six water paintings on the wall in my studio, acrylic on linen canvas (20cm x 20cm). i took a couple of these small paintings along to an informal 'show and tell' this weekend. even though these have no discernable surface texture someone said they were most definitely my work (it must be a pattern thing)...
it would be wrong to call these small paintings studies of water. i did not refer to any external or photographic sources for these paintings. they are derived (and intentionally so) from the experiential process of painting and from my memory and imagination...
i was thinking about waves in all their forms (as one sees and experiences them) - ripples on the surface of the water, water flowing over denuded rocks, stones and pebbles, the curling branches of a contorted willow tree, the pattern of willow bark, even waves of hair...during the painting process i kept thinking back to the river, of trying to see beneath the glassy, rippling surface, the swirling current and flow of water below, going under the surface and looking up to the sunlight (and air) - this could be a beautiful vision or a dangerous thing.i was also reminded of leonardo da vinci's many drawing studies of the movement and flow of water (which seem to have an intriguing hair-like quality about them). the following night i had a strange dream in which my hair was cut very short...
leonardo da vinci, studies of water, c.1510-13 © The Royal Collectionher majesty, the queen, her royal highness, hrh the queen, or just elizabeth II (if you prefer), has quite a lot of leonardo da vinci drawings in her art collection...but not this one (a self-portrait of the great genius, a scientist, philosopher, inventor and artist)...
self-portrait, leonardo da vinci © Royal Library, Turin...'water wears away the mountains and fills the valleys. if it had the power, it would reduce the earth to a perfect sphere'[leonardo da vinci]these are two of my eroded earth discs (as mentioned in a previous post)... there are bits missing; they have weathered to imperfection...
if you see any connections between these eroded discs and the water surface paintings shown behind them, then i would be most interested to hear about them...'in time and with water, everything changes'[leonardo da vinci]...major setback of the week: autosave with no option of a reversionminor irritation of the week: flashing 'low battery' warningssmall delight of the week: harvesting fresh peas from the garden...current exhibitionsReunion Refresh @ Reunion Gallery, 5 Feb – 22 Oct 2011HWAT exhibition 2011 @ Harleston Gallery, 18 June to 11 July 2011...