On the move with a new group of paintings …. the “On My Marks” series!

The above is a tiny section of a mark making and collage exercise.  It appealed to me immediately, the shapes and the flow of the lines.  If you look close, can see a sneaky “s” hiding in there.  It’s basically a curvy design with a hint of diagonals. That texture is nice too.  The crop won’t be translated visibly into the new work, it’s a starting point, an inspiration!

This palette of colours is one I’ve been playing with for a while.  Pthalo blue and raw umber yellowish with black and white, with cadmium yellow light added to the mix.  It’s providing some brightness and a little touch of playfulness.

The series started with eight small squares taped together.  To begin, intuitive marks were made using leftover paint from exploring the colour mixes.  Then, some drawing with water soluble graphite and water flicked about to create a few drips.

Standing back to look at them, it felt like they needed a bit more warm colour.  So I added more marks with a raw umber yellowish mix, did a spot of drawing with a coloured pencil, made some more drips and lifted off things here and there.  Then, they were allowed to “cook” for a while.

It can be difficult not to plough ahead with things, but sometimes you get to a point where you know you’re just continuing for the sake of it, not because you have a useful contribution to make.

Here are two of the squares.  The bottom one is more interesting than the top one.  There’s still a way to go though, so don’t panic!

What to do next?  I had a look and decided to do whatever came to mind, or hand!  A bit of collage, then they needed lightening up with “sky” areas.  The images were leading the way.  (If they”re leading me I don’t have to take responsibility!)

Sometimes you don’t know whether what you want to do is right or not.  No, that’s all the time really!  It means that you do things and immediately regret them.  Why do you go further when you liked what you had originally? People often say that you build up a history by creating layers.  That’s true and I have done that successfully, but I’m not convinced it’s the only way to work.

The four images below are the two paintings shown earlier.  I’ve done more to them now.  The first one has been turned upside down!  They’re still not done.

The others are coming along too, but there’s more to do.  More to do or more to learn, or both!  Painting is a learning experiece as well as a creative one.  There’s always more to learn, especially from the “duds”.