April Musings

One of my ambitions is to be invited to be part of group exhibitions with noted artists and this year I will be showing work with some such artists following on from Higher Bandwidth last year, details are on the website exhibitions page. Because of limitations on the size of work I can submit for these, I have had to focus on making smaller paintings. After looking at what I have already created I decided to pick up on two themes. This felt new to me as I tend to start each painting afresh, although threads inevitably arise. A small painting that arose from the way diluted paint behaved on a very smooth surface I called On the Move, made me think of rhythms. I did some more experimental paintings with this in mind and was able to focus down on a narrow idea for the first time, rather than creating an overall 'picture' or composition. These have become further along the abstract continuum and I like them. Using a limited colour palette of yellows, greens and blues and adding medium I have created textures, movement and  imagery that evokes different recollections. I have called the series Rhythms of Life. When I put these paintings on the wall I realised they had similarities with other ones already up there. Putting work on display has several different purposes, showing up threads in subject, colour palette or techniques, allowing paintings to have a conversation with each other. Sometimes you see something new that you hadn't noticed before. Just mounting the work on a white background/the wall makes you regard it in a different light. It may also flag up something that you want to change. During my painting process I probably spend more time thinking and looking at a painting at each stage than actually applying paint. This is why when someone asks how long it took you to create a painting, it is impossible to say with any accuracy.

I am preparing to open my studio to the general public on 27th of April. The first Artisan Market was held at Dean Clough last month and the Mill House Art Studios building is in the thick of the action. It makes sense to use the opportunity to show people inside working studios and give them the opportunity to buy work if they wish. With my husband's help, climbing up high ladders to put screws in, I have been putting up more paintings on the walls to lift them off the floor and display them more effectively. 

I am currently reading Merlin Sheldrake's book Entanglement which is about fungi and how they grow and communicate with other life, it's fascinating and it will be interesting to see whether it influences what I paint. Several people on my degree course made work based on their reading of this book. 

I enjoyed going to the opening of two exhibitions recently. Anji Timlin's exhibition Wade out to Gold at The Apothecary Gallery in Thornton last week is a super exhibition with a variety of styles of work. The main paintings are grounded in her experiences of being amongst trees and water and are very expressive and full of life. Lots of greens and blues, my favourite colours! Smaller work reminded me of Chinese brush paintings, I loved their fluidity and economy of mark-making. Julie Bancroft is a textiles student with OCA and her exhibition, in Malton, included fabric hangings, paintings with paint and others with dry media and stitches. I was captivated by her vessels made from fabric that had been buried in her allotment and shaped and treated with wax (I think). I have so much to learn about art, and other people's ideas and perspectives are very interesting to me.