dear reader, following on from the previous posting, fragments, here are some more fragments* from this mini series, some mounted on black card and some on white watercolour paper:
fragments #34, 3cm x 4.5cm, mounted on 15cm square watercolour card
fragments #16, 4.5cm x 4.5cm, mounted on 15cm square cardhere are three more 'fragment' collages, shown about three-to-four times their original size:
fragments #05, 3.5cm x 3.5cm
fragments #43, 3cm x 5cm
fragments #54, 3.5cm x 5cmunfinished texts, prose, notes, poems, etc, are sometimes referred to a 'fragments' in literary circles, which came to my attention from reading about the life of Rupert Brooke, a british poet of the early 20th century. he tragically died at the age of twenty seven, a classical 'adonis' in appearance, complex, passionate and impulsive in personality, an intellectual and a creative free spirit, mixing with the bloomsbury group and travelling to the south seas in his twenties. i came across an old faber & faber edition of his collected poems in a charity shop and was instantly captivated. it is a shame his work is not more widely known. his life would make an excellent biographical drama.i was wondering too if seeing many Alfred Wallis paintings** - at kettles yard house, cambridge, then the tide & tide museum at great yarmouth, and most recently at the dulwich picture gallery in london [art and life exhibition] - has been an influence. i have been charmed and delighted by their purity and authenticity, but it bothered me to discover that when Ben Nicholson wrote to Alfred Wallis, he would ask for more paintings and returned others as they did not sell in london. so, what do artists do with their rejected works?i keep a large box of painting & printmaking offcuts and discards, assorted snips and fragments of paper and card, and the very smallest scraps and tiny fragments float to the bottom of this often crumpled and rumpled sea of papers. the tiniest of offcuts and insignificant scraps were dredged from the bottom of the box to create these miniature collages, so some parts are very small indeed, only a few millimetres. looking at the two small collages above [43 and 54] they both remind me of trawler boats or barges, and it seems to reinforce a 'dredging' or trawling analogy.i am also interested in the notion of 'incompleteness' [and whether this might relate to the aesthetic of wabi wabi], since i am consciously trying to make something new or significant out of this process, as they comprise many isolated [or broken] parts, joining the tiny parts together in a new way. some of it is serendipity, in the small discoveries, discovering a simple harmony and new resonance in things of no real material value.fragments of fragments.Artworks6 – 28 September 2014Blackthorpe BarnRoughamBury St EdmundsSuffolkIP30 9HZOpen daily 10am-5pm...*these miniature collages have been signed, numbered and dated since taking the photographs.** you can see 160 Alfred Wallis paintings [or photographs of them] that are in public collections on the BBC's Your Paintings website.
on some things in passing
dear reader, last week i completed one large painting for the forthcoming artworks exhibition! i have been mostly painting in the evenings and at weekends to finish it on time (for the catalogue)...i've also been painting some very small (postcard-sized) paintings on watercolour paper, with no particular plan or ideas in mind, merely a desire to paint shapes and colours freely and intuitively without any external influences.the room in which i am doing these paintings is white and there are no pictures on the wall. there is a trestle table, paper, paint brushes and a shoebox of tubes of acrylic paints. this seems significant to the outcome, especially in regard to the importance most artists place on the art studio environment, surrounded by the ever-evolving clutter of inspiring objects and images.i wondered if i could paint without any influences in sight, not even a sketchbook, although the painted postcards have become sketches now, i think. the large painting began in this way too, and i have said to artist friends that i intended to 'paint my way out' of a situation… a different style of painting emerged, one that shows there is still something to be gained in traditional painting.the postcards are visually unrelated to the large painting, and i plan to continue to to do a handful of postcard paintings each week, to see what else might emerge from the limitations of the process.yesterday i went to see the Alfred Wallis exhibition at the Time & Tide museum (with artist friend Dee Nickerson), and i took some quick snapshots on the walk from the carpark (and one or two pictures in the exhibition). later in the day, on reviewing these images, i noticed some uncanny similarities to the earlier painted postcards...was i intentionally looking to capture photographic images which matched my pre-existing preference/use of colours in the postcards? the postcards were not on my mind yesterday. i went to see an art exhibition, and i think, like most artists, make use of the opportunity to take snaps of small things that catch my eye. anyhow, this sense of uncanny similarity (the photographs after the fact) has caused some pause for thought today, how something seen in passing later relates back to an earlier event (enacted through painting). i cannot explain this oddly reversed visual connection any better, other than displaying it in pictures (the subsequent photographs are shown in the order they were taken yesterday):
[quick snapshot between buildings, on the walk from the car park to the museum].
[through an alleyway, on the way to the museum].
[looking up at a fern growing out of a brick wall, in an alleyway].
[closed shop storefront in the high street. unusual name, skippings].
[house on the other side of the street, the door and the shape of the arch, medley of red brick buildings beyond].
[view of the exhibition, wanted to include the metallic blue barrier in the composition].
[another view of the exhibition, pale blue-grey wall panels display a quirky and compelling arrangement of picture frames and painting sizes]...p.s. i enjoyed seeing this exhibition (it is on until 8th september 2013). there was much to digest and discuss about the paintings in the exhibition: Wallis's seafaring life before painting, intrinsic motivations to paint and draw, loneliness and solitude, change, the past, recalling memories and the paintings as process into and out of memory, painting/responding to contemporary incidents, the correspondence or contact with others more knowledgeable about art and their contact with Wallis, how collectors selected or framed his work (the arbiters of taste), the techniques & media in his modest and practical re-use of materials (the tattered board of a book, a box lid, household oil paint) using the card colour as atmospheric background/sky, vigorous brushwork of the sea, attempts at perspective, the detail of boats and other structures, etc…it is interesting how Wallis's work relates to artists today, those who knowingly paint in a faux naive style or incorporate mundane materials for aesthetic or conceptual reasons. there is a purity of intention and process in Wallis's paintings and drawings - they seem to incorporate elements of both, the paint is sometimes drawn, or pencil used as a heavy, decisive outline to the paint. this honesty and naturalness now seems slightly tainted (a sad irony) by the spectacle of the exhibition (and the many private collectors), but this exhibition gives a generous insight into a humble and hard won life.most of the work is undated which gives rise to questions about the work before and after being discovered, how much was Wallis influenced to paint pictures by Jim Ede (a notable collector, who never actually met Wallis, and his letters to Wallis are now lost), or how Wallis felt about the many educated collectors and admirers (most notably, Ben Nicholson, who discovered him), the people with whom he had little or no cultural or social connection - i imagine a sense of earnest politeness mixed in with some apprehension about being understood.much credit to kettle's yard and time & tide museum on a compelling, meaningful, and visually rich display (including letters, photographs and film) which avoids any over-sentimentality. the museum's maritime context is perfect. and there is much content in this exhibition which could be compared or contrasted with lowry...(i should edit this draft, but for now…)