I want to change my method of painting.

I Want To Change My Method Of Painting… And I Hope No One Cares… is one of the longest titles I have ever used, and the only one I’ve ever placed on the surface of a painting. I created this piece as a signpost to myself; telling me to push on and don’t turn back.

For most of my career I have been a figurative painter. I wanted change my method of painting because I felt that I had grown stale, and that I was clinging to what felt safe. I also found myself doing works solely in the interest of sales. Someone would see a painting that had sold, and ask me to do another one similar to it, and this led to me growing bored and unhappy with myself. I decide a complete break was needed, and I had to explore areas that I was unfamiliar with. I made several tentative steps before I did this piece. It is very hard to reset your mind; abstract painting is HARD!

I find that I am excited about learning again. I’m excited about painting again. Sometimes I am completely lost, and that is a great thing. I found it easier to set off after I painted this piece. The paradox is that of course I care that people care; but sometimes you to accept that people may not care. You have to paint for yourself.

A painting’s personality.

As I work on this painting I am becoming aware of its personality. The painting at first seems happy and light; but also there is a hint of darkness and sadness to it. I should push the colours to a darker almost tragic area.

The forms that are occurring are reminiscent of commedia dell’Artae, and I can see Harlequin arriving. Harlequin is simple minded, and given curious tasks at which he tries his best but never fully succeeds.

Viva Picasso.

I love used book stores, and I have spent many a pleasant hour wandering through the stacks in search of a great find. One of my greatest finds is Viva Picasso: A Centennial Celebration, by the photographer David Douglas Duncan. It is a book of photographs taken by Duncan during the late 1950s and 1960s and it is surprising in its intimacy, showing Picasso at home with friends and family. My favorite photos are those that show Picasso at work in his studio surrounded by a lifetime of paintings, drawings, sculpture, and what can best be described as wreckage. It is interesting for me to see an artist’s working environment. I especially like to see what is important to an artist. Some like clean ordered spaces, others prefer chaos; some have only recent work around them, and others like Picasso need their history around them like some sort of personal talisman. In many ways the artist’s personality and temperament is laid bare by their choices in working environments.

Icon.

Icon is my first construction painting. It began as two stretchers I joined together using screws and glue. After I had stretched and gessoed the canvas I noticed that the top stretcher had pulled forward about two inches. I had a problem and I had to solve it or start over. I had some oak boards and doweling that I liked but I didn’t know how I was going to use them. I built a frame out of these materials that would lay flat against the wall, and also make the leaning top half seem more deliberate. I tell people “I meant to do that.”

I kept the painting simple, and I used an earth tone pallet that was a big departure from my usual bright primary colour pallet. The painting seemed to have an ancient quality to it, almost like an old piece of parchment or an icon, hence the title.

Under painting.

I have completed the under painting on my latest work. Now the fun begins!

I also have noticed that no matter what I do I can’t help but get paint everywhere. I put down a drop cloth, and paint misses the edge of the drop cloth by an inch. I walk up to a painting just to look at it, and somehow I get paint on my leg and down my arm. All of my cloths and clothes show my history of painting. I find that the best way to get most paint off my clothes is to use dish soap and cold water. I try not to use turpentine when I work and I find that dish soap works well for most clean-ups. It is especially good for brushes.

Flag.

The painting Flag is in many ways a crossover painting. It is the bridge from one group of straight painterly paintings to my more recent constructions. It utilizes the poured gesso technique of Push, but because of the rectangular shape the technique didn’t seem to have the same impact as it did in the square format. The square seemed so comfortably focused, whereas the rectangle seemed less self-contained.

I have been collecting various materials and objects that I find interesting. One such item was a roll of packing material made of cardboard that had thousands of uniform cuts of about two inches long in it. The cardboard was very soft and had an almost woven quality to it. I soaked the cardboard in gesso and attached it to the plywood support. The result looked heavy and unbalanced and I felt I had to add something to balance the composition. I had two small panels I had started then discarded, and I nailed them to the other side of the plywood to complete the composition.

I decided to keep the painting fairly simple by placing an under coating of yellow acrylic over which I applied a top coat of ultramarine blue. I scraped away some of the blue so the under painting would show through on the raised areas of poured gesso. The cardboard I painted with an under coat of acrylic black and over that I placed layers of cadmium red oil paint.

The title suggested itself fairly obviously as I worked. I like the dual nature of the title, it could represent a national flag, or it could also be an object flagged for attention. While not necessarily a successful painting I still view it as an important step in the development of my work.

Sean Scully: By David Carrier

Sean Scully is an artist whose work I have lately come to admire. Thames & Hudson have published several books on Sully’s work and I believe this one is a fine introduction to the work of this Irish- American painter. It has 200 illustrations, 190 are in colour.

“This book is the first fully illustrated monograph to present an account of the artist’s life and career to date, from his childhood in 1950s London, via New York and Barcelona, to the present day in Munich. Lavish reproductions of his major works illustrate the text, while photographs taken by Scully on his travels show some of the forms that inspire them. Photographs of Scully at work in his studio demonstrate stage by stage how he creates his pictures, from blank canvas to finished work.”

Push.

The painting from my recent exhibition that received the most comments is the painting Push. It is a painting that in some ways is the simplest in the show and it is one that I greatly enjoyed working on. I spent a lot of time preparing the under surface by pouring thin layers of gesso across the board and letting it run. I would let one layer dry then I would pour another layer of gesso and let it run in another direction. I also used a metal comb to create a wave-like pattern which was then covered by another layer of flowing gesso.

When it came time to paint I was surprised at how fast it all happened. I began with an under colour of ocher and yellow acrylic, and when that was dry I started painting with Winsor & Newton oil colours. After only a couple hours, I stood back and realized that there was no point pushing too far.

In some ways I feel it is too derivative of Rothko, but all in all it is one of the stronger pieces of straight painting in the show. I also feel that it is one of those dead ends that often occur – a good piece that stands alone on a path that I briefly traveled.

Halifax girl singers and others.

Here is a list of what I like to call the Halifax girl singers. There are some fantastic women musicians coming out of Halifax, Nova Scotia today, These are a few of my favorites.

Rose Cousins: If You Were For me.

Jill Barber: For All Time.

Jenn Grant: Orchestra For The Moon.

A New Kind of Light: Songs for Christmas. Jill Barber, Rose Cousins, Meaghan Smith.

I listen to a lot of different things, I’m a big fan of Canadian Music, here are a few of my favorites.

Brooke Miller: You Can See Everything.

In Flight Safety: Coast is Clear.

Feist: The Reminder.

David Francey: The Waking Hour.

Ron Sexsmith: Cobblestone RunWay.

K.D. lang: Songs of the 49th Parallel.

Corb Lund: Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!

Painting at the start.

I have started the under painting on one of my canvases. I’m looking for shapes that can be mirrored throughout the painting. I have an area of stripes that loosely runs the length of the canvas. Then there are three rectangles of colour that will be offset by the canvas that extends outward. Once I have everything blocked in I may build a layer of loose stripes across the solid blocks of colour.

My biggest problem is that I often get ahead of myself, and I try to see the finished painting, rather than just letting the painting happen. Start simply, build, follow, question, these are the things I should pay attention to.