Completed Painting: 'Map 5'

'Map 5', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Panel, 60 cm X 90 cm, 2015

As I predicted, the demands of producing as much work as I can for June’s ‘Mental Mapping’ Exhibition, is deflecting me from writing too many blog posts just now.  Hence, this is a little delayed, - referring, as it does, to a painting that I completed a three weeks ago now.  On top of that, the piece itself took somewhat longer to finish than I’d originally hoped.  Never mind, everything arrives in its own time and, whilst I can always wish I worked faster, I certainly can’t beat myself up for slacking.  This is all, of course, a largely unpaid vocation, but I’m definitely putting in the hours just now.

‘Map 5’ is, unsurprisingly, the latest of my ‘Map’ paintings and has ended up looking uncannily like the others in several respects.  Each time, I’ve set out with the intention of pushing a new painting in a slightly different direction, only to find I’m actually producing a surprisingly homogeneous little body of related pieces.  Is this because I’m just trying to keep turning them out in a somewhat head-down, unreflective manner?  Am I in danger of just producing the same painting over and over again?  Who knows?

'Map 2', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Panel, 60 cm X 60 cm, 2015

One thing’s for certain, - now isn’t the time for second thoughts.  The time to appraise all this will be when they’re hanging together in Rugby, alongside Andrew Smith’s work, and my own, somewhat different photographic pieces.  Only then will I really be able to take a deep breath; assess what did or didn't work,  and what I might carry forward into future efforts.

'Map 4', Acrylics & Paper Collage On panel, 60 cm X 60 cm, 2015

For now, the main issue is whether I can meet a deadline whilst maintaining the quality of and belief in what I’m doing.  So far, I’m unusually optimistic.  In terms of quantity, there should be around two thirds of what I might once have hoped for in an ideal world, - but that was always (deliberately) unrealistic, and one’s reach should always exceed one’s grasp, after all.  If, as now seems possible, the show is comprised of wholly new work, (produced since the exhibition slot was secured), - then that will actually feel like quite an achievement.  More importantly, I do believe in these paintings.  Whatever their shortcomings, they have been produced with sincerity.

B&Q DIY Warehouse, West Leicester, February 2015

There are actually one or two differences between this painting and the four that precede it.  The most obvious is the move from a square format to a horizontal rectangular one.  This 2:3 format derives from the painting’s main visual source, - namely a set of service gates at the local B&Q DIY warehouse in Leicester [1.].  This is the first of the ‘Maps’ to take its compositional framework from an actual visible subject in that way.

B&Q DIY Warehouse, West Leicester, February 2015

I’ve already mentioned how the majority of the wood, PVA, and hardware that go into my paintings come out of that particular store.  It’s both relatively local and on my way home from work.  It’s also situated opposite the corner, with its row of advertising hoardings, that I’d already identified as a prime location for my ‘Map’ paintings.  Certainly, I’ve passed these gates hundreds of times over the years, and always been drawn to their delightful quality of irregularity-within-formality.  Whilst nominally a regular, utilitarian arrangement of four orange painted panels, - the gates are actually full of nuance and history.  Repairs, irregularly sixed replacement panels, repaints, colour mismatches, graffiti and a haphazard wealth of Health and Safety notices have all combined to create a lovely screen of banal beauty.  I’ve wanted to do something about them for ages, and now realise they actually hark back to the industrial shutters that triggered my ‘Closed’ and ‘Shut’ paintings from a couple of years ago.

'Closed 2', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Paper, 100 cm X 100 cm, 2012

'Shut 1', Acrylics & Paper Collage On Two Joined Panels.
150 cm X 100 cm Overall, 2012

Taking the essential format of the gates for my composition, the painting itself became a screen on which to float a section of street map relating to the location, along with specific references to found signage text and graffiti fragments from the original subject, the stylised triangular arrows from an adjacent sign, and the dominant “If you need help please ask” legend.  The latter is slightly paraphrased from another sign found in the car park beyond.  In my mind, it might become as much of a philosophical injunction, or a pointer towards a succesully-lived life, as a singularly patronising reference to the use of the establishment’s shopping trolleys.  Once again, I realise that these paintings are all about seeking drama and magic (or, more realistically, some form of contemplative resonance), within what are really very mundane routines and journeys.

B&Q DIY Warehouse, West Leicester, February 2015

It will come as no surprise that the orange, white, (and a little grey), palette comes from the B&Q livery.  This co-opting of corporate chromatic identities to provide a painting’s colour scheme is something that has become common throughout the ‘Map’ series to date [2.].  Just as certain tunes might get lodged in one’s head, I often become fixated on certain colour juxtapositions.  I’ve had a thing about orange and grey for a while and this was an obvious opportunity to scratch that particular itch.

Another way in which this painting differs from the previous four is in my having crossed the road and largely left the advertising posters behind.  Layers of torn poster material from the hoardings opposite the warehouse do still form the collaged basis of the piece, but there are relatively few fragments still visible on the final surface, and relatively few passages half-tone dots.  Here though, they have been partially replaced by the labels from packs of the own-brand masking tape used in the painting’s production.  I do enjoy all this knowing self-reflexivity.

Like all the other ‘Map’ pieces to date, I simply worked on this one with relatively little pre-planning, until it appeared to have reached some kind of reasonably balanced conclusion.  There were no preparatory sketches or studies, and just a handful of reference photos.  There was however, a pretty vivid sense of my personal response to a particular site, which was something I was able to keep topping up, even as I replenished my materials supplies to complete it. 

In truth, the painting ended up a lot busier and more congested than I’d originally intended, which seems to have become my default method for resolving these ‘Map’ compositions.  It seems that working without much pre-planning leads me to keep chucking in more and more, accumulating a mulch of guesses and mis-steps, until the thing seems somehow satisfied.  Perhaps this is one reason for repeatedly returning to strategies that have already worked in previous pieces.  Consequently, I do wonder whether I might return to this ‘subject’ in an attempt to achieve something a little more distilled, or which goes in a slightly different direction, when time allows.

[1.]:  Should I be accused of advertising, I should point out that other (although not many), other large DIY outlets are available.  Topically, this week has brought the news that B&Q are themselves struggling and propose to close a significant proportion of their stores.  Should we be so surprised that the DIY market is flagging, given the inability of increasing numbers of Brits to buy, (or even rent), a home nowadays?

[2.]:  I still maintain a considerable affection for much Pop Art, even if much of that movement might be seen as a less-than-critical celebration of mid-twentieth century consumer capitalism.   My own position might be described as a rather more nuanced or disillusioned acknowledgement of the extent to which commercial concerns have now absorbed our lives - shaping our physical, perceptual and mental landscapes in the process.