*These images are the only images I had taken before Lockdown, so please excuse the hasty images.
The yellow painting was quite an unexpected tedious process. I have been used to painting with oil as though I was sketching. They were quickly made because I was so afraid of överworking my paintings, I probably underworked most of them. I have work intuitively for most of my painting practice. However, I felt like the slowing quality of switching from lens-based drawing (photograph) to watercolour and lastly to oil has engaged me to immerse myself in the creative process. Watercolour has been one of my favourite mediums to make painterly sketches. I love the blobs of colour, the way the paper holds so much moisture and the seamless bleeding of pigments. I love how unexpected results are. And quick I get "carried away" through its fluid process. I think the size of the paper, A4 in most cases, effects the process too. Intuition responds well to my ready-made watercolour cakes, and the brush holds my "combination" without the need to mix colours before a gesture. It's funny how writing about it has opened up things I didn't think about consciously when painting. Music was quite a big part to my studio practice, and I don't think I give it enough credit in writing. It is an infrequent occasion to see me without my headphones or blaring music playing in the background. The album I was listening to in this process was AMOK by Atoms for Peace. I can't explain why I listened to the album on repeat while painting. Its probably one of my recent favourites, but its possibly due to Thom Yorke's water like voice. The transition to oil was needed because I have this urgent need to move my body in a large gestural way. I feel like most processes of my making doesn't feel finished if I haven't made a big old painting of it. Is it the movement? Is the walking to and fro? Squinting at the composition from 10 metres back and then ten cms close? I feel more fluid than the paint itself. Its the material that makes me feel at peace, being able to shift colour, represent something from my eyes and my body. It feels like a dance. I love the physical labour of slapping yellow across a canvas; stretching a body in an otherwise impossible way. The process is fun. For the most part. I have so much fun painting large scale. I am in love with colour, with the way colours feel physical in the paint. This cross between senses of vision and touch interests me.
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