
baggage that artists carry around with them.
The artist’s ideas and emotions feed on the wide world…on personal
relationships; on politics, religion; on poetry, music, literature, drama; on philosophy; on science; on luck, the
zeitgeist, joy and sorrow; on genes; on life experience. It is this individual and random input
which is the “not entirely”. It is
wonderful.
Full of wonder
*************************
____________________________________
More words about why I’m reluctant to use too many words! I
think that what I mistrust is the inappropriate use….overuse…of one artform to describe another
But words are
useful, and are produced in large quantities, to guide us in a general
way. For instance, to tell of the life
and personality of the artist; the artist’s context in the history of art and
in the history of society; how the
artwork was made (technically); what other commentators have said and written
about the artwork. But words cannot explain the ”meaning” of an artwork
There are many
examples of artists complaining when critics/theorists attempt to do this.
These complaints are often misattributed and apocryphal but are neatly summed
up by “writing about painting is like dancing about architecture”
When
Schoenberg played a new piano composition to a group of friends, one of them
asked him later what was it about. He sat down at the piano and played it
again, “that’s what it’s about”. When
Benjamin Britten was asked what was the main difference between his “Turn of
the Screw” and his “Billy Budd” he replied, “same notes, different order”. Olivier Messiaen wrote extensively and in
analytical detail about his own music.
Thus, about one of his compositions, “Harawi”. (This translation by
Robert Sholl)
“There
is above all in this work a great rhythmic research (added
values,
non-retrogradable rhythms, rhythmic canons “irrational”
values
and short notes linked to longer ones(…); inexact augmentations;
(….).a great quantity of non-classifiable chords and sonorities (notably
the
chords of inferior contracted resonance); the pursuit of a
melodic line that is vocal, simple,
singing, with its own melodic
cadences; birdsong; counterpoints of waterdrops; [and] atmospheric
vibrations. It is finally, and
this is the only thing of import, a great
cry of love ”
.
from essay #2 by Robert Sholl.
“Messiaen
Studies” edited R.Sholl
Cambridge University Press, 2007.
So Messiaen
describes the nuts and bolts, the mechanics of the piece, a list of technical
parts. But the final sentence, which he
puts into italics, points to “the only thing of import”. The Great Cry of Love
can only be experienced by listening to the music.
Looking at one of my Re-invent paintings in the same way (let’s choose the yellow one) it would go ….Strongly coloured, mainly harmonious in colour but with areas of complimentary colour throughout; thin, scrubbed paint and broadly painted impasto. Use of line, contrast of tone, contrast of colour, to distinguish and separate the images Large areas with no detail; carefuly delineated close observation; use of conventional perspective, with distortions; large and small marks; use of pattern; Oil paint, underpainted with acrylic. The oil paint is mainly undiluted but there are in places thin glazes of transparent colour It is finally, and this is the only thing of import, lovers on a bed.
*********************************
My paintings will have titles. Not simply to identify them nor to describe them. Thinking through the subject of lovers and love as I work, I’m reminded constantly of references in poetry, music and painting, which may or may not be directly useful to me, but which remind me of all the possibilities. From these references I will devise the titles It is not necessary for you, the viewer, to know these references but they are part of my source material. I take pleasure in being aware of them, and acknowledging them, if only in gratitude to the originators. The origins of the titles will not be casualy identifiable because I will present them as apparently random phrases. I’m not yet decided whether to reveal the originals or not, and anyway I’m still coming across new possibilities The paintings are in no way illustrations of the titles. Indeed the brief titles and paintings will be interchangeable. In general I think titles are useful when they point a direction. In the present case they help with my mindset.
I do not
dislike or discount the use of sentimentality in art, but it has limited and
short term appeal. (How many of us fail to feel lump- in- throat or tearful at
the final “Mimi” in La Boheme, only to laugh at ourselves later, for our
gullibility? Although Puccini said that
he sobbed as he wrote it). Using lovers as a subject, it is easy to fall into
that sentimental trap.
Conscious of
needing to avoid this as I produce these paintings, my head is filled with
references from poetry, song, music, paintings, few of which are setimental although
many are emotional and romantic/mystical. And most of them have references to
betrayal, the end of love, cynicism and death.
For instance, “…sleeping head…human…faithless arm…” which I may use as a title, is recogniseable as from the first line of “Lullaby”, by W.H.Auden. The avid illustrator may find this line to be promising material. But…the poem is about guilt; philosophical concepts; human failure; spirituality; human joy. (this is not my “interpretation” but is there in the skeleton of the poem, which must be read to reveal its complicated and poetic meanings). How could anyone hope to illustrate “And the grave proves the child ephemeral….” ?
So will any
of these poetic concepts rub off into my paintings? I don’t know. But I do have
faith in the unconscious mystery of creativity…..and in crossing my fingers.
***********************************
May 2015
I’m producing these
paintings by spending a lot of time in preparation, which for me is a very
important part of the process.
With watercolour I
probably spend more time in preparation than on the final painting. Probably
because watercolour is quite difficult to alter or to remove without spoiling
the freshness of the paint. For large
watercolours I usualy do several small preparatory sketches and then a full
size acrylic version in which I push and pull the forms about until I’ve ironed
out some potential problems.
Nevertheless, even when transferred onto watercolour- paper there is a
lot of scrubbing and spongeing out. For this reason I usually make an initial
ghost image and underpainting in Cobalt blue,
a colour which easily washes off a good watercolour paper. The image is
transferred from the acrylic to the watercolour paper as simply as possible,
using grid-squares or transfer paper (tracing paper)
The oil paintings
are prepared similarly. Small dummy
trials of composition and colour, then a larger….perhaps same size…acrylic
which is worked on and altered over perhaps a period of weeks. Then transferred onto the canvas where
initial underpainting is also done with acrylic. The quick drying nature of
acrylic is useful for repainting and changes of mind. It is also an extra primer for the canvas and
means that oil-paint can be applied within an hour of underpainting. The
underpainting is a ghost image, often almost monotone. Once oil paint is
applied of course acrylic cannot be painted over it.
Only the main
large areas of the image are painted at this stage, hardly any detail.
All of this applies only to larger studio works, I
frequently paint watercolours, acrylics and oils alla-prima.
*****************************
If I pay
attention to the production process (creative process)……how do my paintings materialise?. I see a picture complete in my minds-eye,
with assembled parts, objects, colours and a vague atmosphere which is to do
with my personal mysteries….my style. And all wrapped around “the
subject”, which may already have a half
formed title.
Then, when I come
to turn the imagined image into reality on paper, it immediately starts to
change.
For instance, the
painting var.6 (yellow painting). Lovers on a bed, in a similar soft light as
the original Michael Andrews. When I
drew the figures independently of the room, I realised I had drawn them from an
overhead viewpoint and when imposed onto the room they were in a “wrong”
perspective. Perspective was not meant to be faultlessly accurate but was also
not wanted to be contradictory. So something had to change. I changed the room.
The furnishings of the room were then arranged eccentrically to suit the high
viewpoint and this also suggested a change of colour set. And so the original concept of the painting
had adjusted itself within a short time of being assembled…..and will change
again, so that soon I will not be able to recall the original…imagined image..
***********************************
Examining my
production methods (especially when written down), worries me. It becomes “writ
in stone” and describes a method which may suddenly or eventually become
obsolete for me. But having written it, it looks like an established and
permanent method. The past should not be allowed to obscure the future. I want
only to see clear water ahead. I realise that it is 90% certain that I will now
always work in this way….but the 10% uncertainty is precious.
I also think
that writing (for the artist ) can diminish the creative stimulus. That using
words can dilute the power of the image.
I avoid talking about work in progress and intended projects because I’m
afraid that I might empty the creative pot by expressing too much of my intentions
in words, or by misleading myself up the wrong avenue.
I will use
words to describe the working process (superficially), or perhaps to mention
related ideas flicking about in my head,
but not to”explain” the paintings or
why I painted them thus, or to say what they mean. Because I don’t know.
**************************************
18.06.15
 |
Michael Andrews. Lovers. 1956. Oil on board, 15 x 19.7 cm
Collection: Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales
Copyright the Estate of Michael Andrews, courtesy James Hyman Gallery, London. |
RETAKE ---- REINVENT.
TRANSCRIPTION PROJECT
Extracts from a journal
Noel McCready
FIRST THOUGHTS.
OCT. 2014
______________________________________
There seems to be little on the Cardiff National Gallery website….little
at least of the sort of painting I’m looking for ! There seems to be some
(temporary, I hope) absence of images, iether for copyright reasons or because
of re-organisation.
So what am I looking for? When
the idea was first proposed I immediately thought of figures, figures in a landscape. Probably of 17th or 18th Century origin. When I learned that we were not limited to a
particular period I then thought of 20th C. or late Impressionist…Manet for
instance, or Gauguin, Vuillard, Maurice Denis.
“
Figures in a landscape “ because that seems to be where I’m headed in all my
recent work, For many years I’ve painted
landscapes (it was “my subject” ) and in recent years I’ve done a lot of figure
drawing. They seem to be
converging. One of the characteristics
in common among the above artists (except Manet ) is that they are all
representational painters but they do not try too hard to hide the flatness of
the picture surface….indeed they include it as integral to the painting. So I enjoy that paradox. It always seems to be a strange thing
for artists to do…..to construct a three-dimentional
world on a two-dimentional surface, using pigment mixed with oil ! So I will probably explore/exploit that
quality. Indeed, I think that some of my
satisfaction in making large watercolours is their physical flatness….no paint
textures….so I will probably produce at least one watercolour for this project.
Although oil will be my main medium.
HOWEVER…it remains to be seen what, if
anything, of these artists is in the Cardiff
--------------------------------------------------------------------
( I considered some J.D.Innes figure paintings)………..looking at these
paintings again I find them sentimentally romantic….even fay. I don’t want to
go in that direction. They had particular and personal meaning to Innes…..which
I can’t latch onto.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
.
DECEMBER, 2014
___________________________________
On 12th Dec most of the tutors involved in the project
visited the Cardiff
National Museum Art Gallery
I made an early start (………………….).We were welcomed, and made to feel
welcome by museum staff, particularly
the exhibition curator who had gone to much trouble to plan the day for us and
she spent much of her day making sure that we saw as much as we wanted to. We were free to photograph, with only slight
restrictons and draw
or paint in the galleries under the
watchful, but kindly eyes of the gallery attendants. We were conducted through
stores of paintings and paintings we’d requested to see were made available.
There was also an exhibition (of 20th centuary works) being hung, which
was interesting to see…..the canvasses seemed more approachable as they leaned
against the walls in an informal way….as the artists had handed them
over….rather than “properly dressed” and carefully hung.
I felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of images available and thought
how much easier the whole exercise would have been if we had been given a restricted
list of (say) a dozen works to choose from.
There were no Manets, Vuillards, Gauguins that interested me, so I
hunted about for inspiration.. The difficulty was that the “masterpieces” were
so
compleat and definitive that making a
transcription seemed pointless
(………………..)
I looked at and sketched mainly from
respectable but minor landscapes from the 17th and 18th centuries and was
particularly taken by a Daumier, (a grand horse)
On the train journey home and during the next few days my thoughts
became occupied by a small painting, “
Lovers “ by Michael Andrews (1956). It
is so understated and mysterious and suggestive that it seems to offer lots of
scope for variations. So
that is my final choice. It is
tiny, 8ins by 6ins. One of the smallest painting in the gallery, but it engaged
me….I feel at home with it.
FEBRUARY, 2015
__________________________________
Jotting, scribbling, thinking, planning, visualising, doodling,
writing. I’m keeping a journal/ studio
book/sketch book/ideas book specific to this project. Keeping a record of the
development of the transcription(s)………..(……………..) ………Thinking at the moment is
of large oil paintings (well large for me, 50ins by 40ins) and as I’ve
developed and produced watercolours for many years….some will be watercolours.
This begs the question, how many? I’ve
six or seven months production time, this suggests six paintngs….a variable. What will be the subject? Lovers, obviously. How much will I take from Michael
Andrews? Not colour. Not technique. What has attracted me to his painting? The vagueness, the figures in an ambiguous
space. The basic simplicity (two figures and little else…..except suggestions
of lives being lived)
And lovers. It is not possible to
be interesed in the Arts….drawing, painting, poetry, sculpture, music,
literature, opera, theatre, film, photography…without quickly realising that
love, or the relationship between two people,
or simply human relations, the
Human Condition…is a primary subject of major interest to artists. And to everybody else !! (………………………………………………………………….
…………………………………………….)
At the moment I think I will keep the basic composition of Michael
Andrews. The two figures in the same location on the canvas, a vague light
source, the blank undeveloped edges suggesting an inner frame (“this is a
painting” or a theatre?). But the
envioronments will change.
Because I listen to a lot of music the phrase “theme and variations”
springs to mind. So I will paint a set of variations on M.A’s theme. Two
watercolours, four oil paintings. Each with its own colour set. They will be
painted as a group, side by side, but not with a running narrative, (NOT the
seven ages of man…and woman )
(……………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………….)
MID APRIL, 2015.
_______________________________
By now I have designed all the pieces, at
least in embryo and they are all started on canvas or paper. I’ll be interested
to see what happens next !! I do not
normally provide a verbal commentary on my work but for this project I’m
intrigued to do so.
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