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Clarity and balance. Simplification below the line so now the zigzag has the strength I was after - a zigzag taken from reality that structures the painting. The bull's head now connects to the grid, the horns mirrored by the sharp-curve cutting into space. Incident of yellow and pink across the canvas. Strangeness. What am I looking at? The painting has that neon feel of a city at night, the bull a symbol of dark...It's Mondrian, it's Miro, it's Noir. We are done.
With its' source in crime-fiction, the '20 Books=20 Paintings' series needed a black and white painting, the palette referencing the good v.evil drama played out in each novel. In visual terms, this black and white piece will add impact and contrast when the series is exhibited next year at Linden Hall Studio. I'll be starting a new painting in the series on Saturday, working title 'BOOK 14 - (Red)'.
6.
(6) Refining the drawing and extending the deep violet further below the white-line. Getting very close...
5.
(5) More whites. Working on the delicate-frame of the grid and introducing image and a second key location from the novel on the left-edge of the white-line - a counterweight to the tilting, sculptural grid...
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(4) An additional grid intrudes into the left-side. Back to the original idea of the tension of the grid tilting, balancing, now in a better place. But the tonal balance is disrupted with the dark violet sweeping through the pink....
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(3) A slight shift in position of the location shape, with the grid superimposed. Too many competing colours. The pink slab and painting to the edge takes out most of the yellows and simplifies the painting.
2.
(2) The painting is built around the white-line, formed by dripped paint on an angled canvas. The idea of balancing the 'location-shape' on the zigzag emerges in a drawing...
1.
(1) The key to this painting is a line that cuts across the painting at a specific angle and then zigzags. Trying out four different positions and bringing in blue-black and violet...
Paint-pots from BOOK 14
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- Ashley Hanson
'Charlestown 11 - (Rose and Yellow)' 30x25cms oil on canvas 2020
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- Ashley Hanson
'Charlestown 9 - (A Day with my Daughter' 40x40cms oil on canvas 2020
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Kathleen drawing in Polruan
Denise and I were very saddened to hear of the recent passing of artist Kathleen Alberter. Since 2015 Kathleen has been a regular attendee on our Freedom in Painting courses in Cornwall and Kent and over the years we both grew to appreciate her kindness, generosity and sincerity.
As an artist Kathleen was driven: she had a deep understanding of the power of painting and her knowledge, emotions and spirituality were channelled into her work at a pitch that is quite rare. Here are Kathleen's words when she gave her all at the 'Auerbach' and 'BOOK' workshops:
'I have learned to be free..to not care but to really be me. It was a profound but not easy experience - I went beyond limits'
'The workshop brought the painter in me awake..it opened the soul - made liquid the heart'
I very much regret that we never had a chance to show together but here are is a collection of her extraordinary paintings which always challenged me as teacher and viewer as they are so, so personal and emotionally charged, like no other work I've seen.
We shall miss her.
