Completed Painting: 'Consumed 2'

'Consumed 2', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Panel, 100 cm X 100 cm, 2014

It’s taken a while but, at last, I have a new painting to show you.  This one’s called ‘Consumed 2’ and picks up from where it’s predecessor, (‘Consumed 1’, predictably enough), left off.

'Consumed 1', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Panel,
100 cm X 100cm, 2014

As I’ve already outlined, these paintings are an attempt to revisit some smaller-scale experimental pieces, made in 2010, which essentially started the general phase of work in which I’ve been immersed ever since.  Those pieces were as much collages, as paintings, and were an attempt to integrate text elements into a nominally abstract composition.  They also made direct reference to the layers of torn advertisements and fragments of printed street text I both photograph and collect.  In those respects, they represent three key features that have recurred throughout my work in recent years.

'Untitled 2', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Board,
60 cm X 60 cm, 2012

'Untitled 4', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Board,
60 cm X 60 cm, 2012

However, as is often the case with such beginnings, those early pieces were somewhat tentative and not particularly well resolved.  Having decided that 2014 should be essentially about consolidation, rather than opening up any new creative avenues for a while, I felt it was worth exploring what they might have been, had I known then what I do now, as it were.  These recent reinterpretations certainly follow the almost total collage approach, although, as ever, there is paint in there at various levels.  They've also seen me wielding my electric sander with increasing enthusiasm throughout their development.  That's something I got back into after seeing the beautifully nuanced surfaces of Stewart Geddes' 'Zed Alley' paintings, earlier this year, and I can only apologise to my neighbours for the persistent droning emanating from my back yard.

Stewart Geddes, 'Ellerhoop' (Detail), Oil & Mixed Media On
Wooden Panel, Date Unknown

Two other obvious correspondences are the use of an essentially chance-operation mode of arriving at a composition, and the largely monochrome palette employed, (essentially black, white and greys with the merest hints of actual colour).  As with its predecessor, this painting has a relatively formal composition in its final form, but that coalesced from a pretty loose and unpremeditated process of establishing dark and light areas initially.  Although it seemed to take a lot longer to resolve in this piece, the method currently feels like a less pressured way to deal with some of my uncertainties over how to develop paintings over the last year or so.

As far as the palette goes, almost totally removing considerations of colour in favour of a tonal scheme has felt like a useful return to fundamentals, (variation within limited means, balancing polar opposites, the properties of positive and negative elements, relationships between figure and ground, etc.).  As is always the case though, it’s also raised a whole new set of issues and potential problems to be solved.

West Leicester, January 2012

West Leicester, August 2012

Not least of these is how to employ blacks or near blacks whilst avoiding the kind of turgid grubbiness that can result from working with straightforward black pigment.  In this case, my frustrated wrangling with this problem was only really resolved when I came upon a supply of spotted black tissue paper by chance.  Such serendipitous occurrences are always to be welcomed and, in this case, allowed me to energise hitherto dead areas of the painting whilst chiming in with the theme of printers’ half-tone dots on a new scale.

My instinct is to continue this mini-series by attempting a predominantly noir variation on the theme whilst exploring a richer palette of ‘blacks’ tinted with different hues.  However, I must admit, another part of me rather misses the more vividly saturated colours I was employing a while back.  As things stand, I could easily go either way in my next major piece.

In fact, there may be another delay before that can happen.  Much of this summer will now need to be devoted to a collaborative project I’ve agreed to work on for Melbourne Festival, (Derbyshire, not Australia).  The festival falls in September, but there are plenty of decisions to be made, and some quite large-scale elements to produce between now and then, which I really need to prioritise in coming weeks.  I've taken it on in the hope that a deadline to meet will shake me out of my recent relative sluggishness, and that I'll return to stuff done purely on my own agenda with more vigour, once it's completed.  Anyway, more about all that when there’s something more concrete to discuss…