Tuesday 8 October 2013

Blue on white, October 2013. Acrylics on canvas, 39.5 cm x 39.5 cm

Again I buried an old work, and again the process of doing so invigorated me. It's not unlike stopping a bleed, or turning off a screeching fan in the car at a long journey. The sense of liberation thereupon guided a carefree composition, I could invest in the canvas again with impunity. This might have influenced my frivolous use of strong colour. Blue has many contemplative properties, but is just because of this quite tricky to use. What if I don't intend to create a contemplative work? Or aren't all works contemplative? How shall I define "contemplative"? But above all;  does these considerations matter? Blue is blue, and applied on (or alongside) white it's simply blue on white, or blue alongside white.

2 comments:

  1. Hhhmmm.............now I think you are on to something with this one. I like very much the bold refinement and the colour selection, although subtle, creates a symbolic effect. don't think your use of colour is "frivolous", indeed the effect has power and asks the viewer to give it attention. The subtle effect of these colours actually draws the viewer in. It works for me.I think the intervals of exposed white, not knowing how considered they are, give this piece a form of power. No colour is "just a colour" when it comes to using their power. It's how they are used in conjunction with one another, but here there is a good symbiosis of both the blue and white.

    Have to tried doing another and reversing the sequential forms..........blue bk/grnd - white fore/grnd?
    I want to see it.............also I would like these to be developed into larger canvas................have you tried painting on plywood..........it's cheap and you can get decent sizes?

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  2. Thank you Sarah, the bias toward drawing and symbols no doubt comes from a lifelong habit of focusing on producing images of "things", to put it simply. As a centre of attention of an image, a solid form is often a given. To remain true to painterly concerns, however, I think it's very important to not be lured too far down a lane of depiction. The white lines are very important and lends physicality to the colour. To me they indicate a promise of recognition. They create a tension that keeps the eye alive to many possibilities of association. I have used the stronger colour as backdrop before, and it creates a different animal entirely. I have to get larger canvases, as many of these are of miniscule format. Plywood is a good idea, so it's off to the hardware store for me next!

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