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Full circle

18/3/2018

In my last blog post I addressed the theme of design and happenstance.
The work I present today (Acrylic on paper 10 x 15 cm), is again something that happens within seconds.
The "design" in the making is the colours of the palette, and the tools used.
Then the painting "happens" naturally, intuitively and very quickly. Of course, as an artist one is "informed" about the composition. This realisation has brought me full circle on the upward and ever increasing circle. My early paintings (I was self taught and used my colours instinctively) that look similar were "constructed" painstakingly.
I now have tools to shift to bigger canvases with my colour fields.
I break off now for Easter and will be back with new posts in about two weeks.
Much light!

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"Things that happen naturally" versus "Things that happen by design"

11/3/2018

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Today I present to you a small work on paper (10 x 15 cm).
Although it may seem to be a deviation from the topic that I am most occupied with these last weeks, it is in fact a continuation of my efforts to find a way to integrate organic structures in my colour fields.
My title today comes from a remark by Greg Rose, who has a very elaborate way of painting trees. In stark contrast to his process, mine has to "happen" in a fraction of time: intuitively, naturally. Yet there is design in this extremely intuitive way of putting down colours.
I like the texture that has evolved. There are even lines in there by design.
Developing the right tools to do this large scale!
Much light!

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Abstraction is simplifying

4/3/2018

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The very act of seeing is abstraction.

In today's simple notan sketch of a tree, I was hoping to identify some angles that I was playing with last week. I realised that this exercise was futile for the following reasons:
A two dimensional rendition of a three dimensional subject was not going to lend itself to this aim ( I would have probably been better off doing a cubist rendition);
The very act of seeing the tree and sketching it is abstracting the reality of the tree. This reality changed, the moment I shifted my position.

The viewer has to reconstruct this complex reality in his mind.

I realised that in my colour field paintings, which are already abstracted in terms of the colours I use to convey emotion, the viewer is of utmost importance: the painting constructs itself in her / his mind.
I am wondering if it will be an overload... organic structures, forms and shapes in my colour fields...

Much light!

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Full circle

"Things that happen naturally" versus "Things that happen by design"

Abstraction is simplifying

Aruna Samivelu

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