Breathing in and out

No images to post this weekend. I needed to take some time to just be with my thoughts about this project. I'm hoping writing this might help to clarify some of them.

The work I've done so far has been varied and broad. I've played with different applications and styles, and I chose to experiment with many of the concepts around this project. I think it's time to focus on just one aspect and look at it in more depth. I'm thinking I need to be disciplined and go deeper into an idea, to explore and work with it a while before committing it to canvas or paint. Nut out how best to express the ideas I have rather than settle on the first because I'm spontaneous. I find that quite hard because part of that exploration for me involves paint and immediate ideas.

I'm frustrated that the pleated work, although innovative, has lost a great deal of spontenaety in the application of the ideas... and though I love this three dimensional canvas thing, if I can't regain that gestural mark and lightness of touch, I'm going to be dissatisfied with the results. I also think some pieces don't necessarily scale up - and these ideas are more suited to a smaller scale. If I continue down that track I'm going to keep them small.

There are things I love about the angry painting I did last week, some parts I want to change that may (or not) improve it, and some things that disappoint me. Although it says what I was wanting to say, it feels heavy and solid in the expression - like a Nigel Brown work... and so I probably won't paint a second one in this style or chose to revisit it.
I don't think I want to be so descriptive about the figures in these pieces.

I'm drawn towards the idea of interstitial spaces - that's the spaces between spaces, the moments between moments. The breathing space. I'm not sure yet what this looks like or how to describe it, but I want to return to a feeling of light and lightness. This might be a good place to start.

Fish bones

In at the studio today and working on the composition about negatively charged space. It's coming along well - loose and fairly expressive. I need to give the painting time to rest before I do anything more to it, though it's working well. I might add some draw threads to the sides to secure the folds in place around the figures. Stylistically it's an interesting one - I'm not sure if it relates particularly well to the others, I'm going to work back into the piece (with care) to encourage that relationship.
When I look at all the work I've done so far, I worry a bit about the style discrepancies. I'm not sure if I should get hung up on this or not... they come out how they do, and I don't want to staunch the flow of ideas by imposing limits on the experimentation or how the images 'should' look.
I wish Bruce Mau had written a piece about 'should'. Sometimes I think I'm ruled by that concept far too much !

There and back

Today's post is a drawing of the small dancing sculpture that Ricky made.
It began as a figure in one of my paintings (This Dance) - the yellow one I posted earlier, a month or so ago. Now there's a small plaster sculpture on my desk, soft bronze and blue coloured. This is a series of sketches in graphite pencil (coloured graphite too, that makes a wash with water - delicious!) of that piece. I guess this idea has gone back and forth 4 times now since initially it relates to the ripples we make in space and how we dance around each other.

Negatively charged space

This sketch originates from the idea of negatively and positively charged spaces, how we affect a space by our presence our moods and words (that spillover thing).
I want to make two images - and this is the first one. Sometimes I find it easier to access the negative images first (like writing sad songs I guess). The pleats will run horizontally on this piece - and it's going to be important to plan them so that they fall at mouth, eye and forehead level so that the idea of miscommunication is really evident. I've bought a 700 mm length of canvas because I want this piece to be quite big. Yippee, looking forward to painting this soooo much! ( I missed my studio time this weekend).

The next piece is bubbling up too - there's a Denis Glover poem (NZ poet) that I'm thinking of, that captures the bright way that some people affect the space they inhabit. I'll post it later.

Oh, It just occurred to me to mention to new visitors who might be cruising around my blog, that if you click on an image, a larger view comes up so you can read any small notes (like this image contains). You'll need to use the 'back' button on your browser to get back to the main blog window OK?

Persistence of presence perhaps?

Here's the painting of the interior space rendered on the last piece of my prepared pleated canvas.
It's not quiet, (nice aim, but a while off yet - or maybe a whole separate project!) but it IS evocative of the persistence of presence.
This is an idea I've been trying to nail for a while now and is about the intangibles we leave behind us as we pass through a space, whether that's an essence of ourselves, a change in the electron charge within the room, or a memory of our presence held by those who remain.
I've worked back into the piece with oil pastels and graphite pencil ...I wanted to rough it up a bit and the italian canvas was somehow a little too polite (but smoooth as!).
I've attached a thin piece of balsa to the back top edge to constrain the folds. Logistically, it all holds together a lot better now.
I'm going to continue to explore this idea a bit more as well as paint the sketch of this last piece as a 2D work - on paper, for the pleasure of it.