Familiar Ground

Following the short interlude of the most recent pair of paintings (those based on the vintage Pifco electric hair trimmers packaging), we return to the familiar ground of the ongoing compositional exploration of selections from the stock of sawn cylinders of silver birch – again looking to the work of Edmund de Waal for a little inspiration – and the ‘homely’ environment of the still life.

The particular objects selected on this occasion were from a batch not previously utilised and contemplated, being a little slimmer and in some cases shorter than those used up until now, thus more have been accommodated within the relatively compact dimensions of the 20″ x 16″ canvas, which represents a more-or-less life-sized arrangement of shelves and objects.

Again, the in the observation and translation of the scene, the materiality of the medium and the manner of its manual application is of equal importance in the resolution of the picture-as-object, depicting objects in space (and here, these objects and their visual and physical qualities are rather user-friendly, it might be said)- as with Ivon Hitchens, the intention is that “the tree is paint and the paint is tree”.

'Silver Birch Still Life #5'

oil on canvas/20" x 16"/February 2019

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Autumn Update

Having finally brought a painting of a third configuration of the sawn cylinders of silver birch on the shelving unit to some form of resolution this very morning and also managed to photograph both it and its as-yet unrecorded predecessor in the dim late-November day’light’, here then are presented the most recent pair of fruits of the studio practice.

The familiar concerns are in evidence, first and foremost that dialogue between the representation of objects and the painting as object, the material fact of the paint itself as applied to the surface, the communication of the act of looking intently and transcribing the results to be presented in physical form. The objects under contemplation are themselves rich in detail and the challenge becomes to capture something of this individually and collectively as well as a more universal ‘thingness’.

'Silver Birch Still Life #2'

oil and graphite on canvas/16 x 20"/November 2018

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'Silver Birch Still Life #3'

oil and graphite on canvas/16 x 20"/November 2018

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Nature Encroaches

Regular readers may recognise that I have long been enamoured of the work of Edmund de Waal and certain of my paintings have reflected the influence of this artist on my own process of thinking and making (some of the ‘white pears’ series make this explicit, for example).

Thus the most recent painting to be brought to a conclusion, (re)presented here, can be said to be haunted by a de Waalian spirit. Another still life, it yet incorporates a significant element from subject matter explored in what essentially constitutes my alternative painting practice, i.e. the world of objects and forms in spaces beyond the domestic realm, in the form of a collection of cylinders of silver birch, between about 12 – 18cm in height, sawn from a length of discarded trunk found in the woods close to home. Such ‘white’ cylindrical objects pay a certain homage to de Waal’s familiar white porcelain pots and are arranged within a shelving unit that in effect resembles the vitrines in which he exhibits such collections of handmade objects.

That’s the background, anyway. What follows is the habitual process of ‘active contemplation’, first through a pencil drawing and subsequently, with slight compositional modifications in the interest of achieving a more harmonious visual balance (the sketch made obvious what wasn’t working that hadn’t occurred to the eye), in oil paint on canvas.

Silver birch still life compositional sketch

graphite on paper/30 x 21cm/30th Sept. 2018

The usual rules apply, of the communication of the physical nature of the objects and ‘tactile’ space and the making of the painting though the materiality of the medium, paint as paint and the painting itself as a discrete object before it resolves itself into a representation of the observed world. Far from being white, of course, the cylinders of silver birch each display shared and their own particular characteristics in terms of subtle earthy colouration (greens, ochres, siennas, umbers), as distinct from the purity of de Waal’s white porcelain objects, and light and shadow describes and differentiates the form of the shelving unit on and in which they stand, but it is to be hoped something of a dialogue is at least suggested with the influential source. Furthermore, by introducing such barely-modified natural objects into the realm of the still life, a dialogue is opened-up between the two genres of painting that effectively constitute my practice and continuing areas of exploration, the woodland, albeit mediated, encroaches into the domestic environment, outside meets inside.

‘Silver Birch Still Life’

oil and graphite on canvas/40″ x 30″ (101cm x 76cm)/October 2018

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More Pears (Amongst the Tomatoes*)

‘White Pears #29’

oil on canvas/40″ x 30″/May 2017

Presenting another recent painting on/off the easel (actually completed before the most recent smaller 'woodscape' of the previous blog post), another in the ongoing series featuring the remodelled and whitewashed pears as subject/object matter with this time, to return to another theme, seeing us once again under the visual influence of Edmund de Waal, arranging and obscuring some of the objects behind a sheet of semi-transparent tracing paper as others sit before this screening device.

As with the previous example, the larger scale canvas allows for a more expansive compositional approach.

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* the conservatory/studio is currently host a number of fast-growing tomato plants which have sprouted to the extent that they're obscuring the view to parts of the 'still life zone'.

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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White Pears #27

'White Pears #27'

oil on canvas/16″ x 20″/April 2016

Continuing with the Edmund de Waal-inspired compositional device of placing some of the observed objects behind a translucent ‘screen’ (of tracing paper), this latest painting displays a distinct split between upper and lower levels, those on the upper horizontal plane unscreened and those on the lower behind and appearing out of focus, but no less keenly seen. In the representation of both, and over the entire picture plane, of course, paint as manipulated material stuff is emphasised as such as much as it assumes ‘object-form’ in the description of the whitewashed, re-modelled, hand-finished pears and the horizontal and vertical surfaces of the grounds upon and against/behind which they sit and appear.

 

This one might have failed more than some of the others in the series to date…

 

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White Pears #26 (Going Further to de Waal)

'White Pears #26'

oil on canvas/16″ x 20″/April 2016

Here’s the latest painting off the easel, ploughing the familiar furrow and exploring that same Edmund de Waal-influenced compositional device of most recent development of placing some of the objects before and others behind a translucent screen (of  tracing paper), on this occasion weighting things three-two towards the latter. A little more than has been the case recently, the brushwork on both the ground and the ‘unfocussed’ pears is thicker/sketchier, more expressive of the materiality of the medium (paint as paint), more closely approaching the manner of the representation of those objects in front of the paper screen, those hand-finished remodelled pears that are observed and experienced as being palpably so.

 

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White Pears #25

'White Pears #25'

oil on canvas/16″ x 20″/April 2016

One of the more ‘harder-won’ images of recent production, this latest painting involved a fair degree of putting on and scraping back off before it came to this point of resolution – but, of course, it is all about the struggle, as I was sagely advised at university.

 

As introduced in the previous example, the image content of this painting also utilises and further explores the compositional device of placing two of the observed objects behind a screen of translucent paper in order that they appear blurred whilst those placed before the screen are seen in clear focus, visibly present rather than in something of a fugitive state, in the manner of the arrangements of objects in Edmund de Waal‘s installation ‘A Thousand Years’ for example. It is very interesting to hear de Waal speak of such matters during the course of his being featured on the compelling BBC TV series ‘What Do Artists Do All Day?’, of looking at objects for such a long time and/or with such intensity that they come to appear, or reappear to memory, blurred, out of focus, and of how much more powerful they can seem as a consequence, that not being able to get one’s hands or eyes on the object does not necessarily lessen their presence or impact. Given the amount of time this small group of objects, the whitewashed pears, has been composed in various configurations, and observed, actively, with great concentration, to be represented in paint, it perhaps seems appropriate that at least some of them should have reached a state of shifting out of focus…

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