I’m thrilled that my piece, ‘Head of Dying Minotaur’ will be on show/for sale as part of the Visual Art Open Finalist Exhibition, which is being held in the amazing @unit1galleryworkshop, London, W10 6TP between Thursday 10th and Saturday 11th this week. The @fairartfair.art and the @visualartistsassociation will also be participating/holding activities.
Finally got around to taking photos of ‘Recumbent Figure (Taking a Line for a Walk in Cartesian Space)’. Reclaimed mild steel 107cm high x 180cm wide x 75cm deep (42″ x 71″ x 30″).
The original intention is pasted below, but since completion, I’ve come to the conclusion that this piece is primarily about inviting the viewer to analyse the positive and negative spaces in the piece in order to decide what is ‘figure’ and what is ‘ground’.
We do this all the time in the 2D world. We draw an outline on a piece of paper and the viewer automatically differentiates between what is ‘inside’ the line (figure) and what is outside (ground), even though it’s all still the same piece of blank paper. This sculpture tries to do the same thing in 3D space, although it’s a lot tougher on the viewer!
This piece is based on the well-known Paul Klee quote that ‘Drawing is taking a line for a walk. In this piece I’m trying to take the line for a walk in 3D Cartesian space (x, y and z axes) in order to evoke a reclining female figure and – hopefully – provide just enough clues for an observer to work out what it is.
The intention is to suggest planes and volumes without actually using any so that the observer is invited to quite literally ‘fill in the gaps’. On circling the figure, the hope is that certain familiar shapes will offer themselves for recognition whilst other – previously recognised shapes – will ‘disappear’ as they are seen from different angles (playing with ideas of focus versus peripheral vision)
Life drawings 24/10/2022 (acrylic/ink/pastels/chatcoal on A1 paper 84cm x 59cm – 2.5 hours, 1 hour, 45 mins). Started boldly as usual, but ended up getting sidetracked by ‘local colour’ and muting everything. Sigh… Great poses by the model, though!
Here’s an in situ photo of a recent sketch in its new home on the wall of renowned North Wales art collector and international man of mystery, Paul J (who also came up with the title). Thanks for your support, Paul!
Still wrestling with creative ennui on the studio, so continuing to focus on reworking just one pose. Currently obsessed with Francis Bacon’s figures and especially his use of random shadows. Creativity tip: keeping the studio (garage) door closed and blasting music out at high volume really helps to drown out my thoughts and allow the paint to ‘speak’. All acrylic on A1 paper (84 x 59cm/23 x 33in)
