I carried on working today at the Creative Bubble artspace in Swansea’s Cradock Street with fellow artist Patricia McKenna Jones. Patricia has taken the space for a few days to develop some new work and invited other artists to join her. I thought I could do with a few days experimenting so I stuck a huge piece of Fabriano Accademica paper on the wall, about 1.5 x 2 metres and started making intuitive marks, first with compressed charcoal and then with Winsor & Newton oil bars.
The mark-making I’m doing isn’t anything new, the Abstract Expressionists were at it throughout the 1940s and 1950s but it’s new for me. I normally work quite formally from life, drawing from things in front of me. It’s a departure for me to work without subject matter, without realism and without an ultimate aim. It was hard on the first day but now, on day 2, I’m relaxing into it.
From the left, today starting with what I did yesterday, mostly compressed charcoal with some streaks of scarlet and a little Alizarin Crimson, then Yellow Ochre, more Alizarin Crimson and finally Hooker’s Green.
Oh …. and I decided to work entirely with my left hand today (I’m right handed) and it made such a difference, I am much more relaxed and intuitive, the marks more varied.
A lot of my artwork is available on my Artfinder gallery. If you’d like to have a look, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page.
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I took a “creativity ” class once (yes, that’s really possible) and some of the things we tried were drawing with no reference and drawing with our left hand. I agree that the results were unexpected and interesting. Amazing how switching brain sides for your drawing hand can make such a difference! We also practiced writing with our left hand just to see what words would come out of our head that we wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.
It’s fascinating stuff. The inside of my head feels different as I am doing it
Yup!
I’ve just posted about drawing, referencing an earlier megalith piece of yours. But the last panel in this post exemplifies something I love about your work, that you abstract from landscape with deceptively simple mark making. I wish I could find that skill.
Thank you, Neil. I guess it took me many years of not engaging with landscapes because they were too overwhelming so the stones give me a focus to simplify and abstract. I still have problems with an ‘ordinary’ landscape, but not as much as I used to. The mark making is something I practice constantly, like in my latest blogs. Even if I am just scribbling away in a sketchbook absent minded ly.
It’s why I enjoy following your blog, watching your variety of mark making.
Doing some more today. It’s nice to have some space locally to wok on something so big
I’m getting a Henry Moore vibe
Oooh that’s interesting
I love your dedication,your passion is infectious
As Sheldon Always
Thank you Sheldon. I don’t know what I will do with it but it’s giving me some ideas.