Summer Update

When not sat a desktop PC at work (which commitment coincides with the term-time of the typical UK academic year), I tend not to have any great desire to log in and use a computer, thus blogging about matters cultural and one’s creative practice (as distinct from Instagramming on a mobile device and, of course, actually pursuing one's creative practice) tends to take a back seat, as has been the case since late June.

However, the painting produced thus far over the ‘vacation’ has reached a point where it sort-of demands to be blogged in order to maintain that particular aspect of the process of creative practice and to maintain a currency of presence in cyberspace.

To this end, I now (re)present the seven examples of a body of paintings that have been developed over the course of the last couple of months, which take advantage of the seasonal availability of greater and brighter amounts of natural daylight in which to produce ‘white paintings’ (other project ideas and further developments of bodies of work in progress have accordingly been placed on the back burner until the autumn).

The objects represented are a selection of objects, vessels, moulded in air-drying clay from existing vessels, and display certain wonky characteristics such as finger and thumb marks and imperfect forms resulting from this process of hand-making which seem to coincide with the Japanese aesthetic of ‘wabi-sabi’, hence the titles of the works.

The vessels are composed in subtly changing configurations of relationships in the manner of most artists who work within the genre of still life and are painted in a manner that aims to communicate something of the nature of the fluctuations of natural light as it describes objects in space and the surfaces upon and against which they are arranged.

‘Wabi-sabi Vessels #1’

oil on canvas/16″ x 20″/August 2018

‘Wabi-sabi Vessels #2’

oil on canvas/16″ x 20″/August 2018

‘Wabi-sabi Vessels #3’

oil on canvas/16″ x 20″/August 2018

‘Wabi-sabi Vessels #4'

oil on canvas/16″ x 20″/August 2018

‘Wabi-sabi Vessels #5’

oil on canvas/16″ x 20″/August 2018

‘Wabi-sabi Vessels #6’

oil on canvas/16″ x 20″/August 2018

‘Wabi-sabi Vessels #7’

oil on canvas/16″ x 20″/August 2018

Photorealism #5: Richard E Grant

‘Richard E Grant After a Photograph’

oil on canvas/20″ x 16″/December 2017

Continuing with the photorealist portrait ‘project’, this painting in fact being completed prior to Christmas, the image subject here is a monochrome representation of a print of a photograph of the actor and perfumier Richard E Grant, whose Instagram feeds are closely followed around these parts in addition to the enjoyment gained from his acting performances.

Again, the technical approach is intended to foreground a painterly surface, keeping things pretty loose, whilst at the same time attempting to capture a certain expression.

More Photorealism

Following on from the recent photorealist ‘portrait’ of Samuel Beckett, the latest painting on and now, resolved, off the easel has been along similar lines, employing similar means, albeit on a reduced scale (having exhausted the existing stock of larger canvases: had one been available, it would have been utilised).  This latter aspect proved itself to be less satisfying than the preceding endeavour – more cramped, less painterly, offering less scope for the brush strokes to just ‘be’, to be representative of the process of the ‘work’ of art, with, rather, virtually every mark having to be more descriptive in nature.

The portrait subject is Nick Cave, with the pose offering the bonus of describing the hands in addition to the head/face, the immediate object of reference being an A3 monochrome print of a colour photograph.

‘Nick Cave After a Photograph’

oil on canvas/20″ x 16″/October – November 2017

Ever since hearing The Birthday Party on the John Peel show, and catching the band live in 1981 (bottom of a bill supporting headliners Bauhaus with Vic Godard and Subway Sect between, at the Liverpool Royal Court), Nick Cave has loomed large on the personal cultural landscape, being a firm musical favourite as his career and repertoire has evolved, and it’s been a profoundly rewarding pleasure to listen, chronologically, to a good deal of Nick and the Bad Seeds’ back catalogue as an accompaniment to the painting process (providing the perfect excuse to indulge), if a bit strange to be looking so intently at an image of the artist as he performs.

'Big Sam': A Conclusion

The luxury of four painting sessions over an extended weekend allowed the Samuel Beckett photorealist ‘portrait’, after a print of Jane Bown‘s original photograph, to arrive at some form of resolution, presented here below upon the easel in a state of repose and in various details.

Although I’d previously spent a couple of years, individually, on drawing-from-photographic-source projects (please refer to the 2008 and 2014 (actually March ’14 – February ’15) archives of TOoT), developing technique between, I’d not worked in oil on canvas and on such a scale in such a manner (although the recentish series of ‘woodscapes’ referred to compositional photos in support of other empirical sources) – obviously there are many different stylistic precedents that one is aware of (even, to take such as Gerhard Richter or Chuck Close for example, within the work of a particular artist) and it became very much a matter of working towards interpreting the source image in a way that had integrity as ‘painterly material’ (and technique) for want of a better phrase, achieving that balance between painted mark as painted mark and a certain fidelity to the source as image, the former as ‘actively contemplated’ response to the latter, of course.

‘Samuel Beckett After Jane Bown Photograph’

oil on canvas/40″ x 30″/October 2017

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Finally, here’s the painting in position as it was ‘processed’, alongside the source image.

Bowling Along...

Recently, Mrs Rowley introduced me to the practice of making objects with homemade ‘cold porcelain’ air-drying clay, with the resulting pair of small bowls, modelled within a couple of measuring cups, pictured below.

Given the history of my monochrome ‘white pears’ paintings, and the continuing fascination of looking at such objects, it seemed appropriate to represent the creamy-coloured cold porcelain bowls against the familiar white ground also, taking on the challenge of trying to capture the subtleties of colour and hue as they appeared in the context of the fluctuating natural light, the painting marks analogous to the finger-and-thumb-formed bowls.

‘Cold Porcelain Bowls’  oil on canvas/16″ x 12″/August 2017

Showtime!

Saturday evening and, as one of the selected exhibiting artists, the opportunity to attend the Private View and opening of the North Wales Open 2017 at Theatr Clwyd in Mold, our regular cinema-going and theatrical venue, augmented by a programme of visual art and design displays, where many a fine and entertaining evening has been spent.

Despite having made a point of seeing the NWO or its predecessor prior to local government reorganisation the Clwyd Open many years over the last 30+ and previously exhibiting at Theatr Clwyd as an invitee of the ‘Group 75’ show in 2001, this was actually the first time I’d entered work (up to two pieces per individual) for consideration for selection, and was gratified not to hear news that I’d not got both in, as per the judging process (!), building up some momentum after the Wrexham Open success of April. Rather than rest on the old laurels and rely on those tried-and-tested, I decided to submit another of the ‘woodscapes’ (#5) and, for variety but possibly taking a risk in presenting two distinct aspects of painterly activity, one of the recent larger-scale ‘White Pears’ compositions (#29).

Anyway, suitably uninformed, Anna and I made our way to the venue where it was pleasing to see and be part of a well-attended event, lots of milling, viewing and relaxed chat in evidence and a wide variety of art, traditional and modern as they say, the work of professional and amateur practitioners alike, some familiar names, on show.

Anna studying the selection...

With the focus towards the personal, here follows a small group of spectators before ‘Woodscape #5’, the painting in its immediate context and in isolation and then ‘White Pears #29’ in the company of other still life compositions (paintings and a collagraph) and on its own – both paintings were favourably hung, in nice central, well-lit locations in the main and Community galleries, it must be said, so we’ve done very well out of the experience.

New Paint Jobs...

The following set of images represents the evidence of a recent bout of re-painting of previous work, the first time I’ve ever really engaged in such an endeavour but which, upon daily encounter with said objects, was deemed necessary in the light of subsequent developments.

Having recently returned to the subject/object matter of the whitewashed model pears as the field of painting practice, in the form the larger-scale compositions #28 and #29 which succeeded the departure of the series of six ‘Woodscapes’, those ‘White Pear’ works numbered #21 – #27, processed during February – April of last year, came to seem to be too dark in terms of the tone of their grounds, for whatever reason they had originally been (erroneously) rendered thus when painted from life and empirical observation. The earlier time of year, with its own particular natural light conditions, hardly seems to explain just how ‘wrong’ the paintings, and the contrasts between figures and grounds, appeared.

Thus, and in keeping with recent developments, have the grounds against which the objects appear been re-painted, as ever from direct observation transferred to canvas, comparatively significantly lighter in parts and less so in others, with adjustments also to the whitewashed pears as necessary, with the evidence presented below.

‘White Pears #21’ (2016/17) oil on canvas/20″ x 16″

original ‘White Pears #21’ (2016)

‘White Pears #22’ (2016/17) oil on canvas/20″ x 16″

original ‘White Pears #22’ (2016)

‘White Pears #23’ (2016/17) oil on canvas/20″ x 16″

original ‘White Pears #23’ (2016)

‘White Pears #24’ (2016/17) oil on canvas/16″ x 20″

original ‘White Pears #24’ (2016)

‘White Pears #25’ (2016/17) oil on canvas/20″ x 16″

original ‘White Pears #25’ (2016)

‘White Pears #26’ (2016/17) oil on canvas/20″ x 16″

original ‘White Pears #26’ (2016)

‘White Pears #27’ (2016/17) oil on canvas/20″ x 16″

original ‘White Pears #27’ (2016)

Back Indoors...

Following the six months’ work on the ‘Woodscape’ series of paintings, a return to interior concerns and our old faithful whitewashed pears, the same as last year but, on this occasion at least, on a larger scale canvas and composed with a lot of contemplative ‘blank’ space, certain of Edmund de Waal‘s displays serving as the inspiration for such…

‘White Pears #28’

oil on canvas/40″ x 30″/April 2017

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New Favourite Book

Possibly ever.

Today, TOoT celebrates the recent arrival at headquarters of the most handsome volume (‘1’ indeed) of David Batchelor’s ‘Found Monochromes’, comprising a collection of 250 photographs of examples of such from the artist’s on-going (since 1997) documentary project of these finds, of blank white signs & faded notices, or the reverse planes of, encountered in, primarily, London but also other cities in Britain & around the globe, & one in Church Stretton, the streets of which A & I pottered during a recent restorative stay nearby, also taking in other delights of Shropshire.


As one might appreciate from the sample image pages below, the book constitutes a fascinating record of these occurrences of ephemeral presences/’voids’ in the visual field, ranging in scale from small sheets of paper to billboard-sized, in the fabric of the urban environment which surrounds them in many of its aspects – its architecture & the patina acquired (including graffiti); the details, the doors & windows of these buildings & establishments; its fences, barriers & divisions; its temporary construction sites; its forgotten, forlorn corners; its proliferation of signage & printed notices &, again, more impromptu instances of visual language such as graffiti.
One of course refers to the tradition of the white monochrome in modernist painting & particularly, those of Robert Ryman, & his attention also to fastenings, in the pursuit of the object & spatial environmental nature of his work, visible as a feature of a number of the monochromes photographed by Batchelor, fixed variously by selloptape, parcel tape, string, tacks, blu-tack & other means, all adding to the interest of any given image.
In each example, the white monochromes create a pause in the midst of the environment in which they are found, a still, mute point (or, otherwise, no more than a faint whisper where evidence of faded former content might be discerned through scrutiny) in the visual ‘noise’ around them, a blank canvas to be enjoyed for its purity or, perhaps if one might be so inclined, to be subjectively projected upon or a narrative ascribed to.





From such apparently simple means can a body of work of richly rewarding complexity be accumulated & constructed.

The subject of found monochromes is, of course, one that was until recently, in the form of the ‘double black lines’ markings upon the tarmac roads of a particular North Wales town, documented originally for themselves & latterly with the addition of ‘roadkill’ cans, an active aspect of the content here at TOoT & remains dear to the heart, being by no means abandoned or consigned to history – indeed, as a recent find of another occurrence of such a phenomenon amongst the streets of Chester illustrated.

Interesting to note that mention of Batchelor’s project originally came to my intrigued attention, almost a couple of years ago now, courtesy of the estimable Jazz Green & her excellent online artist’s journal: how good it is to finally have extensive tangible evidence of the ‘Found Mononchromes’, collected together in handy book form, to be studied at leisure.