The Artistic Urge from Prehistory to the Present.

I Started work on another piece today. I have reused canvases that I was not pleased with and put them together like pieces of a puzzle. I think that its important to try and keep as much out of landfill as possible.

So far I have covered the canvases with a layer of emulsion paint and wiped a bit off with my finger and the end of a paintbrush in order to reveal some of what was underneath. I think that it is good to have a glimpse of its former life. It will add another dimention to the finished painting.

I was unsure about using canvases with different thicknesses but I think the different levels make it more interesting. However it is hard to create a flow when there are different levels which act as a barrier to my baintbrush.

This is reminding me of a previous group project I was involved in where we made a shed out of reject works, we called it ‘Shedding Enterprise’.

Shedding Enterprise was about metamorphoses. We created a new space that could be occupied out of rejected artworks donated mainly by students at Hertfordshire University as well as a few works donated by a well known local artist. The theme of rejected artwork has been visited by artists such as Martin Kippenberger, who said that “if everything is good then nothing is any good any more”. We need to recognise what is bad in order to appreciate what is good. We create the space for change out of our mistakes.

Experimenting is a vital part of an artist’s creativity and growth. The shed could be seen as a shelter, a private space where we are free to experiment as we choose without fear of criticism from the outside world. In ‘A room of one’s own’ Virginia Woolfe says that “a lock on the door means the power to think for oneself”. We need privacy in order to express ourselves fully and freely.

The shed could also be seen as the space within the creator, a metaphor for the process of creativity. Grayson Perry, when talking about his dads shed said “It was…a powerful metaphor for creative thought. My own creativity and art practice has been a mental shed – a sanctuary as well as a place of action – where I have retreated to make things. It gives me a sense of security in a safe enclosed space while I look out the window on the world”.

Charles Traub states that “our art is the tangible manifestation of the nobility of the human will facing the unknown, but inevitable forces of life. The production of art is mans refuge from the primeval forces around him.” Therefore the act of creating artwork is a retreat in itself. Creative people often need their private space for their enterprise.

I have been working on this painting today, I think it is finished, at least for now. I have continued to work in an automatic way, allowing my unconcious to speak, I have tried to create a flow between my heart and my hand without my analytical mind interfering.

Although I disagree with his attitude towards women, I think George Baselitz has a similarity of interest to me in this regard.

In a conversation with Henry Geldzahaler, Baselitz stated that “an automatism must necessarily exist to paint a picture, so that things that lie hidden can come to light” (Siegel 1998:95).

Siegel, J. (ed) (1988) ‘Conversation With Henry Geldzahler’ in Art Talk, New York: Da Capo.

Power argues that Baselitz is searching for the essence of existence and our primal origins. He is engaged with what has survived within us rather than romantically returning to the past.

Power, K. (1991) ‘Hanging Between Analysis and Chaos’ in D’Offay. A. (ed) George Baselitz. London: Anthony d’Offay Gallery.

Rosenthal suggests that the paintings of Baselitz “have a strong element of the ‘primitive’ within them” he states that this derives from “the raw and exposed handling of the paint” (Rosenthal 1991:15).

Rosenthal, N. (1991) ‘Recent Paintings by Georg Baselitz’ in D’Offay.A.(ed) (1991) George Baselitz. London: Anthony d’Offay Gallery.

In prehistoric art there is always a vocabulary of animals, figures and signs which show a substratum of metaphysical thinking. Prehistoric man thought abstractly. Power (1991) suggests that when we excavate things from the past it is surprising how contemporary they can be.

This painting of mine is now on display along with another of my paintings in a gallery called the Freudian Sheep, 104, St Helens St, Ipswich. Come along to the private view on thursday 1st May. from 5.30pm to 7.30pm.

I walked in on a life drawing class today and decided to stay. We did some movement drawings. I concentrated on mark making and my pictures reminded me of cave engravings where one image is superimposed over the other until they become hard to interpret.

David Lewis-Williams suggests that “representational imagary grew out of random markings”. The mark making came first, recognisable forms led to purposeful representation.

Lewis-Williams, D (2002). The Mind in the Cave, Thames and Hudson: London.

This is my work on display at the British Contemporary Painters exhibition at the Crypt Gallery, St Marylebone Rd, London. The exhibition runs until May 1st.

I started this painting yesterday. So far, I have used emulsion and pencil on the canvas. I think I was feeling quite calm and this shows in the painting. However at the moment I can see some ominous faces. It is not finished so it could change quite a bit yet, we will have to see how it turns out. At the moment I am quite pleased with the way it is coming along. I like the taupe against the gray blue and white.

Freud was concerned with inner life and saw the artistic product not as aesthetic object but as aesthetic experience. He states that audiences value images of a fused inner and outer reality highly.

Freud, S (1908) ‘Creative Writers and Daydreaming’ in Strachey, J (ed) (2001) The complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud volume IX. London: Vintage

Wollheim attributes to Freud the view that a work of art that fully engages us involves us in complex mental activities, which include efforts of mastery as well as regressive pleasure.

Wollheim. (1974) On Art and the Mind. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Ricoeur suggests that we might think of aesthetic experience in terms of an alteration of dreaming and waking states.

Ricoeur, P. (1970) Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Wollheim (1974) implies by contrast that to be aesthetically engaged one must be fully awake.

Ernst Kris states that the artist’s inspired creativity involves a continual interplay between creation and criticism which is manifested in the painter’s stepping back to observe the effect. He suggests that this is “the shift in psychic level, consisting in the fluctuation of a functional regression and control” (Ernst Kris 1952:253) therefore the artist is his own audience whilst he works.

Kris, E. (1952) Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art. New York: International Universitys Press.