book 10 thurs1900 Copy

 

WED 12 FEB

And a small dot in the circle...

TUES 11 FEB

The last-move: the circle on the yellow (the residue of a key image from the novel). It strengthens the main-horizontal and a gives a bit of competition to the blue triangle, making it part of a larger triangle. Now there are visual criss-crossings of incident across the canvas and somehow the painting seems more complete. Restlessness, trial and error, following the question 'What if?' until there are no more questions - great preparation for the Diebenkorn workshop in Aylesbury next week.  

'I want painting to be difficult to do'  Richard Diebenkorn

 

DSC 0269700 Copywhat do you see?

 


BOOK 10 900 Copylighter

 

SAT 8 FEB 3pm

Working the right-side: a subtle shadow cruciform, a soft-pink on the right-edge, a calming down of the floating green block. I've also picked out one of the angled roof-lines of the church and worked in a sliver of green inside. The blue triangle is now even stronger - it gives the painting so much heat - forming a gorgeous relationship with the tiny green triangle, which has its own power. Now there is an elegant cascade of marks from the blue triangle to the bottom-right corner, which counteracts the dominant verticality.  The colour-balance and the weight of the presence of the central image feels just right.  We could be there...

 

 
book 10 sat 900 Copy

SAT 8 FEB 1pm

The painting moves on. I've broken down the solidity of the church further with the drawing inside, a church within a church, and moving the brighter orange into the surround. The strong image I had in mind from the first few pages of the novel has been subtly introduced. The right side of the church has been left more indistinct, like when edges move in the heat-haze. I've brought in some quiet horizontals to imply landscape. The green shape was a isolated building in the landscape which I considered too literal. 

 

DSC 01371900web
(2)

 WEB 5 FEB 2020

Definitely feeling the heat - but how to make it hotter? Acid greens and pinks? More shimmering edges? What is the hottest colour red, yellow or orange? Or white? Not sure where to take the contrasting border yet or why it's there but more interesting  in (2) than (1). The solidity and external view of the church in (1) is now broken down with the cruciform-shape creating ambiguities of inside and outside, plan-view and elevation, which I'll expand further in the next session.  Also resolve how the church sits on the bottom edge. I do like the left-side, the right-side is dead. The church is a better shape in (1), slimmer with the angle of the roof more acute - let's go back to that.

 Too many words about too little...

 

DSC 01111900WEBCROP Copy(1)

 

When painting 'Heat', this masterful painting by Hans Hoffman sprang to mind. Maybe we can look at Hoffman in the autumn workshop in Faversham...

 

pompeii 'Pompeii'  1959     Hans Hoffman   Tate Modern