The search for ‘sound’ and the experiments with the painting surface are pushing hard. I don’t want to settle into a particular style so that all my images look the same. How to avoid this, I’m not sure I know at this stage, because I see many artists who have a style, a recognised palette and a clear methodology and seeing their work in an exhibition loudly proclaims this. I feel at this early stage in my painting journey that the need is for constant experimenting. Perhaps this is not a good idea when working towards an exhibition but for me the exhibiting of the work needs to show a journey…
Continuing with the focus of the autumn soundscape, I decided to try a canvas. I’ve only ever worked on paper and so this threw up a new experience. I found the surface unexpectedly slippery and smooth which I didn’t like, preferring texture. But I got used to it and found I needed thicker paint.
The search for ‘sound’, as in the previous painting, led to many layers of investigation. The struggle, at the moment, is always understanding and capturing the sound of autumn in representation or in abstract and so, when the image becomes too representational, in other words becomes ‘something’, I destroy it in order to find another dimension. This means there is a constant tension…
Best explained with the images themselves…
I have now taken this image into the house to live with it for a while to see where to go. I’m sure it’s not finished…I think possibly there is still tension with a drawing element, text etc in my work which I need to resolve.