The end of this episode.
That's it, I hung an edited selection of work that defined my key learnings on this journey, handed in my work practice essay and had a small gathering of lateral flowed guests to my final show. I would have loved a big, 'do' but not to worry there will be more openings in the future. Instead I will share my words on the wall and an image of each final work (unfortunately just snapshot quality images as Jac and Paul who were going to take images are isolating, Paul has Covid!).......
Welcome to my studio
Two years in this family, cycling to the studio most days. Jac knows it’s me arriving as there is a pause between the front door closing and the noise of footsteps on the stairs. It is at this moment I am swinging my bike around in a particular way, tucking the handlebars in behind the door frame. I clip my helmet to the cross bar and head up the narrow staircase, beware of the tortoise, guinea pigs on patrol. For two years we moved around the seasons, that could be identified by whether Stanley was awake or hibernating, whether I was wearing my old silk sundress, canvas overalls or fleece onesie; windows wide open, windows partially closed, gas heater on one bar or two.
I had been painting for years before I arrived here, I have a good eye for colour and some successful techniques yet looking back I realise I had such limited understanding of oils and their potential. I would always paint an artwork that interpreted an idea. There was a prioritisation of the end result over the process of painting, a disconnection as though the final painting was not part of me, just painted by me.
These paintings are essentially exercises. I have learnt about construction, tone, colour, technique, composition; yet to describe them as such is too limiting. It is not just about creating a ‘likeness’, rather these paintings can be more accurately described as a summary of emotions, discoveries, ideas, gestures, brush strokes, body movements, a memory of pushing paint, diluting and mixing.
We tend to describe paintings in the conventional way; historical context, meaning of the work and description of the image, yet as Art Historian James Elkins proposes they could be more accurately interpreted as a dialogue between the artist and the medium that becomes set in a hardened state to hang on the wall as a preserved memory of the artist’s process.
It is at The Broadway that I have learnt to experience a far more thorough/holistic engagement in the process. Elkins likens painting to Alchemy, and I am intoxicated by its magic as I feel my way, layer by layer manipulating oil and pigment on canvas.Combine this substance with the mind, dealing with conundrums and solutions both technical and psychological, and you end up with an addictively heady mix that sends me to the studio every day like a sleepwalker. Painting is not easy sometimes war rages, I can find no solutions and seem to destroy paintings, each layer becomes deficient in relation to its predecessor and other times it is pure poetry.
Thank you everyone for your kind words of support, its time for a new episode, gathering new material for my next suite of paintings. Believe it or not we have jumped through all the stressful hoops, have our fit to fly/covid free certificates, boarding passes and leave in the very early hours for Heathrow destination Thailand for 3 months. Feeling VERY lucky, next post from Thailand.