Such a find & photograph affords the opportunity & provides the inspiration to indulge in a little much-needed image & blogging husbandry, & specifically the selection & (re)presentation of some more recently taken photographs of small areas to be found along this particular road, which, by way of explanation of such an endeavour, constitutes the main bus route operating between Chester & Wrexham, hence its surface being marked at numerous intervals to indicate stopping zones, tarmacked over, as might be extrapolated from the available pictorial evidence, a certain red & also outlined & lettered with yellow paint.
From such source material, the keen aesthetician might extract a variety of incident, such as this fine example of craquelure, of an intriguingly circular, looped nature, upon the yellow painted line, which itself shows evidence in places of having been applied in two layers:
A second example includes the familiar-to-these-parts form of the grating of a cast-iron drainage grid cover, in addition to abstracted fragments - lines, angles, curves & loops of forms - of alphabetical lettering as another aspect of compositional interest. Again, erosion of areas of the uppermost surface(s) exposes evidence of the 'archaeology' of the strata of the entire surface's construction, layer upon layer...
The fragments of lettering & evidence of surface erosion - sometimes revealing intriguing glimpses, traces, of previous text painted underneath, cancelled out by subsequent layers - are features that might be observed also in the following further examples/compositions, also all rich in a variety of surface texture in the manner of 'painterly' painting, with which a visual analogy is intended, of course...
Note how, in this final example, the yellow line has been painted particularly thickly, for added textural effect.
In the context of such a photographic record & its subject matter, it's been interesting to read over the summer the reviews of Ingrid Calame's well-received exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh - the artist's drawing & oft highly-coloured painting practice being sourced from tracings of the incidental details of pavements, roads & other horizontal surfaces, & developed into complex layered compositions as might be appreciated from this online gallery of images.
15th September Update
On a coincidental note, here's a still life of a piece of fresh tarmac as painted by Dan Young & featured on his 'Daily' blog.
