Comment on drawing

I do not identify drawing in terms of delineation or as a vehicle for tone, rather I see it in much broader way as the 'mechanics of making.' I am an abstract painter and handling colour through painting requires organisation, strategy and that old chestnut, persistence. These qualities are, to my mind, determined holistically by drawing. Getting the drawing up to speed establishes how successful the painting will be - how well made it will be. Colour is the seeing - drawing is the making. I will often draw after making a painting to look at the lateral forces at play and explore further possibilities. Taking these forces back into paint compels me to be confident and this in turn dictates my sense of scale. Everything comes from the drawing.

Decoration....

Decorative as in not having a specific descriptive function which obeys acquired rules of construction (“compare European sculptures based upon the ‘muscle’ with African ones based upon the medium” Matisse paraphrased) Did Picasso ever escape this approach or rather moved to the extreme end of the same axis…? , not decorative as in not just a ‘streamlined’ arrangement of colour and pattern (Louis Valtat a minor example, though if you want to start a sword fight with anyone – compare with Derain?)- this is the notion of colours just existing in their own right with no “pressure” (witness recent discussions on Abcrit) , decorative as in a full synthesis of perceived – real, fluid- space translated into painted space -(absorbing and extending the lesson of Cézanne and NOT coming up with cubism which took his vernacular and returned it to point 1 – see above), not decorative as in a systematic synthetic formatting (which is where twentieth century modernism went). I think it’s such a complex word to explore and may well continue to be redefined. Matisse saw colour as a “force” and used colours which “collide” into one another, however his painting journey to get to the late 40s (for it was a wilfully investigative one) was delightfully meandering and lit up so many intriguing side roads (for so many others to wander down).

The heat of synthesis

Although Cézanne’s approach was to synthesise what he saw, he maintained the nineteenth century instinct to depict. I think his level of synthesis is what transcended his depiction and made him essential for the twentieth century and why it still resonates so deeply today in the twenty first (not for some…perhaps). The issue of synthesis needs a new focus maybe; the relationship between what is seen and what is made does not pivot on depiction. It is far more symbiotic than that (not for some…perhaps). A writer wants a narrative. You cannot escape this; it is this desire that has fuelled the rise of curation. Curation is rooted in the literal. At its best it can be enlightening but it is never ‘essential’. If a painting has gone through the necessary heat of synthesis, it should come out fully cooked – any trace of the mix means it’s not done yet. A post modern lens will always pardon the lack of this ‘essential’ as a quality as the oven is never on anyway so everything gets served cold.

Reviewing dangers

The reviewing of a body of your own work can cause confusion as you narrow down your approach and condition yourself to continue working in the same vein. Just doing something and bearing down on it, is enough. The choreography of style is a major hinderence to making work of true merit.

Colour decisions - notes

Each time colour decisions are made, I try to avoid taste and aim for luminosity, by that I mean the result of how the colours interact - or at least the ambition I have when deciding upon the colour. I consider surface as meaning that the whole thing needs to be active and end up working together. I am not suggesting a miasmic soup. Furthermore I don't think dealing with colour means you can't build space into the work. Space can happen through the colour, but it is surprising - when you try to control it, it tends to lead to tonality - a sort of predictable and predicted space. Colour can 'breathe' or it can look turgid and there's a whole range of degrees in between. You can set up systems and so forth and find ways to describe them, but I think its simpler - either the colour adds up to something greater than its parts or it doesn't.

Nanteos Exhibition

I am looking forward to exhibiting in my homeland next month. I will be showing paintings from my "Roll series" , made in the mid nineties alongside figurative Lino prints which are new. I have chosen to work figuratively for several reasons : as an interesting counterpoint to the completely  abstract rolls; as monotone works to contrast with the full chroma rolls; to get me moving rapidly into print - I have been making lino prints very quickly and spontaneously . This has proved to be immensely rewarding, in terms of decision making (the figuration somehow neutralises the decisions and makes them more pragmatic ) and also in terms of letting me work anyway I chose . It is liberating to know you can do this and mean it . I will post images next month when the show opens.