Saturday 6 June 2009

nobody here but us chickens.....


I spent some of yesterday sanding down and re-priming a couple of metre square canvases. The work on them was more than a year old, and part of a series that didn't quite hit the spot.

Not so long ago, I would have been really reticent about obliterating stuff that had taken a fair time to produce, but lately I have been embracing the cathartic elements of destroying old work.

There is some masochistic joy to be had in gleefully slapping white primer over carefully modulated brushstrokes, and the re-primed surface has a kind of two and a half 'D' ghost image, which is interesting to work on top of.

I'm hoping that a couple of ideas floating around in my head will come to fruition on these refreshed surfaces, a fair amount of development is needed, but they will be engaging if all goes well.

If you have a moment, and an interest in craft skills and/or poultry keeping, nip over to;

http://www.nicklyonsnorfolk.co.uk/


Nick is a fabulous craftsman, to whom I have a couple of coincidental connections.
Like me he is an artist, also like me he has had to embrace a little diversification in order to weather the vagaries of artistic fortune.
Now, even more strangely, he is a former Eastern Daily Press photographer who gracefully retired from the industry to pursue his painting.
Before you ask, yes, his last post was the Cromer office...........Fate?Coincidence?Dark Forces?, you decide.........

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the thought of the ghost image seeping through the primer. There is something pretty cool about the layers of a painting. It brings up the thoughts behind the first one and moving on to the second.

Quite deep!

Unknown said...

Woah SoVix !!!........I'll remember that for my next artists statement ! XX

PeterK said...

Back to the lonely business eh? Glad Open Studios went well for you. Many had it very quiet so I'd count that as a measure of some success! Hope to see you soon.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Used to be fearful of obliterating old pieces, but now find they give
great textural ground to rework.

Visited C21 yesterday and fell for the quiet young lady in half light with aqua b/g colours - amazing it didn't jump off the wall at that price. T'was good you had a successful Open Studios... I don't think many can say that this year.