Four Yellows

Perhaps four semi-transparent yellows crossing each other on the white of the canvas, resulting in 16 different colours, gives colours that are so close to each other that it is too difficult to distinguish them. (?)

Signal VS Noise in Yellows and White, July 2012, Acrylic on Canvas, 10″x10″

I repeat, repetition is impossible

One of the key operations I am using here is of course repetition. I aim to repeat a line, a move, a colour, a quadrant.

Process and Performance 4, July 2012, Acrylic on Canvas, 10″x10″

Yet I discover that I am doing it anew, even when what I thought I was doing was repetition.  I’ll say that last bit again: even when what I thought I was doing was repetition.

Red Rhombus

It’s a composite of four “identical” paintings, arranged in mirror opposition, resulting in the central red rhombus figure…

Red Rhombus,July 2012, acrylic on canvas, 24″x24″

…and what else?

Four Chromatic Syntax Variations Combined

2221,2222, 2223 and 2224, digitally recombined (a digital sketch)

What interests me most in the combination of these simple variations are the emergent properties: the forms that are produced as a result of the combination that I might not have anticipated.

Back in time: Sean Scully at Abbot Hall, Kendal

Thinking of Sean Scully as I have been doing recently, I was remembering the exhibition of paintings and works on paper at Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal in 2005.

Was it really that long ago? Visiting it was my birthday treat that year, and I took the trip up a few times during the three months it was open.

I liked that there were so many pieces of work (there were 23 in all) in a relatively small space. It was possible to get to know them over a period of time and to see how they related to each other. Although we wouldn’t think of Scully as a systems artist, the fact that he works in series means that you do see relationships between works very clearly and that the work becomes more than each individual painting.

In the catalogue for that show Scully says:

…very often with painting, when you see someone’s painting for the first time you can’t really relate to it. You have to see it over time, and you have to see different kinds of works by the same artist, and kind of live with it, live with the experience of that painting and come back to it until you sort of connect to it