Pit-stops, Process and Alchemy

Recently I decided to trial some water-soluble oil-based black relief printing ink to create some mono- prints/types. The results were mixed. A somewhat frustrating process of trial and error (mostly error) led to me working back into the prints and then unexpectedly using the ink with bronze acrylic – something I happened to have had lying around for quite some time, I’m not quite sure why. I began to revel in this beautiful contrast between the deep dense black of the ink and the shimmering glow of the bronze. It felt like alchemy; happenstance was on my side, though in truth this discovery had occurred as a result of my frustration and impatience. A balance of sorts.

So I moved away from the mono-print process (although I intend to return) and into a variety of mark-making and eventually more painterly techniques using a combination of black ink and bronze acrylic – an attempt to harness the alchemy. Another turning point (after a pit-stop) which is now informing my larger work on canvas. Alchemy is always alive in the art process.

The above piece was inspired by the film Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Dir. Peter Weir

Bryter Than – Album Art

New Bryter Than album ‘All Change’ just landed, with artwork by yours truly. Looking and sounding great.
Really proud to have been a part of this.

Check out Bryter Than, here:

https://bryterthan.bandcamp.com

Scene & Captured: A New Series of Drawings

Lens captured. Camera to eye to mind, beyond. Fragments fragmented. Rooms. Spaces. Sometimes inhabited. Suggestive. A stage, fragmented by design; by desire. Distorted by design; desire. A plodding play, performing for eternity. Sand soda ash blast glass. Window pane. Reflection of reflections. Lens reflection. Echo reflect dream memory reality. Manifesting landscapes. Paths leading nowhere. Quiet wild nature. Interior. Illusive. Unreachable. Unattainable until death. Perhaps. A road, a house, a forest, a hill, a door, stairs, intruder, imposter doppelganger, beautiful-ugly, twisted features, stable-static, suddenly sees my eyes, forever returning.

Long time coming. New pencil and graphite drawing.

Took quite some time this one. Partly due to the meticulous detail within the stone. Mostly because I was heavily distracted tinkering and making music. Perhaps one day the two will come together.

Pencil and graphite powder on card, 75 x 53 cm, 2021

Graphite ‘Collages’ – Process, contradicting methods and notes to self

This process of pushing and pulling. Reworking, drawing, erasing, re-drawing, erasing…until it begins to ‘feel right’; by that I mean: until a balance is found. It only takes one mark to imbalance the whole.

Chance plays a part throughout. As much as is possible when selecting images to render.

A relaxed battle is sought. Allow for space, time and accidents. Be steadfast and occasionally brutal. Obliterate to create and all that. Work at it, with it, until it – quite often suddenly – feels right. There is always a line to cross and you need to push through it.

Relaxed persistence.

Sometimes – rarely – two , maybe three elements/images will naturally come together by chance (not pure) and they will work as if destined to be together. Work with them.

Rational mind relaxes, unconscious follows.

Draw – erase – draw – erase… Until it works.

Be mindful of unintentional chance echoes. Harness these. Connections are forged beyond you.

Be careful: images will feel forced into a space where they don’t belong. Don’t ever dismiss instincts.

Revel in the quality of the materials; the variations and varieties.

Resist cliche. Accept the unexpected.

Drain off the aspirations. Allowing time to do so.

The part has access to the whole.

Meaning is often accrued after the event…After the act: Eyes constantly moving like in a dream. Narrative appears briefly, follows a ruptured bridge to dense fog. A figure looms faceless, watching over everything, like a Sphynx riddle. A screen glows erupts into the centre of a black-hole-cave. Entrance to exit. Dream is like a ruptured film reel. Dream echoes.

Erase/Initiate

Erase/Initiate is an ongoing series of pencil drawings. The process begins with meticulously copying and/or tracing old photos and ends with significant erasure. Wherever possible the drawing is erased with as little attachment as possible. A detachment to any notions of ‘quality’ is required. In some cases, once the erasure has been performed, the drawing goes through a process of reconfiguration, occasionally in an attempt to rediscover form. An excavation occurs. There is sense of partially recovering a lost memory. In many cases the drawing is regarded as complete once the process of swift obliteration is complete. These often tend to be the most satisfactory of images, created with minimal conscious effort.

Submission time

Submission (one of five) for ING Discerning Eye…

Incidental Oscillations (Variation on previous) // Acrylic, ink, watercolour, graphite powder, pencil and letraset on fabric // 2020

Residual Projections

From within and without this piece immerges.

Beyond me. A battle. A compromise.

Reactions between material mind space time.

Move closer forward upright.

Looking at delicate details.

Enhancing. Defocus to refocus.

The space between waves.

Interefereces repeating.

A projection of thought dreams.

Residual.

Held between the layers.

Black Sea Vacuum (and details) // Graphite powder, ink and acrylic on fabric // 95 x 90 cm

Nocturnal Hums & Bathyal Plains

Over the last few weeks I have been creating a series of works inspired by a mix of ambient/electronic/drone music. The initial process was very much reliant on chance and happenstance, using a method not unlike mono-printing but using a mixture of graphite powder and water with small amounts of paint on glass. The results were mixed. As is often the case when working this way, those that worked best for me were those where I’d had as little as possible conscious intervention; where the materials were left to work their own alchemical magic.

My studio floor was covered in these experiments – which doesn’t take much because it’s not the largest of spaces. Every so often I would catch sight of a piece that ‘worked’ and would set it to one side. The process of editing had begun.

The next phase was quite unexpected but in many ways came through the process of photographing, balancing levels, cropping and editing on screen. I began to combine graphic elements and drawings (some old, some new) into these pieces, again not overthinking. Much of this was a further response to the music I’d been listing to; created in such a way that I felt enhanced that experience. The first piece below was created the day after listening to Maneuvering the Nocturnal Hum by Stars of the Lid, on headphones in the dark. I had experienced what I can only describe as a physical and mental visionary state whilst listening to these tracks. This goes some way in describing this event: something cavernous, ascending and verging on religious.

Nocturnal Hum 2020

Across Bathyal Plain 2020

The Star Rover

Image inspired by The Star Rover by Jack London … A profound read …

Some words from the book:

‘All such things no longer are, for they were forms, manifestations of fluxing matter ere they melted into the flux again. They have passed and are not.’ … ‘Matter has no memory, because its forms are evanescent, and what is engraved on its forms perishes with the forms.’ (Jack London)