Archive: January 2006 - June 2006

After some false starts I've been able to get back to that easel and finish the current painting. I think that if I leave a work for too long and allow my interests to drift to new themes then it is unlikely that the previous work will be resumed. This painting was verging on the "never to be finished" category. There are a few things about it that point to the progression of these little experimental paintings. For one, the features of the body are definitely distorted beyond chance painterly technique. It has now got to the point that, although these paintings are based on fleeting images of my own body, I do not feel that the subject of these paintings is "me". Yes, this is the same figure throughout but the total effect of a finished canvas has little if anything to do with my own preconceptions of depicting my own body in paint. There's something else at work here - beyond the happy accidents of Impressionism. Certainly, recurrent themes of straining and unnatural fleeting posture are being amplified in each canvas - the fact that bodily proportions are changing seem to echo that. I'm still guided by sketchbook work. I went out of my normal working habits to lay paint down on these smaller canvases. This was an attempt to avoid being too precious about trying to produce a good painting every time - as if I can produce oil "sketches" somehow. Besides this stuff... I've been playing a lot of music again. My band "Stinky Munchkins" (wow, what a name) are gearing up to a summer of gigs. I've always said that there's no point getting involved in a band unless it is fun. It doesn't matter if there's money or fame involved - it has to be fun otherwise there's no point persisting with it.

Well, I'm happy to say that this band are definitely a fun bunch of guys. The music incorporates a strange blend of electro-rock, disco, camp and kitsch. Think of a sleaze and hangovers, combine that with a seventies prog-rock band mashing a keyboard with burnt palms (and also a fair bit of musical skill) and you might get close to describing the style.

Still, check it out for yourselves - www.myspace.com/munchko

From zero to eighty in seconds - there are several shows lined up and the response so far has been great. Of all ironies, we're playing at the degree show party for the Glasgow School of Art in a couple of weeks. I'll have to be mindful of what I say to people - particularly as they're supplying a free bar.

 

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25/05/06

With the redesign of the site, I've been messing about on the internet again - this has led to me finally getting to grips with Myspace (the link is www.myspace.com/timthepainter). Its been great fun so far - thanks also for all the positive comments about the redesign. I know that a lot of the older work is gone but I wanted to neaten the whole site up. Additionally, there is a lengthy tutorial on the Photoshop creation of this image on the way - please bear with me.

It seems quite a coincidence that just when I was revisiting the basic issues of web presence - that is: url, meta data, search engines, etc - that I received an email from a certain Mr Timothy Sandys - a guy who shares the same rare name as me. It turns out that he's a sculptor working in London. He's just produced his own website and his is some great work, I'm sure you'll agree. I can't pretend to know very much about sculpture but I certainly recognise a strong appeal to his work.

The body studies are continuing and they're becoming ever more experimental. I sense a big push to complete some smaller works and a couple of larger, more finished pieces. They're striving ever closer to some kind of pictorial truth - the strength of which is somewhat exhausting. I can tell this because my day-drawing as a result of my other work is becoming more whimsical and perhaps fantastic. Some of this is to do with my experience with designing tattoo pieces (which usually need to be bolder and more simplistic images) but I think a shift might be coming - maybe not away from the human body though.

 

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15/05/06

No such luck - ho hum.

I'm disappointed to say the least. But the one nice thing is getting back to the easel. All this fretting of the last few weeks has kept me from working. I suppose its easy to imagine that being down cast would put me off working but its worked the opposite way - as if the urge to paint stuff is itself reminding me that it works quite independently to these other concerns - a kind of indestructible and bloody-minded thing.

Its also nice to use the opportunity to take stock of all the work up to this point. The new version of this website is nearly complete and will go online tomorrow. I'm scaling the galleries right back - making space for only new work of a common theme.

 

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07/05/06

I should hear within the next two or three days whether I've been accepted into the GSA. The waiting is hell. I've been having odd little anxiety dreams and I'm unable to properly focus on anything in particular while being in this state of limbo. I have an unfinished painting that's been sitting on the easel for a couple of weeks and I just can't seem to get back into it. Separate ideas are pulling at me for attention but my sketches are listless.

So, for now, I'm redesigning this web site. It feels to me that its about time for an overhaul anyway. This gives me something to get my teeth into for a bit. There's a lot of new work to display and quite a bit of the older stuff that I'll move into an archive. I'm also starting a new series of sketchbook work based around the medical and injury themes. My friend Patsy allowed me in to record one of her more ambitious customers being pierced a dozen times to form a corset. The use of needles and the semi-surgical setting is becoming more compelling again. I hope to combine some concepts with the more recent styles of drawing that I've been developing - possibly continuing into the way I've been handling paint too.

It all seems quite separate from the art school thing - a way to keep my nerves at bay and prevent me from leaping out of my skin whenever I hear the mail thumping onto the floor each morning. Fingers crossed.

 

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18/04/06

I had my interview with the Glasgow School of Art - plenty to prepare for and get good and nervous for days before a twenty minute chat. It seemed over and done with before I knew it. I was interviewed by a tutor and the department head of Painting & Printmaking. They were very pleasant, especially considering how many potential students they had to trudge through. I don't envy their schedule. Although I had heard from a variety of sources the kind of questions I would likely be posed, it felt like more of a discussion than an interrogation. There was nothing in particular that threw me although I was a little surprised that they didn't invite me to refer to or discuss my portfolio case that was open on the desk behind them. This led me to think that the decision was substantially made on the merits of the folio for all students and that the interview was to check for communication skills - or lack of them. If a student had turned up and stared at their feet, mumbled nothing, or burped feathers then they might suddenly change their minds - who knows? So I have to sit and wait now. Not pleasant. I suspect a little of this angst is making its way into my drawing and painting at the moment. I'm still exploring techniques of incorporating the overall finish of the work into the subject matter - trying to let the medium have just as valid a presence as the message, or possibly make them interchangeable. I'm going to stick to smaller canvases for a while. I think this'll help keep me in a "study" frame of mind while I experiment. A large canvas might pressure me into attempting to create a highly finished or precise outcome.

After a long while, I've finally taken the opportunity to get into the open air again. My father and I climbed Ben Arthur (also known as The Cobbler) over the Easter holiday. The spring weather made the conditions extremely varying and more than a little challenging at times. Many people had taken it into their heads to climb that day but most seemed to turn back before reaching the final ridge and the rocky summit. I didn't blame them. Had I been on my own I would not have taken the risk. Good luck gave us a break in the weather to leave shelter and make the last walk to the summit but the possibility of whiteout was very real. There are a lot of sheer drops up there and it would have been all too easy to stroll off the edge. I have never experienced wind so strong on any mountain before. The snow was horizontal and stung our faces as we clambered about on the way to the top. I think we spent about two minutes up there to take some shaky photographs before dashing back down through the drifting snow. We had one minor tragedy as my father's camera bag was whipped out of his hand by the wind and off over the edge. Perhaps it'll show up in a thaw - like Oetzi, the iceman. I have to say that I preferred this to a walk on a sunny day. The blasting wind helps you feel alive. The challenge of raw elements and the struggle of climbing puts things in perspective.

 

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28/03/06

It feels like its been a long month. Apart from the huge shift in working manner I can't think of much to account for it. After feeling pretty deflated and low, I pulled myself together and blitzed the studio - cleaned up a huge mess. All the detritus of the portfolio course (the material that didn't make the final cut) has been relegated to a folder that I'm unlikely to open again. I cleared space, set up the easel and took a series of photographs of myself contorting and twisting in stark lighting. The paintings this has led to are pretty much a direct continuation of the style I was working with in the last large oil paintings. All the sketchbook crosshatching during the winter has led to these vertical and horizontal brushstrokes. Also, the subject matter seems to be expressing some of the vague anxiety surrounding the personal project. The previous nude studies were exercises in depicting flesh-tones whereas these new paintings seem to be more expressionist in style. The contrasts are really stark. I've got a load of blank canvas waiting to be filled with more of these little experiments. I'll try some variations - really light palettes, saturated backgrounds and more extreme postures. I'm interested in producing some images where the biological nature of these swathes of colour is hinted at but indefinable.

There's a sumptuous quality to painting flesh that I'm really enjoying. Simply reproducing colour and tone holds no reward right now. But layering greens and blues along with violet and orange eventually brings out the pulsing of blood and the quivering of meat. I find myself cropping these compositions as if the section of the figure in view is a fleeting glimpse of an organic landscape. The contortion and strain in the pose represents a kind of geological feature, eroded and sculpted by the image's quick capture. More than ever, the issue of appeal or beauty is redundant within this work. I read once a description of painting a human figure as reaching its best when there is no hint at decoration. When I see the fantastic anatomical detail of Rubens' sketches I can't help but be awed. However, when I see one of his biblical or allegorical works - a finished painting - my attention wanders. If I can depict flesh without nobility then I'll feel on steady ground. The weirdest thing of all is that this time last year I had absolutely no interest in producing this kind of imagery. I had no inclination to paint flesh. It was that week-long life drawing class that exposed me to a new way of working. I still cannot see any rational reason as to why I should be quite so taken with this subject matter. Maybe its because I've neglected it for so long.

 

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16/03/06

The portfolio course is finished. It has been such a long/short period of time. How many sketches and scrappy drawings? How many pages of sketchbooks have been filled? In the end, the case was filled with material - the weight of the combined work and the sketchbooks was unbelievable. It has been handed in for appraisal. I feel pretty deflated. Perhaps because it is now out of my control, perhaps because concentrated focus has suddenly come to an end with the conclusion of the project work. Who knows? I feel like I should be reaching for a sketchbook and a blank page but I don't have one. Rather, I should clear the studio and think about working on a nice big oil painting. Now there's an idea. I'm also anxious. All that work is now in a folder stacked in a shelf among dozens of others, awaiting the judgment of the department of painting and printmaking. And there's nothing I can do about it. I'm pleased with the final project, regardless. All the experiments with the syringe paintings, acetates, inks and digital work has produced a spree of odd little creations.   This paced and experimental work has also led me to produce what I can only reluctantly describe as my first conceptual work - a set of three surgical packs with ink spattering and labeled with mock titles and instructions; substituting the language of surgery with raw fear.

At long last, it snowed. An excuse to get out and breath some fresh, cold air, play with the dogs as they leap about beside themselves with excitement. I never think that the seasons are passing correctly without some big weather events to let us know.

 

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01/03/06

The portfolio class has only two more weeks to go. I have amassed an enormous amount of weird scribbles, wire drawings, charcoal studies, experiments with ink, and god alone knows what else. Pieces have been selected, edited, cropped and placed on to A1 sheets to be presented along with the sketchbooks of scrap and trivia - also two folders of prints. The final project is undirected by the GSA. This one is a personal choice. Although it feels weird not to be working towards a finished piece, I'm enjoying making the oddities that appear along the way. The theme of fear is predominant in some of the more sinister stuff. I'm in the process of redefining the clinical language that appears on packs of bandages and other surgical dressings. I'm going to replace the wording with the raw, unmistakable language of fear that surrounds mortality. Aside from that creepiness, I'm taking full advantage of the twilight life-drawing classes. The model varies from day today and the longest pose is usually about half an hour. Quick studies to warm up are always useful but I enjoy the longer poses the most - the ones where I can lose myself in a drawing while the radio babbles quietly into my ears. In complete contrast, the syringe paintings are becoming more dynamic and aggressive. The life-drawing is quiet and measured but the syringe paintings are so quick, relying on chance effects. Its fun to shift work between the two. Regardless of the outcome of this course, its given me so much new experience.

 

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19/02/06

I've been focusing in on the use of surgical implements - syringes, needles, tubing, etc. Scalpels are very effective craft knives. Syringes are a great way of propelling ink onto paper. I've also rigged up a chest drain apparatus with tubing as a means of spraying acrylic onto canvas. I'm compelled to experiment with a these sinister little tools of medicine as a means of conveying - something. Following my nose as usual, I'm beginning to think that this is all to do with studying fear. Rather than werewolves and vampires, the fears associated with the prospect of illness and all its trappings is reflected in surgical tools. True fear - terror without the thrill - maybe this is the modern equivalent in this age of rationalism.

My drawings are varied, using latex and inks, representing biological structures in transformation or decay. I'd like to get less technical with them and try to introduce some direct conveyance of emotion - a scream or some kind of painful contortion.

None of this is very cheery subject matter but there's mileage in it. The sketchbooks are galloping along as weird and wonderful content is added every day. The present one hardly closes because cannulas, bandages and latex are protruding from the pages.

In other work, I took advantage of an unpleasant occurrence today. My friends had a fire in one of the bedrooms in their flat. Fortunately no-one was hurt but one of the girls, Hannah, had pretty much all her possessions trashed - the room was destroyed. She's also an artist - in fact all three girls have an arty mentality - so they asked me if I would take some photographs of the remnants of the destruction. I'm thinking that some nice prints of these pictures would make an interesting present for Hannah as she starts to accumulate the new contents of her room.

 

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31/01/06

The course projects are complete - complete for all but one; the aptly named "personal project". This means that I have free reign to explore, investigate and execute work of completely my own devising. All that matters is that it is sufficiently worked and of enough depth to include in the portfolio. Well, its all fine with me. For a while I've been working on some ideas loosely based around the transformation of anatomy. I avoid using the word "deformation" because it is too loaded. I searching for existing material upon this and similar themes, too much is associated with shock tactics, freak shows and suchlike. I can feel around the edges of where my basic intentions are leading but I'm certain that the eventual conclusions will be graceful rather than grotesque. Certainly, its hard to put into words but, hey - scribbling it down always helps. Not that the macabre doesn't have its place in all this. Anatomical study always leads to areas where some feel uncomfortable. Biology repels some people, there's no getting away from that. Yesterday, I set the skeleton up in the studio to experiment with the casting of shadows through ribs. Undeniably, I felt a strong reverberation with the my old biomechanical interests and a human form, no matter how abstracted, always draws its own inferences. I will experiment with distortions within biological abstraction but I anticipate the loaded connotations of the flesh to shine through - in fact, I'm counting on it. Recent reading of interviews with Franco B and other "new flesh" performance artists are clarifying/clouding everything that is involved with this project. It keeps me confused but I'm comfortable in the knowledge that these are early days. All work of this nature is grounded in primary source drawing, not least of all simple life-drawing exercises. It always takes time to warm up and I'm as awkward with charcoal as ever - still, there seems to be no other purpose for that little black crumbly stick than the millisecond of thought and instant slashes of getting that fleeting gleam of flesh down onto paper.

 

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24/01/06

This next project is all about colour. My two tutors, Joanie and Eva, put together this installation of objects at the end of the studio. Over a period of three weeks, I've been using this and photographic work as a basis for a series of colour studies.

Similar to the "20 drawings" exercise, I've been using a variety of formats and media to create varying levels of abstraction centred around these objects. Rothko's paintings have been at the front of mind continuously as this project has progressed - probably prompted by the large scale. I've been working with acrylic grounds, layering on chalks and oil pastels, all with the intention of pushing myself into dealing with what I would normally consider to be awkward tonal combinations.

Clearly, there are so many different ways this brief can be tackled and I know that I'm going to complete this project with a huge body of work; piles of meaningless scrap but also hopefully a few pieces that work - things that stand up as finished pieces independently.

I get the feeling that the portfolio course is revving up to a conclusion. After this colour work is complete,the final project brief is entirely of my own choosing. The studio space is full of progressing work, found objects, boxes of scrap and new media - things like latex, assorted fabrics and plaster. Many of these things I am keen to experiment with but I'm also wary of time running out.

As for what the final "personal project" will be, I am uncertain. I'm producing a lot of expanded drawings based around distorted and impersonal anatomy. Many of the recurring themes are reaching out to previously laboured concepts of modern communication and a kind of crass merging of technology and cellular biology. As part of this project, I will hopefully be working directly from samples within Glasgow University's School of Medicine. In the meantime, the twilight life-drawing classes at the GSA are proving invaluable.

All this course work is going to prevent me joining friends in Koln for Karneval this year but I'm enjoying one little artistic digression that has nothing to do with the current course. I've started making my friend Steff a hat fashioned in the style of a cow's udders. They take the fancy dress thing very seriously out there at this time of year. Viva Colonia!

 

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09/01/06

The new year is here. I ushered it in on top of the roof with a cigar and a whisky, watching the fireworks erupt all around the city. There was a bit of an incident when someone nearby managed to blow up an entire box of fireworks by accident. It jangled the nerves, I can tell you. Despite the annual celebrations, I have been completely taken up with exploring different themes with line drawing for the sketchbooks. The portfolio course makes heavy demands when considering the sheer bulk of material that ends up getting produced. I, for one, have really gotten my teeth into producing these books as finished works - that is, the artistic energy can be felt most strongly from each while turning each page of these scrappy tomes. I've been trying all kinds of odd techniques with drawing, collage, photography, utilising different found objects such as packing material and Christmas tree lights.

self portrait studies

This most recent book has been based around a self-portrait brief. I did intend to produce a finished painting, perhaps trying to justify the existence of all this tangential scribbling. Well, the canvas I eventually produced is interesting to me - certainly different to styles I've been exploring recently. Still, the painting doesn't feel like a summation of the work. It feels more like another page in the sketchbook - another step in the process. I settled on the crosshatching theme that I've been taken up with for so long - using a grouting tool to spread thick ribbons of acrylic around the canvas. I'm very tempted to repeat these efforts to produce a more effective finished result but there simply isn't the time right now. The next project brief is a major one, based around colour and tonal variations. I feel the need to get away from all this line drawing for a while.

I have had one odd little digression from this work. Over Christmas, my family and I have been taken by this strange present - a mini flying-saucer. Its basically a small electric motor: radio controlled, with fan blades and polystyrene cowling to stabilise flight. It has a series of red and blue lights that shine as it spins about the room erratically. I set the camera for long-exposure and pointed it almost to the vertical to see what shapes I cold capture. There's something organic about these images - eerie too. The next step will be to repeat the experiment but have the camera pointing down from the gallery, capturing the movements of the upper lights.