This commentary indicates how the exhibited works came to be, and why they have been presented as they have.
I began this module of study with a renewed commitment to depict ordinary places. The experience of creating a large collage of existing small paintings had convinced me that to do this I needed to change tack.
Previous plein air techniques being inappropriate to my newly chosen motifs (views from a train, evening views...), I gathered, instead, source material in a variety of formats on my 'phone (photographs, panoramas - some deliberately distorted - and video). Stills from video clips proved the most interesting so, following some preparatory work, these became the source for two exhibited images ('View From a Train: Evening' and 'View From a Train: Pylon').
Previous plein air techniques being inappropriate to my newly chosen motifs (views from a train, evening views...), I gathered, instead, source material in a variety of formats on my 'phone (photographs, panoramas - some deliberately distorted - and video). Stills from video clips proved the most interesting so, following some preparatory work, these became the source for two exhibited images ('View From a Train: Evening' and 'View From a Train: Pylon').
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An aborted large painting and a further unsuccessful one led to dissatisfaction and a rethink of my approach. Experiments with the video clips themselves resulted in a focus on the individual frames which comprise them, and then to the multi-part presentation of twenty-four images, each separated by one second in time, in the painting 'View From a Train: 23 Seconds'. (More about this process can be found in the commentary on unselected works.)
To make sense, these small views must be shown as a single work. Given current restrictions, I mounted it in the only space available to me, namely my home, and so made possible an installation view. After deliberation, I also chose to exhibit the video clip from which this piece and the single image, 'View From a Train: Pylon', both derive. Placing the three presentations alongside each other - single image, multi-part image, moving image, in that order - creates a single work which prompts consideration of what each separately has to offer, and whether, together, they communicate more about the nature and significance of this anonymous place.
To make sense, these small views must be shown as a single work. Given current restrictions, I mounted it in the only space available to me, namely my home, and so made possible an installation view. After deliberation, I also chose to exhibit the video clip from which this piece and the single image, 'View From a Train: Pylon', both derive. Placing the three presentations alongside each other - single image, multi-part image, moving image, in that order - creates a single work which prompts consideration of what each separately has to offer, and whether, together, they communicate more about the nature and significance of this anonymous place.