Looking at the lines, ready to start drawing

I have been looking at my inspiration wall of photos for a couple of  days now. Today I chose about 20 favorite photos and used the “find edge” function in PhotoShop to have a closer look at the lines in them. It’s interesting what turned up; I have shared a couple of them so you can see what I mean.

Tonight or tomorrow I will start drawing them in Indian Ink and pastels, concentrating on the lines and the bigger shapes. At the same time, I am rereading one of my most-used books on abstract art, thinking about the theory behind what I am doing. Thinking about the words, the layers of meaning and what I am bringing to this project.

Back to mapping the land

Over the last few months I have been looking at Aboriginal Art, especially works which map the land using an aerial perspective. It fascinates me, but it turns out I find it quite hard to do; the traditional Western viewpoint is so strongly ingrained. You can see my original post about this here, and some unsuccessful attempts here.  

Yesterday I was having a ‘play’ day – just spending time with paint, stamps, glue etc. I did some mono-prints, some mixed-media collage, a little scrapbooking. A bit of this and a bit of that. I sifted through a few books on my shelf, including some that show the land from above.

After I had relaxed a bit I pulled out some heavier weight watercolour paper and did some monoprints using a bonded plastic bag I had saved from something-or-other. I started just casually working on top of the monoprint. And there it was - the first attempt at aerial mapping that starts to approach what I had in mind. It feels like I have broken through an unseen barrier.

Does your art have a particular style?

I recently purchased Alyson Stanfield’s book “I’d rather be in the studio” because I want to sharpen up the business side of my art. Why Alyson and why her book? Some of the artists I follow who seem to really be doing the business, as well as making the art, recommend Alsyon. For me, that personal recommendation is important. One of those artists is Tina Mammoser, The Cycling Artist; reading about the work she puts in to her business, while retaining her passion, is very inspiring.

One of the things Alyson talks about is recognisable style. I stopped reading at that point and grabbed by visual diary for some note taking. Do I have a real style yet? Do I want to have one? If I do have one, do I even know what it is? If I don’t, should I be thinking about marketing yet or not? These are a hundred other questions…

Today I spent some time looking at photos of my paintings and through my visual diaries – a sort of virtual tour of my art history. Looking for a style; my style. Did I find one? I am not sure yet. Maybe. There are certainly some pointers along the way. What would the words be that describe that style? Again, not sure, but the beginnings of some words are there. Words like mark making, expressive, abstract, landscape, orange, transparent.

So then I thought, okay, of all your paintings is there one that you really feel represents what you want to achieve? The answer night me different tomorrow, but for today anyway the answer is this one. 10×10″ acrylic on canvas, long since sold via a local gallery to a Wellington-based New Zealand film director. And no, I don’t think it was Peter Jackson! (although it may have been for all I know) Why this one – the quality of the marks, the landscape is there but not explicit, the sense of light on the land.

Where am I at then? Thinking, thinking, thinking – and keeping notes as I go. It’s a good process.

More mapping, of a sort.

I am still deeply fascinated by the way in which Aboriginal artists map the land. I have been going through some of my stash of photos, and there’s quite a few of them, looking at the land and what has taken my eye in the past. Is it mountains, the sea, grass, buildings – what? Turns out the sea and Mt Egmont feature pretty prominently.

Then I got to thinking about what I like in others people’s work, and in my art journals. And what I like – and don’t like – about the mapping sketches I have done so far. I like simplicity, but I also like layers. Into Photoshop for a while, and I came up with 3 images that I like. This week I will be taking them onto paper for a play round to see if the ideas translate into the material world. You just never know until you try it. For the record, the images are a combination of  Waverley beach and the lillies we have growing outside Mum’s room so she can enjoy them.

My mapping went “awol”

As you saw a few posts back, I am fascinated with the way modern Aboriginal artists map the land, often from memory. I had a play a week or so back and at the weekend found time to have another shot.It’s not as easy as it looks! Why? Because my brain automatically decides to do “western perspective” landscapes instead, and not very well at that. I think producing something that satisfies my idea of ‘mapping’ the land around me is going to be way more of a learning curve than I had imagined. Bring it on I say…

In the meantime, here are just four of the many I did at the weekend, all on Fabriano Artistico140lb 5×7″ watercolour paper with Golden Fluid acrylics. It was interesting to see the work got looser and more abstract the longer I had a brush in my hand.

Latest NZAG challenge

Here’s my entry in the latest NZ Art Guild challenge, which had to involve memory in some way, and only use two colours plus black and white. I drew the pears from memory, so that’s the inspiration part.
Title: Purple and Yellow Pears
Size: 20cm w x 23cm deep
Medium: Acrylic on white AS Modigliani paper. Black, white, Windsor Purple and Deep Cadmium Yellow acrylic paints.

Mapping the land; experimenting with paint

As you know from a couple of posts back, I have become increasingly fascinated with Aboriginal art, especially the idea of mapping the land. I’ve cuts lots of pictures out of magazines, downloaded art and maps from the net, made some sketches. Generally just started to build up some reference material in my new visual diary.

Today I started in using some paint in my visual diary. Thinking about the shapes of Taranaki where I live, edges and boundaries, about topography and how we represent where we live. One painting I am happy enough with as a starting point, the other doesn’t even begin to express what I was looking for, it’s too – hang on, that would be giving the show away. It’s okay that I’m not happy with one of them, because the diary is just my sandpit for messing round in. Can you guess which one pleases me?

 

Delving into an obsession

I’ve been interested in modern Aboriginal Art for the last 5 years or so, since being exposed to it as part of the theory side of my art study with TLC. Being in New Zealand, there’s little to be seen in the flesh,  and really only the internet for exploration. Any books available tend to be about older, more traditional forms.

And then along came this - a beautiful new glossy magazine dedicated to Aboriginal Art and Artists. It has lots of beautiful full-colour photographs, scholarly articles, gallery adverts and more. Completely stunning. The second issue has just come out, that’s the one shown here, and it’s every bit as good as the first.

 

Did I mention that it’s around 180 glorious pages? And that I’m not on commission! Anyway, it has got me thinking about why I like modern Aboriginal Art and the short answer is – I’m not sure. The easy answer that springs to mind is joyful, colourful abstraction. But then I love some of the simpler, tonal works that have a Rothko feel. So it’s more than just colour, or abstraction or joy. I also love the aerial map feel of many of the works.

In the last few years I have worked on numerous series, obsessions really, such as the full moon, orange, shadows and pears. Only a tiny fraction of that study and obsession has ever been shown to anyone, even via my blog. And much of it is ongoing.

Now I think I might have to put all that aside for a while and delve into this obsession. Not that is is new, because it is not, but because suddenly I have this resource that I can study, pull apart, replicate, dissect and pore over. I suspect I’ll end up sewing, painting, drawing, collaging etc my way through the images until I begin to understand just what it is that draws me. I don’t want to produce Aboriginal Art – how can I when I am not an Aborigine? That would be mere copying. But if I can understand what draws me to it, I can transfer that joy to my own art practice.

A whisper of grass

I have been working towards a couple of exhibitions, including the annual NZ Art Guild exhibition “Out of the Blue”, and have finally finished everything I need to get done. The last works will be in Monday’s courier. Yahoo!

This is the last work to be signed and made ready for hanging. It celebrates the wonderful warm colours of the land here in New Zealand as the first spring growth of grass pops through in the paddocks around us. It’s more about how I remember that time of year, and how it makes me feel, than about the actual look of the landscape. It is 10×10″ acrylic on gallery wrap canvas.

A whisper of grass

Mark making and working loose

Yep, more in the “working loose and having fun” series. It feels so good to be back to mark making - something we explored extensively in the first year of my art course, must be five years back now. I studied with the Learning Connexion here in New Zealand, extramurally, for four years. In the end I completed an Advanced Diploma of Art & Creativity (Honours). It felt like such an achievement, and really pushed me to learn new things. Anyway…

Having moved away from mark making to all kinds of other processes, I have come full circle. And yet I am not back where I started from. I am back to the same technique, but with a very different end result, and am loving it. I regularly check Katherine Tyrrell’s blog Making a Mark here; she writes in depth about mark making and has great links to blogs of interest.

So expect to see a bit more of this style for now, especially as Katherine Tyrrell’s recent post on working in series really got me thinking about working more consistently on one theme. Mark making - like coming home after a long day at work, it just feels good.