Completed Painting: 'Vestige 3'

'Vestige 3', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink & French Polish On Panel, 60 cm X 60 cm, 2016

Something fairly surprising has happened, in that I’ve just completed another painting, (‘Vestige 3’), in about twelve hours flat, from start to finish.  That may not seem so exciting to many, but I’m persistently hung-up about the length of time it can take me to produce work, and this definitely bucks a trend.

Perhaps, more than just time-scale, it’s about my life-long habit of sacrificing spontaneity and directness, in favour of some self-indulgent notion of ‘struggle’ - or just getting plain bogged-down in my work.  That, in itself, may be the consequence of a certain self-defeating perfectionism.  That can engender an inability to make any kind of visual statement without then modulating it, refining it, or layering something else over it, - before it becomes stale, inert, and buckles under the weight of expectation, (then repeating the whole sorry story).  When that process descends to the level of individual brush-strokes, you know you’re in time-consuming trouble, (or mental illness).

'Vestige 3', (Detail)

Clearly, ‘Vestige 3’ still exhibits plenty of that layering and modulation, in a purely visual sense, but it pleases me that these are less the product of over-fussy tinkering and agonising, and more just the accumulation of a more care-free and spontaneous succession of happy accidents or juxtapositions.  Certainly, the four or five sessions in which it coalesced over the last week, fairly flew by, - often at the end of long, tiring days at the day-job.  Result!

Anyway, it goes without saying that the painting is simply the third installment of my ongoing ‘Vestige’ series, - the basic premise of which you can catch up with elsewhere.  Another reason for my ability to turn the piece around pretty quickly is that all the decisions about motif, format, overriding themes, etc. are implicit within the basic parameters of that series, as already laid down.  With all that stuff already sorted, it was much easier to regard it as just another way station on a longer overall journey, and simply crack on.

'Vestige 3', (Detail)

The danger with this way of working is, of course, that it can eventually become a process of repeatedly hitting the autopilot button to gradually diminishing returns.  That’s something to watch out for, but at this early stage, it still feels like there are innumerable variations on the same basic theme that might be envisaged before I start to bore myself, (or, hopefully, - everyone else).  For that reason, it’s a source of some frustration that a piece which was, for much of it’s gestation period, a predominantly white painting, - ended up settling back into the overall, mid grey register of its two predecessors.  That was something I’d hoped to sidestep, but which, now, simply becomes a mini-challenge for future pieces in the series.  As my friend, and fellow painter, Shaun Morris observed the other day, - you have to just let things unfold organically, rather than forcing the issue.

'Vestige 1', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish & Misc. Solvents
On  Panel, 60 cm X 60 cm, 2016

'Vestige 2', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Adhesive Tape, Ink, Spray Enamel & Misc. Solvents
On Panel, 60 cm X 60 cm, 2016

For now, it’s probably more instructive to note the two obvious ways in with ‘Vestige 3’ does differ from its predecessors.  One would be a different strategy for dealing with the idea of fragmented text elements (themselves a crucial signifier of the ‘Lost Voices’/abandoned meanings theme of this work).  This was the result of the fortuitous street salvage of a few scraps of random poster material, even as the painting began.  The other development would be the intrusion of a little more colour within what is still a largely monochrome palette.  Those hints of golden warmth are in fact the consequence of my having slopped and rubbed shellac-based French Polish over the painting during a couple of stages.  Such material has traditionally been employed as a sealant, isolator or attractively warm-toned ground by artists, - prized as much for its rapid drying time, as anything else.  For me, recently, it has simply been a case of having an old bottle lying around, and finding it an ideal way to chuck another random, but visually pleasing, element into the mix of recent pieces, without too much over-conscious deliberation.

'Vestige 3', (Detail)

On that subject, I can’t help reflecting that there is also a definite sensual pleasure to be had from both that material’s aroma and its sticky, half-set state.  This, and my recent deployment of various, often incompatible solvents, in recent pieces, add a pleasing element of palpable ‘chemistry’, into my, otherwise generally inert, water-based processes.  In a culture now dominated by virtual, digital imagery and working methods, the sheer joy of playing with the messy, smelly ‘stuff’, - so intrinsic to painting, shouldn’t be underestimated.

One last dimension to all of this has to do with recent listening habits as these paintings have unfolded.  I’ve already alluded to a certain Hauntological impulse behind my current work, and there’s no doubt I have consciously turned to certain pieces of music which seem to espouse such ideas, in recent weeks.  However, the real soundtrack to the ‘Vestiges’ so far, has been mostly one of music generically labeled Dub Techno.  For those not familiar with it, the work of such as entities as Basic Channel, Rhythm & Sound, Porter Ricks, Deepchord, Echospace, Variant, Deadbeat, and the like, all tends to occupy a kind of quasi-ambient, abstract space, generally drawing on a fairly minimal palette of sound sources, rhythmic templates and layered effects.  It also tends to play-out via innumerable versions, remixes, and reinterpretations, - often prioritising subtle mutation over dramatic contrasts. 

'Vestige 3', (Detail)

It’s an electronic sub-genre that can, I suppose, appear somewhat conservative, or overly inward looking, if regarded superficially.  However, it’s also one tending towards the hypnotically immersive, and one from which meditative deep-listening can extract a seemingly endless wealth of textural detail and subtle variation.  If nothing else, it does seem to provide a fitting aural parallel to the visual work I’m currently engaged on.  Perhaps, time allowing, - I’ll compile a themed playlist in the not-too-distant future.