Completed Studies & Screen Prints In Progress

'Untitled', Screen Print On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

For some time now, I’ve been trying to expand my own art practice in a number of directions beyond simply painting.  As I mentioned a few weeks back, printmaking is one such, and I’ve been able top make a bit more progress with that over recent months.

'Untitled', Screen Print On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

'Untitled', Screen Print On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

'Untitled', Screen Print On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

My previous post on the subject dealt with a two-day screen printing course I undertook at Leicester Print Workshop, but since then I’ve jumped through the necessary hoops, (both financial and practical), and am now a paid-up member.  This will give me the freedom to use their facilities as and when I need to.  My hope is that, by putting in the hours at various points over the coming months - I’ll finally develop the instincts, muscle memory and store of experience necessary to feel really comfortable as a printer.  For now, I’m concentrating on screen printing, not least because it seems ideally suited to the crossover between painting, collage photography and mechanical reproduction, already existing in my work.  I certainly wouldn’t rule out other forms of print in the future though, so watch this space.

'Untitled', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Adhesive Tape & Spray Enamel
On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016.  (Original Source Image)

Anyway, I’ve already spent quite a few hours moving forward with some imagery derived from one of the paper-based studies I produced towards the end of last year.  As ever, there’s nothing very purist about my approach.  In fact, just as I seem to be something of a hybrid painter in terms of media, - I'm as likely to rip up a print and collage it back into something else; or to screen a fragmented image onto the surface of an already painted panel; as I am to produce a pristine edition of pure prints.

'Untitled', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Screen Print, Ink, Spray Enamel, Pencil & Ballpoint Pen
& Various Solvents On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

'Untitled', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Screen Print, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish, Pencil
Ballpoint Pen & Various Solvents On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

In fact, that process is already under way, with several sacrificial versions from my first serious print run having become part of the mulch of a second group of four collaged/painted studies.  These were in turn scanned and digitally manipulated to create stencils for another, increasingly multi-layered run.  This process is distinctly fractal in nature, with each study or digital reworking offering numerous new alternatives, and even within a single print, just altering the number of contributing colour layers, or the order in which they are laid down, creates yet more potential variants.  I’m still only dipping my toe in the water with all this really, but already feel slightly boggled by how expansive it might potentially become.

'Untitled', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Screen Print, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish, Pencil,
Ballpoint Pen & Various Solvents On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

'Untitled', Acrylics, Paper Collage, Screen Print, Ink, Spray Enamel, French Polish,  Pencil,
Ballpoint Pen & Various Solvents On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

'Untitled', Digital Manipulation, 2016

'Untitled', Digital Manipulation, 2016

'Untitled', Digital Manipulation, 2016

'Untitled', Digital Manipulation, 2016

With that in mind, it’s probably worth mentioning that the images of actual screen prints shown here represent stages in an ongoing process - far more than final definitive versions.    My process seems to be to periodically pull out certain prints - allowing them to rest as milestones in a larger process, but for many to go back into the pot for further development.  I have a certain four-colour version in mind as another possible ‘result’ but am already wondering how much further one might just keep layering and increasing the overall density before an image needs to be drastically broken down and recycled all over again.  One strategy I've found to avoid an image from just becoming clogged in excess visual texture, (at any stage), is to periodically apply a stronger graphic motif in an almost arbitrary manner.  Examples of this include elements of text lifted straight out of my pre-existing photos, and blocks of colour derived from grids found within the original studies.   The whole process is far from the traditional printer’s model of the numbered edition, but complies with my mantra of ‘The Same But Different’, and a commitment to the process of mutated evolution.

West Leicester, May 2012

Of course, the real key to much of this lies with the translation of any given image into the digital realm.  It’s hardly an original revelation to point out how many new avenues of replication, versioning, or reproduction, open up as soon as digital manipulation is involved.  Whilst this is also true of more traditional, hand-made printing media, I do suspect the majority of screen prints, for instance, have already been through Photoshop at some point in their image development, nowadays.  The bigger picture is that, for a while, I’ve been talking not only about moving my own practice into a wider range of media, but beyond that - to also take account of the whole issue of translation.  This is envisaged, not only between individual media, but between the realms of the hand-made one-off, traditional/analogue reproduction, and digital imagery too [1.].

'Untitled', Screen Print On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

'Untitled', Screen Print On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

Some pointers to this can still be found in previous posts, about the work of Dan Perfect, for instance, or about Tate Modern’s ‘Painting AfterTechnology’ Exhibit, (to which I’ve referred on several occasions).  Talking about this with a younger colleague at work, the other day, I was led to wonder whether there’s a generational aspect to take into account here.  I’m definitely of an age where I can look back and see my life being divided into two, distinct phases: namely, pre mass-use-of-digital-technology, and post same.  It feels a bit like being a nineteenth century senior remembering a time before the steam engine totally reshaped the world.

'Untitled', Screen Print On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

I can’t help wondering if that’s why the technologically orientated art that interests me most is still that which consciously explores some of the intrinsic qualities of its specific medium, of speaks of the interface between the analogue and the digital.  The majority of those artists who engaged me so much at Tate Modern are, I suspect around my age, or older.  I wonder if a younger generation, through whose lives the digital dimension is more seamlessly woven, might find this idea of it as still something novel and worthy of comment, quaintly outmoded?

'Untitled', Screen Print On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

'Untitled', Screen Print On Paper, 30 cm X 30 cm, 2016

For all that, I do believe it remains the job of the artist to interrogate their chosen media, and anyway - we’re all where (and when) we are, and can only proceed on the basis of our own experience.  The point at which you stop at least asking some questions about the changing technologies of image production, and how your own methods do or don’t relate to it is probably the point at which you’ve really rendered yourself properly obsolete.

[1.]:  It seems important to reassert that, for me, this is definitely a two-way process.

Dan Perfect & Fiona Rae In Conversation At Nottingham Castle

Fiona Rae & Dan Perfect

Four posts about one exhibition is probably a lot, even by my somewhat verbose standards, so I promise, this is the last.  Either way, I recently found myself back at the ‘Painter, Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae’ exhibition at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery again, specifically to hear both artists discuss their work in person.  It was too good an opportunity to miss, particularly as I was in Nottingham for social reasons anyway.  In fact, I’d have travelled over for it anyway.

The event itself was well attended and both enjoyable and revealing, despite surprisingly stuffy conditions and difficult acoustics in the high-ceilinged Long Gallery.  Perfect and Rae talked engagingly with their interviewer before answering a number of public questions which, thankfully, were pretty intelligent overall.  The repeated exhortations to purchase signed catalogues became a little wearing after a while, but it would be foolish to pretend all this stuff happens for free and, as already mentioned, the catalogue for this show has actually been rather good value.

Paintings By Fiona Rae

Along with various interesting technical insights, the discussion also confirmed several of my own ideas about Dan and Fiona's work.  There were also several points that hadn’t really occurred to me.  Amongst these was Perfect’s stress on the importance of the body as an issue in his paintings.  I had seen them as predominantly environmental but, as he reminded us, much of the mid-twentieth century abstraction that influences his work was about the relationship of the painted mark to the moving body, (Jackson Pollock being the obvious example).

Dan Perfect, 'Generator' (Detail), Oil & Acrylic On Linen, 2012

The contrast between the horizontal emphasis of Dan’s canvases and Fiona’s general preference for the portrait format was also raised.  It’s a fairly obvious observation, but one I had overlooked, and I was interested by his reference to the cinema screen.  Indeed, he used cinematic metaphors more than once during the discussion.  The idea was also raised that the vertical emphasis allows Rae’s paintings to exploit certain ideas about ‘authority’.  Beyond the formal aspects of this, she seemed more than happy to embrace this as a general principle.

Fiona Rae & Dan Perfect

Both artists acknowledged the part played in their work by digital manipulation, although Rae again stressed her only real interest is as a tool for establishing colour schemes.  Both also noted that today it’s really just another tool available to the artist, and one that younger practitioners might think unworthy of comment.  I still maintain there is something intrinsically of the cyber-age in all these paintings, beyond mere practicalities, but perhaps It’s just taken as read in much contemporary painting, and less conscious than I had imagined.

Dan & Fiona Carry Out Their Inevitable Catalogue Signing Duties

Understandably, given their domestic arrangements, and the similar artistic territory they occupy, both artists were keen to underline the distinctions between their respective oeuvres.  Indeed, it’s fair to say there are at least as many of those as there are similarities.  Certainly, the discussion reinforced the idea of a conversation between two individuals that pervades the show as a whole.  It was amusing to see that this dialogue is not wholly without its tensions or disagreements as must be any healthy relationship between equals must be, whether artistic or domestic.  Both were adamant that they had no desire to work collaboratively, (Fiona was particularly firm on this).

Whilst the role of preparatory drawing and digital translation in Perfect’s process was already pretty clear, it was interesting to hear Rae confirm that, as I’d suspected, her own process is largely improvisational, and that each image may obscure a number of earlier attempts.  The idea of a group of canvases as sequential of glimpses of what a painting might be interested me, particularly given the stumbling progress and possible over-analysis of my own paintings of late.

Fiona Rae, 'See Your World' (Detail), Oil & Acrylic On Canvas

This essentially Jazz method, along with her stated willingness to throw pretty much anything into the mix, (in terms of cultural or painterly reference points), reinforces my view that, despite my genuine pleasure in discovering Perfect’s work in this show, Rae is probably the greater risk taker or more ‘out there’ of the two artists.  The Pop sensibility in her work was also mentioned, and it was delightful to discover that stimulation for her paintings has derived from sources as diverse as Bond Street shop window displays, ‘Krazy Kat’ cartoons or a Spice Girls music video.  It was also illuminating to hear her admit she may not always actually ‘like’ some of her more kitsch components, proving that the injection of a little sand into the oyster is a very useful strategy, creatively speaking.

Fiona Rae, 'Mixing Feeling And Time' (Detail), Oil & Acrylic
On Canvas

It’s clear that neither artist is adverse to the idea of art practice existing within an intellectual framework, but that both see this as something that might emerge after the fact of painting, rather than as an a priori condition from which the work must be generated.  Most of my potential questions were answered in the course of the discussion.  However, in connection with this, I regret not asking Fiona if her introduction of a stereotypically feminine aesthetic into the traditionally macho pursuit of abstract painting, might be a knowing response to the Feminist accounts of Art that gained increasing currency during her (and my) student years.

Dan Perfect, 'Transporter' (Detail), Oil & Acrylic On Linen

For the record, the main ‘issue’ from that period she (and Perfect), seemed happy to embody was the project of discovering how, (rather than if), painting might continue to be relevant in a multi platform culture [2.]. The relevance of this is occasionally questioned, even now, by the blinkered or historically linear.  Above all, it is this commitment to, (and retooling of), the medium, along with their willingness to speak about it without obfuscation, which makes Dan Perfect and Fiona Rae exactly the kind of painters we need around at the moment.

‘Painter, Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae’ continues until 6 July at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Castle Place, Nottingham NG1 6EL.  You’ve still got time, (just), and I certainly recommend it.

[1.]:  ‘Painter, Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae’ (Exhibition Catalogue), Nottingham, Nottingham Castle Museums & Art Galleries, 2014.

[2.]:  The enthusiasm both artists expressed for complexity and multiple relationships within their work must surely reflect this, even if my own theories about parallel digital dimensions are a bit over-egged.

Picture Perfect: More Thoughts About Dan Perfect

Dan Perfect, 'Generator', Oil & Acrylic On Linen, 2012

Dan Perfect

Following myprevious post about the exhibition, ‘Painter, Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae’, at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery, here are some thoughts specifically about the work of Dan Perfect.  I left the show wondering if I’d actually enjoyed Perfect’s work even more than Rae’s (which is still fascinating), but this may just be because he was completely new to me.  Inevitably, one brings fewer preconceptions in such cases.  Anyway, in no particular order…

• Dan Perfect’s paintings are essentially environmental.  Each contains a variety of internal space within its dense thicket of gestural marks, implied calligraphy and half-resolved hieroglyphs.  Were these illusions of traversable, physical terrain, it would doubtless be a tough scramble. In fact, they are primarily landscapes of the mind, - accumulations of thoughts, impressions, memories and associations.

Dan Perfect, 'Arcologies', Oil & Acrylic On Linen, 2012

• Often here we are lost without a map and unable to see the wood for the trees, but occasionally, Perfect leads us to the edge of the forest. 

• This allusion to physical environment is reinforced by the obvious kinship with aspects of the twentieth century British abstract landscape tradition.  It’s impossible to avoid memories of Peter Lanyon, whose multi-viewpoint plotting of a painterly topography seems an antecedent to some of Perfect’s own mark making.

Peter Lanyon, 'High Moor', Oil On Canvas, 1962

• That tradition also reveals itself whenever the painter recalibrates his palette away from the Pop end of the spectrum to incorporate neutrals and less saturated earth colours, (‘Arcologies’, ‘Generator’) or where greens prevail, (‘Full Fathom Five’, ‘Howl’).

Dan Perfect, 'Full Fathom Five', Oil & Acrylic On Linen, 2012

• Indeed, the whole issue of colour in these paintings suggests that, for all their juxtapositions and apparent randomness, the Artist’s underlying instinct is actually towards some form of harmonious equilibrium.  He’s no stranger to vibrant contrasts, saturated hues and vivid pigments, but there is a tendency to organise them into analogous overall schemes.  Thus, it’s possible to speak of a green canvas, a lilac or red/orange canvas, or, most elegant of all, an exercise in cool and warm (almost) monochrome tones, (‘Cerberus’).

Dan Perfect, 'Cerberus', Oil & Acrylic On Linen, 2013

• However, we’d be mistaken to see this work as wholly pastoral in mood.  Indeed, it is equally redolent of the multiple voices and pestering stimuli of urban life, or, of the overload of images, memories and cultural references in which we all swim.

• Perhaps this ability to suggest rural and urban contexts simultaneously is a main strength of these paintings.  It speaks of our contemporary situation, in which communications technology, knowledge-based industry and development sprawl all blur any real distinction between the two.

Dan Perfect, 'Laocoon', Oil & Acrylic On Linen, 2013

• Over and over, Perfect’s seem on the verge of resolving themselves into identifiable pictograms or motifs.  Not so long ago, this often happened, - with a vocabulary of archetypes including cartoon faces, and body parts emerging with regularity.  Nowadays, his tangled brush strokes and scribbles stop just short of transformation, - which is even more intriguing in Gestalt terms.

• Perfect has spoken of the memory of lost toys and the graphic style of Marvel comics as contributing to his melting pot of influences.  Both reinforce the importance of archetypes and memory in his work, - of recognisable fragments surfacing from a soup of apparently random mental or sensory activity, (even if he now leaves us to dot the eyes and cross the teeth).  The comic book connection feels like a stretch, but there is certainly an element of the carefully constructed but highly dynamic compositions and whiplash lines of such a tradition.

Dan Perfect, 'Transporter', Oil & Acrylic On Linen, 2014

• Another obvious reference point for all the wandering calligraphy in these paintings is the tagged graffiti to which my own eye is perennial drawn.  One may try to avoid the potential triteness of such reference points, but it’s an inescapable contributor to the visual texture of so many spaces we all pass through.  What never ceases to captivate me is the effect of form overcoming function, - of communication overwhelming physical space even as its own meanings dissolve into style.  It’s the obverse of the way that Perfect’s own marks stop just short of resolution into anything actually readable.

Dan Perfect, 'Clumping', Watercolour, Ink, Gouache & Pastel On Paper, Date Unknown

• I’m particularly fascinated by the clear distinction between phases of activity in Perfect’s work.  Ideas-generation takes place through free associated, almost automatic drawing.  Compositions for final paintings are meticulously developed from those statements digitally, before being translated at full scale on the canvas.  These stages are performed as discrete activities, suggesting extended periods of time within which he is in either a largely intuitive frame of mind or a more conscious planning mode.

• The artist highlights the ambiguities of scale that occur within that digital arena, and the deliberate intention with which supposedly random (small) gestures are reconstructed on the canvas is an important feature of the final paintings.  It can be seen in the careful, oversized description of broken brushstrokes, accidental gestures, stroke pressures, and in the vestigial colour fringing familiar to anyone who has ever made Magic Wand pixel selections in Photoshop.  This is something I’ve puzzled over in my own work and his openness about modern methods and artificial constructs feels refreshing and giving of permission.

Dan Perfect, 'Generator' (Detail), Oil & Acrylic On Linen,  2012

• Another knowing clue to the role of the computer in this work is the illusion of glowing light emanating from some of Perfect’s marks, and the recurrence of small translucent discs reminiscent of a Photoshop filter.  The multi-layered ambiguity (in paint) between the possible glow of a screen, photographic phenomena and overlapping conventions of depiction is both sophisticated and fun, (and very much of the moment).

Dan Perfect, 'Laocoon' (Detail), Oil & Acrylic On Linen, 2013

• The title of ‘Howl’ may allude to the post-war Beatnik vibe (being the title of Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem of the era), as do the obvious echoes of Jackson Pollock and Abstract Expressionism in general, ('Full Fathom Five' is a title nicked straight from Pollock).  The more I look at these paintings, the more they seem to exist simultaneously in the present, and 60 years back.

Jackson Pollock, 'Full Fathom Five', Oil & Misc. Detritus On Canvas, 1947

• Music from that period may also be important to this painter.  In the video made to accompany the exhibition he knowingly alludes to Free Jazz, and I can easily imagine the content of his images swirling to the strains of Ornette Coleman or Albert Ayler.  Indeed, viewers find themselves inhabiting them, immersively, in much the same way as we do such sounds.

'Painter, Painter: Dan Perfect, Fiona Rae', continues until 6 July 2014 at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery, Lenton Road, Nottingham NG1 6EL.