graphite & putty eraser/diptych 40x30cm
source: 5th generation B&W p/copy of colour p/copy from reproduced original photograph
Related to the previous drawing & its print media origins, this most recent example was also sourced from an arts publication available via the day job, in this instance a brief article in the March issue of ‘Artists & Illustrators’ promoting the work of the painter Anna King.
In its original form, this source actually comprises two horizontal format images, easily recognizable through their obvious differentiation as being a reproduction of an example of Anna’s work above a photograph depicting the artist herself, against a suitably distressed wood-panelled backdrop that references the particular nature of her aesthetic. However, taking a colour photocopy of these two images together as they appear on the page & then subsequently subjecting this copy to the photomechanical ‘degrading’ process of numerous stages of monochrome copies-from-copies results in a homogenizing effect (‘de-photographizing’ the photograph of the artist in particular) that enables the images to be read on the same visual terms, suggesting they could be used in combination ‘as one’ by the simple expedient of ignoring, removing, the white space separating them as copied, thus incorporating & continuing something of the notion of ‘duality’ introduced by this drawing’s predecessor via that particular source image’s creator Francesco Valentino. This marriage of disparate source images through the intermediary of a process of reproduction might be something to be considered for further exploration...
Further to the work of Anna King, it’s certainly a welcome discovery. The artist’s website features a generous selection of her paintings, for the most part of post-industrial wastelands, down-at-heel, decaying, delapidated, on-the-edge-of-urban, 'inbetween' spaces, unpopulated places that display signs of one-time human habitation but, as depicted, appear abandoned & on the verge or in the process of reclamation by nature. The limited palette of greys, earth browns & dull greens - although themselves subjected to an infinite, delightful variety of subtle changes in tone & hue, expertly modulated - are perfectly suited to the subject matter & give the paintings their quiet, subdued, contemplative air. Other images of isolated cottages or woods sheltering beneath expansive pale grey skies of a gentle luminosity communicate a similar quality of the encroachment of the elements & the vastness of natural space, the sense of which is emphasised by the paintings' often 'widescreen' horizontal format, Ivon Hitchens-like, cinematic in scale. Technically, the works display a loose, painterly brushwork combined with an equally exquisite element of informal pencil-drawn line that describes architecture & other man-made structure with just the right sense of suggested impermanence. This drawn aspect of the paintings is a particularly attractive feature, especially so, of course, in the context of this blog's commitment to drawing. All in all, Anna King's work is wonderfully compelling, slowly revealing the subtleties of its quiet secrets of the forgotten & overlooked, & a find to be treasured.
Soundtrack:
Throwing Muses 'In a Doghouse' (CD1)
Portishead 'Third'
Moon Wiring Club 'Shoes Off and Chairs Away'
Lambchop 'Is a Woman'
Rickie Lee Jones 'Traffic From Paradise'
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds 'The Boatman's Call'
Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man 'Out of Season'
Black Box Recorder 'England Made Me'
* Another listening pleasure, briefly interrupting TMS as it does during its BBC Radio 4 transmission, is to enjoy, from a landlubber layman's perspective, the consequently entirely abstract qualities of the Shipping Forecast, the mantra of distant names evocative & the whole strangely soothing within the comfort of the home 'studio'.
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