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Crit – 3rd December 2019

Underlined – Areas to visit, things of interest.

Bold Text – Reflections and insights

Me: I have displayed in chronological order 1-6 This feels important to see time, research and reactions through practice in order. To recap I am making work, which is intuitive, interruptions of usual practice which are not representative or controlled. Break rules see what happens. Practically, I have been working around the theory of Cathleen Coussens. ‘Web of artistic practice’. Using this as a framework – Interrupting and impeding these factors. Drawing blind, sound, collaboration etc.Elkins ‘What painting is’. Materiality and alchemy of painting. The Elkin’s theory resonates with me.

Initial reaction…

Zanna: Can you explain about the process in the screen print book?

Tabatha: Where do the drawings come into this? Are they right-handed?

Debs: are you using different pens/mediums?

Jo; Is that where the line drawing came into the painting process?

Me: I answer and discuss the relationship between the line and the paint. mixing of deliberate and chance marks. Blocking out and revealing of paint and marks. Screen printing book is my record of how my mark making has been made and how this translates into a different process. The line drawing is a way to move away from the circular forms, to break habitual marks. I have used biro, pen and ink, pencil and fine liner using my right/drawing hand.

Tabatha: There is structure in the drawing which is interesting. How selective have I been with the screen printing?

Me: It was a short session so therefore I was unable to make too many; this limited the marks which I made due to timescale. I made approximately 15 and selected 9 to print.

Tabatha; Do i have any question? I need to have questions prepared in order to get the best out of my crit moving forward.

Me: This is hard for me as I am unsure of where I am myself. I am wanting to keep things broad. It is very early in the proposal. I need to loosen up my practice. Framework and methodology will become clear and then I feel that I can ask more relevant questions.

Tabatha; What is my stance. Is it about being silent during a crit? Perhaps this would work? How do we talk about painting?

Reflecting on my feedback I can now see how valuable it would have been to prepare questions. In hindsight I would say less. Allow the work to question. I over explain. Reading the short passage from the Elkin’s book would have sufficed and prompted a diluted but insightful response.

Me: I ask about the linking of the pieces to my thinking. good to know what is interesting.

Jo:Why do I want to know what is interesting?

Me: This is not really what I need to ask. To make better use of critical conversations I need to address areas of difficulty.

I don’t need to know which piece works at all. I am setting aside composition, colour etc. It is interesting that I ask about interpretation and aesthetic. I am not working to produce pleasing work. This period of experimentation is not about this.

Zanna: I really like the screen print pieces, there is a sensitivity of intimate mark making replicated, sitting together. feels like it grabbed me. curious and spontaneous. like you were allowing them to make themselves.

For me the screen printing took away the element of freedom due to the very structured nature of the process. I will be looking at areas of print which involve less planning and structure.

Mark: Each one is successful in its ow right. there is an intimacy, draws you in. size of them. initial work is allowing an openness and vulnerability. they are missing one aspect in each which then appears as you move to the next.

Debs: It’s easy to get hooked onto a sketch book, planning etc. What if you pushed materials, new materials adding in impasto? energy to experiment is in there. Oil with new pigment/mud. Hard to really push the boundaries. enjoyable process but it needs to be challenging. Also, there is an anatomical value to the work. a deeper surface.

Me: I talk about wax and clay. new materials that I have been trying. My interest in clay and sculptural aspects.

Debs: Maybe the blindness could be extended to paint? Paint blind? It’s about control. Painting and drawing are the same, why look when you paint?

I will try to paint in a way which involves the whole body and less visually led methods. Looking at various suggestion throughout the crit which could alter my physical action of painting and the materials and supports which I work with.

Jo; The more recent work brings me back to the landscapes somehow. am I going back to what I know once I get to grips with the process?

Zanna: reworking almost?

Jo: It’s hard to not be aesthetic

Debs: undoing your knowledge is very hard

Me: I talk about the relationship between me and my materials and the process. I feel that there is a connection which is instinctive and a part of me.

I underestimated how important it is to me to return to the aesthetic qualities of my work. My relationship with making art ultimately returns to the enjoyment which I get from producing something which I find beautiful. The action of painting itself and the finished piece are whole to me. The final piece is the physical object recording my process and passion. I struggle very hard to create each piece and the work will be a rollercoaster of highs and lows, bolting between ecstatic and despair. How could I stop in the despair of ugly? There are many ways of making marks which are without control and some happen to produce innately beautiful (to me) marks. This is where I am interested. I am spurred forward to the next thing when the outcome is less visually pleasing. It is not for others to see this. I didn’t take those to the crit. Is this something to share? Is this relevant?

Debs;Don’t look, crazy colour.

Jo; Work huge, random. cut it up afterwards. one step away from controlling which bit I am doing. look at it sideways. come back to this. without having to force it.

Zanna: Are you using hands? Using the unfamiliar tools is interesting. could I use the whole body to create gestural marks? the body, the whole arm.

hands arms, free up the unknown.

Debs; Large scale does involve the whole body

Jo: working very large changes the aspect of control. ways of stretching literally the work.

Mark: Think about twisting the body and working in the negative space around your own body. underarm or between the legs. Ref ‘What artists do all day’. Use reflection to disturb view and think differently. looking at a foreign reflection.

Tabatha: look at Brian Eno strategies? box of cards. suggestions for breaking/suggesting/ challenging rules. responding to this. burrows elements of chance. john cage. easy to be seduced by the prettiness of painting. You are fighting against skill. Your drawing is very interesting. Think about how you work around this. Could you throw words into the air.

Me; I feel contradicted. colour mixing. choices to make. habitual practice. I need to address areas of control.

Tabatha; You could have words to respond to. It reminds me of Eisenhouse Altar piece –The painting here looks like wounds in skin, they have anatomical aspects.

Debs; Anatomical references. like a revealing of layers beneath what could be skin.

Tabatha: Puncturing in space. The beauty of a bruise. I love the tension to surface, the way you are treating the surface is interesting, how you are working with sections. where is the viewer in relation with the pieces? The prints/ drawing/ and painting are doing something different to each other. There could be a sound reference. links with sound – Shannon Reece Jones. Keeton Henson.

Could I paint the ugly? I am interested in this idea of the ugly. Do I make ugly paintings using beautifully spontaneous actions or could I make beautiful paintings of ugly objects or ideas?

Andy; the later ones. feel that the card is frustrating. I feel that I wants something textural. sculptural and textural. Nina Royal, she uses thick wood, carved and sanded, pebble like. Adding layers of gesso. Texture is sculptural. What would it be like painting on a purposely made object? They (the paintings) are moving but the support seems static.if there was a rounded edge it would continue.

Jo: found objects?

Tabatha: look at Prunella Clough’s postcards.

Andy: Kidi Henson. artist and musician. six barges. hour long orchestral piece. painted the score. mark making. then he writes from the paintings. sound and paint relationship.

Tabatha: collaborative.

Jo; likes the collaborative pieces most. freedom in these pieces. They are like conversations in layers of paint, with others

Me I compartmentalise.

I am keen to explore collaboration in more detail. I am interested in the authorship angle. I could set up a small collaborative structure to work with others. I need to think about how this may work.

Tabatha: The mount board is not ideal. They feel careful. Your eye and experience are evident, your use of paint is strong. Immerse in the process. Questions of authorship are interesting. (ref collaboration)

Zanna: The way that they are in groups but are separate -. they are singular entities; one thing is happening.

Me: Thinking about the support, the boards are scraps. Recycled card.

Mark: John walker paintings on bingo cards. Sean Scully talks about linear aspect of his (walkers) work. (Talking about my work) – I read figures in the work in an abstract sense.

There is something about individuality in the work here. You have given them personality.

Andy: stay away from frames

Debs:Agrees, there is a format. stay away.

Jo: Build them up, make a shape/ collage. Paint on that. Undo them, redo them see what you have then remake that again.

Andy:Make work you can’t physically frame move away from framing. Sculptural forms.

Jo: make apile. Don’t put them on the wall.

Andy: you have clearly made progress and moved away from BA work already, I can see that. Mother and daughter collaboration are different and a big step. Use the 1st year for this.

Tabatha: blind drawings are like a phycology experiment. James Turrell. Golf ball on eyes. Ganzfeld. How does the media (watching TV whilst blind drawing as I have) link to drawing? Try to approach painting as free as your drawing. How do you get into the same mindset as your daughter?The work you have made feels precious. You could work into some of the work with theory, but it would be a shame to not let loose at this early stage. you know how to paint well.

Zanna; They (paintings) are considered even working over the line. there is still consideration.

Tabatha: Think about the media. what are the drawings saying in terms of our relationship with media? The media has a strange spiritual body/skin link.

I am not sure if there is any interest in the links to media and my work for me. I can see how this could be interesting, but the idea feels detached to my current practice.

Me:(referring to Tabatha’s earlier comments) Why are the drawings feeling separate from the paintings?

Tabatha; Movement, they are alive. the painting less so.

Jo; the drawings have confidence/ nature/ energy/ landscape links it is confident/ This is uncomfortable in a positive way which reflects in the drawing.

Celine, I agree there is control. The collaborative works are less considered. Push that more. How do you decide when you move to the music? select colours/ materials.

Me; I tend to use the colour from my regular painting practice.

Zanna: Maybe put the other work away. Separate the work.

Debs: Use horrible colours. fluorescent colours? Mix up left over colours. Buy separate paint even.

Me: Different types of paint. maybe acrylics as they dry very fast. I have less control.

Andy: Then you would have to accept the outcome as it dries quickly

Debs: oil bars?

Andy: Use light to make work, no paint at all?!? Look at Brian Eno. A recently published book, a retrospective. He programmes computer. this is his process, limited control.

Zanna; Make some ugly paintings!

Debs: It is so hard to change an aesthetic approach.

Zanna: Try over painting ugly work

Me; Perhaps I keep responding to work overtime on the same piece?

Tabatha: Are you interested in our relationship with images? As in, from a screen or in the world. What do you want your paintings to do? Marlow Ponte, phenomenology could be useful. painting is a bridge between our world and another. tactile tangible things. James Turell reference. Marshall Mc Luen and ‘The medium is the message’1968. What is media?Painting is a media. Screen is a different type of medium. You are working with time in different ways. Is that important to you? Concept of time… or the act of making something in time. You are capturing time in many layers, drawing, painting. These are ways of capturing time. Your pieces here are like pinning down a beautiful butterfly. (painting)

I feel that this links back to the earlier conversation regarding the ugly paintings. Making work which is ugly is difficult for me to avoid as there is always failure. However. presenting those pieces is another thing. So, this comes back to the viewer relationship and so the question of what my painting do as tangible objects in the world becomes important to me.

Debs: I have read ‘Painting in tears’–Elkin’s. He talks about how we respond to painting and the challenges of being a painter. We need to challenge this.

Tabatha; Keep making, hold onto process. the theory will come out of it. its normal to be overwhelmed.Crit – 3rd December 2019