Here are three images that give you a rough update on my painting progress. I call this series 'breaking down' because after I worked up the canvas with a series of the subject matter, I slowly started to push them back into the field of the canvas for semi-seamless effect.
Sketched out figurations slowly dissolve in the background, as the foreground and background kiss. This flirting push and pull of backgrounds and foregrounds with the figurations depicted, resolve into a seamless space of transformation. Neither figure, background, nor foreground can be fully understood as independent entities. Rather, they are all interconnected in a mesh of sorts. Like a melted patchwork, some aspects of the work are defined while others are completely integrated.
This phase of the painting, it's not quite 'finished' but not far from it I think, has reminded me of my past composts. In the past I have underworked a compost, using it when it was still in the process of breaking down scraps and other organic matter because I was really impatient.
Similarly, I feel as though I could call this painting finshed, but actually waiting, slowing watching it evolve. and understanding its intricacies, when I am not collaborating with it, has led me to treat the canvas more carefully and considerably.
I think my problem in the past was that I would treat painting too carefully, and get hunched over, and get very stressed if I couldn't "get it right" in other words, I'd try to control the process.
My art teacher in school would tell me to "stop getting ANAL!". In short, don't stress, it's just a painting, you can paint over your 'mishaps'
Looking back at some of my previous some works, I realised that while I may have not been pedantic when painting, sometimes I also think I was quick to call a painting 'finished'.
I think I may have underworked a lot of paintings, by not zooming in, and tending to those intricate details that were calling me to collaborate with them. Instead, I was afraid of over-working an area, so I prefered leaving paintings slightly undercooked than overcooked. I think the fundamental shift in my practice has come with confidence, but also an understanding that I cannot perfect painting, but that doesn't mean I should leave work unfinished.
With this current painting, I was really trying to observe, slow down my making, whilst trying to maintain a fluidity so as to not get caught up with minor details right from the get-go.
Letting the painting, grow on me, sitting opposite the painting and observing, and thinking about the work. Over the past 2-3 weeks, I have worked on but mainly off with this work.
Comments