Come a little closer
My work tends to be quite dramatic when viewed from a distance – maybe even a bit theatrical. I notice it draws people in, as they try to work out how I have done something such as whether it is painting or photography they are looking at.
It is this ‘drawing people in’ that I am hoping for. When they get up close, I am hoping they will discover more, little nuances and marks that reveal something else, details that are delicate and sometimes barely there, deliberate and subtlety raised lines and edges. For all the drama and energy, sometimes it is the little things that say more.
The little things are paintings within their own right – I hope I have demonstrated this in my photographs. When I work, I get extremely close to the canvas and lose myself it so I cannot see the overall context it is part of – I am quite obsessive about this. Then later I pull back and see what that has done to the overall painting and what new things it has suggested.
The images I have included are details from my work ‘Fools Gold’ (see Post 1). These are good examples about becoming engrossed in the close-up detail when I am painting. I am thinking about exploring these details further and making actual separate paintings of them. I wonder once I get into these, will they further reveal a depth within them which I can explore? Its a bit like that bit in the film Bladerunner when Decker hones in closer and closer into the photograph to see a a woman’s arm with a tattoo and snake scale. He used technology, I use my unconscious and imagination.
