New Beginnings: Completed Studies

'Untitled', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Spray Enamel, Ink & Coloured Pencil On Paper,
30 cm X 30 cm, 2015

There’s been precious little to show you in the way of my own original artwork in recent months, so this post represents something of a small reawakening.  The four new studies shown here are fairly modest in both scale and scope, but do indicate that my practice is starting to pick up a little renewed momentum.

'Untitled', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Spray Enamel & Ink On Paper,
30 cm X 30 cm, 2015

'Untitled', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Spray Enamel, Ink & Coloured Pencil On Paper,
30 cm X 30 cm, 2015

There’s been no real concern over my having lost my way in recent months, (as there might have once been), but rather a deliberately-embraced period of clearing my mind and recharging batteries after all the intense activity of the year’s first half.  In reality, I’ve actually been far from idle artistically, over the summer, having accepted a commission to produce some artwork for the school where I earn my living.  That particular project has been far more of a conscious design job, and doesn’t particularly resemble my other self-generated output, but has kept me rewardingly occupied for several weeks.  It’s nearing completion now, and I’ll reveal the results here soon.

'Untitled', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Spray Enamel, Ink & Coloured Pencil On Paper,
30 cm X 30 cm, 2015

Anyway, back to the subject of non-commissioned work.  Having reached a kind of milestone with June’s ‘Mental Mapping’ exhibition, I decided to re-evaluate my priorities rather than simply persisting with more of the same.  Given that some of that work involved fairly clear parameters, conceptually, I decided to just let any new things slowly emerge in a more organic manner, as and when the time felt right.   That’s pretty much where I am right now, - with numerous possibilities circulating open-endedly, but certain themes and concerns slowly coming into clearer focus.

Sneinton Market, Nottingham, May 2014

Unrecorded Location, 2009

Nottingham, May 2015

As is often the case, what initially feels like an attempt to break new ground, can actually result in more of an evolution than a revolution.  There are clear, somewhat involuntary, connections with certain familiar formal habits and techniques here.  Indeed, for all my stated desire to move things in a more painterly direction, there’s still a heavy reliance on collage methods in these little studies but - I’d contend, hints of  slightly more fluidity just starting to emerge also.

Jacqueline Humphries, 'Untitled', Oil On Canvas, 2008

Jacqueline Humphries, 'Untitled', Oil On Canvas, 2012

It’s far too early to really make any major claims for these tentative beginnings, and far more useful to just get on with generating some more as soon as possible.  Thus, I’ll just augment them with a few of my own photographic images, and work by a couple of artists who I can’t stop looking at just now.  All these images seem to speak to each other in one way or another but, for the present, it feels unnecessary to say anything more definitive than that.

Christopher Wool, 'Eurotrash', Enamel On Linen,  2004