Appendix 1: Tutorial Notes
#1 DD Wk.5 (w/b 28/10/19)
Brief conversation about painting a portrait from memory or from a photo: Memory = checked shirt, glasses, maybe colour of eyes, not much more... Photo = Edge of collar on underlying cloth, masking tape on board behind my head. The point being that decisions are made (about what to include) for the painter by the photograph. Discussed my previous use of photos - a flat, 'decided' image. Do I need to think again? Or is my denial of photography a position I want to consciously maintain? In order to prioritise the alternative: the direct, the involved?
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Brief conversation about painting a portrait from memory or from a photo: Memory = checked shirt, glasses, maybe colour of eyes, not much more... Photo = Edge of collar on underlying cloth, masking tape on board behind my head. The point being that decisions are made (about what to include) for the painter by the photograph. Discussed my previous use of photos - a flat, 'decided' image. Do I need to think again? Or is my denial of photography a position I want to consciously maintain? In order to prioritise the alternative: the direct, the involved?
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#2 AM-J Wk.8 (w/b 18/11/19)
Discussing one of my sketches (below), the image itself:
Mark-making
Discussion about tree - looks printed
Reduced palette for pastels - missing colour.
- 'Do you read the foreground as field or space? Why?'
- Date as a mark - why not equivalent to the other marks?
- Place of text?
I think these thoughts are linked to ideas about the painting as an object, about being convinced of the rightness of each component part of the image…
The question about the foreground relates to the sketch below: how is it that the large triangle in the bottom right is so clearly a grassy slope when it's almost completely blank on the page? I don't think this is a taxing question [N.B. I do now], or a mystery (this reading is the way to make the whole picture make sense, or cohere, after all) but there is something interesting here, about completeness, and gaps, and how much or how little information needs to be present, or explicit, for an image to work. It's related to the issue of abstraction…
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Discussing one of my sketches (below), the image itself:
Mark-making
Discussion about tree - looks printed
Reduced palette for pastels - missing colour.
- 'Do you read the foreground as field or space? Why?'
- Date as a mark - why not equivalent to the other marks?
- Place of text?
I think these thoughts are linked to ideas about the painting as an object, about being convinced of the rightness of each component part of the image…
The question about the foreground relates to the sketch below: how is it that the large triangle in the bottom right is so clearly a grassy slope when it's almost completely blank on the page? I don't think this is a taxing question [N.B. I do now], or a mystery (this reading is the way to make the whole picture make sense, or cohere, after all) but there is something interesting here, about completeness, and gaps, and how much or how little information needs to be present, or explicit, for an image to work. It's related to the issue of abstraction…
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#3 CW Wk.14 (w/b 13/01/20)
My working space littered with tiny reproductions of my paintings, it was no surprise that we talked about my plan to display lots of pictures together. CW thought this a poor idea, suggesting that as I'd originally troubled to compose each picture individually then each should have 'room to breathe' when displayed. She thought displaying multiple images was a good idea, but the thought of them almost in contact with each other, definitely not. I thanked her for her advice, and indicated that I might ignore it. However, I don't think I successfully articulated why I thought the idea worth trying, so ought to think this through, for myself and in case I need to defend the decision to others.
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My working space littered with tiny reproductions of my paintings, it was no surprise that we talked about my plan to display lots of pictures together. CW thought this a poor idea, suggesting that as I'd originally troubled to compose each picture individually then each should have 'room to breathe' when displayed. She thought displaying multiple images was a good idea, but the thought of them almost in contact with each other, definitely not. I thanked her for her advice, and indicated that I might ignore it. However, I don't think I successfully articulated why I thought the idea worth trying, so ought to think this through, for myself and in case I need to defend the decision to others.
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#4 AM-J Wk.18 (w/b/10/02/20)
We talked… about my collage of paintings (displayed in the short-lived 'Inaugural' show…). AM-J… repeated that she considered it to have some merit since, taken as a whole, it offered a different view of things… She hinted that some of the framing was unsuccessful, and that the juxtapositions weren't all very happy ones. She suggested that the 'temporality' (a word used several times) contained in the work was both interesting and jarring; the changes in style conveyed the fact of its completion over an extended period and some parts worked better than others.
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We talked… about my collage of paintings (displayed in the short-lived 'Inaugural' show…). AM-J… repeated that she considered it to have some merit since, taken as a whole, it offered a different view of things… She hinted that some of the framing was unsuccessful, and that the juxtapositions weren't all very happy ones. She suggested that the 'temporality' (a word used several times) contained in the work was both interesting and jarring; the changes in style conveyed the fact of its completion over an extended period and some parts worked better than others.
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#5 AM-J Wk.20 (w/b 14/02/20)
I'm pleased to have formulated and articulated a response to my collage of paintings. AM-J got it, and was supportive… of my proposed change of emphasis. She was reticent about a possible lack of variety within the nocturnal image ('View From a Train: Evening'), providing a useful corrective that underlined some unease on my part too. In contrast she was excited about the variety of marks - actually and potentially - in the day-time view… I was pointed to the work of painter Dan Hays.
Ceramics: I found myself able to justify the project in terms of the forms I've observed on walks… Acknowledging that it may, or may not, go anywhere… The idea of experimenting furiously is in tune with this module.
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I'm pleased to have formulated and articulated a response to my collage of paintings. AM-J got it, and was supportive… of my proposed change of emphasis. She was reticent about a possible lack of variety within the nocturnal image ('View From a Train: Evening'), providing a useful corrective that underlined some unease on my part too. In contrast she was excited about the variety of marks - actually and potentially - in the day-time view… I was pointed to the work of painter Dan Hays.
Ceramics: I found myself able to justify the project in terms of the forms I've observed on walks… Acknowledging that it may, or may not, go anywhere… The idea of experimenting furiously is in tune with this module.
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#6 DD Wk.21 (w/b 02/03/20)
This and this and this - more than one view. More than one presentation - not either/or. No need for one language…
DD was Interested in my collage of paintings, shown on my 'phone... He saw something in it over and above a collection of views, largely because of its method of presentation. This response, in tune with other thoughts, is prompting consideration of the form of what I make: paintings alone, or paintings accompanied by other things? Written 'guidance notes', perhaps and, more recently, I've wondered about displaying the video clips from which my pictures are derived. I'm acknowledging a desire to consider being more explicit. If there is a message then clarify it and make it plain, is what I'm beginning to say to myself.
The 'this and this and this' theme appeals to me. It's mildly phenomenological (think 'identity in a manifold', 'parts and wholes', 'presence and absence') and may be made manifest both within a single painting (smooth passages and gestural mark-making, for example; variety as espoused by Hitchens) and among a collection of images (diverse presentation of all sort… Size, brushwork, medium (including clay and print)... all can be varied, all can depict the subject matter which, for the time being, remains my ostensibly ordinary landscapes.
‘Using photos doesn't make it contemporary’ - I hope I didn't give the impression that I thought it would...
‘Depicting the experience of being in this place’ - I'm not sure that this is what I am trying to do. Otherwise I might end up eating dirt. I think more than this I want to point up the brute fact of the place's existence - the miracle of it, the something-rather-than-nothingness of it - and not too much more.
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This and this and this - more than one view. More than one presentation - not either/or. No need for one language…
DD was Interested in my collage of paintings, shown on my 'phone... He saw something in it over and above a collection of views, largely because of its method of presentation. This response, in tune with other thoughts, is prompting consideration of the form of what I make: paintings alone, or paintings accompanied by other things? Written 'guidance notes', perhaps and, more recently, I've wondered about displaying the video clips from which my pictures are derived. I'm acknowledging a desire to consider being more explicit. If there is a message then clarify it and make it plain, is what I'm beginning to say to myself.
The 'this and this and this' theme appeals to me. It's mildly phenomenological (think 'identity in a manifold', 'parts and wholes', 'presence and absence') and may be made manifest both within a single painting (smooth passages and gestural mark-making, for example; variety as espoused by Hitchens) and among a collection of images (diverse presentation of all sort… Size, brushwork, medium (including clay and print)... all can be varied, all can depict the subject matter which, for the time being, remains my ostensibly ordinary landscapes.
‘Using photos doesn't make it contemporary’ - I hope I didn't give the impression that I thought it would...
‘Depicting the experience of being in this place’ - I'm not sure that this is what I am trying to do. Otherwise I might end up eating dirt. I think more than this I want to point up the brute fact of the place's existence - the miracle of it, the something-rather-than-nothingness of it - and not too much more.
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‹ Research
#7 RL Wk.22 (w/b 09/03/20)
Discussion of my disquiet on seeing the artificiality evident in my collage of paintings - RL indicated that he might have wanted to push me away from this sort of practice. But I've done it myself. I'm right to characterise my response to my previous work as something of a revelation. And yet, having subsequently retrieved work from Shrewsbury, where it had been exhibited, I'm struck in some cases by the work's freshness, by technical merit, and that I like it, e.g. 'Nettles' is a nicely observed and executed study. And I don't want to let those qualities slip away in the newer things I'm hoping to make…
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Discussion of my disquiet on seeing the artificiality evident in my collage of paintings - RL indicated that he might have wanted to push me away from this sort of practice. But I've done it myself. I'm right to characterise my response to my previous work as something of a revelation. And yet, having subsequently retrieved work from Shrewsbury, where it had been exhibited, I'm struck in some cases by the work's freshness, by technical merit, and that I like it, e.g. 'Nettles' is a nicely observed and executed study. And I don't want to let those qualities slip away in the newer things I'm hoping to make…
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#9 RL Wk.25 (w/b 30/03/20)
RL: '[07:21] There are... conceptual artists who use language as well... I'm wondering what methods and frameworks you're... working through here... Is it just... the proverbial artist in the studio... having to make work or is part of the material of the work also the question of language?... There's conceptual art... that legacy that definitely... established that discourse that language counts as a material, including using strategies like momentary things: video, photography, actions and so on... [09:05] I don't know if there could be a chance for you in this module just to play with how language is in the work somehow?'...
TH '[11:19] 'I... wonder about putting some words... that carry some sense of what I'm trying to get across... If I think I'm trying to make a point about something in my painting, I think it's easily overlookable... So maybe I stick some words next to it.'
RL (Hesitant) '...I could be right now telling you, 'NO, don't explain the work. Don't try to make it something that can be packaged or understood... I would say you're in danger of completely commodifying the art work and killing it... You're making like a Tweet-able work. However, I'm not that quick to react. I think it would be really interesting to see… how written language... but I don't just mean written language or spoken word; I also mean other kinds of conceptual strategies like the photograph, video, the walk, and setting up a kind of action that happens at a certain place and time (that's quite fleeting) like you standing by a railroad track in a landscape.'
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RL: '[07:21] There are... conceptual artists who use language as well... I'm wondering what methods and frameworks you're... working through here... Is it just... the proverbial artist in the studio... having to make work or is part of the material of the work also the question of language?... There's conceptual art... that legacy that definitely... established that discourse that language counts as a material, including using strategies like momentary things: video, photography, actions and so on... [09:05] I don't know if there could be a chance for you in this module just to play with how language is in the work somehow?'...
TH '[11:19] 'I... wonder about putting some words... that carry some sense of what I'm trying to get across... If I think I'm trying to make a point about something in my painting, I think it's easily overlookable... So maybe I stick some words next to it.'
RL (Hesitant) '...I could be right now telling you, 'NO, don't explain the work. Don't try to make it something that can be packaged or understood... I would say you're in danger of completely commodifying the art work and killing it... You're making like a Tweet-able work. However, I'm not that quick to react. I think it would be really interesting to see… how written language... but I don't just mean written language or spoken word; I also mean other kinds of conceptual strategies like the photograph, video, the walk, and setting up a kind of action that happens at a certain place and time (that's quite fleeting) like you standing by a railroad track in a landscape.'
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#12 DD Wk.26 (w/b 20/04/20)
We talked about the merits of including the video presentation alongside the painting… We returned to the question of 'What do you want?' DD expressed a fear of being unduly didactic: here's a painting and this is what it means. It leaves no room for the viewer. It doesn't let the viewer in…
We talked about the formal features of a multiple picture presentation… There's something interesting to be discovered in the combining of images... I was asked what I thought I might be saying about painting by resorting to this format…
As for content, it was currently characterised as 'bland', which comment prompted me to revisit the work of Hitchens and the Famous Five. I could take heart from DD’s description if I really do mean to depict the totally everyday, if I wish to prompt the question 'Why paint that?' But the danger is that doing so simply leaves people cold, barely inclined even to look once, never mind twice… What emotional content do I mean to include?
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We talked about the merits of including the video presentation alongside the painting… We returned to the question of 'What do you want?' DD expressed a fear of being unduly didactic: here's a painting and this is what it means. It leaves no room for the viewer. It doesn't let the viewer in…
We talked about the formal features of a multiple picture presentation… There's something interesting to be discovered in the combining of images... I was asked what I thought I might be saying about painting by resorting to this format…
As for content, it was currently characterised as 'bland', which comment prompted me to revisit the work of Hitchens and the Famous Five. I could take heart from DD’s description if I really do mean to depict the totally everyday, if I wish to prompt the question 'Why paint that?' But the danger is that doing so simply leaves people cold, barely inclined even to look once, never mind twice… What emotional content do I mean to include?
More...
‹ Research