Work in Progress

Layering

Whilst these are far from finished, I had to destroy the images in order for me to be able to rebuild them into something better, something visually more exciting.  The surface needed to be lost and so too the figure and I'm still thinking so much about how much needs to be painted and how much needs to be left out.  The colour seems to be so challenging too, I keep experimenting with different structured colouration, mostly focusing on using two dominant complementaries with some other accent colour included.


I've also been really excited over the last two weeks to get back into the print room.  I've made a new drypoint with Chine colle, (although I do need to think about the use of the photocopy for archival puposes) as well as finally etching the Zinc plate that Chris gave me. I loved the way that it etched and can't wait to put an aquatint on it as well.  I's really like to get some more plates underway, maybe so 12inch squares?

Something

I've started to destroy the paintings by working quite physically with oil and a palette knife in the backgrounds, strengthening the background colour and creating a much more dynamic surface in the process.  I think that i've been too tentative with these images and that is why I have not been happy with them.  So much in the past has been about gestural painting becoming more refined into figuration, that there needs to be some kind of destructive action as a counterpoint to the much tighter figuration.  So much of these paintings start out as measured analytic drawings that there has be be something beyond filling them in to make them exciting. I think i'm getting somewhere with these images, a combination of precision and that materiality that I so long for in painting.

Daniel Pitin

I don't know very very much about Daniel Pitin's work, work, but something really resonates with me about the figure in this complex space.  I love the way that paint is used and also the colour which has a murky beauty of resonant greys and browns

Daniel Pitin

Reworking

I think that I have been too tentative with these new paintings, and increasingly I'm concerned about the adhesion of the paint to this new surface.  In thinly applied areas the paint easily lifts and I'm worried about the longevity of these paintings.  To counteract that I started another painting of Johanna in the unprimed board surface and thought that the result was much more exciting.  Especially as the ground colour gave the whole image a new cohesion.


I have also experimented with a new green and have started to explore the possibilities of making these images predominantly using two complementaries.  


Dissatisfied with the overall thinness of the paint film, I attacked these images today with squeegeed paint, producing a much more seductive colour area that I hope will be a better counterpoint to the figuration.

Ideas

I'm thinking so much about surface now.  I met up with Piers Ottey yesterday as we re going to have a Joint show in September 2012 at Highgate Contemporary Art.  We agreed that we would meet every three months in the run up to our show to compare notes.  He confirmed what I had thought about some of the new work.  Some are working well, but others need to have time spent on them, and I think I will probably need to destroy the images and rebuild them to create the kind of image that holds the attention of the audience and myself.

Hinterlands

I'm aware of the situation I find myself in with these new paintings, a sense of not really knowing whether or not these are any good, whether I am making work that is exciting and engaging or making really dull images.  I'm constantly trying out new things, a different range of colours, a different support or size to work on.  I'm not sure if this is what I should be doing, bit I want to produce exciting nudes that are more than what I have done before