PART 3 STUDIO WORK – post 2
Part 3 Space, aesthetics and realisation
This post could be seen as a ‘nudging’ forward in several directions as I work through the realisation stage of my work. The garden is still the main possible space for showing the paintings but I am continuing to investigate other ideas listed in the first post. These are the project programme for schools entitled ‘Are you listening?” and the possible book format for the images and poetry. I feel it is essential that, at this stage, I keep options open as we have no idea what next Spring will be like in terms of restrictions, following government announcement today of a 6 month period.
- Paintings
Images continue to evolve as we enter Autumn in the garden. I’ve been drawing myself into the new season.
A different season also involves investigating a different palette which is not proving easy. My work is so expressive of colours that sing and vibrate that a different palette involving a deepening mood of tones and light is extraordinarily disconcerting. But I’m enjoying the challenge it presents because I don’t want my work to become predictable. I’m also stepping out of my comfort zone with painting in different sizes. The present image which is proving totally illusive is approx. 1.5m x 0.8m. I’ve been working on it for more than a fortnight and ended yesterday with destroying it. Here are some of the stages it has been through.
Remember that I’m searching always for ‘sound’, not visual images of Autumn! The words seem to come before the image….
“Change is coming –
I can feel a stillness
A silence
A kind of moment of breathing out!
A sigh, perhaps!
As the colour fades and the sounds dissolve…
How to paint the silence?”
- “Are you listening?” art programme
The programme is developing with further pages on markmaking. I’m interested that, thinking this through as to how to listen to the natural world is instructive for me as well. While I seem to do it instinctively in the use of line and colour, I am having to understand more of the nature of the soundscape, particularly in terms of silence. Spring and Summer seemed easy as they were so noisy but Autumn and the approaching Winter present a different sonic landscape.
An artist/primary teacher colleague is very kindly piloting this programme for me and sending the creative work of her young pupils. It is wonderful to see the markmaking of these young children as they move into a sonic world.
Children’s marks in response to sound
Children’s marks in response to sound
Children’s marks in response to sound
- Book art
The possibility of using a book format for the images and text has always been of interest. I am pleased to have made contact with Janina Maher who makes books. We are in contact and exploring different formats. There seems to be two options for me – either creating artists’ books of original work or creating books with content digitally reproduced from the original images.