Completed Painting: 'Untitled (From The New School) 5'

'Untitled (From The New School) 5', Acrylic & Paper Collage On Panel,
30 cm X 30 cm X 106 mm, 2017

Here's the fifth in the 'Untitled (From The New School' series of small panels.  There's nothing particularly new to say about the motivations behind the series as a whole, so I'll refer anyone wanting to catch up here, here, here and here.

I'm rather enjoying this deliberate, highly synthetic mode of painting.  It's the antithesis of any heroic painterly 'struggle' (which suits me fine), and certainly allows me to produce them fairly quickly.  Any occasional insecurities I might feel about it all being too easy, or a bit too much of a production line, are dispelled by remembering that it's the series as a whole that will really constitute any final statement, and that each of these little paintings is as much a component of a composite entity, as anything overly profound in its own right.

As far as this particular iteration goes, the main thing to say is that it was just plenty of fun to paint.  It occurs to me that 'fun' is some thing artists (or painters, at least), often neglect to talk about.  We're much more used to hearing about artistic quandaries, existential despair, or just the frustrations of wrestling an image into some form of resolution (then deciding it's no good after all).  Is that to stave off any risk of this stuff seeming too frivolous or facile, I wonder?

But, really, what's so wrong about admitting the simple pleasures to be found in simply balancing a composition or laying-down colours, or in discovering that an educated guess or happy accident create something that just 'works'?  My hunch is that, if the underlying idea is strong enough, or the artist is sincere enough in their motivations, admitting to some joy in the physical realisation might signify a healthy creative process, at least as much as all that traditional angst [1.].

So I'm not going to pretend I didn't enjoy harnessing those areas of random collage or painterly gesture, in a deliberately 'knowing' manner.  The magic 'reveal' of peeling away masking tape never gets old, and  laying down that flat field of cadmium red - well, that was an unalloyed, sensual delight.  Sue me...



[1.]:  In this context, I'm reminded of songwriter/comedian, Tim Minchin, and his song, 'Dark Side'.  Minchin is a man who seems perfectly happy to balance the profound with the mechanics of showbiz (and clearly sees no conflict in producing quality work whilst drawing a salary from the Disney Corp.).  The intro. to this performance of 'Dark Side'/ underlines that this stuff is all just artifice anyway.