This commentary explains how the exhibited work came to be.
I began this module of study wishing to depict the suburban space close to my home.
The course of my development was not preconceived, but was guided through making. I took a leaf from the book of the abstract painter Albert Irvin, who wrote: 'I have no plans for the future. The future is a series of jerks from one painting to the next, each one sowing the seeds of its successor.'
I deliberately returned to gathering visual information through direct observation, having flirted with the use of photographic and video sources in the last period of study.
Influenced by research into the classical landscapes of Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, I hoped to construct rather than find the composition for my finished pieces.
In the event what evolved was a set of three, mixed-media panels of five parts: plein air painting for the more distant countryside on the left, etched marks for the built environment and scrubby mid-ground on the right, charcoal marks to record the contrasting tones of an overwhelmingly green central space, and two discrete painting styles for foreground foliage, left and right. And with these parts, came the difficulty of combining them.
I faced numerous practical challenges regarding media, surfaces and bringing them together. I largely succeeded in realising my plans for the piece.
The course of my development was not preconceived, but was guided through making. I took a leaf from the book of the abstract painter Albert Irvin, who wrote: 'I have no plans for the future. The future is a series of jerks from one painting to the next, each one sowing the seeds of its successor.'
I deliberately returned to gathering visual information through direct observation, having flirted with the use of photographic and video sources in the last period of study.
Influenced by research into the classical landscapes of Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin, I hoped to construct rather than find the composition for my finished pieces.
In the event what evolved was a set of three, mixed-media panels of five parts: plein air painting for the more distant countryside on the left, etched marks for the built environment and scrubby mid-ground on the right, charcoal marks to record the contrasting tones of an overwhelmingly green central space, and two discrete painting styles for foreground foliage, left and right. And with these parts, came the difficulty of combining them.
I faced numerous practical challenges regarding media, surfaces and bringing them together. I largely succeeded in realising my plans for the piece.