I think I have talked about this before: I have learned to not fret over ideas that come to me at night when I am in bed, falling asleep or in a dream or when I half wake. I have wasted hours trying to capture the chimera that is this or that perfect composition or even just try to remember it! Unless it is still burning bright when I wake I just forget it. This morning the night’s inspiration was still burning bright and I merged it with some other things I have bubbling away and am very happy with how this piece turned out. I may do some more work in this vein.
I left for the studio saying I had no clue what I would do for today’s piece, but knowing that something would turn up. I am still feeling run down so didn’t intend to stay long. I had not been able to concentrate much at home this morning and had little hope that things would shift this afternoon. I lost myself in preparing some substrates (more gesso on Whitechapel Gallery leaflets) and trying to mix a particular colour red that would granulate when allowed to run wet-in-wet into a mix of deep blue. I got the colours right but when they mixed the separation was vulgar! Back to the drawing board on that one. All that allowed me to forget #Letter365, so when I turned to do it I was primed and open. A nice piece with legs soon emerged. I don’t mean that I drew something with legs (though I might have!!) but it was something which I might continue to experiment with.
That’s an odd thing isn’t it? I get suspicious when things go well and effortlessly. I had half a lame idea and was looking around for some materials in the studio and because I have a cold and feel a bit rough I was finding excuses for not getting the paper I wanted. Was there a scrap around? No, but I found something else which sparked an idea which continues an investigation and the colour is just right and a bit of fiddling here and some jiggling there and soon I was underway with a piece I really like …and then I start questioning it because it came so easily. Don’t you have to struggle to make art? Technique, look, composition, relevance – all a piece of cake. Does that mean it’s not very good? Well I would be pleased to have it on my wall and maybe I should start painting large canvasses
I want to talk about the interplay between contrivance and serendipity, but I can’t without telling too much about today’s piece, but it is interesting how I had an idea of what I wanted to do and how it would look (though as it turned out I changed its orientation in the making) but the moment I started to play with the materials I noticed something else, something very subtle, which really enhanced the idea and the piece.
I had this great idea for today’s piece. It was so good I thought I might do several versions of it and develop it into a larger work but the moment I began the second process I knew it was just rubbish. What was I thinking? How could it ever have worked? I hung on to the thought it was a good idea but that my realisation was poor, my physical technique was flawed. But I knew really that it was just plain crap. I still carried on for a few lame seconds but jacked it in and started on something fresh!
When I had it all finished I realised I had left my camera at home. Not quite with it, but then I had been Tweeting to a mad Swede about Latin, mushrooms and invading Northumberland!
Yes, 200 up! It’s an achievement not to be sneezed at! Now where did that expression come from? The Plague years? Answers on a postcard please.
Today’s piece is quite interesting in that it is something I was thinking of doing some time back for #Letter365 but I was not sure if what I had envisioned would work on something that would fit into my regulation envelope. I only thought about it again because I opened up the wrong sketchbook and it opened to the page with the note on! I realised 2 things: first I now had a vocabulary that would make it work and secondly I could get the buyer to finish it off. So much of my work is quite demanding on the viewer and I often feel that it is not complete until the viewer makes their contribution mentally or optically, so why not leave it just slightly unfinished with instructions and suggestions for the final configuration?
It is really satisfying when things go well. I was unable to get to the studio until this evening because we had the BT engineer coming to connect our fibre broadband (woo!) this morning and had to take our poor, sick cat to the vet for her steroid jab (boo!) this afternoon. So I didn’t have long and I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do – and I think that is an important factor. I didn’t have a clue but was open to inspiration and confident that something would come. In a way it is not even confidence, well not in any bullish way. It is just a calm assumption that it will happen. Because time was limited I discarded the first couple of things that occurred to me on the basis they would take too long to dry. So still not having a clue what to do for #Letter365 I decided to work on a piece I had prepared a substrate for yesterday. It started well and then got twee and then I ballsed a bit up that looked ugly then tried to make a bad bit better and made it worse instead then altered the bit that went twee and it became one of the best bits and….and essentially it all went really well. When that piece needed drying time I did think I would do my #Letter365 but just thought I could play with something else while on a roll. In the end I just had to start from scratch and amazingly it all came together brilliantly for me. In a way it was even better than I hoped and has an element or aspect that I didn’t predict – a happy accident?
It’s not a big philosophical question that I allude to but today’s piece is a bit of an enigma for me. So I don’t mean what is the meaning of this artwork you can’t yet, or perhaps ever, see but what does it mean that I have created something that links work I was doing a year or more ago with work I am doing now! Does it mean that the ideas and issues that motivated me a year or so ago were unresolved; that there is more mileage in them? Are they bubbling under the surface wanting to get out again? As I wrote this I realise that is the case. The other option was that I was just a bit stuck and opted for a familiar path, but I see that was not the case. I see also that there is a continuum rather than separated ideas. I hope the reunion will be fecund.
As to the seal, well I used up the last little bit of that stick stuck on the end of a scalpel and heating it with a lighter. Of course it all melted and fell flaming onto the envelope. I was all for letting it burn a little but it went out of its own accord!
I suppose I should have said “Pleased with this piece but, more importantly, I am excited where it might lead.” The piece itself some might consider too “sketchy” and in some ways it has that feel of a work in progress, an idea still alive with potential to be explored. And expolore it I will. If you buy this one you could have the start of a new series of work from me. Well I’d definitely have it on my wall!
I spent last night and most of today nursing our poor cat, Bramble, and am pretty drained yet strangely creative. I have loads of things I want to play with but am too tired and short of time. Stuff is going in the sketchbook and getting tried out as and when. Today’s piece is just such a one and thankfully it worked well.
The end of a sealing wax stick is always fun and today the little piece I had speared on the tip of a scalpel fell burning on to the envelope. I blew it out and picked it up and it stuck to my fingers and left lovely, fine strings of red scrawled over the envelope, Sadly they didn’t stick to the paper.
Seal on the back of No191
An unfolding artwork created a piece each day for a year
